Tag Archives: music

holidays

Our big Virginia trip, part four– Friday night!

In my family, we traditionally have a “barn party” on Friday after Thanksgiving.  Over the years, the party has been held in a variety of different places.  When I was a kid, the barn on my Uncle Brownlee’s property was owned by someone else, so we had to rent somewhere for our party.  Some years, we had it at the Natural Bridge Hotel, either in a room in the basement or in a reception hall.

In 1987, we had an all out par-tay in one of the big ballrooms.  It was complete with an open bar and a full band featuring my Uncle Brownlee and his brother, my Uncle Stephen.  There was much drunkenness, especially from yours truly.  I was then 15 years old, and one of my cousins, who shall remain nameless, was passing me bourbon and Cokes.  I drank four and got good and hammered.  That was the first time in my life I ever got drunk, and boy was I a mess.  Fortunately, my Aunt Nance filmed the whole thing for posterity…  LOL.  I made myself scarce during the drunk part, thank GOD.  I still like to watch that video, though, because that was a wild party and there are people in it who are no longer with us.

In later years, we had the party at the Fire Station in Natural Bridge, which wasn’t too long on character.  There were lots of stories told, though no dancing or music.  One year, we had karaoke in the barn.  And finally in recent years, we started having the whole celebration in the barn, which my handy and talented Uncle Brownlee has fixed up for dancing and music.  The last few years, we’ve even had live bluegrass music from The Plank Road Express.  In 2010, during our last visit for Thanksgiving, I got to sing a number with the band, which was a lot of fun for me.  In a former life, I think I was a rock star.

I had a feeling we were going to be a bit emotional after my dad’s memorial, so I arranged a date night for Bill and me.  We had dinner at The Southern Inn in Lexington, Virginia.  We ate there once or twice before and there are other restaurants in Lexington.  I will admit that part of the reason I chose that place is because they participate in OpenTable, which is a restaurant reservation service.  I get points every time I make a reservation and have been collecting for over ten years.  But if I don’t reserve a table at least once a year, the points expire.  Since I don’t know when we’ll be back in the States, I figured it was a good opportunity to keep current.  And I wanted to enjoy a nice dinner with my spouse, too.

So we stayed dressed up for dinner, though we really didn’t have to.  The Southern Inn is a fairly casual place and it’s obvious that it’s popular with locals.  Our waitress was very experienced and clearly knew a lot of the people at the surrounding tables.  We enjoyed a very nice meal, too.  I started with baked Brie and a glass of prosecco.  Bill had a bowl of Andouille sausage soup.  I had sea scallops and parmesan grits for my entree.  Bill had a huge steak.  For dessert, I had a Brandy Alexander, while Bill had pecan pie.

Bill reacting to something smartassed I said.

Vino!

Baked Brie… it was a little like a grilled cheese sandwich on steroids.

Bill’s yummy soup!

Scallops, grits, and greens!

Beef!

Brandy Alexander… 

Pecan pie… this was good, but my brother-in-law, Mark, makes an even better one.

We got back to the home place just in time for a spectacular fireworks show put on by one of my cousins.  I wish we’d gotten there a little earlier so I could have gotten more than a few shots.  I was pretty impressed by how professional the show was!

Fireworks!

Then we went to the barn for dancing and more singing… and yes, I did get to sing with The Plank Road Express again.  It was funny, too, because the lead singer spotted me and said, “I’ve been looking for you for four years!  Where have you been?”  I sang “Walking After Midnight” and fumbled with the words a bit… but probably the most special moment of the night came when I saw the words for “On Heaven’s Bright Shore” on her music stand.

You see, I really would have liked to have sung “On Heaven’s Bright Shore” at my dad’s memorial.  That would have been my choice for a solo.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone to accompany me.  I did record an acapella version, but it’s not as good as it would be if I had someone on guitar or something.

The Plank Road Express in the barn…

Anyway, I asked the band if they would mind if I gave “On Heaven’s Bright Shore” a whirl.  They asked if I could sing it in “C”.  I said, “Just play it.  I’m drunk and so is most everyone else in here!”  It turned out pretty well!

I thanked the band for obliging me and explained that I had come all the way from Germany for my dad’s memorial.  The lead singer said, “Oh, so that was your dad who died?  I sang ‘On Heaven’s Bright Shore’ for my dad, too.”  I got the sense that we bonded a little over that song!

Another highlight of Friday night was my Uncle Ed, who is just hilarious.  He said, “Hey Jenny, we have some ‘moon’ here…”  “Moon”, for your edification, refers to moonshine.  Yes, many people in my family enjoy it as well as the odd Miller Lite beer.  My tastebuds have evolved beyond Lite, but I don’t mind if I do enjoy a little “moon” when the opportunity presents itself.  It was good stuff, too– pretty smooth and I haven’t gone blind…

We didn’t get back to the Hummingbird Inn until after 1:00am.  We would have been there sooner, except I left my bag at the house and had to go back and retrieve it.  On the way into the house, I skinned the hell out of my knee.  That may have been yet another sign from my dad.  Many years ago, when I was a kid and we were celebrating Thanksgiving with the family, my dad decided to go jogging.  Possibly in a pre-menstrual moment, I said “I hope you fall and skin your knee.”  My cousin, Suzanne, thought that was the funniest thing and reminded me of it this year.  So maybe it was a little karmic payback.  Despite my smarting knee, I had a great time!

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In honor of my departed friend, Patrick… A review of The Singing Revolution

I posted on my main blog about my friend, Patrick Killough, who died yesterday after a battle with leukemia.  The review below prompted my first online meeting with Patrick, who was a delightful man who lived near Asheville, North Carolina.  He enjoyed the movie after reading my review, so I’ve decided to repost it here in his honor.

The Singing Revolution… a very moving film about Estonia’s journey to freedom

Jan 10, 2010 (Updated Jul 20, 2011)
Review by   

Rated a Very Helpful Review

  • User Rating:Excellent

  • Action Factor: 
  • Special Effects: 
  • Suspense: 

Pros:Very inspiring and moving documentary about Estonia.

Cons:None.

The Bottom Line:The Singing Revolution shows how the power of music can overcome oppression and despair.

Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie’s plot.

Last summer, my husband Bill and I took our very first cruise. Although we were both hoping for a trip to the Greek Isles, we ended up with a Baltic itinerary. One of the exciting ports of call we visited was Tallin, Estonia. I was particularly interested in seeing Estonia because it was once one of the fifteen republics that had made up the Soviet Union. In the mid 1990s, I spent two years of my life living in another former Soviet republic, Armenia. I wanted to see how Estonia was faring since the fall of the once great Soviet empire.

Tallin, Estonia turned out to be a wonderful place. Bill and I wandered around the old town, very impressed by how well preserved the medieval city was. Although we only got to spend a few hours there, I found myself mentally planning to come back someday. Then, the other day, while dreaming of my next trip to Europe, I read a CNN travel article about Estonia.  The author mentioned renting the movie The Singing Revolution, a documentary film about Estonia’s great love for singing and how it helped them achieve independence. Intrigued, I immediately went to iTunes and downloaded the film so I could see it for myself.

The premise

Estonia has a long, complicated history as a land that has been passed around and fought over by a number of different peoples. It has been a Swedish, Danish, and Russian territory at different times in its history. In the last 100 years, it was invaded by Josef Stalin and the Soviet Union as well as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. In the wake of these invasions, thousands of ethnic Estonians were killed, sent to prison in Siberia, or just plain disappeared. Thousands more fled to other countries, hoping to be able to return to their homeland someday.

The Singing Revolution introduces viewers to several people who were directly influenced by Estonia’s history. We meet a conductor whose grandparents were killed during the Soviet invasion. We meet a female conductor who, along with her family, was herself sent to a Siberian prison camp at age 14. We also meet a man who was considered a “Forest Brother”; he and other men lived in the forests of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania for years and worked against the Soviet occupation through guerilla warfare.

The film very touchingly paints a picture of the way Estonia was “Russified”; Russians were moved into the country as a way to homogenize the culture and stamp out the Estonian majority. People lived in oppression, unable to express themselves freely. For fifty years, life went on this way until the late 1980s, when Mikhail Gorbachev was the President of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev sought to reform the Soviet Union and improve its lagging economy through perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). Through these new reforms, more freedom of expression was allowed among the Soviet people. Estonians now had the power to protest.

Starting in 1987, Estonians began to demonstrate by singing. In 1988, as many as 300,000 Estonians aided by Estonian rock musicians were singing Estonian national songs and hymns that, under Soviet rule, had been forbidden. One man in the film quipped that when thousands of people start to sing, it’s impossible to shut them up. That’s exactly how the Estonian people started to be heard. Meanwhile, by 1989, formerly Communist Eastern Europe was starting to disintegrate. One by one, countries were rejecting Communism and demanding freedom. In 1990, Estonia openly defied the Soviet Union by offering aid to Estonian residents who wanted to avoid being drafted into the Soviet Army. And of course, by 1991, the Soviet Union was dismantled.

My thoughts

I found this film extremely moving, especially since the Singing Revolution happened relatively recently. The film shows how everyone– men, women and children– came together to reclaim their independence against a mighty opponent. I also found this film very informative. Although I was a teenager and young adult when all of this stuff was going on, I was woefully uninformed about it as it was taking place. It was very interesting to me to be able to see this story unfold in a powerful and beautifully filmed documentary. Finally, I found this film satisfying on a musical level. I am myself a singer, so I was very interested in hearing the music the very talented Estonians produced. I found it very inspiring on an artistic level.

And now…

I’m dying to go back to Estonia. In fact, I’d love to take a trip to all three Baltic nations to learn more about their history and peoples. The Singing Revolution was a very worthwhile film in terms of giving a perspective of what it was like for Estonians in the wake of World War II. It was fascinating for me, as well, because I spent time in Armenia, where the Russians were seen more as saviors than oppressors… the Russians saved the Armenians from the Turks.

Having just spent two years on a continent that was so heavily affected by World War II, I now find myself much more eager than I ever was in the past to learn about what happened during the war. There’s nothing like actually going to a place to develop an appreciation for it and a desire to learn more. Estonia is not one of those places that’s easy to visit, particularly from America. Watching The Singing Revolution may be one of the next best alternatives to visiting.

Overall

I highly recommend this film to anyone who is interested in history, particularly as it affected the Soviet Union and the Baltic region. I also recommend it to anyone who enjoys music, powerful, inspirational stories about triumph, and a good documentary. The Singing Revolution runs for 97 minutes and is unrated. It’s a film by James and Maureen Trusty.

For more information: http://www.singingrevolution.com

Recommend this product? Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 – 12

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anecdotes, videos, YouTube

Interesting video from the Soviet era…

If you’ve read my main blog, you may know that I was once a Peace Corps Volunteer in the former Soviet Union.  From 1995-97, I worked as a teacher at a school in the Republic of Armenia.  The job itself was pretty tough for a lot of reasons.  I think teaching is difficult, but trying to teach in Armenia was, for me, pretty chaotic.  A lot of times, I didn’t even know which class I would be teaching.  Sometimes my classes would be cancelled or reassigned and I would find out the day of.  I did have some good students, though, who were well-behaved and smart.

Last night, while messing around on YouTube, I found this video that was listed as a “tribute” to Soviet style education…

What strikes me about this video is that all the kids are dressed the same.  In Armenia, a lot of kids would come to school in black and white on the first day.  Maybe a couple of them had red kerchiefs kind of like what they would have worn as Young Pioneers.  After the first day of school, they dressed as they pleased.

The next thing that strikes me is how old this video looks.  It was from 1981, when I would have been 8 or 9 years old.  I know that was a long time ago, but it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago to me!

I appreciate the musical numbers.  I used music a lot in my classes, though I don’t remember my pupils being this well-behaved or singing as well as the teachers and students in this video.

Finally, it just strikes me as weird that for the first 19 years old my life, the Soviet Union existed and seemed like such a huge threat to the United States.  And then I actually lived in the former Soviet Union and realized that it was mostly a big facade.

I would not trade my time in the Peace Corps, even though parts of the experience sucked.  My time as a PCV changed my life in positive ways.  But this video is far removed from my experiences in the former Soviet Union.  I can’t imagine that things changed that much from 1991 until 1995, when I started teaching kids English.  I also learned through this experience that teaching is not my forte.

ETA…  check out this bizarre relic from the Soviet era.  The same guy in the above video is in the one.

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Old town Lisbon and the Museum of Beer…

As much fun as we had in the Oriente area of Lisbon, I knew we needed to go to the old part of the city to truly get a taste for Lisbon.  Bill and I decided to take the metro to get to that area.  But first, I needed to find a post office, so I could drop a couple of postcards in the mail to a friend.  As luck would have it, there is a big post office in the train/bus/metro station in the Oriente area.  After we mailed the postcards, we went to the metro area and tried to figure out Lisbon’s subway system.  As it turns out, it’s not all that intuitive.  The ticket machines are not in English.  Bill ended up asking an attendant, who was very helpful and told us which trains we needed to take and the correct stop to get off on in order to be downtown.  It wasn’t too hard to get from Oriente to Rossio, but I must say, it was quite an interesting change of pace.

The area around the Rossio stop is nothing at all like the Oriente area.  As we emerged from the underground, it was like we had entered a new world.  Suddenly, all the buildings were old and a bit grimy.  A large castle sat on a hillside and there were many people begging for money.  It seemed a lot more like Europe.

Roasted chestnuts

We saw several people selling roasted chestnuts around the main square.  We walked down a crowded boulevard and ended up at yet another large plaza near the waterfront.  Guents Dy Rincon, A band from Cape Verde was playing music.  I was entertained, so I took a couple of photos.  The young black man dancing approached me and asked if I wanted to buy a CD for ten euros.  We ended up getting one because I like buying music from street performers.  The music is described as “spiritual traditional acoustic music”.  I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, but I liked what I heard them do live, so I’m sure I’ll like it.

Someone else shot this video and posted it on YouTube.  This is Guents Dy Rincon.

Another example of their music, shot by a different YouTuber.

The following photos are scenes of the old town area of Lisbon.

I took these two nighttime shots of the castle with different settings on my camera.  We had a beautiful full moon!

After we listened to the band and watched a guy in a wheelchair wheel himself backwards at a very high speed, we wandered over to what was advertised as a “Museum of Beer”.  On the way there, we heard a couple of vastly inferior street musicians trying to cover Bob Marley’s “Jamming” and doing a pretty piss poor job of it.  I was ready for beer by the time we reached the building, which turned out to be part small beer museum, part restaurant, and part bar.  For three euros, you get to see the exhibit, which includes a small beer sample and information about Portugal’s beer culture.  The Museum of Beer only offers beers from Portugal or Portuguese speaking countries like Brazil and Angola.  I was surprised not only by how good the beer was, but by how widespread Portugal’s influence has been.  The exhibit wasn’t large, but it was very interesting.  I’m glad we made time for it.

Here’s an interesting article about this museum…

Bill poses with a “monk” in the museum exhibit.

Part of the beer exhibit.  It was interesting, but I was much more inclined to hit the bar and drink some beer.

Sagres blonde on draft.

Sagres dark on draft.

Bill decides if he wants a draft or bottled beer.  The museum offers local beers on tap and bottled beers from other Portuguese speaking countries in bottles.  They also have very cool glasses that I kind of wish I’d bought for our own collection. 

A shot of the bar area…

I think the bartender got a kick out of us because we sure drank our fair share.  I knew I would regret it on the way back to Oriente, especially since none of the metro stations seemed to have any restrooms, even though they did have shops and cafes.  Needless to say, the trains didn’t have potties either.  Kind of made me miss Germany, where the S Bahns usually have facilities, even if they aren’t the most sanitary.

iPhone versions of the castle…

On the way back to Oriente, I really had to pee…  I kind of felt like this guy as I pranced back to the metro.  

 

I got a kick out of the notice at the bottom of the page of this menu, warning against alcohol abuse.  It was on every page…  Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me.  The Museum of Beer did me in.

Dessert!

 

All in all, we enjoyed Lisbon.  I wouldn’t mind going back, though I’d probably stay in a different part of the city.  When we got back to the hotel room, we decided it was time to go to Spain.  After a quick dinner at the Hippopotamus Restaurant at the hotel, we booked cheap tickets on an early flight on Air Europa to Madrid and two nights at Hotel Atlantico.

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Poland… artist heaven!

Back in 2008, when we were still living in Germany, Bill and I decided to take a trip to honor our sixth wedding anniversary.  We had been wanting to go to Dresden, thanks to a Powerpoint presentation one of my husband’s friends sent him.  We also wanted to go to Prague.  I had found an interesting looking hotel called The Blue Beetroot while researching places to visit.

The Blue Beetroot was run by a British couple of Polish descent.  They had purchased a dilapidated barn for about $4,000 and fixed it up.  It’s now a thriving boutique hotel.  In 2008, it was still getting started and it sounded like a really neat hotel, albeit in a place called Bolaslaweic.  I didn’t know that Bolaslaweic was the pottery district in Poland, even though I owned a couple of Polish pottery pieces.

The price was right to stay at The Blue Beetroot, so I booked a couple of nights in Dresden, five nights in Poland, and a couple of nights in Prague.  What I didn’t know was that besides great pottery, Bolaslaweic was home to some great artists, notably Dariusz Milinski, a fascinating painter, and the Borowski glass factory, which is notable for its glass sculptures.  I’ve linked to the Borowski studio in Germany, but Bolaslaweic is where the factory is located and you can get your hands on some beautiful pieces at a fraction of the cost.  Below is a chameleon that I bought at the factory for about $650.  In America, it sells for over $1500.  I have two other sculptures as well– a hippo and a “gonzo” (bird).

Bill and I came home from Poland loaded down with art, including three glass sculptures and two sketches by Milinksi.  I wish we could have bought one of Milinski’s paintings, but we visited the glass factory first and spent a lot of money there.  Please click this link and look at the paintings if you’re interested in art.  His work is amazing.

We had an interesting experience in Milinski’s gallery.  His parking lot was empty and he had a big dog tied out front who seemed kind of mean.  We went inside and there was art everywhere… paintings, drawings, sketches, and sculptures.  Nothing had a pricetag.  Milinski himself wore pants made of the American flag and a ripped up t-shirt.  He looked a little like Charles Manson and spoke no English.  My husband’s rudimentary German sufficed for communication purposes.

He made us coffee, turned on some music, and watched us as we looked at his work.  I saw several paintings I wanted.  Unfortunately, he only wanted cash and we were low on cash because we had just spent a lot of money at the glass studio.  It would have required going to an ATM and there wasn’t one close to the gallery.  I saw one painting that he wanted about $600 for.  It would have been a steal, really.  We ended up leaving with a couple of drawings.  We were disappointed and I think he was, too.  If we ever get back to Bolaslaweic, we will go back and buy a couple of his paintings… if we can still afford them!

Milinski’s puppet theater
Sketches by Milinski.  All of the people depicted in his work were inspired by people he knows from his village.  Must be quite a place!

Back in November, we went to Scotland and while we were visiting Edinburgh, we stopped in an art store.  I was quickly attracted to one specific artist’s work.  It was by Matylda Konecka, yet another Polish artist.  I regret not buying a large print or two.  Instead, we purchased a small framed print that fit in our luggage.  If we ever get back to Edinburgh, I’m going back to that art store for more.  Click here for Matylda Konecka’s Web site.

When we were in Florence, we ran across a street musician playing guitar so beautifully it made me weep.  It turned out he was from Poland…  Piotr Tomaszewski is an award winning Polish guitarist who makes his living selling CDs on the streets of European cities (though according to YouTube, he seems to favor Florence).  We bought two of his CDs for 20 euros and that music was easily my favorite souvenir from Italy.

Two videos I made of our trip to Italy in 2013.  I used Piotr Tomaszewski’s music as background.
And a few years ago, Polish-American dancers Anna and Patryk were featured on America’s Got Talent and actually brought tears to my eyes.

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/4z4qk2j41m4&source=uds

After pondering all of this, I’m thinking we’ll have to get back to Poland and the Czech Republic at some point.  Eastern Europe is fascinating… with so much undiscovered art and music to be had at such affordable prices.  I didn’t find Poland to be the most beautiful country I had ever seen, but there is still much beauty there.  I want to explore more of it.  Poland is full of hidden beauty…  You might not necessarily see it in the scenery, though I did manage to find a couple of beautiful scenes; but you can find it in the art, music, and dances of the people.  It’s well worth a first visit and a repeat visit!

Polish landscape near Karpacz, a ski resort area…
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