Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Eric Scott House Concert Review

Cellar Music Concert- ilyAIMY 2009
I attended a house concert Saturday, November 6th night featuring Eric Scott. The concert was sponsored by Cellar Music and in short it was fabulous.

The venue, in a wine cellar in a private home, is intimate and has excellent acoustics. The performer sits with the patrons and it makes for a highly interactive concert and great access to the performer. Cellar Music has an informative website describing the concerts--which are for singer song writers and not cover bands. If you have never been to a house concert, I highly recommend you check one out. And there is probably none better than Cellar Music.

But let me tell you about the performer--Eric Scott. Eric sang all of his own songs with the exception of one encore song which he covered an old Cat Stevens song. Check out his website for additional information.

Eric Scott
I found Eric to be extremely personable and interactive with the audience. He sings his music and plays the bass guitar and brings Mike Stacey along to play lead guitar. It works. The two work really well together and have a comfort level which showcases the music and the talent of both performers.

Eric has a strong and sweet mid-tenor voice. His lyrics are deep and meaningful but the melodies are easy to sing along with. The concert attendees actually began singing some of the songs while Eric was performing--the tunes are just that compelling. And they are singable. Eric was on pitch for every note of every song--and even when he agreed to play song that he had not played in a long time--after a short pause to checkout the words--it was flawless. There are Christian overtones to much of his music--which add to the authentic nature of the performer and the performance. The music is from life and the heart. Some of the lyrics are really hard--hard in that they touch the raw nerve of hurt and pain, but it is also therapeutic.

The performance showcased the familiarity between Eric and Mike. There were long guitar riffs and solos that not only added to the intimacy of the music, but also showed the mutual respect between Eric and Mike as music professionals.

Listening to songwriters sing their own music is really satisfying. You hear the stories behind the songs and what led the writer to write the song. Eric provided a lot of background on his songs--which makes the entire evening just that much more enjoyable.You feel like you are getting to really know someone and even making a new friend.

Well, it was a great evening. Great music, good friends and concert goers and you know what? No post concert traffic jam! That is another great advantage of the whole house concert idea--access to the performer and no post concert traffic. The best it can be. When was the last time you went to a concert and got the performer to sign the CDs? Or even talked to the performer about their music.

Thanks Pam and Gary of Cellar Music for hosting the concert and especially thanks to Eric and Mike for their music. It was a great concert and was the best house concert that I have attended.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Monday Musings - November 8, 2010

1. From the editorial page of the Baltimore Sun on November 4, 2010 about the election: "Change wins again . . . . . .but not in Maryland."

2. Even after 56 years--it is good to see a team win the World Series. I guess San Francisco has finally shaken off the demons from moving out of New York in 1958. I thought they were the best team and I was happy to see them win.

3. Wow--I got my water bill the other day for the summer months. There is something fundamentally wrong when the government (Howard County) can raise water rates without notice AND THEN provide the bill with a new due date almost three weeks earlier than expected designed to coincide with the start of the Holiday Shopping season. I'm just frustrated, I wonder how many homeowners out there this is really going to cause a problem for. It certainly was short-sighted on their part.

4. I ran across some really interesting statements from Regina Brett's book God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours. They are in a newsletter titled Chocolate, Purple And Making Peace With The Past – 50 Lessons To Live By. I found them interesting and here are a couple.

- Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

- Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

- Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

- Forgive everyone everything.

- Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

5. Looking for something to do on a cold Saturday evening? Attend a house concert, I did. Full review tomorrow.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

E-day

Wednesday is becoming known as home and at work as E-day.

I am following up on a blog from a couple of weeks ago--Gap Filler Pop-pop.

For a couple of weeks now, I have continued to be the after school care giver gap filler for Nicole and Mike. I have to admit--I am beginning to look forward to Wednesdays. And although originally Chris and I were going to switch off--I think I'm going to do this as an every week event.

Wednesday, for instance, I arrived a bit early and was able to sit on the door step and watch for the van carrying the precious cargo to arrive. It was really neat the way E bounded out of the van to greet me as we began to walk to his house.

We have learned to spend our time together wisely--Phineas and Ferb, playing Angry Birds, walking dogs, getting drinks and snacks, and even doing homework (for the second time this past week).

The hour and a half or so that we are together rockets by each week--and I have been impressed with how smoothly it all goes. Of course I just jinxed that, didn't I?

Oh well--you know about other duties as assigned, but sometimes it really is nice when those duties are enjoyable.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Turkey on the Loose

It is the turkey time again. Be one.

Be a Cow--Watch TV

Really, it is true.

Cows like to watch TV and they produce more milk when the watch grass grow on TV.

This comes from an aarticle in Scholastic Magazine titled Cows Like TV, Too!.

And apparently they do like TV especially in the winter.

I was so fascinated with this article, that I extracted most of it here, but do check out the link, there is a really cool image of TV's in a cow barn.

People often complain that something's boring by saying they would rather watch grass grow. But it turns out that cows actually like watching grass grow—so much so that watching images of grassy fields on TV can help them make more milk.

Last year, farmers at the Rogachyovo Farm near Moscow, Russia, wondered why their cows produced less milk during winter. They discovered that cows get sad in winter because they don't like being cooped up indoors. When cows are sad, they make less milk.

So to make their cows a little happier, the Rogachyovo farmers began an experiment called Farm 2.0. Veterinarians set up a special barn where 10 of the 20 cows in it could watch TV.
The screens played images of grassy fields in the Alps, a mountain range in Europe famous for spectacular green valleys where cows graze. "Alpine cows give the best milk," explains the project's manager, Konstantin Labzin.

The veterinarians who took care of Rogachyovo Farm's cows announced that the experiment worked! The cows that watched TV during winter made three liters more milk per day than those that didn't watch. They say the images on TV relaxed the cows, making milking easier.

I wonder if there is something here that we need to notice.

TV helps me through the winter, too. Maybe I should watch mroe of it so that I produce more--

Hmmm.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Wow, it Seems Cold

I am not enjoying my first taste of cold weather.

Not at all.

It is just plain cold!

I do not like seeing my breath as I exhale when I stumble outside in the morning to allow Makayla to do her thing--and then realize that I really needed to put on a coat because it really is cold and only about 32 degrees.

Ugh~!


Jupiter Beach, Florida
July 2010
 I am ready for the winter--but do not look forward to its arrival.

Someone reminded me the other day that in a couple months I will be looking back upon these days with fondness for their warmth.

But last week's high 70's were so much more enjoyable.

It really is awful having to drive my convertible with the top up and the heat running.

And it really isn't cold, yet.

Hey, Spring is only about 136 days away!

Pool opening day is only 169 days away.






Thursday, November 4, 2010

Yellow Today and Gone Tomorrow

They are nearly bare now,
the trees.
Last week adorned in royal autumn robes
now cast aside like confetti
A bright colored canopy strewn on the ground,
the parade has passed and the heroes are gone
they stand still tall,
bare
branches reaching up into the sky
defiantly calling to the north wind
unafraid of the snow and ice.
Some will not see another spring
to wear green leaves again
they will stand
for the beetle and woodpecker--
though dead
they will support life
until they too fall like the leaves
for so many seasons before
to renew, restore and live again.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Mid-Term Elections: The Day After

They voting is over--although the counting is not complete in some areas. Absentee ballots will not be counted until November 12th in Maryland, I understand.

I find election nights to be more exciting than any sports championship. Why? It is real and it matters. I was glued to the TV watching the returns coming in. Many of my candidates winning--but most losing.

With the campaign ads off the air we can again watch our favorite beer or feminine hygiene product ads. We no longer have to be assaulted by grown adults bickering over who did what, when, and to whom.

It all sounds the same after a while.

And the telephone computer robot ads never seem to cease.

The phone is quiet now. Yay!

I don't have to worry about whether a fee is a tax anymore. By definition a fee is not a tax--but if it is coming out of my pocket, do I really care about the difference? And that, for those of you not in Maryland, summarizes the Maryland governor's race.

I have read some pretty scary projections about incredible increases in taxes that are coming as a result of new programs and policy shifts--but I really could not tell how much of that was pre-election hype.

Heard on CNN (really): "President Obama has done more than any President since Ronald Reagan to unite and focus the Republican party."

Also heard on CNN: "Now they are all going to find out how hard it is to transition from being outside and pointing out the shortfalls in policy to being in office and having to do something about them.'

I wonder what the future holds.

I am sure it will not be more of the same--it is just, what does that really mean?

Can someone actually have a workable plan? It is real easy to toss boulders from outside--but once on the inside, can the rocks be turned over to create economic prosperity and peace?

I sure hope so.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Space--the Final Frontier, Ends

Sadly, as Chris and I were discussing over dinner the other evening, we are witnessing the end of an era--U.S. manned space flight.


The shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch on Wednesday, November 3rd, on a mission to the International Space Station and then be retired after its return to Earth. The other shuttles will be retired next year and by the end of 2011, the U.S. will no longer have the capability to launch humans into space. Scary enough--only the Russians and the Chinese will be capable of launching people into space.



I was one of those kids who grew up watching the heroes of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions blaze trails into space and onto the moon.


There is no follow-on program. The program to develop the next generation manned space launch vehicle and capsule has been canceled.


Space was a source of national pride and technological achievement. Remember the space race with the Soviets--who could put the first man on the moon? And we won!


Space was a place where only the best of the best could fly and survive to return for another mission.


I fully believed that one day I would lead the first manned mission to Mars--and looking back, it seems we have lost our desire for exploration.


Here is a fact from the Smithsonian website: Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, still holds the distinction of being the last man to walk on the Moon, as no humans have visited the Moon since December 14, 1972.


It has been almost 38 years since mankind stepped foot on the Moon. We could not even do it today, we do not have the heavy space-launch capability anymore.


With the retirement of the shuttle fleet next year--little by little the United States is losing its vision. As a nation we are losing the drive and enthusiasm which set us apart from the other nations of the world.


I remember the phrase: "The difficult done immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer."


I know there are arguments about whether the space program is a waste of money--but really, the money pit of social programs that the money is being reinvested into shows no return on investment at all. At least space pushes the boundaries of technology and gives us products and things which otherwise might not exist.
As a nation, we used to push the frontier.


But no longer. We are mired in a budget catastrophe of our own doing that has our sights turned inwards and not seeing what is happening around us.


We have lost, it seems, our mojo.


So the tombstone for U.S. manned space may ultimately read:


US Manned Space Program
1961-2011,
For 50 years we led where others feared to go

Monday, November 1, 2010

Monday Musings - November 1, 2010

1. It is November already. Where did October slip off to?

2. Halloween is over, bring on the turkey's.

3. Seems the grand kids are learning the ways of Halloween a lot better--things went pretty quickly this year.

4. Football. baseball, hockey--who can keep up with all of it?

5. Makayla was a trooper last evening in her costume watching the festivities of the kids running from door-to-door.

6. Shopping in Ellicott City on a nice autumn Saturday was an almost fun experience.

7. The trees have lost their leaves already. Yellow today and gone tomorrow.

8. Just a bit of frost--the other night. We've pulled the sensitive plants inside. But there will still be nice days.
My Zimbio
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