Midnight Serenaders

The DH and I recently attended a concert by the Midnight Serenaders at the Chinese Classical Garden.  They sing vintage jazz and swing, and it was great fun!  A mix of original songs and old favorites.

The garden roses and mock orange were in full bloom.

Our friend Marilyn and her husband were also at the concernt.  Marilyn brought tea to share, how thoughtful and tasty!  It was an aged Buddha Hand, very lovely!

What a wondeful way to spend a summer evening.
Here you can listen to Midnight Serenaders...enjoy!

Cup of Brown Joy (Chap Hop)

Not to be missed!  (Thanks for the link, Roxyred!)

If A Song Could Be President

I love, love, love the musical group Over the Rhine! One of my favorite songs is If a Song Could Be President. It's pretty, witty and appropriate for today! Give it a listen for free. Go to Over the Rhine and click the blue record player box. It's the last track.

In addition to the song above, there's a lot to like about this group. In particular, I'm in awe of the woman's voice.

I voted early, so I'm avoiding the long lines today. It's a historic moment for our country. I'm both excited and exhausted by this election season. When this is over, I hope we can all see that being American is neither red nor blue, neither left nor right.

If A Song Could Be President
If a song could be president

We’d hum on Election Day

The gospel choir would start to sway

And we’d all have a part to play

The first lady would free her hips

Pull a microphone to her lips

Break our hearts with Rhythm and Blues

Steve Earle would anchor the news

We’d vote for a melody

Pass it around on an MP3

All our best foreign policy

Would be built on harmony

If a song could be president

We’d fly a jukebox to the moon

All our founding fathers’ 45’s

Lightnin’ Hopkins and Patsy Cline

If a song could be president

We could all add another verse

Life would teach us to rehearse

Till we found a key change

Break out of this minor key

Half-truths and hypocrisy

We wouldn’t need an underachiever-in-chief

If a song could be president

We’d make Neil Young a Senator

Even though he came from Canada

Emmylou would be Ambassador

World leaders would listen to her

They would show us where our country went wrong

Strum their guitars on the White House lawn

John Prine would run the FBI

All the criminals would laugh and cry

If a song could be president

Mama Mia!

Any fellow Dancing Queens out there? If you're an ABBA lover, or if you just love a good musical, get yourself to see Mama Mia! (Watch the clip and the trailer at the movie site!) You may want to go early because the seats are filling up fast!

I went last night with some girlfriends, and you can see I got into the the spirit of things. Hey, Mom - recognize those earrings? Were they originals from the Dancing queen era? (I love them!)

My outfit was of the backup singer caliber, as Esme took the lead role with her sparkly feather boa!

I really enjoyed myself! It brought good memories back of seeing this show in Las Vegas with my mom and sis! And even older memories of my mom listening to ABBA 8-tracks!

The plot includes a love story - well, several actually. All the characters played their roles with great heart. The signing isn't always fabulous, but it is always real and some of it is very good. And I left being totally infatuated with the three main women characters (Donna and the Dynamos). They are just beautiful and so talented! Meryl Streep plays the lead, along with her two fabulous girlband companions played by Julie Walters (from Calendar Girls and Mrs. Weasley in Harry Potter) and Christine Baranski (Saturday Night Live, Cybill, Mame).

It's an easy, fun time. Grab your girlfriends and go! And don't forget the glitter.

Tchaikovsky at Tea Time

I recently received (from Alice - thank you!) the CD called Tchaikovsky at Tea Time. If you are a Tchaikovsky fan (and I am), this is a great CD because it's a compilation of his most famous stuff. Some Swan Lake, some Nutcracker Suite, some Sleeping Beauty, etc.

It's quite clever marketing, really, that this company has done. Other titles include:

• Mozart in the Morning
• Mozart at Midnight
• Bach for Breakfast
• Chopin and Champagne
• Vivaldi for Valentine's
• Baroque at Bathtime
• Beethoven for Book Lovers

And so forth....

Inside the sleeve, I read:

You may be interested to know that Tchaikovsky was a devoted
tea drinker. His most productive years were spent on his country estate
where he would go for long walks in the afternoon, during which ideas came flooding to him. Every afternoon he returned home for tea at 4:30 p.m. He adored strong tea. A pinch of soda added to the tea made it look much stronger than Russian teas normally do. He could not play Whist (a popular card game of the day) without his strong (soda spiked) tea.

Sunshine On My Table Makes Me Happy

This lovely handmade, patchwork table cloth was a gift from the Cake Goddess. Orange is my favorite color and this bright splash of sunshine makes me very happy!

And in case you need a dash of John Denver today, hear him sing Sunshine on My Shoulders.

The Wailin' Jennys

I blogged about the Wailin' Jennys way back in March, but that was a long time ago and I have several new readers, so I thought I'd take the chance to sing their praises (hee hee) once more. Here is the group's wikipedia entry.

The Wailin Jennys are a Canadian girl band. They sing folkish stuff. I heard them at Lotus Fest a few years ago. They are incredible! They write most of their own stuff, play many different instruments each, and have the most hauntingly beautiful harmonies I've heard since Wilson Phillips (yes, that dates me!).

Hear their song One Voice here. This song moves me to tears. It's so beautiful, so metaphorical.
Today is one of those days where I listen to this song over and over and over.

The 40 Days CD won a Juno award (the Canadian version of a Grammy).