October has very nearly come and gone with nary an update. I knew that this school year was going to be a busy one but I was unprepared for just how busy. Luckily I will have a chance to tweak my schedule considerably come January but in the meantime it’s all I can do to just hold on for the ride.
Our October session was another lovely one with Robin, Dennis, Gerry, Tim, Sarah, Leila, Maia, Brandi, Abram, and Arianne and also their little ones in attendance.
The tune list:
Peeler’s Jacket Paddy Fahy’s/Porthole of the Kelp/The Holly Bush Lakes of Sligo
Old Joe Clark
Lark in the Morning
Out on the Ocean
Old Tipperary
Caesar’s Waltz into Reel Beatrice
Skye Boat Song
Trip to Skye
Sligo Maid
Barney Brolligan
Lad O’Beirne’s
King of the Fairies
Geese at the Bog into Hag at the Churn
This post was created in October and it is now January 18! I think I need to change my approach.
I have so many things I’ve been wanting to post about like our new homeschooling rhythm now that Liam is dual enrolled, a transformative performance experience we had recently as a band, my health challenges, and Atticus’s newfound exultation over dance class and cello lessons but the time slips away from me. In fact, this very post has been sitting in my ‘to publish’ queue for months now because I wanted to link every tune to a source where the dots can be found and I haven’t been able to find the time to do that.
I think this is a common problem when you spend your time around little children. You get into the habit of spoon feeding people. If you want to find a tune, most of them can be found here if you do a search on the name.
New plan: quantity over quality. This blog serves mainly as an extension of my doddering long term memory so I think I’ll be best served by just trying to get stuff out there instead of wringing my hands over my failure to make it appear just so.
The October Irish session is today so this is my big chance to get the September Irish session recorded before I fall even more hopelessly behind.
We had two sessions in September, each one delightful in its own way. During our usual Saturday session time, it was just me, Ric, and Tim jamming on a lot of Old Time and Irish tunes and talking about all kinds of things. I love these kinds of sessions. In between discussions of the neurological effects of music and the physics of sound, we played:
The Labor Day session had a few more people in attendance, including Beth, Will, Annie, Maia, Marc, Ric, Tim, and Frank. I think there were others to but that was almost a month ago and I didn’t really write it down. Sorry folks!
We played more Irish tunes this time along with a healthy helping of Scottish and Old Time:
We had a great group of friends at our August session and we were especially excited to see Frank, a superb musician (flute and tin whistle) who I haven’t played music with in over five years. Also in attendance were Dave (fiddle and Irish flute), Dennis (concertina), Robin (fiddle), Keith (guitar, vocals), Kevin (harmonica), Abram (fiddle and Irish flute), Arianne (fiddle), and Guy (fiddle).
In honor of the wonderful fiddle workshop taught by April Verch that several of us had attended the day before, we started our session with the Métis fiddle tune Jonah’s First Change. The sheet music can be found in April’s book co-written with Brian Wicklund entitled American Fiddle Methods: Canadian Fiddle Styles. From Jonah’s First Change, we went right into Blarney Pilgrim.
I wasn’t as successful at recording the names of all the tunes at this session but I did my best.
There are two session in September because we’ll have our usual session on the first Saturday of the month at 4:30 at Uptown Bill’s and there will be another session on Labor Day (yep, two days later) at the annual Ralston Creek Fair and Flea Market from 1 to 3 pm.
In other news, today is my very last day teaching in my home studio. Since 2005, I have taught approximately 5,000 lessons within these walls, just steps away from my increasingly exuberant children as they’ve navigated infancy, toddlerhood, potty training, and, most recently, epic LEGO battles, along with their string of awesome babysitters who keep graduating and leaving us (the shadow side of college towns) but who will always be part of our family.
My commute will increase but only slightly because I’ll be teaching just down the block at the conservatory in the West Music store in Coralville. I’m very excited to be teaching at West but it’s bittersweet because it marks yet another end to the boys’ babyhood, only in this case it’s the mama that’s leaving the nest.
Another big change is that Liam will be starting part-time kindy on Monday at our neighborhood school. He’s dual enrolled in the school district’s homeschool assistance program and the neighborhood school so we’ll be doing most of our academics here at home and Liam will be at school three afternoons a week.
Atticus, never one to be overlooked if he has anything to say about it, is bouncing out of his skin with excitement to be starting both dance classes and also cello lessons within the next two weeks.
Today was one of those absolutely perfect Iowa City summer days and we were lucky enough to spend a couple of felicitous hours at Uptown Bill’s.
Among the players today: Marc (guitar, mandolin, and fiddle), Maia (fiddle), Guy (fiddle), Wendy (tin whistle), Will (fiddle), Tim (guitar), Annie (fiddle), John (guitar), Arianne (fiddle), Abram (fiddle and flute was all I saw today, I think. Heck, Abram plays everything.), Joe (bodhran), and me (fiddle).
“I thought of the word.” Tom Gilsenan said to me yesterday when we took a break during the Irish session.
“It’s diaspora.”
I looked it up last night when I got home and he’s right, it does describe our little informal group of musicians who began playing together at the Gilbert Street Uptown Bill’s a decade ago.
A diaspora (from the Greek διασπορά, “scattering, dispersion”) is “the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland”or “people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location”,or “people settled far from their ancestral homelands”.
We feel compelled to play music that originated thousands of miles away and hundreds of years ago and that would be enough but the word has extra meaning for us because we started out our Irish session at Uptown Bill’s in 2001 and have migrated elsewhere before finding our way back home again. We’ve also seen many of our members come and go, moving onward to Illinois and beyond, sometimes all the way to New Zealand (we miss you, Ted!).
Uptown Bill’s, sponsored by the Extend the Dream Foundation, is one of a unique series of small non-profit businesses managed and operated by persons with disabilities. The founder, Dr. Tom Walz, was formerly the Director of the University of Iowa School of Social Work. He has devoted his professional and personal life to fostering sustainable and meaningful life and work experiences for people who might not otherwise have as many opportunities.
My responsibilities at Uptown Bill’s centered around arts and music outreach into the community so establishing an informal Irish session felt like a natural choice. When I was living in San Diego, I attended the Irish session that my parents attend on Sundays in Balboa Park so I was in the habit of regularly spending an easy afternoon playing tunes with friends.
When the sessions first began, they were every Sunday afternoon from 2 to 4 pm. Sometimes it was just me scratching away by myself and sometimes I had twenty friends who drove in from every which way to jam.
The Beggarmen grew out of those sessions as well because I met Brad for the first time on one of those lazy Sunday afternoons.
After a while, the group got too big for the space and we reluctantly moved on but when my good friend Tom Gilsenan moved back to Iowa to become the new Director at Uptown Bill’s at a new, more spacious location, I started to feel the pull to have the sessions back at Uptown Bill’s again.
Home, sweet home.
We were small but mighty but I know we will grow as we have before. In attendance were Marc (guitar, mandolin, and fiddle), Maia (fiddle), Tim (guitar), Gerry (bodhran and tin whistle), Carrie (guitar and voice), Annie (fiddle), Joe (bodhran), and me (fiddle).
I’m going to try to remember to write down the tunes that we play at the sessions. Hopefully I remember to keep doing this.
Yesterday’s list (follow the links for sheet music):
There’s no set list for a session but sometimes it’s fun to throw out a tune idea for a future session. Gerry had the idea to do some mazurkas and sent me a couple to try so I’m going to learn Vincent Campbell’s 1 and 2 for our next session on July 2 from 4:30 to 6:30 pm.
In the intervening years since the establishment of the session, we have gained some very enthusiastic and rather uninhibited groupies. There’s only one way to pass this tradition along after all and that is to bring them into the fold.
Sessions are open to everyone to come and play or listen or read or sip coffee, whatever your heart desires. I hope you join us!
***My friend Carrie is an actor and musician who shares my deep and abiding love for musical theatre and she graciously agreed to sing us something that might not show up on any old Irish session list. It was beautiful.
We staggered to the library for storytime this morning and lurched home again but that was all the outside time that we could manage today.
Susan Pagnucci was the guest storyteller today and she had some great ideas of ways to bring the story home, including a shadow puppet theatre!
You know how you read those chirpy little articles in parenting magazines that proclaim how you can make a spectacular stained glass birdhouse using bits and bobs that you have hanging around the house. I don’t know about your house, but those authors have never been to my house.
We had no car today, no money to spend, and then there was that whole pesky too hot to be alive problem so it’s not like we were going to march a mile down to Hobby Lobby and back again. No worries though, somehow we had all we needed.
It begins a box, some muslin (she said you could use paper but it would never survive our particular brand of enthusiasm), and some packing tape.
Muslin may not seem to be the sort of thing that one has on hand but you could use any sort of thin, light colored fabric. Old t-shirt, retired handkerchief, etc. The only reason that we had muslin knocking around our craft drawer is that I had great ambitions of making a quilt square for each month of our preschool curriculum, conveniently forgetting that I have no idea how to make a quilt. That project was abandoned after the first square.
Our packing tape is extra fun because I like sending happy packages to my friends.
First step, break down the box.
I cut off all the extra parts leaving one large front panel and two side panels and I cut a wedge off each side of the side panels to make it lean properly.
Then I forgot to take pictures for a while because my assistants were starting to turn against me and the sharp objects to preschool rage ratio was getting out of hand. The next and possibly most essential step of the activity involved plopping the boys in front of Scooby Doo while I finished the parts that involved cutting.
We resume the photo journey after I cut a square out of the front frame of the cardboard with boxcutters and taped the square of fabric in place with the packing tape.
The light source is my bedside lamp which I have very little hope of reclaiming for use in that capacity. Any sort of small lamp or even a flashlight would do.
Susan Pagnucci did a sweet little version of “There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” at storytime with her shadow puppets but that was entirely beyond my scope of possibility so we did “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”.
I drew a spider, a cloud (“down came the rain”) and a sun and the kids taped the shapes to bendy straws.
For Twinkle, I made a star and a diamond shape (“like a diamond in the sky”). Less is more, right?
I’m sure that the day is all too rapidly approaching when our children have no interest at all in attending a rock concert with us but today is not that day!
We took the boys to Des Moines yesterday to the Every Family Rocks music festival at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.
I think this is the third year that the festival has been in existence but it’s the first time that we’ve been able to make it and we’ve been looking forward to it for weeks. In addition to the music performances, there were other events for kids like plate spinning and an instrument petting zoo along with lots of face painting, balloon animals, and art projects.
We were really glad to have arrived in time to see Justin Roberts and the Not Ready For Naptime Players open the festival.
It can’t be easy to put something like this together but we found the festival to be really well planned and well executed. The main events took place inside the Ag Building on the Iowa State Fairgrounds so it would have been fun even if the weather had been bad. Luckily for us, it was a gorgeous day and we got to play outside on the beautiful playground equipment right beside the building. We had friends there from Iowa City and our cousins came from Omaha to meet us. We had a great afternoon playing together.
We found some delicious apple slushes to pass the time before They Might Be Giants took the stage at 4 pm.
Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…They Might Be Giants!
We headed back to the playground after the show and Atticus, filled with inspiration, took to the amphitheater stage.
Liam had some sort of virus a little over a week ago and I think he shared it with me. Generous child, that one. I’ve been knocked flat in bed all day.
In many ways, I’m really lucky this unpleasantness landed on a rare day off for me when Joe is home taking care of the lads and the only thing I had to cancel is my guitar lesson.
But I love my guitar lessons. And we also weren’t able to make it to a birthday party for our sweet little pal who’s turning two nor meet his brand new baby sister.
Did I mention that it was supposed to rain all weekend but it turned out instead that it is actually perfect weather for doing all the things that I really need and want to do outside in the yard?
I also missed the rapture completely because I was watching the season finale of Bones on hulu. I’m just off today.
Joe is a really good parent. I’ve been up here in the bedroom all day listening to the three of them knocking around together.
Does this seem a little disjointed and even more meaningless than usual? Yeah, it wasn’t really supposed to be a blog post. I wanted to write in my notebook but I can’t find a pen and I’ve already summoned Joe a meeellion times today in need of toast, soup, water, and sympathy.
I miss people today. I really miss my friend who I can always count on to be as interested in all the everyday details of my life as I am in hers. I miss my parents and my sister and Joe’s parents and his brother and all those good people in our extended family. I miss our Iowa City friends who have moved to Oregon (yes, I miss you twice!), to Milwaukee, to Chicago, to Boston, to Cleveland, to San Francisco, to Botswana. I miss my little goddaughter in South Dakota and her whole amazing family. I miss my beautiful cousins in Ireland.
I miss the feeling of being on top of things which really hasn’t returned in the two months that I’ve been home from my trip. At the rate we’re going, we’ll be lucky if we finish our spring curriculum before the school year starts in the fall.
I don’t really have a hold on things right now. It’s not the worst feeling but it’s unsettling for me. There are more changes on the horizon too, just enough so that I am left wondering if I will ever again feel like I’ve got it under control.
I just set the laptop down for a moment because two little boys clad in Ben 10 pajamas, one holding a hot pink recorder and the other holding a slightly bent slide whistle, came up to my bedroom so we could do what has become our evening ritual of “The Family Song” which is loosely based on the Phish song “Simple” (nod to my friend and fellow music therapist Blythe LaGasse who taught this to me during internship) followed by the theme song to ”Spectacular Spiderman“, me on guitar and Joe on on mandolin.
So you know what? Scratch all that. It’s all good. It’s grand.
Today, on my 33rd birthday, I have been married for nine years to my best friend. Today is the only day that we are both 33 and then tomorrow, he turns 34. Happy birthiversary to us!
True fact: I actually thought I was 31 all year and was rudely awakened at my last melanoma check when I saw my age printed on my chart. I even tried to correct the nurse and then had to retract my correction shamefacedly when I realized I had somehow spent the last ten or so months believing I was 31. I guess I must have lost a year in there somewhere.
I got to sleep in before being bombarded by homemade cards and then had a lovely first breakfast of tea and salt water taffy (birthday present). Next up, a delicious second breakfast of quiche and a Charlie Brown latte (chocolate and toffee), followed by a pedicure, followed by a chiropractic adjustment, followed by a few minutes of soft tissue massage, followed by a superb lunch of homemade black bean burgers (key ingredient: chipotle mayo). I also had many heartwarming Facebook messages pinging me all day long. It has been a wonderful birthday and it’s not even over yet.
I’m told that there is some cake awaiting me in the not-too-distant future too. If you’re reading these words, have some cake for me today.
I’ve been back for almost two weeks but it’s taken me a while to acclimate to being home. I’ve been feeling really foggy in my head, like I’m not entirely here. It’s not a physical illness, more like a state of mind. It’s not a comfortable feeling. I hope it fades soon.
Our trip was such a fast one and so packed full of so many people and experiences that it feels almost like it was all just a dream.
My mother and I left Chicago on Sunday around 7 pm and arrived in Dublin on Monday morning at 8. Here we are waiting for the express bus to my aunt’s house in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
I was so tired on the bus that I missed a lot of the scenery as we wound through one village and another. We were greeted at the bus stop by my aunt and my cousin who I was so excited to meet! Once we arrived home in Enniskillen, we took a walk near my aunt’s house. I was bound and determined to stay awake that whole day to fend off the jet lag. It was misting just a little bit that day and, believe it or not, that was the only rain we saw all week. The rest of the time it was like a perfect summer day.
This is the view from my aunt’s sitting room.
The next morning, we got a ride from the neighbor across the border to Swanlinbar, County Cavan, Ireland to visit the house where my mother grew up.
After we left the house, we went for a walk through the little town of Swad.
I met so many of the people who my mother knew growing up and yet somehow managed not to take a picture of any of them. But here’s a beautiful field.
The next day, my cousin Maura drove us into Cavan Town to have a look around and have lunch. Everyone always tells me that I look like my father and it’s certainly true but I see a resemblance here on my mother’s side as well.
I dearly wish we could come back in August for the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. It’s not in the cards this year but a girl can dream.
Then it was back to my aunt’s lovely house to meet the children coming home from school.
Liam and Atticus can’t wait to meet their little cousins whenever we manage to get the whole family over to Ireland.
On Wednesday night, we were lucky enough to catch a ride with my mother’s friend back to Cavan Town to attend a session at the Farnham Arms Hotel. We were extra lucky that the session was hosted by accordion genius and traditional music advocate extraordinaire Martin Donohue. The men at the session were all very welcoming to having a gate crasher from America and I really enjoyed my first traditional session in Ireland.
Speaking of, I should always have my mother with me at sessions. She remembers way more tune names than I do.
On Thursday, we took the bus back into Swad to visit with some more relatives and friends.
We also stopped by the Swanlinbar An Comhaltas group where they do traditional music lessons every Thursday night. They were kind enough to let us drop into the lessons but we were worried that we were too distracting to the little giggling tin whistlers so we excused ourselves after a few minutes. I would have stayed longer for the adult class but I was very much looking forward to going out for coffee with my cousins and their friends.
Friday was my mother’s birthday and my aunt and her family had the most wonderful birthday party for her, complete with a delicious cake baked by Maura’s 8 year old daughter.
My mother was so touched by this party and most especially by the children’s contributions. It was a beautiful night.
On Friday night, we went to a session at The Bush Bar in Enniskillen.
One of the highlights of the session was Donegal fiddler Matt McGranaghan playing his spectular version of traditional tune The Mason’s Apron.
When I was talking to my uncle the next day on the phone, I found out that I was playing at that session with a fellow whose father used to play in sessions with my great grandfather Pat Dolan.
On Saturday, we caught the bus back to Dublin and spent the night with one of my mother’s friends from nursing school and then suddenly it was time to hop on the plane to go home.
My wonderfully welcoming extended family made us feel so at home with them. It would have been much harder to leave if I hadn’t been so anxious to get back to Joe and the boys.
After the long trip, I think we were all in need of some snuggles. My aunt traveled back with us to spend some more time with my parents and to see southern California.
Joe and I have set a goal to make it back to Cavan and Fermanagh with our boys sometime in the next two years. In the meantime, I’ll make do with the memories and the music.
