z and the beat box keyboard

This is Zoralee discovering a little Yamaha keyboard I received my 10th or 11th year. I can't believe it has lain practically dormant for 20 plus years, the beautiful and artful machine that it is. I told the family if they'd only buy me this keyboard, it would be the Christmas present to end all Christmas presents. Within a couple of weeks, I realized the foolishness of my rash wish. But, it's a lifelong commitment - no Christmas presents ever again. Booooo.

Well, enjoy miss Zoralee as she dances and plays! This video is a little on the loud (annoying side) at points, but the ending is the best; she goes into horror film mode around 1:40 as she executes the oft neglected Full-Body Keyboard Playing.



Those of you who don't know Z personally might not realize how unusual it is for her to be giggly and huggy, which you'll see in the first footage from Day 1. She's just so excited about this thing and all its buttons.

sheet music beauties

Okay, this is an entirely worthless blog post. It's late, and I should be getting into bed, but I'll make it snappy. Maybe you'll get a chuckle, like I did, out of this selection of sheet music covers someone had passed along to me at some point.

Rrright. And that's why I requested the restraining order.

a bold proclamation of it being no secret,

and then - cautiously, in parentheses, secretly? - of what God can do

in case you are unclear on the pronunciation of ricochet...

Wait, maybe it's a play on words about an Irish guy. I should've read the lyrics.

I suspect there was a mirror around when these gals decided on their name.

They only later must've realized that for every album cover,

they'd have to turn sideways for their identity to be fully believed.

That has GOT to be Eddie Murphy's great grandfather on the left.

The expressions are perfectly nailed.

waaay outside, with that kind of look and cleavage

Nice try, Pat Boone. I ain't fallin' for the old "Look up there!" trick again.

Instead of that smart side-step, how's about you stop right there and empty your trousers.  

This does not remind me of a guy who cares about little white clouds that cry.

But then, let's be honest. Who of us does?

I do apologize to any American soccer fans, but...

...Zoralee received this gift at birth and just now, by strange coincidence, fits into it.

(She looks like a natural, doesn't she - attitude and all?)

old magazines, old (good) ways of arguing, & an old soap maker

As I'm making piles of our stuff - pile A bound for destination A in less than a month, pile B bound for destination B in less than a year, pile C for the thrift store/craigslist/give-away, and pile D for decisions to be made/sorting to be done - I found a box of magazines, back issues of National Geographic, Mother Earth News, and Utne that we saved for one reason or another.

I knew that it was time to get rid of them, the whole lot. Mourn the articles unread (or at least un-memorized or un-put to use), the photos un-ooh'd-and-aah'd over. Chalk them up to lost opportunities, plain and simple. It feels like trashing a collection of gems, but we've got to be serious about lightening the load, now more than ever. You get so much junk piled on to your psyche that you can't really focus on any one project or hobby. 

But I couldn't toss 'em without one final look-see. I picked a magazine from the box at random, Utne Nov-Dec '07. And it was so amazing! In a quick browse through, I read this article: "The Great Divide - How do we talk when we disagree?". It's an interview given by Julie Hanus of Stephen Miller, author of Conversation: A History of a Declining Art. You can click on the article name above, if you wish. Here are some snippets of Miller's answers from the interview:

• "The best conversations are playful. They go different places; people are throwing out ideas, and no one is pronouncing on things." [This is Lori now: and isn't that the truth?! I love rabbit trails. They lead to the best laughter and to the best learning of random tidbits about people, and sometimes, because every one's guards are down, to the best solutions to problems or better ways of seeing.]

• "Disagreement has to be good-humored...Quite often people don't discuss anything because they're afraid of offending - or if they do discuss something, they're screaming. I have a bunch of friends I've met...we talk about politics and religion. We have people all over the political spectrum, and we criticize each other mercilessly. But it's all in good spirit; we say things like, 'That's a load of crap, Joe!'"

• "In the United States, people fail to see the distinction between attacking an idea and attacking a person, and they tend to be more offended...It's so easy not to deal with an actual idea and instead just say, 'Oh, you're repressed, you're a Marxist, you're a whatever.' Don't make it personal. There has to be restraint for conversation to succeed."

__________

Then I saw a film review on page 24 by Peter Schilling. Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox is a documentary about Emanuel Bronner, the founder of Dr. Bronner's soaps. Directed by Sara Lamm. Very good timing to see this article, because I just bought a couple bottles of lotion on clearance at The EC Store online, where I was also buying tiny baby underwears. We dig Dr. Bronner's soaps and lotions, though we scratch our heads at the indecipherable moral and religious lingo on the soap bottles. So, now I'm writing down a reminder to somehow come by that film, and I won't have to save the article I tore out. One more thing to toss!

Goodbye, the Nov-Dec '07 issue of Utne. And gee whiz, with as easy as inspiration comes,  don't let me do any more quick browse-throughs. I'll never get packed.