Sam Had a Baby

Now that you know The Name, today's post will make a little more sense to you.

Since the Kindermusik semester is winding down, Joy is slowly putting away the props used by her teachers in class. By far, the class that uses the most props is Kindermusik Sign & Sing, a great class we did with Sam that engages children in many ways to help facilitate their acquisition of sign language. One of the best methods to captivate children is by the use of props, from bubbles to ball towers to musical games, that they want to see and use. Forget getting a kid to sign "milk" - they know how to get milk by screaming their head off. But bubbles? Crying just brings milk, not bubbles, so they want to learn that sign to get some of those precious, precious bubbles.

Joy has several baby dolls as props for the class, so they were sitting minding their own business, waiting to be packed away when Sam pounced. He immediately declared that the first baby he picked up was Baby Noah, the baby in Mama's belly. Joy and Sam then had to feed the baby, and change its diapers, and help it sit on the potty. All things that made us happy because we began to think that maybe Sam would be cool with his new little brother and was perhaps beginning to get excited about him coming.

He then declared that the second baby he found was Baby Andrew, the baby in Dada's belly. Ah well, at least he's getting part of it down.

The Name

I realized the other day that, although we named our newest addition a few weeks ago, we hadn't announced it to you. So, since Sam is addicted to learning to write letters right now, I thought I'd let him show you our new baby's name:
In case you can't decipher Sam's cryptic writing, the baby's name is officially Noah Andrew. So now we're just counting down the days - a little over three weeks to go.

What's the Matter with Kansas?

A few years ago, there was a famous book that rhetorically asked What's the Matter with Kansas? The book generated a lot of discussion, especially around here, as it proposed that the Republican party had tricked red state America into believing it was on their side when it was actually for the rich and empowered.

I haven't read the book, and so don't have an opinion on the author's thesis, but I was reminded of its title yesterday when Kansas Representative Todd Tiahrt halted discussion in the House on the spending bill by asking for a roll-call vote on House Resolution 1113. Never heard of HR 1113? It's a resolution to show that Congress celebrates the role of mothers in the United States and supports the goals and ideals of Mother's Day. Rep. Tiahrt wanted to make sure all the Representative's mothers knew that their sons and daughters loved and appreciated them.

I'm sure their mothers would be more excited if the House stopped wasting time and money, stopped taking and looking for kickbacks, and ate their lima beans. But hey, what do I know?

Ant Man? Really

With the stunning success of Iron Man over the weekend, Marvel comics decided to let the world know what other superheroes you've never heard of will be making their way to the screen. Now, I was a fan of Iron Man as a kid, so his story being made into a movie didn't surprise me. And making a movie of Captain America seems like a no-brainer - who can argue with a superhero who embodies all that is good about the United States except large parts of the non-Western world. And I'll even buy a movie about Thor, a regular guy whose alter ego just happens to be the Norse god of thunder since it's directed by the same guy who brought us Stardust.

But Ant-Man? That's right, Marvel announced that in addition to those above projects, they also have Edgar Wright, director of Hott Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, making a movie about a scientist who can shrink down to small sizes and control insects with his helmet. I'm not making this up, he really does control ants with his helmet. Does this strike anyone else as a strange choice? What's next, a movie about one of their earliest comics, Kathy, the teen-age tornado?

More Listening Journals for your Enjoyment

The last collection of Listening Journals written by my undergraduates is now up for viewing. These all cover music written since 1945 and represent a wide variety of music and musical styles. Most surprising to me was the reaction against minimalism I heard from these students. I must admit to a fascination on my own part with minimalism, stretching back into my high school years, yet in spite of that interest, since I started teaching the subject I've always found that students are, by and large, extremely drawn to the style.

Not this year. Not even Einstein on the Beach in Legos could persuade them to give minimalism a chance.

One student, though, wrote on, and enjoyed Einstein on the Beach, and I own him a debt of gratitude for finding a new, bizarre, and hilarious parody of the work by Emo Philips that proves my theory that everything is made better by the addition of ninjas. You'll find the video on his blog after his essay.

Potty Training Strikes Back

As many parents do when potty training their child, we have books galore on the subject littering our house. There's the classic Everyone Poops, the charming Once Upon a Potty, and Sam's current favorite The Potty Book - For Boys. We talk way too much about bodily functions at our house, and since we decided long ago that instead of using sobriquets for body parts (wee-wee being the most common in our books) we'd call them by their proper names, we've had some insightful and some downright weird conversations recently.

Nothing beats Thursday morning, though. Sam was sitting at the kitchen table, finishing a mid-morning snack while Joy was busy rearranging our random utensil drawer (or whatever else nesting-late-pregnancy women are compelled to do). Getting down to the bottom of his sippy cup, he unscrewed the lid to drain the last few precious drops of apple juice. Doing so, he became entranced with the bottom of the lid. He cocked his head to the side and looked at the strange apparatus hanging down from the lid and then declared:

"My cup has a penis! Look Mom!"

You don't even want to know where the poop discussions randomly come back to haunt us.

Moving the Classroom to Web 2.0

You may have noticed this semester that I've been trying to build community outside the confines of the 2 1/2 hours I get to spend with my students each week. There is only so much I can do in that time to open their minds and ears to all that is available to them today, to make new links among and between musics and musical cultures. I've been trying various ideas, but I recently stumbled across an anthropology profession at Kansas State who has moved this idea in an entirely new direction. In thinking and writing about our current mediated culture, he hit on the idea of visually depicting it for his students:

He then turned to his massive 200 student lecture hall and began using the internet to simulate many of the concepts he hopes they take away from class. I'm amazed by this process and my mind is firing with possibilities for similar ideas in my classes, especially in the large film music class I'm currently scheduled to teach next spring. Notions, ideas are always welcome.