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June 25, 2007
new job for a musicologist...
...selecting music for a baby mobile!
Now I'm dying of curiosity about who the "top musicologists" were who chose the music!
Posted by Tim and Jo at 11:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 20, 2007
National Sacred Harp Singing Convention: The Culture
This past weekend, we drove to Birmingham, AL to stay with our friend Jess and attend the National Sacred Harp Singing Convention.
On Saturday morning, we arrived at the convention bright and early, but the singing had already started. We made our way to the treble section (soprano/descant—the tenors take the melody) and began to sing hymn after hymn. There were several hundred people in the church, most singing, a few listening. The sound was astonishing!
The feeling of singing at the top of my lungs for hours was incredible, too. After an hour, I started to get an oxygen high. I was hoping the babies would wake up for the singing, but they slept soundly. Until it came to the memorial part of the afternoon, where someone gives a lesson and lists the names of all of the singers who had died during the past year. They both went crazy at that point! It was the first time I had felt them both distinctly move at once, and I was trying so hard not to laugh during a solemn moment. It appears that not only are they rambunctious, they also are a bit mischievous as well. On a more serious note, it kind of made me think of the contrast between death and life, feeling these new lives inside of me as people remembered past friends.
Some of the other cultural traditions of the singing were fun, too. Of course, there’s always a “dinner on the ground” (potluck) during these kind of affairs, and it was down-home, deep south food.
Joanna (excitedly): Tim, this is real soul food!
Tim (calmly): I know that.
Joanna: Yeah, but when was the last time you ate black-eyed peas. Wait, when was the last time you’ve even seen black-eyed peas??
I found a great description of the “dinner on the ground” tradition:
And then it’s time for Dinner on the Ground! My observation is that shape note singing is mostly a matter of something coming out a singer’s mouth (song and conversation) or something going in (food). It’s a wonderful system. The term “dinner on the ground” originally meant a picnic, a potluck meal supplied by all who could, for all who were there to eat. And because folks might have traveled a long distance to a church with pretty primitive facilities, everybody spread out blankets and ate ”on the ground”. Today, we stand around or sit on folding chairs (and sometimes even eat at tables in church basements), but Dinner on the Ground is a treasured part of the tradition.(found at http://www.pilgrimproduction.org/sacredharp/maquoketa/tradition.html)
The mantle of leadership for the conference (chairman) was being passed on after fifteen years of service by Buell Cobb. I had read his book The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music and from the style of his writing (it was pervaded by a kindness and sympathy that isn't always found in academic writing), I wasn’t surprised to see that he was a warm man whom everyone seemed to love.
More on the music later!
Posted by Tim and Jo at 06:15 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 19, 2007
Belly Dancing
I really started to feel the babies bounce around over the past week. Before, I had ambiguous little twinges (though they were in the right places), but now I feel quite distinctive movements. It cracks me up when they get excited, but sometimes it's a little painful, too, like getting stung by something on the inside. I thought at this point they were supposed to be cute little flutters!
The doctor did warn me, though. A couple weeks ago, I had an ultrasound done. One of the little guys was quite calm. The other was zipping back and forth, back and forth across his (his in a generic sense, we don't know either way yet) little sac. The doctor looked at him, looked back at me, looked down at him again and said, "You're going to be really uncomfortable soon!" Great, a kid hyperactive from the womb!
Yesterday, I drove an hour into Atlanta with Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits album on (I've had a craving to hear a particular song on it--can pregnant women have music cravings too?). And the babies got quite lively! They seemed almost to have different preferences--Thing 1 (hyperactive kid!) would dance to one song, and Thing 2 would groove to another. But they both seemed to like Born in the USA--there was a little duet going on in my tummy.
I wonder what they were responding to. Tim usually has the bass all the way up, so maybe they heard the beats almost like heartbeats?
And I wonder when babies start to form musical taste? I hope they like lots of music! I don't *really* buy into the whole "Mozart effect" thing, but it would be fun to teach them to have eclectic tastes in music.
Posted by Tim and Jo at 11:08 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
June 15, 2007
Strawberries!
Feeling restless the other day, and wanting to get out in the first cool day we've had since we moved down, I hunted up a local pick-your-own-berry farm. Donning my favorite pair of maternity overalls, I drove down Hog Mountain Road (I always want to say Haawwwg Mountain Road when I see it) to find the farm.
The vines were covered in bright red berries, big and small. Several moms with little kids running about them were picking in other rows. In my row, I appreciated the solitude, the time to appreciate the fresh dirt underneath my feet, the smell of the ripe berries, and to think quietly about the many changes that have taken place over the past few weeks.
Within an hour, I had a gallon of strawberries to take home.
The next day I sorted my berries into piles--now, later (freezer), and jam.
After misadventures the last time I made strawberry jam, I decided to make freezer jam instead. I love looking at the shiny redness of the jam jars in a row.
Next time--blueberries!
Posted by Tim and Jo at 03:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Goin' to Alabama...
Tonight, we're going to take a little drive to see my old roommate Jess, and stay for the National Sacred Harp Convention
Hurrah! It's nice to be in shape-note territory again!!
Posted by Tim and Jo at 09:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 08, 2007
Won't he make a great dad?
Posted by Tim and Jo at 11:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Our pretty city
And some people still think that Pittsburgh is dirty and smoky and ugly...
Posted by Tim and Jo at 08:53 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 06, 2007
Taste of the South #1
We've had contact with an older southern lady in Athens. She has such a strong drawl, I actually have to get on the phone and translate for Tim.
She and her husband are retiring this year so that they can do more traveling. We were both interested to hear that they had recently taken a trip to Paris.
She told us that it was difficult to get around Paris because they didn’t know a word of French. “And then, honey, we got to a restaurant and I couldn’ read a thang on the menu. So I said to the waiter nice and slow, ‘Ham. Bur. Ger.’ Honey, I said it to him a coupl’a’times, ‘Ham. Bur. Ger. Ham. Bur. Ger.’ And then he brought me meatballs!”
Posted by Tim and Jo at 05:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 05, 2007
Trying to reconnect
Well, my friends who were so kindly helping me to unpack the kitchen just left. My grandma and an aunt are coming this afternoon to help some more. So, I'm left here in the house by myself for the first time. It's put me in a pensive mood.
We're both missing Pittsburgh like crazy. Especially not being there for church on Sunday
I know I've neglected this blog shamefully lately. But I want to stay connected with people. I feel very disconnected, but that always happens to me when I move somewhere new. If you're reading this, say hi!!!
So, hopefully, there'll be some upcoming entries on babies, our recent trip to NYC, and life back in the deep south.
We met our neighbors on each side of our house--we live in a triplex. They're all really nice. Turns out the neighbors on one side are homeschooling their two extremely energetic and not-shy-at-all boys. The family invited us to their next Sunday cookout. On the other side is a nice couple who's moving soon. We put out empty boxes on our back porch for the moving family as we unpacked them.
Eating dinner, we saw our five year old neighbor with his nose pressed against the glass of our back porch door, arms waving excitedly as he tried to shout something to us through the glass. We opened it, and found out that he and his older brother wanted our boxes. We gave them a few as long as it was okay with their mom. I think they took more than their parents could handle, as I saw them dragging a bunch of boxes back to our porch later on.
That night, as we were leaving to find a local coffee shop, the boys were still outside. The five year old said, "Can I tell you sumfin'?" "Sure." "There's a cat under thewe [pointing to the crawlspace under our house] and we're twying to wescue it!" His older brother was armed with a flashlight which he diligently shone through the hole in the crawlspace.
If I were a cat, I might be hiding under there, too.
Posted by Tim and Jo at 01:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 02, 2007
'Way down south...
Weeeeeel....
It's official--we've now moved down to the sunny south! We drove down over the past few days, and a whole troop of teenagers helped us unload today. A whole troop of people helped us load up, too, on the other end. I don't know what we'd do without our church families.
I wanted to write some posts about my favorite things about Pittsburgh, but I miss it too much right now.
I'll write more when we get more settled.
Tim's reaction to southern culture, "Well, I like barbecue. That's about it." Hee! I think he's going to have some adventures adjusting to life down here.
Posted by Tim and Jo at 06:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack