Here, as promised, is Laura’s first MP3 recording. She taped it the night of Nov. 14, to critical raves, and plans a whole bunch of follow-up releases.
Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
Pablum
Stephy Says: Sure, C.S. Lewis was a much better writer than J.K. Rowling (who writes Harriet Potter), but she also has no illusions that she is doing more than drawing in, involving children, and she doesn’t barely hide Christian morals and ethics under every shrub. Also, I’m not sure Harry Potter is read-to-me as much [...]
Opus 1
Laura dictated this song to me the other night, by standing at my elbow and singing slowly while I typed it into my music notation program. I think it has to do with a story they were reading in class. I made some guesses about the chords she intended, and it ended up sounding like [...]
St. Woody
Dave Marsh in Counterpunch: “The first time ‘God Bless America’ became a hit, around 1940, Woody Guthrie grew annoyed at the sanctimonious jingoism and wrote an answer…: ‘This land is your land.’” Woody is sort of our household saint, I guess. It’s good to see him being invoked now. He has so much more to [...]
Salsa
There are a bunch of Peruvians in the Bay Area, maybe 20,000 if you believe some people. I know some of them because when I came here in 92 my brother-in-law Paul hooked me up with a semi-pro salsa band that was mostly Peruvians. I hadn’t been playing my bass outside the house for most [...]
Bob
I knew a guy in college who was in love with Stevie Wonder. He could name any tune after the first note or two; he would perk up and say, “That’s a Wonder.” Any little incident in everyday life could remind him of one Wonder or another, which we would go ahead and sing to [...]
Watermelon Sugar
You liked the book, you’ll love the band. Thanks to my connections in the Judicial Branch, I am now the president of the Jue-Kuster Household Chapter of the Trout Fishing in America Fan Club. Laura is the vice-president and power behind the throne, and Mary, because she’s not quite as crazy about them as me [...]
Lullabies
I vaguely remember spending a lot of nights rocking Laura to sleep when she was a baby. I don’t do it nearly as much with Lillian. Either she sleeps more soundly, or we are better at figuring out what she needs. Still, there are some nights when I do need to walk her. It usually [...]
Mother Earth
We almost never go out for dinner these days, and when we do it’s usually when Laura is on a sleepover with a friend. Lillian comes along, of course, but she pretty much sleeps through it. So going out on the town with kids is not something we’re used to. That may change this year. [...]