Gifts for my Mom

A digital scan of a print I made for my mom.  This print was modeled after KCJoughDoitch's "Radial Sunset" on DeviantArt.com.

Hiba's post about Mother's Day inspired me to try some creative projects.  

I have two things to share with you: a picture and a song.  Both of these were gifts for my mom.  I had a lot of fun making them, and I think she liked them.

My Linoleum Print
My mom and dad love boating, the beach, the ocean and lighthouses.

This picture was made using a print-making technique called linocut.  To make a linocut, you start with a square of linoleum.  It's similar to the material used for floors.  It's like a hard rubber.  Using special tools, you cut away at the linoleum to make your picture.  Finally, you cover the linoleum square (called a relief) in ink, and press a sheet of paper on to it.

Audio Collage: The Lake Isle of Innisfree
A few years ago, my mom visited Ireland.  She has Irish ancestry, and celebrates St. Patrick's day every year.  She bought a book of poetry by W. B. Yeats, and gave it to me when she returned.  I decided to try and make a song using a recording of W. B. Yeats reading his most famous poem: The Lake Isle of Innisfree. You can find the transcript of the recording, and the text of the poem below.  You will also find some background information too.

I think I should warn you: this song is pretty weird.  There's guitar music I made, and there are also many sounds I recorded in nature, of water, insects, and birds.  There's also pieces of really old songs, and static and noise.  

I think it sounds like a radio, moving between stations.  This is an original recording, but I do borrow from some other people.  The borrowed sources are at the bottom.  
  
Text: The Transcript and Poem
I'm going to begin with a poem of mine called The Lake Isle of Innisfree. Because if you know anything about me, you will expect me to begin with it. It is the only poem of mine which is very widely known. When I was a young lad in the town of Sligo, I read Thoreau's essays, and wanted to live in a hut on an island in Lough Gill, called Innisfree, which means "heather island."   I wrote the poem in London, when I was about 23.

One day in the Strand, I heard a little tinkle of water, and saw in a shop's window, a little jet of water balancing a ball on top. It was an advertisement, I think, for a cooling drink. But it set me thinking of Sligo, and lake water.

I think there is only one obscurity in the poem. I speak of noon as a purple glow. I must have meant by that the reflection of heather in the water.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,

And live alone in the bee loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart's core.

- W.B. Yeats

Background Information

W. B. Yeats, near the time of the BBC recording.  Image found at WikiMedia Commons, originally from  National Library of Ireland on The Commons @ Flickr Commons

W. B. Yeats is considered by many scholars to be one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century.  He was the first person from Ireland to received a Nobel Prize for literature, but was not popular during his lifetime.

He wrote the poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree in 1888.  He read his poem on BBC radio in 1932.

  

You can hear the original recording of Yeats here.

About My Recording
This song was made from many different pieces.  I used recordings I made playing the guitar.  I also used my iPhone to record nature.

I use several samples of old recordings from ExcavatedShellac.com.

I also use a field recording from Luftrum's Drone Atmosphere, found on FreeSound.org.

All of the sounds were edited and mixed using Audacity.

-Eric, NYC, USA

Level 5 NYC: Rosalia's Audio Story

Rosalia has a special talent.  She can design and make clothing by hand.  In this audio story, Rosalia beautifully captures her memories with her mother, when she knew she wanted to make clothing too.  Through the theme of dress-making, we learn much about her life: from her education in Columbia to her move to New York City.  She even details the careful planning involved in designing the perfect dress for her clients.

Rosalia wrote and recorded this audio story in the fall of 2012.  

I'm happy to say that Rosalia is in my class again, and you can expect more stories from Rosalia in the coming weeks.

Below, you can hear Rosalia's recording, and read along with the text.

-Eric, NYC, USA


Rosalia's Audio Story





The Text

MY STORY 

My name is Rosalia, I’ve been living in NY for six and half years.

My mother was a dressmaker. I remember when I used to watch her working making dresses. I used to stay with her for many hours, looking at every move she made, designing the clothes. She was working on sewing one by one every piece of the dresses that she used to make; and that’s how I started getting involved in the art of the dressmaker.

Finally when I was about eleven years old, I began helping my mother to put the buttons and hemming the dresses that she used to make.

I remember when she was cutting the fabric into small pieces; and then she sewed it up piece by piece until she had finished the dress.

I watched my mom and I thought “some day I will be a dressmaker like my mom.”

Little by little I was enjoying everything I was doing, I remember at the age of fourteen, I sewed my first shirt, but it was after I got married when I went to study dressmaking, and then I specialized in “High Fashion” at “The Multi Cultural School of Fashion Design” in Cali, Colombia.

What I was most excited about was bride dresses, those special dresses for sweet sixteen and prom dresses.

My first clients were my sisters-in-law, then they introduced me to their friends because they were working in a big company, where there were many women. My sisters-in-law had a lot of friends, so in a few months, I got a very good clientele; and I was recognized, as the best dressmaker in my neighborhood.

The first thing I did when I was designing a dress was to ask my client, what kind of dress she needed; after I knew what she wanted, then I advised her, what type of fabric and what color goes well with her, considering the skin color, the height, the body shape, and the occasion for the dress she needed, and knowing the client’s style.

When my client and I were in agreement about a design and color; I began taking measurements of the customer.

A high dressmaker can design a dress, or can check out a fashion magazine or picture, to make a dress.

To make a dress I need to use some things like paper, pencil, rulers, pins, needles, chalk, tape measure, scissors, sewing machine etc. I start drawing the design on the paper, using the customer’s measures, developing the design she chose until the pattern is completed on the paper with accurate measurements, then I cut the pattern, and I put it on the fabric, finally I cut piece by piece until I have cut all pieces on fabric, then it was ready to sew.

When I’m designing a dress I concentrate on my client’s figure; considering how to design her dress in a way that; when she puts on her dress, she looks beautiful, comfortable, and spectacular.

When working personally with clients in the art of dressmaking, I could have some difficulties especially when a client wanted to look like the model of the fashion magazine.

To avoid these conflicts I used to talk to my clients, when we were choosing color and design, then I could do the exact design of clothing chosen, but a design does not always look the same on someone, like on a magazine model.

Fortunately I always had very good clients. Working hard and keeping my clientele to get comfortable with my system and my quality job, that’s how I kept my own business for over twenty years.

Music: More About This Land Is Your Land

This Land Is Your Land has a long history in American culture.  So, naturally, there are a lot of great articles and media to enjoy about it.

On this post you will find:

• a link to a podcast history of the song
• a link to the This Land Is Your Land Project
• more performances of the song

Podcast
The story of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land'
Learn more about Woody Guthrie, and the history of this song.  You can play the podcast, and read the text.  A podcast is like a radio program for the Internet.  

Want to share a performance with others?
This Land Is Your Land Project
The Public Broadcasting Service in the US has created a wonderful project, perfect for students and teachers who love to record performances of music. (I'm talking about you!  And me!)  This project is collecting performances from people all around the world.  They are going to create a "video-mosaic" combining different performances.  You can see an example of a video-mosaic bellow, where Woody Guthrie "performs" with U2, Arlo Guthie (Woody Guthrie's son), Bruce Springstein, Little Richard, and more.  Our classes could be part of this documentary!  Click on the link above to 

• Learn more about the project
• See and hear others perform the song
• Share your performance of the song

Video: This Land Is Your Land Video-Mosaic  


Video: Live Concert at the Washington Monument, in Washington, D.C., USA


Video: God Bless America
Some say that Woody Guthrie wrote This Land Is Your Land because he was tired of hearing God Bless America.  I would say that God Bless America is a patriotic song: it celebrates the nation, as something superior to other nations.  I would not call This Land Is Your Land patriotic, because it celebrates the people.  

Respond
Are you interested in performing This Land Is Your Land?
How can we collaborate on the performance?

Music: Peter & The Wolf with David Bowie

A wolf scares the sheep. This image is from the German children's story
Wolf und sieben Geisslein (The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids) by Leutemann or Offterdinger, photo by Harke, from Wikimedia Commons.  Wolves are often used in the children's stories of Europe.  They are usually symbols of fear and cunning.  Sheep are usually symbols of innocence. What animals are common in stories from your country?

Do you want to learn about orchestral music?
Peter and the Wolf combines a fantastic tale with a lesson on orchestral music.  You will learn to distinguish the many sounds of the many instruments in an orchestra.  When you listen, try to visualize the instruments that you hear.  When you visualize, you create a picture in your mind.  Visualizing is an important skill for strong readers, and when you visualize new English vocabulary, you may remember it better.

-Eric, NYC

About the Song
Peter and the Wolf is a composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 in the USSR. It is a children's story (with both music and text by Prokofiev), spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra. (from Wikipedia.org)

On this post you will find:

• videos with the music and narration by David Bowie (in four parts)
• the text for David Bowie's narrated version under each video
• an additional video, with narration from Patrick Stewart, which includes footage of a ballet performance of the story and music.

The complete song will be displayed in four parts, with the text for that part beneath each video.

Video: Part 1

This is the story of Peter and the wolf.

Each character in the tale is going to be represented by a different instrument of the orchestra. For instance, the bird will be played by the flute. (Like this.) 

A flute (left) and an oboe (right), from El Bibliomata.

Here's the duck, played by the oboe. 

The cat by the clarinet. 

Clarinets, from El Bibliomata.

The bassoon will represent grandfather. 

A bassoon, from the front and back, from Wikipedia Commons (This image is in the Public Domain.)

The wolf by the French horns. 

A french horn, from El Bibliomata.

And Peter by the strings. 

The strings, from El Bibliomata. In this image, we see the double-bass (largest), the viola (second largest), and two violins (smallest).

The blast of the hunters' shotguns played by the kettle drums.

A kettle drum (also known as a timpani), from Antur on Wikimedia Commons.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin.

Early one morning, Peter opened the gate and went out into the big green meadow.

On a branch of a big tree sat a little bird, Peter's friend. "All is quiet. All is quiet," chirped the bird gaily. Yes all is quiet.

Video: Part 2

Just then a duck came waddling round. She was glad that Peter hadn't closed the gate and decided to take a nice swim in the deep pond in the meadow.

Seeing the duck, the little bird flew down upon on the grass, settled next to her and shrugged his shoulders. "What kind of bird are you if you can't fly?" said he. 

To this the duck replied: "What kind of bird are you if you can't swim?" and dived into the pond.

They argued and argued, the duck swimming in the pond and the little bird hopping along the shore.

Suddenly, something caught Peter's attention. It was a cat crawling through the grass.

The cat thought: "The bird is busy arguing, I'll just grab him." Stealthily she crept towards him on his velvet paws.

"Look out!" shouted Peter and the bird immediately flew up into the tree, while the duck quacked at the cat, from the middle of the pond. 

The cat walked around the tree and thought, "Is it worth climbing up so high? By the time I get there the bird will have flown away."

Video: Part 3 

Just then grandfather came out. He was angry because Peter had gone in the meadow. "It is the dangerous place. If a wolf should come out of the forest, then what would you do?"

But Peter paid no attention to his grandfather's words. Boys like Peter aren't afraid of wolves.

But grandfather took Peter by the hand, locked the gate and led him home.

No sooner had Peter gone, than a big grey wolf came out of the forest.

In a twinkling the cat climbed up into the tree. The duck quacked, and in her excitement jumped out of the pond. But no matter how hard the duck tried to run, she couldn't escape the wolf.

He was getting nearer, nearer, catching up with her. 

Video: Part 4

And then he got her and with one gulp swallowed her.

And now, this is how things stood: the cat was sitting on one branch, the bird on another, not too close to the cat. And the wolf walked round and round the tree, looking at them with hungry eyes.

In the meantime, Peter, without the slightest fear, stood behind the gate watching all that was going on. He ran home, got a strong rope, and climbed up the high stone wall. One of the branches of the tree, around which the wolf was walking, stretched out over the wall.

Grabbing hold of the branch, Peter lightly climbed over on to the tree. Peter said to the bird: "Fly down and circle over the wolf's head. Only take care that he doesn't catch you."

The bird almost touched the wolf's head with his wings while the wolf snapped angrily at him, this side and that.

How that bird teased the wolf! And how the wolf wanted to catch him! But the bird was clever, and the wolf simply couldn't do anything about it.

Meanwhile, Peter made a lasso and carefully letting it down and down and down, caught the wolf by the tail and pulled with all his might.

Feeling himself caught, the wolf began to jump wildly trying to get loose.

But Peter tied the other end of rope to the tree, and the wolf's jumping only made the rope round his tail tighter.

Just then the hunters came out of the woods, following the wolf's trail and shooting as they went.

But Peter, sitting in the tree, said: "Don't shoot! Birdie and I have already caught the wolf. Now help us take him to the zoo."

Now just imagine, just imagine the triumphant procession. Peter at the head. After him the hunters leading the wolf. And winding up the whole procession grandfather and the cat.

Grandfather shook his head discontentedly. "Well, if Peter hadn't caught the wolf? What then?"

Above them flew Birdie chirping merrily. "My, what brave fellows we are, Peter and I! Look what we have caught!"

And if one would listen very carefully, he would hear the duck quacking inside the wolf, because the wolf, in his hurry, had swallowed her alive.

Video: Ballet Performance of Peter and the Wolf, with narration by Patrick Stewart

Respond
What did you learn from this post?