040106

kid-rolla graduates in 8 days.

i'm just sayin is all.

Genealogy

Welcome to Cha-linka. You can't really spell her name without a couple clicks in the middle that are very hard to spell in English.

We have friends out here in the KC who are Canadian and very into genealogy. Turns out, if you they have a French last name in the New World, there is a good chance they are a cousin in some way. A relatively small number of French people immigrated to the New World.

I've had a passing interest in geneaology, but it has been stoked a bit. Two things I've learned recently. Grandma's line is much easier to trace. And the Sullivan line to Ireland is fairly direct to Killarney. Yes, it sounds like a made up place but it isn't.

As for all those people who talk smack about their ancestors and the Mayflower or Daughters and Sons of the Revolution, you have to go back 12 generations (late 1600s - early 1700s) from what I can see to trace back the Old World. I haven't figured out how to integrate some of this information into anything useful but a cursory glance confirms the suspicion that many of the ancestors did come from Normandy, Brittany and the Loire valley. I'll post the info at some point.

Therapy and me

I’ve been in therapy on and off for awhile. My most recent therapy started some time in April last year and I’m still going, with months off here and there. I like going. It has helped me a lot.

Full-disclosure: I’ve probably been depressed for 5 or 6 years. The most recent therapy has focused on dealing with my lingering anger over the Chuck snafu. Maybe you can’t imagine it but while this friend of mine hurt my family, he was still my friend. And when the whole thing unraveled and he committed suicide, it was very hard for me, though I didn’t know how hard it was.

That snafu followed on the heels of the heart surgery, a classic cause of depression. However, I think that some kind of chemical imbalance might have started in the years after Mom’s death. I guess the reason that I mention any of this is to say that maybe this has happened to you.

For me, music helps a lot with this. I’m sure there is some research on this but I know this from experience. I could always pick up my bass and affect my mood. I didn’t know how much playing the other music was helping me. Re-engaging the tuba and other kinds of musical experiences has been a bit of an “ah-ha” moment. (insert oom-pah joke here)

Also, writing has been good.

Music in your head

This morning, like many mornings, I woke up with a tune in my head. It was Be Yourself, by Audioslave. In case you don’t know, Audioslave is Chris Cornell – the vocalist from Soundgarden, and the rhythm section from Rage against the Machine – whose names escape me. It’s a song that I’ve been considering arranging for String Bass, Tuba, Trombone, and vocalist. Yeah, weird, but think Kronos, the string quartet.

The reason I chose those instruments is because I know people who play them and I think it would work.

But, in order to arrange a tune, you first have to deconstruct it. This morning when I got up, I had the song in my head so I sat down at our piano and started to play it, figure out the parts. I know the song in my head so I just listen to it until I know the notes. You can do this too. I think that most of the time, if you listen to your head, the song plays (in your head), in the right key.

You can either vocalize a part that you know that you can sing, and then discover it on the piano or guitar (or whatever) . Or you can keep playing the notes and just listen (without vocalizing) until you find the notes that match up.

If you sing the parts then you have must find parts that are in your range. Other parts might be out of your range and you won't sing them well and get discouraged. It is Chris Cornell, afterall.

Let me know if you can do this with any tune.

I thought the cold sore email thread was hilarious and I’m not sure why.