How My Mother Came to Love Opera

I spontaneously wrote this story on Facebook, and because people seemed to like it a lot, I thought I'd make it more "permanent" here on my blog. I wondered whether I should put it on my writing blog (Playing With Words) or my Pollyanna Files blog, but decided on the Pollyanna Files because it's less business and more to do with life.  I've fixed it a bit, because hey, I'm a writer and I will tweak words forever if I had the chance. Anyway, here it is:

Between work and other stuff, I haven't written a whole story in a long time. But because I have a little bit of time, I am going to write a story here, right now on Facebook. It is a true story, one that really happened.

It is about how my mother came to love opera.

In about 1939 or so, when my mother was in elementary school in the town of Sasebo, the children were called into the assembly hall to listen to announcements from the Japanese government. The country was engaged in war, and was very nationalistic, and had decided to reject anything that was not Japanese, and of course this meant anything Western. This included books, magazines, music, and art. It was to begin the next day.

The music teacher, a lovely young woman with a classically-trained soprano voice, then announced--with the principal's agreement--that she would sing everything that she knew and loved.

The teacher began to sing all the opera she had memorized. She sang Puccini and Wagner, she sang Donizetti, Bizet, and Mozart. It was the most beautiful thing my mother had ever heard. She felt that heaven had entered through her ears.

After it was all done--hours that seemed like minutes to my mother--the teacher fell silent. All the children broke out in cheers and applause, but my mother noticed that all the adults--the teachers, the principal, and the parents--were weeping. She could not understand why the adults cried over such beautiful music.

After that day, the teacher never sang opera again. My mother did not hear that glorious music in all the years of World War II. She did not know what happened to that teacher during the course of the war, whether she lived or died.

But through all the deprivations, deaths, and starvation during and just after the war, my mother remembered that music, the beauty of it. She told herself over and over again that one day, she would hear it again, no matter what.

And so it happened. Many years later, when my father was stationed in Japan during the Korean War, my mother met and married him. When she came to the U.S., understanding that this was indeed the West, and therefore must have Western music, she heard it on the radio, and once we got a record player, she bought it. Maria Callas, Mario Lanza, all the greats.

As a result, I grew up listening to opera, and when I asked my mother why she loved it so, she told me.

And now, I am telling you.

Greying out the blog

Yeah, it's the SOPA and PIPA legislation.  On one hand, piracy--both domestic and international--is preventing writers, musicians, and other artists from making a living wage.

On the other hand, the federal government taking down your web site because someone else illegally uploads stuff to your site even though you have policies against it is not only messing with due process, but it can potentially have a freezing effect on First Amendment rights.

So this post is officially greying out (not blacking out) the blog today.   I have come to hate it when people steal my stuff and make money off me without my permission or sharing the profits with me.  I have come to hate that if I had to live on what I make from my writing, I'd be lucky to be living in a tent under a bridge (and that's after writing for major NYC publishers).  I have come to hate that people are willing to pay $5.00 for the experience of having a barista make a three-minute fancy cup of coffee that normally would cost 50 cents if they did it themselves, but want to experience for free the stories that have taken me almost a year each to write.

And that's saying a lot, because I love my lattes and am willing to shell out $5.00 plus tip for a nice fancy venti latte at Starbucks.  Especially because I know those baristas are often students who are trying to make it through to graduation.  Been there, done that.

But I also do not like that the federal government is incredibly clumsy about securing the rights I have over my property, so clumsy that they write legislation that can damage new and innovative ways of getting my stuff out there so that I and others can make a living wage.

There is a middle way. There is a way for online businesses like YouTube and Google and everyone else to make profits for themselves and still pay the content providers (writers, musicians, artists).

Here's an idea:  Every time someone uploads a copyrighted video to YouTube, if YouTube finds it, they charge the uploading subscriber 50 cents.  Then YouTube turns around and splits that amount with the copyright holder.  Anyone can upload whatever they want.  But they will be charged for uploading something with a copyright that belongs to someone else.

That's fair, isn't it?  50 cents isn't a lot for one person.  It's the price of a latte if you were to make it yourself.   If you think something you like is worth posting on YouTube, you can think about whether it's worth 50 cents to do it.  If it is, then you can rest easy in the idea that all those people who worked hard to make that video--writers, musicians, artists, cinematographers, the guy who sweeps the studio floor--all get paid to feed their families.  But if a video is good enough that millions of people think it's worth 50 cents each to upload it, then that will add up to enough money to help keep writers, musicians, artists, cinematographers, and the guy who sweeps the studio floor in a job.

We're in a bad economy. A heck of a lot of people don't have jobs.  Economists say that one big reason why we don't have jobs and are in such a big economic hole is that we don't create and produce enough products in our own country.  Not enough to export to other countries.

One of the very few things left that we in the United States do produce and export is music, writing, and art.  Ironically, very few of us in the U.S. want to pay for it or support it.  We don't want to buy the very thing that helps our economy get better. We want it for free.

That ebook you see on Amazon, written by an American?  That rightly and proudly should have a stamp on it that says "Made in the U.S.A."  You see that book in your local bookstore or that song written by a local musician on iTunes?  That book's been translated into different languages as an export, and that song's on a CD that's being exported to another country.  Someone not only wrote that book and performed that music, but a lot of other people printed that book and created the cover art, and produced that song and made it into a CD.  All done in the U.S.A.

It brings other countries' money into our country.  It pays our people.  Art, music, and books that Americans create keeps jobs in our country.  It's one of the very few things that still do.

Support free speech, but make sure to pay people for the work they do--and that includes paying people who create and help create art.  It means you, in the end, will have a better chance at keeping your own job as well.

Zola's Cafe in Auburn--Yes!

So I went shopping yesterday for jeans, and started to miss the shopping experience I had while in Europe.  This is how you do it there:  you go out in the morning (usually with a friend), take a while shopping (usually in an outdoor market, but there is often regular stores nearby, within walking distance), then you have a very leisurely lunch in a funky little restaurant or cafe with a great atmosphere and good food and chat and/or do some people watching.  This whole process can take about four hours, and yes, I know, we Americans have a hard time even thinking of taking that long to shop, but keep in mind that you don't just shop, you have a shopping experience.  There's no rush.  You linger over the items to buy, compare prices, get some bargains, and then because this is a lot of work and walking around, you take some time to relax and enjoy your environment, and I don't mean going to a shopping mall food court and stuffing down fast food and hurrying off.  No, you sit and relax, because shopping for bargains and the best deal you can get is real work, and you deserve some pleasure out of it all.

I couldn't do much at the moment about the missing friends, but I could do something about the cafe.

There was a cafe I remembered, from before we went to Germany, in downtown Auburn.  I hoped it was still there, because it had a good feel, with comfortable chairs and such.  Luckily, I found it again, and indeed it had that Sittard Market feel.  It's Zola's Cafe, and to my delight, they had expanded their menu, and had added some VERY nice beer (English ales, as well as a genuine German Hefe Weissbier!) as well as some good looking wine.  I didn't have any of the wine or beer, since I was driving, but they did have mineral water (I remembered in time to call it sparkling water).  They also had espresso.  All the drinks that you would find in an European cafe.

Their menu, so far, is light, with a Mediterranean slant.  I've been on a non-high fructose corn syrup kick since I came back from Germany (food tastes very sweet to me now), so I was glad to find they make their own foccacia bread, so there is definitely no corn syrup in that, plus their sourdough has no corn syrup in it either.  I had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on the foccacia bread, and there was a nice bit of decorative salad with pickle on the side, enough for a contrast to the sandwich. Not too much, not too little. Just right.

I also found to my delight that they have live music every Friday evenings from 7 pm to 9 pm.  The music ranges from blues, jazz, "indie," and country-western.  No cover charge, but you can tip the musicians, which I think is important (they are providing a service, after all), as well as buy their CDs.  Zola's events calendar has links to the musicians' web sites/music, so you can hear what they sound like.

The staff is friendly and the service good, and they do take the time to chat a bit as you are ordering your food if it's not horrendously busy.  I hope to persuade John to go there one evening and have a light dinner there, relax, and sip some wine or beer as we listen to some good music.  I'll let you know what it's like after we do.

Some music

I don't think I've ever mentioned music much, other than the fact that the Alien Child plays guitar and is in a band. I don't know why. There's not one day when I don't have music on. In fact, right now, I'm listening to some music by Outlier. First discovered JP on YouTube, Australia's Got Talent.

I started out a classical music fan--still am--and then of course there was the early 1970s music on up. What's called classic rock now, that's what I grew up with. Love Celtic music. Big fan of soundtracks, which I compile into a playlist on iTunes and listen to go along with whatever I'm writing. I'm afraid I'm not much into the the Top 50 songs these days. But I do like finding musicians unknown to the pop charts, and listening to them. Here are some local bands I like:

Local talent out of Tacoma, jazz: Kareem Kandi.

Uncategorizable from Tacoma (Celtic / Mexican / Latin/ Folk / Acoustic / Alt-Country/ Roots/ Soul/): The Paperboys. That mix shouldn't work, but it does for me.

As for other music...good heavens. I have 720 pieces of music in my iTunes. It'd take a LONG time to list them.

Peaches and Kevin Skinner

Washington peaches are in! I went to the Federal Way farmer's market today (after getting my tire fixed and my hair trimmed), and what a beautiful day it is. Not too hot--around 75 to 80 degrees F when I went--with a slight breeze. I often make it to the market just short of closing time around 3 pm, but this time I got in around noon.

There is something wonderful about the bounty of a farmer's market. It's all laid out there for you to see on the tables, with the farmers or pickers themselves manning the outlay. It's so fresh, you can smell the scents of the fresh vegetables, fruit, and cut flowers, in addition to the lunch-time treats made up by local restaurants and cafes. The colors are gorgeous; today there were the first tomatoes I've seen of the season, huge heirloom tomatoes that go from the rusty orange red kind, to the ones that are more of a red with a purple undertone. Some of these tomatoes are huge, bigger than my outstretched hand. Some of them are the smaller ones on the vine, small enough to pop into my mouth so that when I bite down, the sweet-tart tomato juices flood my mouth all at once (a.k.a., a tomato orgasm). Glistening green zucchini, gleaming bulbs of onion, and corn! The first corn that I've seen at the market today, the candy-sweet kind with alternating white and yellow kernels. There were apples from Quincy on the other side of the Cascade mountains--Fuji, Pink Lady, Braeburns--big and beautiful, blushing red over light green. Deep red raspberries and dark purple blueberries. Bing and Rainier cherries (the Rainiers are my favorite--I eat them like candy). Flowers, from delicate fragrant pastel-colored sweet peas to huge white and magenta lilies.

And the peaches. Washington peaches. There is nothing better than ripe, fresh-picked Washington peaches. Oh, I'm sure the California ones and famous Georgia ones are lovely, but you know they're shipped not-totally-ripe so that they keep well in the stores, and the fact is, they just aren't as sweet and juicy as the local ones. I'm sure this is why buying local fruit and vegetables is simply better. You get them ripe, you get them fresh, and they are incredibly delicious. You can smell the scent of them, and I'm sure that lends a great deal to the anticipation of the flavor.

I have a peach now at my computer desk, and I have to have a damp towel as well, because this big luscious, golden-dawn-colored early New Haven peach is so dripping sweet, the juices just run off my chin and over my fingers, that's how good it is. There are few treats better than this on a hot summer day.

So when John comes home from his bike ride, he is going to be presented with a NICE dinner. Fresh clams from Quilcene Bay (from the farmer's market) just picked this morning, corn-on-the-cob, a side of Swiss chard (my newly discovered favorite vegetable), and toasted pita bread with either aioli sauce or sour-cream dill dip. Dessert will be a strawberry smoothie, made with frozen strawberries (earlier bought at the farmer's market, then frozen).

I can hardly wait. Yum!!! There is nothing like fresh fruit and vegetables in season.

Later: I changed my mind. Instead of pita, I decided to have crackers and dip instead, as I wanted to save the pitas for pita pizzas. Just the right size for the two of us. Also, I decided to combine the Swiss chard with some Russian pirogi dumplings, which is looking pretty good (I'm cooking them now. The pirogi, I bought at the farmer's market, and the gentleman there suggested that if I were to eat them later, I might want to fry them. (They are cheese and potato stuffed pirogi.) But...just by themselves? So I sauted some garlic, added chopped Swiss chard, and it is looking pretty danged good. I will report back after dinner.


About Kevin Skinner:

I'm not fond of reality shows, and the talent ones often pain me because of how the not-very-talented ones are booed so horribly and made fun of. However, I can bear to see the ones on YouTube, as I love discovering new talent, and I love seeing talent from ordinary people get a chance to shine. I especially love it when ordinary-looking people upset people's very surface opinions of them. Susan Boyle was one such, and Kevin Skinner is another.

I will listen to country music every once in a while--I only came to listen to it as an adult, and a middle-aged one at that. But Kevin Skinner made me want to listen to more of it.

I suspected that since he was the last one to audition for that day, he was going to be better than most. Indeed he was. He has a southern backwoods accent which I have never heard before, so I was intrigued (I love hearing different accents), and wore clothes that were casual in the extreme--stuff that I'd probably wear at home when gardening in cool weather. He talked a bit about his past employment and what he wanted to sing, and though I don't think Ms. Osborne was malicious when she laughed at his accent (she seems like a very kind person; I think she was more surprised and delighted than anything else, and you know, his accent was so very strong), I don't hold out much hope for some in the audience.

Yet, the audience seemed spellbound to silence when Mr. Skinner played and sang in his warm and kind voice, and with good reason. He did indeed play well and with grace and plain dignity. I read some of the comments on YouTube, and he did what all good singers and musicians do: he moved so many to sit by their loved ones and cherish their time with them. I saw more than a few from soldiers and sailors going off to war, and I think it must have been a comfort to them, as well as to those who wrote that their loved ones were ill or dying. And what better thing can an artist do than to uplift and give comfort to those in need of it?

Regardless of how Mr. Skinner does in the rest of the competition, he rose above petty expectations and gave the world some comfort and hope. So God bless you, Kevin Skinner, for gift of that moment.

What the Alien Child's Guitar playing sounds like

The music on the United State of Mind MySpace page doesn't highlight my kid's guitar playing (indulge me--I am going into Fond Mom mode here) that much, but the band has put up a recording of a song in progress, for now called "Something New." No, that's not the name of the song, it's just "something new" they're figuring out, sharing the process of music-making, as they say on their MySpace blog. The somewhat Spanish-sounding portion at the end is the Alien Child doing some off-the-cuff improvisation. They may keep it, they may not...that's all a part of the creative process, whether it's in music or in writing.

I'm rather surprised they are willing to let people into their creative process like this, but I think it's because they enjoy the creativity so much that they just want to share. Enjoy!

The United State of Mind - 3rd place!

I'm so happy! They did incredibly well. Third place out of eight finalists is fantastic in a three-state competition (Washington, Oregon, and Idaho), especially considering the band had only been together as a whole for a couple of months, compared to the other competitors, who have been together for more than a few years.

My brother Dave was there, and he said the scores were the closest in the Battle of the Bands history: 93, 92, and 91. USM got the 91. In his opinion, the thing that probably lowered their score was that the sound mixing wasn't top notch. However, it was good enough so that the professional musicians and music professors in the panel of judges could hear what was going on, so they scored them high.

And...dare I say it? My kid apparently was one of, if not the, best guitarist of all the bands. Or so my brother says.

I am so proud of them all. They did a great job.

Good Karma at last for the Alien Child

The Alien Child's band, The United State of Mind, has been featured in a newspaper article.

Yeah, I'm a proud mom. He felt so low in January, and he's worked so hard trying to find a job, and it's broken my heart to see him go through it all, trying to make ends meet. Well, he's still trying to make ends meet, but he's also worked really hard along with his hard-working bandmates, and now he's seeing some success. I'm crossing my fingers for him. The band will be competing in the Battle of the Bands this Friday; the Battle begins at 7 pm at WSU. Even if they don't win, it'll still be good exposure for them.

I'm crossing my fingers for all of his bandmates. They sound like good guys from Derek's report, and very talented. I like that they're all supportive of each others' creativity. I've only heard as many songs as they've put up on their MySpace page, so I'm not privy to any more than that. I do know they've been working on nine new songs and have revised "Yellow Ribbon," which is about the lead singer's experience in the Iraq war.

I think there will be a podcast or streaming audio of the concert, but I don't know where that will be posted. I guess I'll find out.

End of Proud Mom moment.

For now. :-)