Soul Music

"There's no music," she says pulling the covers over her head.

"Well, let's put your radio on, then." Her iHome has been playing since the day we got it for her. She wakes to it, plays it after school and falls asleep to it. My little girl loves her music.

"Not that music," she muffles from under her comforter. "Please turn it off Mama."

I notice tears in her eyes. I climb over to lay beside her, "What music, then?"

"The music from Daddy. The music on the inside."

I've read books and remained active in the Church, but these moments are hollow. I want to cry with her, but she doesn't want to cry now. Right now, my baby wants music.

"Don't I give you music? ...and your sisters?"

"Yes, Mama, but it's not loud enough. Daddy's music was louder. Will he ever come home from Heaven?"

Pull your heart back together.
                                             Find your strength.
                                                                           Your child needs you.

"No, Baby, but he misses you. I know the Church says Heaven is always happy, but sometimes the people in Heaven get sad."

"That's not what Father Joe said," note to self: kick Father's ass on Sunday.

"Well, he's wrong," as I talk I feel her start to unwind, "I know because of the rain."

"The rain?"

"Yep. Rain means someone in Heaven is crying," as I talk, I wonder, Why can't this be true? "Sometimes they're happy tears --"

She looks at me and smiles, rolling her eyes, "Like you do sometimes when you watch those boring movies?"

I laugh, "Yes, like that. Some rain is like that, but sometime, like when a Daddy misses his ladies, the tears are sad."

"I hope Daddy's not sad a lot of the time."

"I know and I know he's hoping that you're not sad, too," we both sit quietly for a moment, then, "So... Should we get up now?"

"Not yet..."

"OK."

The room stays quiet. I'm filling with the warmth of hope for our family. I could lay here all day, maybe she could too, but then

I 

hear

the 

music.

"Mama?" she whispers, "Do you hear it?"

"I can't believe it... I do."

"Mama," she leaps out of bed crossing to her window,  "I think Daddy is crying happy tears this time."


 
This post was written in response to a Red Writing Hood Prompt about music from the Write On Edge blog. Here's this week's prompt:

Show us in 400 words or less how your character reacts to a piece of music. It can advance a story line or provide a character sketch–or both! 

Voca People [Theater Review]

When I went this summer to see Voca People.

Musica is Life. Life is Musica.

True?

If you are the Voca People, then this is literally true. You see, the Voca People are a group of "people" from a far, far away place called Voca who have crash landed in New York City on Off-Broadway. Lucky us! In order to get their ship's energia back up so they can fly home, they need music. They use ours, purely acapella, and they are amazing.

Halloween weekend I had the pleasure of seeing the Voca People in the Westside Theater for the second time this year (yes, I liked them that much!). The first time I went to this show I had no idea what I was going to see, but I figured for $5 per ticket, I really couldn't lose (more about those $5 tickets? See my Broadway for Next to Nothing post).

Weird or Wonderful?
 
When the show started I was perplexed - a stark stage, eight "people" dressed head to toe in white with white faces and white bald caps, making weird noises and looking more confused than me! I thought, "Maybe I should have actually checked what this show was about before I came! What's my deal with spoilers, anyway?" Then, by connecting with one of the audience members (placing hand on head), one of the Voca People learned our language, told us their story and declared:

Life is musica. Musica is life.

For the rest of the show, I lived it. These eight talent people brought us all to life with their music, with no instruments but their voices and IT WAS AMAZING! While I am not too much into spoilers myself, I know tons of people are, so if you would like a small sampling of what the Voca People are about, then you should check out this video:

If you watched the video, I have to warn you, it only gives you a piece of what the show is all about! One incredible piece missing is the audience interaction. The Westside Theater is such a great venue because it is small enough that every seat in the house is a GREAT one (the whole place is smaller than many orchestra seating sections of other venues!) and the Voca People come out, into the audience numerous times to interact with everyone there!

Go See It!! 

It's an incredibly fun, fun show! I recently read that someone called the Voca People "Blue Man Group meets Glee" and I'd have to say that's a pretty good tag line. I recommend going to see this show to everyone who loves music, laughs and having a good time.

If you are not in New York, or not visiting us any time soon - no worries! It seems the Voca People have been crash landing all over the planet! Check out their International Site to check out where you can find them!

Have you seen Voca People?

Do you have any shows you'd like to recommend that are fun, entertaining and great to share with a group?

What one show Broadway, or Off-Broadway have you been dying to see?

It's Never Too Late...

There are some days where I'm on top of things.

Today is not one of those days.

Today is one of those days where it kind of feels like the world is on top of me. (Here's why.)

But that's OK, this too shall pass.

And it's never too late to start the day over :)



I'm hoping to start the day over soon, but if I don't, I'll just check in with you tomorrow!

Thanks so much for stopping by, though. You rock!

I've Finally Named My Band

I'm a big fan of classic and alternative rock. I listen to Rock RXP 101.9 pretty much exclusively these days (more so than my own playlists, in fact), and in the past couple of weeks they have been running the "Your Shot to Rock" competition for local bands in the area to enter.

Hold on a second. I don't want to confuse you here: I am, by no means, a musician nor am I musically talented in any way. I have no band to enter the contest. I am merely fascinated with all the new band names I am hearing. This is not a new fascination, I have always been this way. Every time I hear a cool band name, I ask myself the same questions:

• Where did it come from?
• Was it difficult to come up with?
• Did the band pick something else first and run into copyright problems?

and sometimes

• How was that never a band name before? (Case in point: Nirvana is such a great band name - so simple, so direct and even musical - how is it possible no one used that before?!)

I have never aspired to come up with the "Nirvana" band name of my day. I figure if there is something else that awesome and obvious, some group of hard-working musicians playing the local scene has already gotten it. I have also never aspired to make up a name like "Weezer" or "Foo Fighters" in the hopes that my mystical invention of words will catch on with a public audience (my husband would be much better at this and probably has a ton of possible band names up his sleeve that no one else has just because they aren't real words!).

I have always aspired to come up with something that has a story behind it, is unique and is odd enough to be a band name. This morning it finally hit me! I've had my band name for decades! Are you ready? Here it is:

Fudge Bunnies in Hand Baskets

That's my band name. And, for people who have known me for a really long time, this makes total sense! 

I went to catholic school for (almost) my entire school career. In junior high the urge to curse started to swell in me, but two things got in the way: 1. I knew it was wrong, and 2. I knew I would get in a lot of trouble if anyone (at school or home) ever heard me drop the F-bomb. Well as anyone out there who is adept in swearing can tell you, most times the reason why someone selects a curse instead of some other more suitable exclamation is to release some sort of emotion - anger, fear, surprise, joy, etc. I felt just saying "fudge" simply did not expend enough energy to express the appropriate emotion, or to feel validated after my outburst, therefore, one day I kept going and said, "fudge bunnies" and it felt a little bit better. Finally, I decided I needed a little more and in thinking about little chocolate bunnies in Easter baskets I came up with, "Fudge bunnies in hand baskets," and it was the perfect amount of syllables to expel whatever pent up feeling I had that caused the outburst in the first place!

From that moment on, "fudge bunnies in hand baskets!" was basically what you would hear me exclaim if I stubbed my toe, got scared, or anything else that required a full swearing. It has served me for years, even as a teacher with a classroom full of students and as I nearly killed myself tripping over the overhead projector wire in the front of the classroom just as the principal walked by and looked in! (Hilarious, by the way.)

And someday, this will also make a pretty sweet band name. Remember you heard it here first. The origin of the world famous Fudge Bunnies (that's what we'll be called as a nickname), was simply a frustrated little catholic school girl who needed to express herself!

So, I'm SURE you know what question I'm going to ask: 

WHAT'S YOUR BAND'S NAME? 

The conversation continues in The Escapist magazine's forums. See what people have to say about "What's your band's name?"