Molly

It's time for one of my rare trips into the personal side of things.... My younger daughter Molly graduated from High School over the weekend, and I wanted to write a few things about her. Molly is an amazing and wonderful person. She is thoughtful, loving and deeply caring about others. She loves to learn, with wide interests that span history, cooking, working with children and music, among many other things and has worked hard to succeed - she was recently recognized for her consistently high grades over the course of her entire high school career. She is self assured and knows how to express herself well. And she's a beautiful girl, too. But while all that is true, and certainly worth mentioning, much of it makes her sound like a serious, studious person - which she is, when she needs to be. But that hardly works as a description of her, and I've saved the best for last. Molly is joyful - she loves life, and particularly loves to find the silliness and humor in things. She is uncommonly fun to be with, in part because her enjoyment of the goofy and funny nature of every day occurrences is absolutely infectious. My sister captured Molly's joy in life when she was perhaps three years old, and on the swings. This is one of my favorite childhood pictures, because it seems to me that it captures pure happiness. Throughout the intervening years, Molly has retained the ability to find the joy in life that is reflected in that picture. Not only that, she is among the funniest people I've ever known. Now, my view of this may come from the fact that she has internalized part of my own sense of humor, which is heavily based on playing with words. But the appeal of her ability to be naturally and quickly funny is hardly limited to me. Even when she was in grade school, she was able to frequently make everyone in a surrounding group of adults crack up with a quick one line response to something, and she's only improved on that ability as she's approached adulthood herself. Unfortunately, so much of this ability results in "you had to be there" situations - ones which are over as soon as everyone has finished laughing - that it would do me very little good to try and write out examples. The following is not exactly a match for what I've been trying to explain, but it does capture her sense of humor, and the response from an audience. This is a spoken word piece that she and one of our closest family friends wrote together. This performance took place almost three years ago, at one of the music, comedy and improv parties my friends and I have been taking part in for over 25 years. While her partner in this creation introduced the piece, played a small harp-like instrument and offered a few comments, Molly did the reading of what they'd written:

Download - The SMAR Hour - A Mid-Northwestern Sage of Life and Romance, Part 87

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Just as an aside, I'd also like to say that Molly's taste in music is quite a bit better than the vast majority of her peers. She tends towards the more melodic and well made of today's music, and when she does turn on a radio or buy music, it's more often an oldies station or a classic rock station than anything from today. She has a genuine interest in learning the history behind the big hits and the big acts, and shares my love of following music charts. I got a big kick out a recent facebook update from her, which read that she "... liked Shrek and Marvin Gaye". How many other 17 year olds chose those two this month or this year. Plus, she shares my taste for the out-there, including the fact that she "gets" the song-poem thing ("Stay Where You Are" by Norm Burns is a favorite), and often can't get enough of some of the same way-beyond-left field stuff that I adore, such as "O Sing to Me". I really haven't done justice to what I wanted to say here, but hopefully, I've captured her well enough for anyone reading this. Congratulations, Molly.

Wendy

Today's post is a change of pace, and is far overdue at that. I've not written about my own life here much, and not really at all about my family. I don't intend to make a habit of it, either, but this is the time for an exception. 

I wanted to write a bit about my older daughter Wendy, express my pride and admiration at her accomplishments, and share a bit of her talent. Wendy turned 18 last month, graduated from High School earlier this month, and will be attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the fall, studying Photography and Education. 

When we went to a "Portfolio Day" event last spring, the woman from the school who did the review and critique was greatly taken with Wendy's work, and offered a scholorship more or less on the spot. Months later, we learned that she had written that it was the best portfolio she'd seen all day.

Wendy is self assured, focused, comfortable with who she is, and passionate about her social and political views, and I'm happy and impressed with the young woman she has grown to be. 

Here are a few of Wendy's photos:

 

Wendy is also an accomplished musician, having played violin since age six and clarinet since age ten. She was already one of the best clarinetists at her High School by Sophomore. She will not be continuing those studies, at this time, but has played in countless concerts and solo performances, and has also played as a solo and as part of accompaniments at the various musical parties we've held or taken part in. 

While the following track does not show her instrumental abilities, it does include her as a singer, and quite a good one, too. Years ago, my two best friends and I, along with my mother, learned the intricate vocal arrangements of three songs as sung by The Weavers. For a party last Spring - our first musical party after my mother's death - Wendy honored the memory of her grandmother by singing two Weavers' songs with the other three of us. This is a fairly ragged performance in places (particularly my vocals, unfortunately) but we did a damn good job (in my opinion) of learning a challanging group of "weaving" vocal parts, from the original records. 

I believe the overall sound is really nice, and that Wendy's part shines - she certainly sounds more like her Weaver (Ronnie Gilbert) then any of us guys sound like ours. That's me singing the Pete Seeger parts, which include the first solo verse, and the verse after Wendy's:

Download: When the Saints Go Marching In

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And here's Wendy herself:

Mom

Well, there's been no activity here for some time, and that's almost entirely due to the death of my mother at the end of last year, after a series of illness over the past few years. 

I've written about her before, and rather than go into any great detail, since this is a music blog, and if I can indulge a bit, I thought I'd just share some of the music I was lucky enough to hear, while growing up, as well as one song I had the pleasure of introducing my mom to, and playing piano for. 

First, two acetates, both of which I believe are from around 1944, when she was perhaps 20 years old: I apologize in advance for how loud these may be coming out of your speakers. 

Download: Mary Frances Godwin - Je Suis Titania

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Download: Mary Frances Godwin - The Little Shepherd Song

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A Broadway standard, recorded in the late 1950's: 

Download: Mary Fran Purse - I Could Have Danced All Night

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A more gorgeous piece you're unlikely to find, than "Shepherd on the Rock", heard here from 1959. This is admittedly quite lengthy, but I love it. There is an unfortunate splice right near the end of the piece, which cuts out a few moments of the big finish: 

Download: Mary Fran Purse - Shepherd On the Rock

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The following version of Mozart's Alleluia, recorded around 1965, was played at my mother's funeral (despite it being marred by it's own glitch in the last second): 

Download: Mary Fran Purse - Alleluia

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And finally, a song by William Bolcom, which became mom's signature piece near the end of her life, particularly once her days as a soprano soloist were coming to an end. That's me fumbling around on piano on this recording. The picture below this link is of the two of us, performing the song (not the same time as this recording) at mom's 80th birthday party, in 2003: 

Download: Mary Fran Purse - Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise

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Thanks for everything, mom.