Yoli is part of the St. Louis Classical Guitar Orchestra. Earlier this year, the group performed a concert at the High Low venue. More recently, they played at the Kirkwood Public Library on Nov. 19.
Enjoy Yoli’s classical guitar concert
Joseph joins marching band
Joseph (who just turned 13 last month) marched with the STEAM Academy Middle School’s band in the Valley of Flowers parade! He began playing clarinet last fall, and we’ve been so impressed with his progress.
This was a new experience for everyone — Joseph, us, even the school.
STEAM was one of the last groups in the parade, and I was stationed near the end of the route, so it took a LOT of waiting to see him. Once he came past, I shot some video, then kept sprinting ahead to try to get photos. After doing that several times, I started getting the stinkeye from the kids.
The temperatures reached 93°, which is pretty hot for early May. Joseph later said that the parade experience helped him learn “that cold water was 1,000,000× more valuable than gold.”
Watch this short video of Joseph and the band:
The mystery of the missing clarinet
Last fall, Joseph began playing clarinet with the STEAM Middle School band. This was a new instrument for Joseph, and for our family. We accepted an offer from Mary Ann, a friend at church, to use her daughter’s old clarinet, a beautiful old Buffet Crampon model made in France.
To our delight, Joseph has learned very quickly, making enormous progress since the fall. We enjoy hearing him practice, and it’s been fun to see him in the fall and spring concerts.
But disaster struck on a recent Thursday.
When Joseph and Josie came home on a recent Thursday, Joseph didn’t have his clarinet.
Yoli was certain she had seen him leave the house with it early that morning. Joseph, meanwhile, insisted he didn’t have the clarinet with him when he walked into STEAM Middle that morning.
A thorough search of our house didn’t turn up anything. When Yoli checked with the bus driver, she hadn’t found it. Nor was it in the school’s lost-and-found.
We began to feel desperate. Joseph needed to practice for his spring concert, which was just days away, and would count for a grade.
It was time to go full-on Inspector Morse … or Lynley … or Foyle … or Miss Scarlet. (We watch a lot of British inspectors)
Ferguson’s children: Our voice
Drums. Singing. Shakespeare. MLK.
What a great afternoon we had enjoying the artistry of Jadzia and other Ferguson kids!
The event was designed as a response to recent events in Ferguson and throughout St. Louis. Students from across the Ferguson-Florissant school district and neighboring districts sang, acted, and spoke in order to bring peace, joy and love through the arts.
Jadzia and a number of her Vogt schoolmates participated. Here is a video I made of some of the highlights:
“…We’ll cry Hilde! Hildegarde!”
We’ve been wanting a piano for a while and decided this Christmas was the right time to get one.
We found one pretty quickly that seemed good to us: it was old and had a key out of tune, but it was in Ferguson, just a few blocks away.
We’ve been counting down the days until we could have it delivered. Today was the day! Check out this video of the girls in action:
Tale as old as time: Jadzia at the Muny
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A few comments from Jadzia about how she enjoyed “Beauty and the Beast,” her first show at the Muny:
bq. “I liked when the Beast gave her the library.
bq. “When he turned back into a prince. The fireworks turned him into a prince.
bq. “I liked every song that Belle sang.
bq. “I liked the castle set and I liked how the Beast’s costume looked.
bq. “I liked seeing the Beast with the binoculars. He was the same size but he was better to see. I could see him really well.”
Free! Free! Free!
Saturday night was Yoli’s annual appreciation dinner for employees of the Ferguson Municipal Library. It was held at the Thyme Table, as usual, and the food was pretty good. This year they had a beef roast, with an egg/potato layered thing, and veggies. There was also a very nice chocolate mousse cake with an oreo crust. It all tasted even finer because it was FREE.
As were planning for the dinner, we decided to use a babysitter again and make an evening of it. I tried to come up for ideas of stuff to do afterward (art museum? history museum? some sort of concert?). I came up with something different — we should go to The Blanche.
(The Blanche, for those who don’t know, is what I call the “Touhill Performing Arts Center” at UMSL)
UMSL music students were holding end-of-the-semester recitals. There was a violin and piano performance scheduled for 7:00 p.m. This seemed right up our alley, since we are a somewhat musical family… (Yoli is the one who can actually play instruments. I just sing) Anyway, Yoli and I showed up. I think we were the only ones there who were not fellow music students. But still it was a lovely hour of FREE classical music. It doesn’t get much better than that!
After the concert we watched a movie called “Once” which I really, really enjoyed. It’s about two brokenhearted people in Dublin — a street musician guy and a Czech immigrant girl — who hang out, sort of fall in love, and make really great music together. That description doesn’t do the movie justice. Suffice it to say that it is probably one of the best films I have seen in the last year. Making it even sweeter? The fact that we checked it out for FREE from the aforementioned Ferguson Municipal Library.