Accordion: Top 5 Reasons

Ok.  I completed my Certificate in Digital Forensics on Friday. My Master's degree is winding to an end. One and a half more classes to go and then my thesis capstone (of which I have already run the tests).  My last two years have been consumed with studies.

When I set out to achieve goals, I put blinders on to block out everything else. But once the goal is complete, I wonder -- was it worth the effort? Was it worth the sacrifice? And worse yet, I wonder -- "What am I going to do next?"

I think the answer to the latter question may be "Accordion". So here are the top 5 reasons that I should practice my accordion when I am done with my studies.

5.  The accordion is an underdog, and I can't help but root for an underdog.

4.  The accordion is squeezable, just like a hug.

3.  The accordion is like an organ, only portable.

2.  The accordion is a voice of the people (the folky people)

1.  An accordion on the train out of Paris -- is the coolest welcome to France, ever.

For Joseph

Most of you have seen these videos on my sister Judy's blog. But just on the off chance that my wayward (as in away from home) son, Joseph, gets a chance to view any of these -- I am posting them again here.


Love you Joseph, hope to hear from you soon

Make-Up Post Joan

Ok. So here is my concert coverage. We played at the Tabernacle. Usually I love the pipe organ there and it sounded pretty good on my Dupre piece (I do love L'ecole Francais).


It is with great trepidation that I post this final video. I so wanted this piece to turn out. But I started this blog to document our progress and here's to progressing more -- and celebrating our opportunities :)

For those of you really noticing...yes I did cut my hair. I am just not convinced that I love the new short doo. So it might be best not to mention it.

Make-Up Post, Macey

Yeah! Macey is home from his mission! He won't be home long. He and Jenna are tying the knot on February 16th and then on March 1 they are moving to China, where they both have teaching jobs waiting.

This year's new years eve talent show was spectacular. Macey and Sam played a awesome rendition of "Come Together" on guitar and banjo. I need to get that recorded before Mace takes off again.

Here is a song he is writing. He played it for Jenna's Mom shortly after returning home from Mexico.

He would have played it for Jenna -- but she is in China for another 10 days. Anyway, she is a long time subscriber to this blog, so she might get to catch this video before she boards that eternally long airplane flight home.

See ya soon Jenna

Make-Up Post, Joseph

I am going to miss Joseph when he is gone (he leaves on his mission in 25 days). Luckily he stuffed himself with music this past semester so he really needs a break. He, of course, is one of the worst when it comes to self criticism. New Year/New Leaf. We are celebrating the things we do - whether they live up to our expectations or not. We are going to celebrate our opportunities!

Here he is playing the tenor sax solo on Ellington's Sugar Rum Cherry.

And this may have been the coolest song I got to play on all year! Sonatina For Tenor Sax - Movement One - Motive Power!

It only leaves us to ask the question, "Do they have jazz in Texas?"

Ooops. I forgot to add a video of the Sax Ensemble. Here is one of my favorite Gershwin Tunes - Prelude Number 2 (more summertime than "summertime")

Make-Up Post With Bobo

Yes. it has been a long time since I blogged. Priorities and pouting, lets call it that. Priorities because I have other obligations that have deadlines like my job and my forensic courses and my masters classes and my boy leaving on a mission and my son getting married and my babies who want to eat. And pouting because the one characteristic I've passed onto my children is that quality which leads us to rarely be satisfied with our performance and so we needed some space before we could revisit these videos.

New Leaf/New Years Resolution - We are going to celebrate our musical opportunities no matter what the outcome :)

Yes, we all made it through concert season in one fashion or another. Bobo is truly amazing! I love watching her "play the trombone like she loves it!" And she and her cello are definitely "so happy together."

Here she is "Taking Care of Business." Watch for her trombone solo.

She also played in a bell trio at the band concert (her friend arranged the music!)


Here she is with Cellopherson. If you look very closely you can see that he is decked out in his cute little Santa hat.

 If you're still with me, here is an encore piece. "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!"

Extended Family and Extended Family Band

I love my sister Annette. I love her family. I love her kids. It was heart-wrenching to embrace their sorrow at the loss of my nephew, Kurt. In the midst of the sorrow, however, was comfort. I was touched by the strength of her children and their love and support of one another. I was touched by the love Annette's siblings showed for her.

Life is rough. This is why Snoopy dances across this blog. Because life is rough, but as long as we can express ourselves -- we're ok. Life knocks us down, but if we can stand up dancing - we're ok. Life barrels over us, but if we can come up for air long enough to sing the blues, we're ok.

I've been taught that, in a performance, it's important to start  strong and nail the ending. With so much family together this weekend, we thought we might try another family band night, or as bobo coined it "extended family band". It was a "one-of" and we started most of our songs in chaos and ended with a whimper -- but somewhere in the middle we found harmony and joy. Isn't that just like life.