Travel Writing:
The Day I Saw Mount Everest
Kathmandu, 2009 ~ My Himalayan adventure began very early on a Thursday morning.
It was the beginning of monsoon season, and there were some very black clouds on the horizon. I thought I felt some raindrops on my neck as we headed for Tribhuvan Airport.
We had flown into the same airport when we first arrived in Nepal on a flight from Bangkok, but we had come into the international terminal. The security check at the domestic terminal involved separating into male and female lines. To enter the departure lounge, we first had to enter a special curtained room, so that a gender-appropriate official could check us.
“Oh, you’ll love the domestic terminal,” an American friend had told me. “It’s straight out of Indiana Jones. They sell whips and knives. There’s a snake charmer in the corner.”
He was joking, of course. When I passed through the heavy curtains, I found myself… [READ MORE]
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Inspiration:
Surfing the Imagination
Some people think that creativity cannot be taught. “You either have it or you don’t,” they say. But I happen to know that this is total bunk.
Music education is all about training the imagination! And because I’m passionate about singing well, my own imagination is constantly getting stretched, tweaked and cultivated.
In the classic Christmas movie, Miracle on 34th Street, a little girl named Susan Walker (played by Natalie Wood) has never exercised her imagination. So Santa Claus (Edmund Gwenn) coaches her patiently in the art of pretending.
Voice lessons are actually based on the same principle… [READ MORE]
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Humor:
Luggage Personality Quiz
What’s your luggage personality?
You can tell a lot about a person by looking at her luggage. Having spent a lot of time in airports, I’ve become an expert at luggage profiling.
Parents with small children carry a ton of extra gear when they travel. Backpackers stuff everything into one (ginormous) khaki pack. College kids have more technology in their pockets than you can find at an Apple Store. Business folk carry a laptop in one hand and a Starbucks cup in the other. And opera singers pack a bunch of “extra” ballgowns… bet you didn’t know that.
So how about you? What’s your travel type? Take my quick quiz:
1. When they unzip your bag at customs, you blush because you know you packed too many…
a. handcrafted Aboriginal beads
b. diapers, LEGOs, Spongebob toys, remote control dinosaurs, doll clothes, pack-n-plays, pipe cleaners and hamster pellets
c. iPods
d. ballgowns
2. When you empty your pockets at security, you find:
a. a folded street map of Vladivostok
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Advice:
Travel Fitness: the Diva Workout
Singing is a sport.
Opera singers may not look like swimsuit models, but they are actually cardio champions.
According to the American Journal of Nursing, opera singers have stronger chest-wall muscles, greater lung capacity, and more efficient hearts than their non-singing friends.
But, if classical singing requires the muscle coordination of a professional athlete, why are singers so… plump? Not all opera singers are heavy, but many cantanti struggle with their weight. Does it have to do with body type? Metabolism? Lifestyle? No one knows for sure. A New York Times article cited a study suggesting that singers produce too much leptin. We do know that the sound of a human voice is influenced by the size and shape of the body. Some people believe that fat actually produces a more resonant sound! Whatever the reason, the extra curves get noticed. There is increasing pressure on opera singers to lose … [READ MORE]
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Kids:
When I close my eyes, I can still see their little faces.
It was hard to tear myself away from St. Peter’s Anglican Day Care Centre this morning, after three days of leading music workshops for AIDS affected pre-schoolers.
They waved good-bye as we pulled out of the lot, still clutching the stickers and candy we had given them.
Thanks to some generous donors, we were also able to give the children dozens of new music toys (claves, jingles, triangles, tiny cymbals, rhythm sticks, resonator bells, and colorful streamers for dancing). The kids were thrilled with their new instruments. When we have a faster internet connection, I’ll upload a video of the St. Peter’s Pre-School Band! (YES, Carolyn got it all on film!) These kids really know how to make a joyful noise!
Earlier in the week, we also got to visit a very special pre-school in the village of Kanye. We sang praise songs with them, and played Vivaldi for them, and taught them to dance the hokey-pokey… [READ MORE]
Lindsay Westra 