Meeting Monroe

  I was sitting in the audience at the Grand Ole Opry, just as Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys were ending their concert. I was going to find Monroe, to see if I could audition for his band. I slowly walked out of the Grand Ole Opry, to my car to pick up my instruments. at the back of the auditorium, stood Bill Monroe. A little bit nervous, I came up to him and asked if I could audition to be in his band. He said “sure come on in, backstage.” He had his bass player come and back me up. First, I pulled out my banjo and I played an instrumental he recorded called, Bluegrass Breakdown. Then I played a tune called, Back to the Old Home. After that I brought out my guitar and I sang, Uncle Pen and, Molly and Tenbrooks. He started to give me advice, and tell me what he thought of my playing. His answer as to whether or not he would have me play in his band, was still to be decided.

    I’d love to meet mandolin player, Bill Monroe. Bill Monroe is known as “Father of Bluegrass.” With Earl Scruggs, and his new three finger banjo style, Monroe took old time instruments and used them in his band. No one person stayed in his band for longer than just a few years. Bill Monroe didn't believe that the band should stay with the same members for long, that way it would keep things fresh. People would come up to Monroe after the shows and talk to him about auditioning to be a member in his band. He would give them feedback on what he thought of their style. I would chose to meet Bill Monroe, so I could audition on guitar/vocals and banjo to see what he thought of my playing. I’d be honored to hear what the Father of Bluegrass had to say.  

Workin' on a Building

This is me with my band the Still River Ramblers, and special guest, Roger Sprung on banjo.

Hand-made Clocks

For the past six years, I have made paper mache clocks, as a gift for my dad on Christmas. I start with cardboard shapes and glue paper around them. Then then they are painted, with whichever color and design I choose. A battery powered clock is installed last. The first clock was the candy clock on the far left. I am looking for good  ideas for the next clock, any suggestions?  

Book Review: Eye of the Storm by Kate Messner

        Kate Messner's novel, Eye of the Storm is for tween readers. Messner is known for writing to audiences of young children. Eye of the Storm is one of the few novels she has written for a middle school audience.  She had spent 15 years teaching middle school before going into writing. She has won many awards for her books.  

         Eye of the Storm, takes place in the future around the mid two-thousands. In that time global warming has caused storms to rage across the world. Huge tornadoes seem to devour the earth and people have to take shelter in underground storm safe rooms almost every week. The midwest has some of the worst storms and gigantic tornadoes.  

          A young girl named Jayden lives with her mother in Vermont. For one summer she goes to visit her father in a small town in Oklahoma called Placid Meadows. Placid Meadows is the one storm safe town in the world, where storms seem to magically surrender when they come close to the town. Jayden's father is the head of an organization that specializes in the study of trying to stop storms from increasing. The organization also runs a summer school for kids to learn about preventing storms. For the summer, Jayden attends that school.

         Her father gives her some data to enter into the storm simulator at the school that will hopefully decrease the amount of storm energy that comes through the simulator, but all it does is make the storm worse. Then one night, out of curiosity, Jayden sneaks into her Dad's office and logs onto his computer. She looks at the storm research and finds herself very confused. She doesn't understand much of the data, but she doesn't seem to find anything on decreasing storms and more on rebuilding old storms and making them stronger.

          Then Jayden hears footsteps, she knows her Dad is coming to the office. As fast as she can, she logs of his computer and hides underneath his desk. After looking on the computer a while he gets a phone call. He talks over the phone about how he used the storms to destroy farms and now they won't have any trouble trying to buy the farms for their own use. With this knowledge, Jayden gathers her friends and attempts to stop the biggest storm in all of history from making its way to placid meadows.

         Eye of the Storm, gives the reader such a thrill to find that someone the reader believed to be helpful becomes one of the hardest villains to defeat.  This story of good vs. evil, has many unexpected moments.  It has a lot of twists and turns.  I found it a fun read.

 

Heart Drawing

When I started to draw a diagram of the heart, arteries, and veins it fell into art work. I then felt like each little vein had to keep going instead of just randomly stopping, it then turned into a giant sea of overlapping veins and arteries. 

Grace Farms and the River Building

 

  This past Saturday, I visited Grace Farms and saw their new River Building, the farm and forest, where it is located. I got to learn about the ways they brought together people for nature, art, community and faith.

    The first thing I did was listen to the architects, Sanaa, talk about the new River Building. The main goal behind the building was to make sure that it didn’t take away from the landscape. They made sure that the roof was not built higher than the trees, so that you could see the whole forest from any place on the farm. The building was formed in the shape of a river to blend in with the area. It has glass walls and glass on the roof to reflect the blue sky. It was also made so that you could see the variation in the landscape. When you looked one direction you could see the wetlands, where as, if you looked another, you could see black locust trees. The main auditorium had the best view. Behind the stage you could see the whole hill side. They also hold church services in the auditorium every Sunday.

   A short walk down the hill, beneath the river ceiling, would bring you to a room where you can get food and listen to live music. Just downhill from there, you'll find a tea room. It is a small room with seating. You can order from a menu of different Japanese teas. Just outside of the tea room, is an underground basketball court. You can look down on it from ground level. The idea was that the basketball court would bring together community, but having it in the ground would not take away from the landscape.

 

Off to the side of the building, there are two barns that were converted into class rooms and other kinds of rooms for different purposes. The barns have been renewed and painted grey. This makes them look very modern. They sit facing each other, with a medium sized yard in between them. Connecting the two buildings are gravel pathways formed in a very artistic fashion. In the yard there are two stations with women selling apple cider.

 At Grace Farms their main focus was always nature, then came community and faith. They show this in many ways. They build a community centered around art. One piece of art was tiny little glass tiles that were placed on the wall. At night, the shadows on the glass look like the New York City skyline. You can see different kinds of paintings and drawings in rooms like the library and dining hall. 

Something that I found to be surprising, was that a place that appeared to be a very artistic and nature based would also have a church and basketball court connected to it. At first it seemed unexpected but after learning about it more, I saw that Grace Farms wanted to build a community and having stuff like a library, church or basketball court were great ways to bring people together.

Glass blowing in Kansas

   I had a great time this past week visiting family out in Wichita, Kansas. I did all sorts of fun stuff, but one of my favorite parts was when I went glass blowing. In a little town just outside of Wichita, called Kechi; there is a glass blowing shop with all sorts of cool glass stuff. In the back room there are a few guys making glass art. If you sign up, you can have them teach you how to make either a Christmas tree ornament or a heart shaped paper weight. I signed up to make an ornament. The next Monday, I came in to the glass shop and went to the back room. There I began to start the glass blowing.

   On the table in front of my instructor, there were small plastic boxes with little shards of glass in them. In each box the glass was a different color. The instructor then brought over a long metal pole with a hot ball of glass on one end. He dipped the hot ball of glass into one color of glass on each side. He then took it over to a huge oven and stuck the glass end in the oven while twirling the pole.

     When he took it out of the oven, you could see that the glass shards had formed a spiral on the hot glass. He then brought the pole over to a flat spot to keep it rolling. He handed me a tube that he had attached to the other end of the pole. I blew into the tube, which caused the glass to grow larger and form a perfect, round shape.

    The instructor took the glass ball and knocked it off the pole. He took the end of the ornament and formed a loop so it could be tied to a string. Then he put it in an oven where it cooled down from 900 degrees, for three days.  

    Early humans found that glass could be very useful to the making of beads and pots as well as other things. Sand and colored pigments we heated with other types of materials and then formed into a shape. When the glass cooled, they would be left with that same shape and color. This was proven to be very useful to the making of art and became an item often used in trade.  When glass is put in a oven it reaches about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.  After it is done being formed into as specific shape, it is put in a cooling oven that is 900 degrees and it cools down from there.

   I had a awesome time glass blowing in Kechi, Kansas and learning about the making of certain kinds of blown glass art. I enjoyed getting to learn about the history of glass and  the processes it goes through.