Here I am playing a new tune called ‘Reunion.’ I just discovered the bass function on my Kozmik Keyboard – super fun. I may have overdone it though, ‘cos the arpeggiator broke shortly after making this little video. hmm…
Please enjoy!
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Horns at the Atrium – July 22 – 5pm
Standing in the echoing expanse that is the atrium in the heart of downtown…
notes float…
quivering quavers… and semi-quavers… and demi-semi-quavers until a trill fills the sonorous soundscape…. and then a saxophone…
deep drone from the trombones… Ellen and Andrews’ auditory ovation to the next wash of sound to gently caress your malleus, incus and stirrup to pure ecstasy!
Will you please join us tomorrow?
2-4 open rehearsal, 5-6 show
SFU Woodwards Atrium (London Drugs)
….here is a harmonious historical recollection of last year’s happening…
Costa Rica Chronicles🍃🌎🍌🚸
As I sit around here twiddling my thumbs still waiting to be over the whole concussion thing…I came across an interesting envelope in my desk. “Hols Costa Rica memories,” in my mother’s handwriting no less. Bless her dear heart! I wrote and played a lot while I was living up in that incredible location, on the Continental divide, Monteverde, C.R.
“I wasn’t sure if I should really mention anything…but a large ape has been coming to me out of the forest, almost nightly, and for some time now. What I like so much about him is not having to deal with the whole Spanish thing. What is Spanish anyway? you put an ‘ito’ or an ‘a’ or an ‘o,’ or sometimes a ‘dad’ at the end of English word, and that’s Spanish, pretty much. True there are occasional surprises, like the word “banano.” But think about it, of course a banana is male. Frank and I (he’s so wonderfully direct) often enjoy a kilo or two of bananos together, all in good fun. The locals here prefer them nice and ripe and even feed bananos to their horses.
Then there’s the pig farm down in the valley. I had to go down there to check it out. It’s actually more like a concentration camp. Barbed wire, large grey windowless buildings, dour looking men in gumboots and the cries of the damned, that’s what. I’m so glad I stopped eating bacon. I’ll occasionally get a good whiff of pig shit up here but I still tell myself it’s paradise.”
here’s a video of a horse eating a banana
First Snow on Cypress
Ok – it’s actually the second snow…but it’s SNOW! and it’s still magical and awesome…especially through the eyes of my young Mexican neighbor across the lane who saw snow for the very first time TODAY. He is about four…I didn’t see him try and melt it on his tongue though…I’ll have to tell him about that one…and snow angels, snowballs, skiing and the whole glorious business.
Do you like my little tune?
Let me know!
🙂
Holly
Come to Spacious Music at the Atrium September 24!
Oh yessss…if you couldn’t make it to the June 25 Concert ~ now’s your chance…incredible new music from John Korsrud, Hugh Fraser, Bill Runge and moi! It’s a free concert in a public space…fabulous musicians…super music in the great spaciousness…
See you there!
Here’s a sneak peek at my co-write with Bill Runge, “Lagoon”, which will have its second performance on September 24.
Look UP in the night sky this weekend!
This weekend brings the peak of Summer! We’ve had the fireworks, we’ve had Pride and now the great celestial Perseid meteor show takes over…up to eighty meteors an hour and fireballs will be somehow silently whooshing over our heads this very weekend! I kid you not! So get away from the city lights if you can and enjoy the greatest show off earth…
“great fireballs of fire!” – A guide to the Perseid Meteor Shower
Actually it’s a lot more mellow than that 🙂 Here’s our tune “River of Stars” for your starry enjoyment over this beautiful Summer weekend…how I wish Summer could last forever!
Now for a haiku by Mike:
rainless sky for weeks
photons drizzle down in the
perseid shower
Progress Report and Invitation 😀
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Haciendas in the sun and the Power of Quiet
Thoughts of sunny haciendas and social media-ocrity sweep through my mind…
Hey aspirational! Hey blookup! Hey all you dog gone great followers and fans! Let’s Face-book it:
Oh yes, this is a truly virtual blog now! I talked to Mike.Brown and he creates the post. These are my words coming through him! Thanks, Mike. (You’re welcome! 😜 )
When I’m out with my love dove, Bill, we frequently have to contend with the horrors of corporate background music. Last night we endured two hours of repellant looped robotic music that only drinking could improve. Oh I guess that’s the point, isn’t it?
Hey, come on… We’re human beings… We want to feel! To be touched… To imagine! It’s sinister how corporate decides which satellite (sat-elite?) channel will hold sway over the diners and the rest of us can just lump it. While it’s true I’m extra sensitive and still recovering from my head bonking last December, I think I’ve always been sensitive. Silence – you know, the space between the notes – can be powerful. Then, I want to put in a video clip of oh no nonononononononono leave it it’s wonderful. We will find this on YouTube…
Can’t wait to play with my Naturals again! And also check out Randall’s splash cymbal on “We are Golden”! My camera did something cool and unusual.
The late Canadian composer Harry Freedman said it best:
Are you an informed listener? Do you take the trouble to protect your ears and your musical appetite? Do you cancel your order and leave a restaurant if the manager does not turn down the Muzak?
Bloggity Blog
I think I’m getting better! I spent 12 hours yesterday on the set of “Wonder”, a film with Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson, among others. I had the great pleasure of chatting with Owen and meeting his radiant mother. This was the highlight of my triumphant return (lol) to “union film background” 😉 I made a new friend. A 79 year old woman named Elizabeth who was recovering from a stroke and was out for a day of work. She was a spritely spirit who could only speak a few words. We had wonderful conversations savouring these words. The word of the day was “beauuuutiful”. I noticed her difficulty with pronouncing “crazy” – her crazy came out as “crouuzy”. My inner ESL teacher came out and I was able to help her with her pronunciation so she could enjoy saying “crazy”. We put those two words together so that we could go around saying “crazy beauuuutiful.” It really was tremendous fun. I wanted to stay in touch with her but she was wrapped before me and vanished!
This is an interesting mixture of seasons… Isn’t it?
White morning glories popping out of tangled vines with red blackberries tumbling over a blue spruce.
I am here
in my spot
thanking the sun for warming my back
a humming bird drops by to check up on me.
Damsel flies – a low hovering wasp
and dried grasses all around me
you can feel the fall this summer.
The young girl who borrowed her father’s oil paints and walked out into a field to become a painter one summer day is all grown up now and still enthralled by nature. I didn’t become a painter but I did become an artist!
Here’s dad doing two things he loved – sailing and singing.
And here’s my tune, Seraphina, named after my flute. Let’s all enjoy this last part of summer! 🌞
Art in the Garden, Dino DiNicolo and the Rare Gangetic Dolphin
I am so fortunate to live on Stanley Park in the spring when the trees leaf they seem to rise up and surround my balcony like a canopy filled with bird song. Zephyrs of wind move through the trees and I can sometimes hear the little children at the Pooh Corner Daycare playing capriciously and singing “Jingle Bells” at the top of their lungs!
What could be more inspiring than playing with Dino DiNicolo in a beautiful garden surrounded by trees, flowers, and art? Dino and I have done this tour for years, sometimes in the rain, which has its own special atmosphere, but we expect nothing but sunny skies. The flowers are getting ready for their great performance! Art in the Garden is a tour of 16 gardens in West Vancouver and North Vancouver with a very reasonable charge of one dollar for each garden, each one unique featuring a visual artist, a musical duo, and of course the beautiful plants and flowers that have been nurtured all year.
Dino and I are scheduled to perform:
Saturday May 28th, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Garden #14: 2820 Marine Drive, West Vancouver
Sunday May 29th, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Garden #12: 5570 Woodpecker Place.
Come and smell the roses… and everything else!
And let’s not forget..
The rare, and uniquely beautiful, Ganges River Dolphin. (Just look at that smile!)
Holly Burke Music 