Tag Archives: Burke’s Blog

Come on a Dream Ride Sunday September 4

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Dear Fine Folk… you are warmly invited to come on a Dream Ride with us September 4, 4pm @ St. Andrews Wesley Church in Vancouver.

DREAM RIDE

Can’t believe eight years have passed since I bounced off the end of my mother’s bed and into a very different head space! 

All was not lost though. Beautiful new music has come to the surface, twenty pieces for solo piano and new project called Dream Ride. Serendipitous events that have urged us forward in surprising ways, like finding baritone Pablo Romero in the forest. 

Featuring Linda Lee Thomas, renowned VSO pianist, also known as the “Queen of Tango”. Dream Ride explores the Tango idiom while venturing into realms of pure lyric beauty.

Next Performance: September 4 @ 4 pm – 5 pm

St. Andrews Wesley Church (Burrard and Nelson) Vancouver. By Donation *no upward limit! free parking under the church.

Dream Ride ~ the music of Holly Burke and Bill Runge

Featuring:
      Linda Lee Thomas – piano
             Pablo Romero – vocals
                    Bill Runge – soprano saxophone and clarinet
                              Holly Burke – flute

Here’s a video taste of what you’re in for…

On the subject of heads…here’s another cool thing I stumbled upon in the forest.

This amazing carving known as “Twin Spirits” is just off of Rawlings trail in Stanley Park, not far from Second Beach.

The Parks Board in their greater wisdom do not “acknowledge” this remarkable creation because the artist failed to go through their application process. Hey maybe the artist didn’t know where the office was – didn’t have a computer – was living in the park? I’m just so glad this carver went ahead with their vision, their inspiration for all the people to enjoy.

Thank you, Park Banksy. Love to know who you are and meet you one day ❤️

 

 

                                       “Cos you know two heads are better than one” – Twisted

‘Two Eagles’ takes flight January 8 @ Frankie’s Jazz Club

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Yes, it’ll be the first public performance of Two Eagles ~1000 hours later…or is it ten thousand hours later…Bill has meticulously finished the band arrangement of ‘Two Eagles.’ Can’t wait to hear it played by Bill’s stellar band The Bill Runge Quintet. Miles Black on piano, Bernie Arai on drums, André Lachance on bass and Nick Apivor on the magical vibes. It was a full circle type of experience with this tune. It began on a cold clear February day when I spied two magnificent eagles in the large evergreen just off my building. They were there for hours…just hanging out. I went to the piano and found a figure I liked, and a couple of potential places to go and Two Eagles was born (I kept running back and forth from the piano to the window to the window to see if they were still there.) Last week, Bill was completing the full band arrangement and looked out his window to see two glorious eagles soaring around his building. “We’re not changing the name!” said Bill.

Listen to an excerpt of “Two Eagles”!

Can’t help but get a little excited about stepping out onto the new terrain of a new year. The forever hope of things being better. Things will be better, it always feels that way, even this year. So here we are sending some good vibes your way )))))

Your buddies,

Holly and Bill

Diego the Cat

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I’d like to introduce you to my grandson, and latest addition to our family, Diego the Cat. He’s all that. We’ve all fallen in love with him. There’s no escape!

Diego on YouTube

One of my favourite things to do with him is have him pose for portraits in the parlour or out on the promenade. Purr-fect! He is like a pink, pink rose but he is a grey tiger on the outside. I hold up my page and draw so that he can watch the movement of the pen. He is a very good student of drawing. He watches every movement and listens to me as I explain to him that he is a cat. Pointing out his pointy ears and all that. He is a cat. His attention never wavers and when the pen moves closest to him, he starts purring. I think he likes curves especially.

The obvious next step is a full ballet production involving cats, pens, and a generous production budget. I am told this was actually done in Montréal way back in 1999 or 2000 with a contemporary dance company, but alas with the unfortunate exclusion of cats.

Next week we will be back to our regular programming.

 

diego_pink

The Rapture of Cherry Blossoms on the Wind

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It seems to me the cherry blossoms are even more beautiful as they fall. Long lines of pink along the streets. Hallways of rosy colours and small petals that tickle the road as they pass before you. This Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival is a wonderful thing. Thanks to Linda Poole for creating it.

cherry tree
even the blind woman
picks blossoms

-Rosa Clement, Manaus, Brazil

Before I leave you with a fantastic photo of Yayoi and I, and a video clip, I’d like to let you all know I’ll be returning to the garden once again May 28-29 with the amazing bassist Dino DiNicolo.

FullSizeRender

Yayoi and I performing haiku.

This is a video of our performance at VanDusen Garden.

Like a Small Miracle 🌞

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An interesting foreign couple asked me for directions in Stanley Park the other day, and I was quite drawn to speak with them. The woman was from Switzerland, her husband Oman told me his wife was really into trees because of a book she was reading. Ah – A soulmate! She told me that this book was only available in German, and it describes how trees communicate through their roots! For example: there are some trees in Africa that can secrete a toxic substance to turn off giraffe’s that are coming to eat them. Not only that, trees at a distance will warn other trees that the giraffes are coming! When I find out when this book will be translated I’ll let you know. The French are going to make it into a movie. For me, I think of my beautiful family and how we help each other and how similar we are to a group of trees. Screen Shot 2016-03-17 at 10.55.15 AM.png

To Blog or Not to Blog…that is the question

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To blog, or not to blog – that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die-to sleep-
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die-to sleep.

Act 11 sc.1 Hamlet, Bill Shakespeare

Well, the answer is TO BE silly…it always is!

I received my new instructions just this morning.

The right answer is, ” TO BE.”LIGHT

So You Like My Poetry

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ok. that’s cool. Being with you is all I’ve ever wanted.

Like tasting the first ripe cherry of the season

or breathing in the first wild white rose growing

in tangled leafy thatches down by the lagoon

the total immersion of my senses that you are

walking barefoot, hand in hand, over a soft emerald carpet of grass.

 

 

barefootgrassHB 2015 for Otto

Hello World!

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Hi, I just had to say hi 🙂 That’s it really. I like you, just wanted to give you a shout. But wait…there’s more…here are TWO MUST SEE SHOWS!! The Blue Frog click here. ” TICKETS ”

The PeaceWeaver show is Friday night, will be epic: all info in poster. Feast your eyes, feast your ears…

JUNE 21 in Whiterock 7:30

JUNE 21 in Whiterock 7:30

June 12 PeaceWeaver

June 12 PeaceWeaver

Come to the Garden Come to the Sea!

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Summer’s first sweet roses are here…with a scent that carries you far away,

or is it far within?

bite into your first shiny purple cherry, slip on a foxglove

watch blue back swifts dip and curve through the amber evening air

see tiny wood ducklings zoom at bugs darting in the air just over their heads

See all the firsts. All the miracles of Summer’s colourful pageant beginning…

What a time to be alive!

I offer you two great shows this Saturday. Come to the Garden, Come to the Sea!

Dino DiNicolo and I will be at 338 E.14th st. North Vancouver 2-4 pm. The whole band will be at the Silk Purse for 7:30 MUST SEE!!!

May 30 2-4 pm

May 30 2-4 pm

jazzwaves2015_poster (4)