Poem for Friday

Dreams
By Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

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That's the poem because my son's chorus sang it in an arrangement by Audrey Snyder at their chorus recital Thursday evening. It's the first time the school has ever done an all-chorus performance, in large part because it's the first time both the sixth and seventh-eight grade choruses received top marks in both the district and state festivals (which the chorus director told us is extremely rare particularly for sixth graders, which is my son's year). His group sang "Duetto Buffo di Due Gatti," a hilarious song in which the only lyric is "meow"; "Tshotsolosa," a South African folk song; "Who Can Sail?", sung in Swedish, about farewells so much as I understand; and an arrangement of the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens' "Morning Has Broken." The senior chorus did an absolutely beautiful "Confitemini Domino" and a somewhat age-inappropriate "Razzle Dazzle," and the whole chorus did some canons and a Katie Moran Bart arrangement of the Irish wedding blessing that starts "May the road rise to meet you..." (does that have a title besides "Irish Blessing"?) The music was all lovely, particularly when the 14-year-old who plays with the Baltimore Symphony when she's not in middle school was accompanying the chorus on the piano, and it's always a thrill for kids to be handed medals on ribbons that identify them as best in state.

My day was rather hectic since we knew we would have this in the evening: after school we rushed the kids through homework and accompanied younger son to his violin lesson so we could drive straight from there to the middle school, eating sandwiches on the way. Before that I wrote three articles, jotted some notes for the review I need to write tomorrow and returned all the phone calls I missed when I was running around yesterday. The cat seems to have recovered completely: she spent all morning sleeping in her usual spot on the bed and much of the afternoon pesking about for more food. I thought younger son's nose might be out of joint about all the attention older son would get in the evening, but a reporter had taken his photo and asked him a couple of questions at his school picnic last week and lo, there it was in the local paper, so he is quite proud of himself. *g*

Since I did not bother to mention the LiveJournal permanent account one-day sale, having figured people might be inundated with such information on their friends pages, I shall try to remedy that omission by pointing out this wonderful thing that via explained to me: if you got a permanent account and you still had time on your paid journal, you can now transfer those paid days to another journal. Here you can find out which of your friends has a free journal or a paid one that is expiring soon, and here is where you go to transfer your paid time if you have made your journal permanent. I don't usually pimp anything in communities, particularly by people I don't know, either, but in the course of reading 's journal I came across this metaicons post with Marvin Snape, Vader Llama and a Lupin Batman slogan originally from here, all of which cumulatively made me howl for several minutes.

Things I learned from the NBA finals: that Alanis Morrisette is now a US citizen and gets to "sing" the Star Spangled Banner, that Manu Ginobili never wants to be a US citizen and is from an extremely cool family in Argentina, and that, okay, I don't really care who wins even though there are several former Wizards on the Pistons and I can only name one person (the aforementioned) on San Antonio. (ETA: Have just discovered that there is a former Maryland Terrapin on the Spurs; must reevaluate apathy.) I watched Leno's monologue because I had read a report in an Australian newspaper that my ex-imaginary-boyfriend whom I can't seem to forget would be on his show, but when Russell wasn't mentioned I concluded that they had their late shows mixed up (he's on Conan later) and put the playoffs back on. This would be a good time to work on my Trek review so I am not insane tomorrow, but I think I will go to sleep instead and tape Russell!


My son helped paint this mural above the drain in front of his middle school as part of an environmental science project. The drains remind people that the region is part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and any garbage dumped into the waterways can end up in the bay.