Sherryl and Harlan’s Garden   (2015Jun10)

Wednesday, June 10, 2015                                               2:53 PM

 

First off—to be honest, it’s Sherryl’s garden more than it is Harlan’s—I’m pretty sure he confines himself to lawn-mowing, landscaping, and home-repair—Sherryl does the gardening. I only used Harlan’s Gardens because it sounds so nice as a title. Ergo, my humble apologies to Sherryl—but, as she knows, ‘that’s Hollywood’.

I went next door yesterday right after a big June shower—I wanted to get the droplets on the flower petals (which I did) but I also got a lot of wash-out in the whiter flowers—and I hate to lose that delicate detail and end up with a white blotch in its place—but what are you gonna do, right? There’s still a riot of color in these photos—almost like a party in your eyeballs.

Also, there are just a few shots of our own flowers and vegetable boxes towards the end of the clip, so today’s video should not be considered an official ‘documentary’ of Sherryl’s garden—more like a celebration. One of the very last photos is interesting because it is lettuce from a previous year’s box garden that decided to start growing wild in the cracks of our driveway’s asphalt. Nothing stops Life, I guess.

Every one of the 162 photographs were retouched in Corel Photo-Shop, whether it needed it or not (they all needed it)—so I hope you all appreciate how much eye-strain and mouse-clicking I go through trying to make these videos interesting to watch. And here I run into a paradox—when I do these photo-journal, slide-showy videos of pretty pictures, I always make the insert frame of the ‘me performing’ video very small. I do this because I want the photos to be as visible as possible. But then when I’m making the ‘me performing’ video I add all kinds of video effects—because I figure it’s going to be too small to see. That’s the paradox—I like adding video effects gadgets so much that I’m happier when no one is going to see exactly how loopy the video turns out.

As always, however, I put the lion’s share of my efforts into the music itself—and today, as you will hear, I even got some help from a flock of birds. This improv is a little different from my usual, but I was trying something new—I hope you enjoy it.

On a whinier note (and yes I will have some fine cheese with that) my back is killing me, my shoulder is stiff from all the repetitive photoshop-mousing, a headache is just starting that tiny silver hammer-tapping, and I’m awful tired. I sure hope this video lives up to all the effort.

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Kern In Spring   (2015Apr18)

Saturday, April 18, 2015                                5:55 PM

20150417XD-MeAtSherrylsConcert(takenByHarlan)

Last evening was the fourth annual Students Concert that Sherryl Marshall hosts for her voice students—and she is kind enough to include me every year. This year I sang “The Way You Look Tonight” and got through it without any serious harm done. I didn’t have my trusty videocorder, so I’ve reproduced the effort today. Also, I threw in “Can’t Help Singing” because, unlike Sherryl’s stage last night, no one was watching this time. Both songs are by Jerome Kern.

“The Way You Look Tonight” has lyrics by Dorothy Fields. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1936. The lyrics for “Can’t Help Singing” are by E. Y. “Yip” Harburg. Kern and ‘Yip’ earned an Academy Award for Best Original Song for it in 1945. At the 1946 Academy Awards, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II won for Best Original Song for “All Through the Day”—the award was posthumous in Kern’s case as he had died on November 11th, 1945.

I’m not like ‘Baby’ from “Dirty Dancing”—I went ahead and stuck myself in the corner—of today’s two videos. I wanted to show off my photos of all the life springing up out of the ground ‘round here. I used them ‘straight’ in the Kern-Covers video, but I went for a more psychedelic version on my longer-than-usual Improv to Spring. Hope you like both of today’s videos—especially as I don’t think I get any better than this.

 

Bear’s Birthday Song – XD Featuring ** Sherryl Marshall ! ** (2013Apr10)

XperDunn   Featuring -** Sherryl Marshall !**   [ON YOUTUBE]

April 10th, 2013:
*** Bear’s Birthday !!! ***
In honor of which a Song :…….(click pic to watch)

Bear’s Birthday Song – XD Featuring ** Sherryl Marshall ! **  (2013Apr10)

VIDEO INFORMATION
Uploaded time: April 11, 2013 3:21 PM
Duration: 3:10

April 10th, 2013
Bear’s Birthday !!!

In honor of which a Song :
Performed by

XperDunn Featuring -** Sherryl Marshall !**

Bear’s Birthday Song (2013Apr10)
Written by XD
Music by Sherryl Marshall

So, I wrote these words
yesterday around noon
and then printed them out
so Sherryl could read them
(I had to lend her my reading glasses)
She had come to wish Claire a Happy Birthday
and I saw my opening and I asked her
to please improvise a tune
while reading the words on the paper.
I cajoled and coerced and Sherryl is such a good sport
that she actually agreed to do it.
I almost lost her when I went to start the recorder!
But I sat down and started to play four chords over and over
(That’s about the level of my musicality)
And Sherryl joined in (no doubt against her better judgement).
I think it came out great, for a one-day composition
(I suppose it was really a one-hour project
But I spent he rest of the day
Creating this video which,
while containing footage of the original recording,
unfortunately does not show Sherryl).

It was a bunch of fun and I’m so grateful that Sherryl was generous enough to allow me to post this on YouTube–Enjoy!

Here are the lyrics:

Wednesday, April 10, 2013 (Bear’s Birthday) 4:33 PM
Bear’s Birthday Song

All stories start with
‘Once there was’
And end with
‘Ever after’.
Their middles have
Some terrible fuss—
Their climax breaks
With laughter.

But life flows ever
From creation
And stops never
With ones death—
Our pasts flow backward
Toward creation
Our deaths look forward
To our heirs’ births.

So see not stories
As pure truth
Or your life
As start and ending—
The truer glories
Lie, forsooth
In the strife,
The hurt—and mending.

The evermore
Is ever now—
A river stone,
A wind-bent bough,
Stillness shouting,
Life’s blood gouting,
Old men doubting,
Young bucks mounting….

Send me back to childhood.
This old man’s life is hardly stood.

My love’s so old
It keeps me young;
My lover’s hold
So thrilling sung.
Through every nerve
A charge is flung
If love you serve
Your soul is sprung.

From Old on back to Childhood
Do love, and love will make all good.”

by Bozeau de Clowne

–In Honor Of
L’anniversaire de Naissance de La

Bear de la Plume (a Dix d’Avril, 2013)