We knew this Weiser Was Going to be Fun!

Last Weiser was a blast, but this year when we arrived in Fiddletown, we all had a feeling that this Weiser was going to be even more fun. Lisa and Tabby and Lauren were camping nearby for one thing…and Isaaiah and Gabriel love to hang around Tabby and Lauren. Also..!...the kids have been ecstatic since finding out that Grandpa John and Grandma Shelly were making preparations to join in the fun. Jeff and Eileen were next door to share out campsite like last year!...and Rick and Joyce were nearby!

Isaaiah and Gabriel started making friends right away….we went down to try out the National Stage…and we were lucky enough to be there right when the sound people needed fiddlers on stage for an extended time. So Gabriel and Isaaiah got to play all of their tunes at least once…and then more Small Frys came to try out the stage... all of the kids had a great time acclimating to the stage and making friends.




The first video slideshow (which is posted below a little ways) I made shows all of the sillyness getting Tabby’s Certified performance ready. She had the honor of choosing whatever she wants to play on the Weiser Stage because she won a division in a “certified” contest….she is the 2009 Oregon State Junior Champion….she played “Runaway Fiddle” in Salem to seal her win at the Oregon State Contest….and she played it with so much style and precision ..it was a stunner. So in the video everyone is helping with the "artistic direction" of how the chicken’s dancing should best be displayed in “Sunrise on the Guinea Farm” It looked fabulous on Stage…I am not sure at this writing if I have a video but if I do…I’ll post it nearby. Tabby won an award and a great framed photo….it was fun to prepare.

Tabby's Certified!



Also in this video slideshow (posted below)…are clips from Isaaiah practicing for her first round, and Gabriel practicing for his first round. The actual first round videos are posted nearby. I had to take pictures of some of the darling Small Fry’s…..just adorable. I keep thinking about our adorable Texas cousins and how cute they would be playing a tune at Weiser. When the kids were practicing….Grandpa John would be feeling the vibe…..in the background..and making the kids feel great and play even happier. The pictures don’t do justice to the great rhythm and style as Grandpa John busted out his best moves. He was so inspiring that Gabriel started busting out moves whenever the mood hit him….showing that the boogying DNA is being safely passed on…to be enjoyed by many more generations ….boogy-ers and observers alike.

Fred (who sings Kansas City City with the kids from time to time)….was heard to say…”If I had Grandkids like that….I’d be dancing to!”

First Weiser Slideshow:



I wrote most of the blog in the car on the ride home from Weiser...and worked on the slideshows in the car as well ( I felt so modern)....so I will be putting up more of the article ...a little at a time ...within this post...so keep checking back.

Isaaiah’s first round…After warming up, she gave an interview to the local newspaper….I can’t remember any other particulars about preparing for this round …except that after listening to the judges talk about what they were looking for…and hearing them say that they were looking for a sound…that sounded like the fiddler was having fun. I started to work with Isaaiah. Her tunes are so well known to her…that she could play them while thinking about subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. But now…its time to jump start the love and playing with heart. This is advanced for a tinyish tot….and it is challenging for Isaaiah to remember to not just play like a robot. Also in the stage stress that happens it is tempting for the children to retreat to the safety of playing like a robot. So we really noticed Jason Mraz’s song…”I’m Yours”…and noticed how much love and optimism he created with that music…and how that can be delivered with any happy music.

Isaaiah's first round:


On monday night Laura Cash won the Adult National Fiddle Champion. She is very personable, we talked with her about the toothfairy, in women's showers while we all waited for a shower. We also saw her most everynight thereafter as the winners of each division were invited to play a tune everynight for the remainder of the contest.

Tuesday…is Mommy's most rigorous day at Weiser, in that I get nervous having my dear children on stage so many times. Gabriel has the first round, and Isaaiah has two rounds that day if she makes all of the rounds. I have to really manage the children’s welfare. Though they are becoming more and more independent, I still need to get them to bed early, up…fed….happy….warmed up…playing with the guitars….we need to get into the air-conditioned building in time to let the instruments adjust to the temperature change. I need to manage their warm up. For example…they are nervous when beginning so I never let them warm up on what they are actually going to play on stage…we play everything else until I can tell that they are firing on all cylinders…and have shifted into their higher gears. Then I let them practice their actual round….and it sounds amazing by that time and builds their confidence. Gabriel’s first round was not as early in the morning as last time…and so he warmed up and was playing great. He went onstage and he really nailed it….he really played Great! The second round at National’s is very difficult to make. Most of the boys that we know might make the cut when they are 12 after trying four times. So we didn’t expect anything, but Gabriel knew that anything is possible…and that is how he played. As it turns out…most people think that he should have made the second round…..there were many impressed people who heard Gabriel play.

First here is a quick clip of Gabriel practicing in the practice room with some of his most admiring fans around him.



and then here....Gabriel takes the stage for his first round, to enthusiastic applause !!





Gabriels was very pleased with his performance, and Dad is right, as well as many others commented that Gabriel should have made the second round. Even my friend who is the mother of Justin, who did make the second round....said that she thought their spaces should have been switched...I told her that I thought Justin played great too, and I am glad that I am not a judge. My friend (who's name I can't recall in this moment) said that Justin was tired of not making the second round in other contests, so he began to practice 3 hours a day to get ready for Weiser...well he did sound great...and so did Gabriel.




Isaaiah played her second round…after lunch….so again…some managing, resting, feeding…getting back into the building and warming up thouroughly. I help them visualize having a fabulous time on stage, enjoying the large sound from the microphone, and enjoying the audience response…I reminded Isaaiah about playing with heart and drive….and soon she was ready.

If you click on the newpaper, it should take you to the online version of the article.

Here is Isaaiah's second round:



After Isaaiah’s second round…I took her back to the RV and had her lay down and rest and read for 3 hours. I didn’t do this last year…and she was very tired by the time she played last year…so I thought …well…I’ll do something different this year. She rested …and looked fine…but Grandma and Grandpa bought fruit smoothies for Gabriel and Isaaiah, and they both looked perkier within about 15 minutes.

Isaaiah...just before going on stage for Round 3:


yep...that was an accident..but I got it record again after a few seconds:
Isaaiah's Round 3:

Something interesting about my camcorder, sometimes videos seems to not be there, and then they will show up later in a different format. So earlier in this blog I was having a heart attack because I couldn't find Gabriel's video...only to find it three hours later after loading the first third of the videos into editing software...there it is!...Well now I can't find the award ceremony video. (update: I found it after searching for hours for it..it is posted above the Certificate) It could be that I was to fried to remember to video it, or it could be that it is hiding elusively with a smirk on its face in the video folder and I may possibly find it later.

Below.. is the second video slideshow I made….I made this in car driving back from Weiser…my trusty Chihuahua at my side…and my fabulous inverter providing power to the laptop as the hot rounded dusty hills slip by…and the kids doze in the back seat.

Wednesday was a very relaxing day, plenty of visiting friends including Eliot, Ivy, Kiarra, Tatianna, Tabby, Lauren...luckily we had enough water guns for hours and hours of fun. I am going eventually include a video of Kiarra somewhere...she won Junior-Junior and her playing explains better than words the difficulty difference between the Small Fry round and the Junior-Junior round. Kiarra also plays cello and writes music with her older sister Mia. Celeste is a fabulous Small Fry, she was the California State winner, and her little sister plays fiddle too.

Here is the Second Slideshow:



Meanwhile.....back at the ranch......

Many interesting things are happening since the boys have arrived...Jason conceptualized a new board game, while we were waiting for Isaaiah and Gabriel to take their test. Then he created the board, went outside and painted a beautiful board for his game "Tentacles of Terror". After the quantum physical success of Jay's last year's game invention "Board Cat" in which the player endeavors to win a free cat....(and we got a free cat later that week)....I gently instructed to the child to have the game winners, win a cabin at the lake.

I have been working on videos while listening to the kids play a most vocally enthusiastic round of "Tentacles of Terror". Kevin is taking a break from writing music on his electric guitar (he has been enjoying our amplifiers), to write some refridgerator poetry. Jason has been teaching Gabriel how to "ollie" on the skateboard. Markie took the lead again in fashion freedom by claiming the pink leopard skate helmet for himself proudly. Gabriel had no choice but to be in awe of Markie's fearlessness. Markie's new favorite kind of music ironically is Johnny Cash (what a coincidence...huh)...so the whole house got to enjoy Johnny Cash somehow rerouted through the amplifier remixed..so he sounded like he was in an underwater cathedral and he had a lot of vibrato in his voice. Just so you know......what's going on....

Oh tonight we will be filming a MonsterPocalyspe ad...in which I have been chosen for the part of a psychiatrist...I guess it will be on u-tube eventually....maybe I shouldn't have told you about that until I saw how it turned out. I have no clue about what dinner is going to be.



Here is a video of Isaaiah's Certified Performance on Wednesday Night....practicing in the campground we recorded the sound for the slideshow posted above. Isaaiah won three "certified" contests. So she was triple certified. She knew that she wanted to incorporate singing and costume into her performance. She learned many great singing and fiddle tunes, but most of the the fiddle tunes that had singing in them.....didn't have difficult enough fiddle parts to display her fiddle skills. So we wrote words to her Texas Crapshooter, and she learned them. We found her outfit mostly at Goodwill. We had some plans with the dice and getting her a singing microphone....but...she started the show before anyone else was ready, but she did a great job. At the end we had rehearsed to play the tune again double speed, but it was already late at night and she was a little tired....so she forgot that part. But she did a great job on stage and then a little bit later she went back up on stage to play "Flatbush"

Isaaiah's Certified Round:


If I find Isaaiah playing Flatbush, I'll post it here:




This is Kiarra Zaito-Beckman, great fiddle friend of Gabriel and Isaaiah for 3 years now. She is alot of fun in a squirtgun fight. She won the Junior-Junior National Division...this is her last round I think. Kiarra's Parents are also very friendly and we always look forward to seeing the family. This video of Kiarra playing her final round of Junior-Junior..this gives you an idea of the level of play at the Junior Junior level (Gabriel's Division) Kiarra is 10, the younger sibling of a talented musical sister, raised in Suzuki tradition, she reached book 10 or so when she was 9 years old, and then took up the cello.


Here is a quick video of Isaaiah practicing and Grandpa cheering her on...


So I have videos of each night that Isaaiah performed as part of the previous night's winners. Gabriel warmed up with Isaaiah most nights and received his share of the fun, and we all sat in the air-conditioned darkness and watched the evening's entertainment.

Here is a video of the night that she played Clarinet Polka:


Here is video of Alex Hargraves playing "Fiddle Patch". Alex is Tatianna's older brother, they are from Corvallis. Alex had the distinction of being the youngest Open National Champion ...2 years ago. He and his sister, and parents have always been friendly and encouraging of Gabriel and Isaaiah.




The Twin Fiddle division was so much fun, the crowd is allowed to applaud and show their “verbal appreciation” during the fiddling…so the room become very animated. Also during this division there was an applause meter and it was supposed to be part of the score….so the audience was wilder than normal. Also the performances on stage were so well staged and well played that it was very difficult to not dance around in the stands. Gabriel and Isaaiah played great and had a great time. The judges are in the audience, right next to the left side of the stage...that is why the kids are changing their position at the beginning of their round. Only 20 spaces were allowed for twin fiddle, and we were very lucky to be a part of the first twin fiddle competition ever held at Weiser.

Thurdsay night Jeff and Eileen set up a kids jam at our camp….We set up a table full of candles, and another table full of cookies and chips and dip and stuff that kids like. We invited kids from all around the camp to come and take turns playing. Gabriel did not have to be encouraged to play at the jam, like he did last year…he unpacked his instrument and leaned into his tunes and had a great time with his friends. I went to bed around midnight and Mark stayed up until the kids went to bed around 1….they felt very grown up…to stay up so late at a jam with friends. It felt good to me, that I could go to sleep and let someone else put the kids to bed …..ahhhhhhh

Earlier that day, we had a parents confessional support group in Lisa’s RV, where we supported each other with our separate but common challenges, in getting our kids to practice effectively and feeling little overstreched by the commitment it takes to nurture kids to this level of music, and to try and create a successful experience. I had had trouble earlier that day asking Gabriel and Isaaiah to smile during their twin practice…you would have thought that I was asking them to take a Calculus final. Finally Mark stepped in…and redirected the whole thing…and I went to go rest. The kids did smile on stage that night…and I got to have the love of other understanding parents as I was in tears with fatigue and frustration over the effort to instruct them in stage presence. That was when the Cinnamon spiced iced green tea with a splash of Shiraz…and three advils really hit the spot.

Friday was a delicious lazy day, sitting in the shade for hours while the kids played, and played and played. Sometimes at night we would walk around to listen to jams at other people’s camps…the sky was dazzling…so many stars…the stars seemed so near and bold.

Isaaiah played Canebreak Friday night and did a great job! We settled in to enjoy watching another round of Championship Division. Some of our favorites hadn’t made it to the final round, but we were fascinated with the music and the skill.

Saturday, many of our friends had already packed up to drive back home. Luckily Isaaiah’s new friends Celeste (California’s Small Fry Champion) and little sister Sophie from California were there to play squirt guns and dolls for many many hours. Eliot and Gabriel were becoming fast friends

Higgins , the fabulous camp Chihuahua wishes to be in my lap with the lap top as I write this…somewhere on the way to Pendleton….I guess I can make room for the little guy. Higgins is no stranger to camp life and he was an easy addition to our life at Weiser. We brought extra enticing treats for Higgins and used those to make sure that he stayed “in the yard” …which means in our camp. Except for times of confusion (such as many new people in the camp…or cars moving) in which we would put him in the house….Higgins would lounge in the shade or in the sun and stay very near to either Papa or I. His reliability and obedience won him freedom, which he enjoyed all day long. Now he is asleep in my lap…with the laptop on my knees…and his little head resting on my wrist…..awwwwwww. We bought him a new collar and a new tag with Papa’s cellphone number on it…we told him….it was another gift from the governor to commend his unerring bravery.

The kids took turns walking Higgins in the early morning and late evening..and picking up his….well you know. The kids also went on ice runs everyday to fill the cooler with ice. The would take the wagon and go with their friends and some money and come back triumphant with their purchases. Gabriel emptied our garbage and Eileen’s garbage everday….and everyone appreciated their help.

So, Saturday we could hardly believe that Weiser was almost over for another year. After a lazy morning we jammed in the shade and the kids watched the parade and collected candy and parade prizes. Grandpa and Grandma came to the parade to say goodbye on their way out of town. The say they are hooked and will be back next year…We sure do appreciate their love and support!

Weiser Saturday night is the crescendo of the open division. The show was sold out by noon…..the format of the final round was completely changed and made 12 times more difficult for the final five. The final five contestants who will all earn respectable prize money just making the final five, were competing for first place and a $1500 top prize. The format in the past..has been that each round has the same format as the one before it, but this year…all five went up on stage and drew their order of play out of a hat. They were given a type of tune to choose their tune from with the exclusion of tunes they already played in previous rounds, and with the exclusion of the most common tunes from each category they had to choose a tune that they could play competitively with no notice on the spot and then play it for the sold out crowd. The first category was swing. WOW I hope my video camera worked because the swing tunes were so grippingly great…that even after a long week of camping, the heat, and many hours of fiddle music…these finalists played swing tunes that amazed your ears every second….I could hardly believe the virtuosity, stage presence and jaw dropping audacity at how they would improvise on stage in these lightning fast swing/jazz tunes. If the videos turn out…I’ll post them here.

In the end Kimberly Ludiker, one of only 3 women to ever win the Championship was awarded the top prize. She is 25 years old, and has been coming to Weiser for 24 years. Many, many people were very happy for her. I thought that Alex Hargraves was going to win, but he had a time penalty in one of his rounds….for playing too long on his round.

By the time you read this….we will have picked up THE BOYS from the train station! Markie sent us a picture on the cell phone of his white hair- very handsome. We are looking forward to more fun!!!

We went to the Parade!

I have lived in Portland for many decades and have never seen the Grand Floral Parade. Until this year there was street taping allowed...so that people were able to block off large sections for themselves earlier in the week. That was disallowed this year...so we decided to give it a try.

We arrived on the corner of Burnside and MLK 3 hours early...and were able to get set up in the intersection almost as soon as the street was blocked off. I thought that being 3 hours early might be a drag. But we made loads of friends, and the kids "played in the street" , and we decorated the pavement with sidewalk chalk, and really the time flew by.

Here is a slideshow, video short that I made with Windows Movie Maker...the music is Andre Segovia playing Fandanguillo for Guitar Opus 36....re-edited.

Weiser is coming up!

As a celebration of the upcoming National Fiddle Contest, we have been watching last years videos.

Mom and Pat drove us to the contest last year, but weren't able to stay to see anyone play on stage. It was an exciting year as Isaaiah placed 5th of Pee Wees from all across the nation. Isaaiah played nearly flawless, and had a great time on stage. She was really hoping that Grandma and Grandpa would stay to see her play, but they promised they would see the video.




Gabriel also played excellently, he had to get up early in the morning and be one of the first persons on stage...he had a tiny bobble and powered through it bravely. I have video of Gabriel, Isaaiah and I waiting outside the locked door (as they hadn't opened yet) and we are warming up together with a Seitz Concerto...and at that time the Garbage man has the sense of timing to come by and be incredibly noisy next to the cement and the brick....the kids play on....and the Garbage truck proceeds to drop trash all over the street....Pretty soon though we went inside and practiced inside.



I think that Isaaiah's second round was the same day as Gabriel's but now I don't remember.




I do remember that Isaaiah was excited to make it to the third round...the year before she hadn't made it to the third round....but as the video shows...she was tired.



With all of their rounds finished, the kids were free to bring out the squirt guns, eat the iced watermelon and cherries...play frisbees and chases, play dolls in the shade with their friends. Watch their older friends on stage and root for their friends. We enjoyed the evening shows in the air-conditioned building and took our much loved and needed shower...slept deeply and greeted the beautiful cool grass field again the next day. The kids loved the Weiser village that we lived in...friends living nearby, Eileen and Jeff shared our shade and iced tea. Their "Weiser Grandma and Grandpa were just across the way" Their "Weiser Grandparents" Rick and his wife were there to applaud their efforts, loan them good books to read, hold the candy they collected at the parade, and celebrate the fun of being kids with them. Rick is an adult beginner student of Eileen and a faithful volunteer at many events. He is fond of both of the children, but seems to especially champion Gabriel, reminding Gabriel that he should be very proud of himself, and that Rick is very proud of him. Rick and his wife really added alot of sweetness to the kid's experience. When something exciting happened the kids would run over to their trailer and explain it all animatedly and even sometime get something nice to eat.

I am posting a video of the most beautiful waltz played by Tristan Clarridge, who won Nation Grand Champion. He has won this contest many times. Isaaiah noticed in this video that Tristan's violin is not tuned normally....it is legal to play a cross tuned violin in the contest, they just don't want you to tune or tune back on stage...This waltz would be almost impossible to play on a regularly tuned violin..I don't know the name of this waltz...if you know, please tell me in the comments...enjoy



Here is 30 second television advertisement for the Fiddle Contest..cute:

Can You Smell the Bread?

One of Gabriel's top five passions ....is cooking! and that is great news for alot of people who know how well I cook? I am doing what I can to encourage cooking....hoping to reap the rewards as I have already begun to do.




Can you smell the bread?



This bread turned out really yummy, the next day I made sandwiches with a creamcheese, spinach and minced garlic spread for the filling.

Innocence

These pictures are so moving to me that I can't think of anything to say.


But I must acknowledge the incredible music on the slide show and provide links for you to get your own copy of this music:
This music is "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz...I bought the mp3 of this song at Amazon for 99cents