What Went On This Weekend at the Walton’s

(Darren – This one’s for you, or at least because of you . . .)

  Lyrica LaBelle, piano teacher    Jamie   Rose Johnson, Flute teacher

This Saturday was the Seattle Flute Society’s Horsfall Competition.  Jamie started working on her music, which was a flute and piano duet by Aaron Copland, early last year.  Maybe I could appreciate Mr. Copland better if I knew something about him, but personally, this music reminds me of aliens, flying saucers,  and something from another planet;  composed with complete randomness.  There were a couple of measures that I could appreciate,  but actually, considering it was a 7 1/2 minute song, they were few and far between.  I asked Jamie about this music and why it had no, shall we say, beautiful melodies.   “Mom, it’s all about technique.”  Well, now I know.  I don’t like technique, which definitely demonstrates my ignorance and lack of cultural appreciation.  The fact that she had memorized this monstrosity was impressive enough in my book, though even I could appreciate the incredibly difficult piano part.  Lyrica was amazing.

To be able to even enter this competition, you have to send in a CD with you playing your piece and some required nasty scales on it by a certain deadline.  You then have to wait way too long to find out whether you were selected to compete or not, as they cut down the number of competitors  significantly.  After your  performance, the judge spends some time commenting on how well you did or didn’t do.  Thanks to Rose, Jamie and Marci’s highly trained and skilled flute teacher, her comments dealt with very minor details.

The competition was set for Saturday, January 22nd.  Jamie had to spend the entire day at Seattle Pacific University and did not want to be there without Marci.  Marci is one very compassionate big sister and was willing to sacrifice her entire Saturday to support Jamie. 

The rest of us just showed up at Jamie’s scheduled performance time, and paid our dues by having to navigate unfamiliar, confusing, under-construction-and-with-detours-everywhere,  Seattle roads.

LeAnn’s Personal Program Notes for the following Music Video

I chose two different sections out of Jamie’s song.  The first is in the middle somewhere, is quite slow and mournful, and sounds like someone just wrecked their new flying saucer.  The second section comes a little later and sounds like all the little fuzzers have qualified for a loan and are frantically repairing their damaged craft. 

Duo for Flute and Piano by Aaron Copland

This is a page from  the frantic second section and is preserved for Jamie’s posterity.

Well Grandpas and Grandmas and big brothers – you would’ve been very proud of little Jamers.  We found out Sunday that she placed 3rd in her Lower Division.   She, along with the 1st and 2nd place winners  will be performing their pieces in the Horsfall Winners’ Recital on Sunday, February 13th at Seattle Pacific University. 

On to More Mundane Items of Business

This was another momentous moment for the Walton Family.  After laboring over 1/4 of a working stove (meaning we were down to just ONE LITTLE burner) for the past too-long-of-a-while, we finally decided It Was Time.

We had to find another stove that had a downdraft in the center like our old one.  We finally found a nice Kitchen-Aide, but had to wait over three weeks after ordering for it to arrive.

Breaking every one of Murphy’s Laws, the old stove came out quite easily, or, shall we say, was easily extricated, **  and was only moderately miserable to replace.               **That was purely for Devin’s educational sake

It even provided Friday evening entertainment for the easily entertained.

The stove was the right size and fit perfectly;  there were just four recalcitrant screws on the sides of the unit that stuck out just far enough to prevent it from sliding down into its new home.  This required the repeated cautious efforts of the whole family to heft the heavy thing and gently lower it into the opening without breaking the ceramic and glass top or smashing very vulnerable fingertips until Jim had drilled out a sufficient amount of tile and wood.

The last  two steps were to connect the electrical wires, and then connect the exhaust fan to that round silver thing that takes the exhaust out under the house somewhere.  Jim was so happy to see that real engineers had thought this through thoroughly and both the stove and the silver thingy were adjustable, requiring only that we lift the heavy stove out of its opening one more time so he had enough space to connect the two parts.

And, Voila`!!  The Walton’s have a much easier-to-clean working stove and a much less disgruntled cook.