Music

A Model Philanthropist

~ MaryG ~ 12 Comments
Daily writing prompt
If you could have something named after you, what would it be?
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Naming facilities is something I know a bit about due to my career in fundraising and philanthropy. At my last job, we built a sweet, state-of-the-art, 300-seat black box theater that could’ve been named (in 2009) for a mere $3 million. Sadly, we could not find a lead donor at that level…in Boston of all places (where we have many wealthy patrons of the arts). It was a real bummer. A total fail. We blamed the recession.

More recently (in 2023), a spectacular new non-profit community music center opened up near my home in the northwestern suburbs. And when I say spectacular, I mean it. You’ve heard of Tanglewood, right? This place is like Tanglewood East. Check it out here. I don’t know how much Groton Hill Music Center cost to build, but I’m certain it was hundreds of millions of dollars with the massive parcel of land that it’s set on (part of which was formerly owned by rocker J. Geils, who died in 2017). There is no other community music school like it – anywhere.

And get this. It was all paid for (including an endowment for maintenance) by an anonymous donor who wanted NO recognition. He didn’t put his name on any of it! It was only after his recent death that the community learned the donor was Al Stone, owner of Sterilite (maker of those ubiquitous clear plastic storage bins).

Recently, I spoke to Groton Hill staff and here’s what I learned about Mr. Stone. He was a visionary philanthropist. He didn’t believe in naming things (the Susie Smith elevator, the John Doe staircase, etc). He believed that type of fundraising let donors off the hook. Once they’d given enough money to get their names on something, they tended to stop giving. Mr. Stone wanted the community to embrace the venue and keep supporting its operations, year after year, regardless of recognition. The music itself should be the reward.

At Groton Hill Music Center, all donors (from $100 to $1,000,000+) are listed on a simple, tasteful sign in the lobby. A community resource this magnificent belongs to all of us.

I was in awe the first time I went to a concert in the largest of the venues within the music center. Known simply as “The Concert Hall,” it can seat 1,000 people and hosts all types of artists—from major classical performances, to Broadway stars, to folk, pop and world music.
Meadow Hall (seats 300)
A partial view of the exterior
Groton Hill Music Center, Massachusetts
One of dozens of studios for lessons and rehearsals at Groton Hill Music Center

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Randy Rainbow

~ MaryG ~ 10 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What makes you laugh?
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Are you like me—a musical theater lover who loathes Donald J. Trump with every fiber of your being? If so, then you probably know all about Randy Rainbow already!

For the uninitiated, check him out here. (Gilbert & Sullivan)

And here. (Funny Girl)

And here. (Fiddler on the Roof)

And here. (Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy)

And my personal favorite: Seasons of Trump (from Rent)

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Saying yes

~ MaryG ~ 6 Comments
Daily writing prompt
How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?
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I was good at saying “no” to things for many years, especially volunteer roles in my church and in the schools. I had too much going on with the kids and work. I did my part for various fundraisers and events, but I wasn’t one to get roped into running the whole thing. In fact, a woman once told me she admired my ability to say “no.” (possibly a backhanded compliment)

Now that I’m retired (there, I said it) I’m ready to say “yes” to more things, especially if it’s something fun. Kudos to my husband, who is still working, but says “yes” to quite a few of my proposals. He doesn’t agree to everything I want to do together, but I’d estimate that he says “yes” 75% of the time. For example, we went and saw ALL TEN Best Picture nominees before the Oscar broadcast. And he’s been especially good about visiting museums with me. (He likes museums too, but it’s a bit more of a sacrifice for him to make the time to go.)

On Saturday, we went to a very cool exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts about Hallyu (Korean Wave)—the surge of popular culture from South Korea that started with K-drama and cinema in the 90s and then spread across the globe with K-pop and its massive fandoms in the mid 2000s. K-beauty and fashion has also been a huge cultural export and Korean designers’ work was on display. After that, we went to a Korean restaurant to round out the K-culture experience.

A K-pop idol’s costume at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Reconstruction of a set from “Parasite,” the 2019 film directed and co-written by Bong Joon-ho. It was the first non-English language film to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The costumes from Squid Game
Fashions by South Korean designers
Korean “sticky ribs”

Related post:

Are you retired?

Not-so-secret skills

~ MaryG ~ 25 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had?
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I think the difficult word in this prompt is “secret.” I have a couple of skills that I like to brag about and/or show off, with baton twirling being the most impressive. I can also sing a very high note, when called for. For example, my choir was asked to perform “Bohemian Rhapsody” at a memorial service last year and someone had to sing that very high note (you know the one). It’s a high B-flat. Welp, I fucking nailed it. (And yes, there is a video, but the fact that it was a funeral prevents me from posting it.)

So clearly, modesty is not keeping me from sharing any other exciting skills with the world. If I could choose a new skill to secretly have, it’d probably be clairvoyance. Sometimes, I’d like to know what’s going to happen ahead of time so I wouldn’t worry so much.

The Choir Teachers

~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Who was your most influential teacher? Why?
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That was nice when Billie Eilish thanked her choir teachers at the Oscars when she won Best Song for “What was I Made For” from Barbie.

I had great choir teachers all through junior high and high school. Ms. Glinka was 7th grade. It was 1978 and she was my first-ever “Ms.” It took some getting used to (to call a teacher MIZZ, when we’d only ever had a Miss or Missus). Ms. Glinka was a cool, modern woman who wore dangly earrings. Her main influence on me was that she loved The Beatles and taught us their music. I specifically remember singing When I’m Sixty-Four and Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da in her class. Whoever introduces you to The Beatles shall never be forgotten. Am I right? Thanks Ms. Glinka. You rocked.

8th grade was Mrs. Nolan. She was married to Mr. Nolan, who also taught at the school. Mrs. Nolan was a bit more traditional than Ms. Glinka, but also great. She liked Irish/Celtic music. She taught us All Around My Hat by Steeleye Span, which I loved singing. I still sing it to this day and attempted to teach it to my kids.

Finally, in high school, we had Mr. Phinney. He was a legend in my town. A tall, demanding, sexist, old-school choirmaster, Mr. Phinney presided over the music wing of the school with his equally-powerful counterpart—the Band Director, Mr. Toland. As a majorette (baton twirler) for the marching band, I worked with Mr. Toland as well. If they liked you, you were all set. Fortunately, they liked me, so I had a TON of fun performing in high school ensembles, musical productions, and twirling my baton with the marching band. My best friends came from those circles, two of whom are still close friends of mine.

Mr. Phinney was a bit of a tyrant, but we learned a lot about musicianship from him. I’m surprised our yearbook advisor let that “quote” be printed on his photo.

Although I did not became a professional musician, music is an important part of my life, especially singing with others.

Thank you to my public school music teachers.

High school choir yearbook photo

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Dance

~ MaryG ~ 9 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What do you wish you could do more every day?
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A wonderful gentleman from my UU church, Ron, leads a monthly Sacred Circle Dance for the community, which I recently started participating in again. (I’d done it a few times when I was working, but I didn’t make it a point to go. Now I do.)

Dancing is fun, people! I had forgotten. I wish I did it more, but at least I do it some.

Ron is a retired gay man who absolutely loves leading dance circles. He has studied it extensively and traveled to many places (including Mexico) to learn new dances and attend workshops.

Our dance circle lasts two hours and Ron incorporates both folk dances as well as more modern dances. Ron teaches us the steps before each dance. He uses recorded music and always provides context for the cultures from which the folk dances come. Last time, our dances included a Coptic Greek dance and a dance in celebration of Women’s History Month to Peter Gabriel’s Shaking the Tree.

The steps are never too hard. Mistakes are fine. It’s not about performance at all. It’s about mind-body-spirit awareness, connection, and fun.

Happy Women’s History Month

Shaking the Tree (lyrics)

Songwriters: Peter Gabriel / Youssou N’Dour

Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon
We are shakin’ the tree
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon
We are shakin’ the tree

Waiting your time, dreaming of a better life
Waiting your time, you’re more than just a wife
You don’t have to do what your mother has done
She has done, this is your life, this new life has begun

It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day

Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon
We are shakin’ the tree
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon
We are shakin’ the tree

Turning the tide, you are on the incoming wave
Turning the tide, you know you are nobody’s slave
Find your sisters or brothers who can hear all the truth in what you say
They can support you when you’re on your way

It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day

Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon
We are shakin’ the tree
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon
We are shakin’ the tree

Changing your ways, changing those surrounding you
Changing your ways, more than any man can do
Open your heart, show him the anger and pain, so you heal
Maybe he’s looking for his womanly side, let him feel

You had to be so strong
And you do nothing wrong, nothing wrong at all
We’re gonna break it down
We’re gonna shake it down, shake it all around

No no no no no no
No no no no no no
No no no no no no

It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day
It’s your day, a woman’s day

You had to be so strong
You do nothing wrong, nothing wrong at all
We’re gonna break it down
We’re gonna shake it down, shake it all around

Leaving on a jet plane

~ MaryG ~ 11 Comments
Daily writing prompt
You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?
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If we’re talking about my country (the U.S), I’m going on an airplane. The days when I may have fantasized about doing a Jack Kerouac/Hunter S. Thompson/Bob Dylan/Route 66 Great American Road Trip are over. It always sounded cool and like something you should do at least once in your life, but I never did it. I once drove from Massachusetts to Florida with a boyfriend. We had no particular plan. It was spring break and we just wanted to get warm, so we headed south. I think we made it to Daytona Beach before heading back.

Driving all the way to California from Massachusetts would’ve been a great adventure in my twenties, but I won’t be adding it to my bucket list now. I’m too old for that shit. And a bus would be even worse.

Actually, my mother took a bus from Massachusetts to California with two of her friends (one from high school and one from college) in 1960, between her junior and senior year of college. This was before women could get birth control or hold a credit card in their own name. They got jobs in Los Angeles and stayed for the whole summer, then took the bus back. They just wanted to see the country and have an adventure. I’ve always been impressed that my grandmother allowed her to plan that trip and that she had the guts to go.

Los Angeles in 1959 (photo by Railroad Jack on Flickr)
My mother in the 1950s

I suppose you could take a train across the United States, but nobody I know has done that, so perhaps it’s not that great of an experience.

Six years after my mother’s adventure, I was born. Two years after that, Peter, Paul and Mary wrote Leaving on a Jet Plane. I always loved that song.

Star Wars & the musicals

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?
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As an adult, I’ve not been a big re-watcher of movies, or re-reader of books for that matter. Once is usually enough. Sometimes, if I really like a movie, I’ll see it twice in a movie theater. As an adult, I saw both Good Will Hunting and Barbie twice on the big screen.

As a kid, I watched a few movies five or more times. Other than Star Wars, they were all musicals:

Sound of Music (1965)

Leisl and Rolf in the gazebo

Stars Wars (the original 1977 film)

Grease (1978)

Hair (1979)

For the musicals, I also bought the soundtrack albums, so I could listen to them over and over, and act them out with my neighborhood friends. I remember fights over whose turn it was to be Liesl (from Sound of Music) and whose brother could be roped into playing her Nazi boyfriend Rolf. Unfortunately, nobody in the neighborhood had a gazebo, so we had to act that one out by jumping on and off living room sofas. (I am 16… going on 17…thud)

For Star Wars, I bought the sheet music for the main theme by the great John Williams and learned to play it on the piano. I still have it.

I had to pencil in the base notes, because they fell so far from below the staff lines.

Has a more perfect movie theme ever been composed? Are you really even GenX if this piece of music doesn’t give you at least a couple of goosebumps?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

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Keep on Moving Forward

~ MaryG ~ 2 Comments
Daily writing prompt
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
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Sometimes failure is just failure. The plays I didn’t get cast in, the rejection from my first-choice college, the math class I dropped because it was too hard, and the fellowship and jobs I didn’t get, are all examples of times I objectively failed.

People talk a lot about “grit and resilience,” usually in the context of blaming today’s parents for being too protective and helicopter-y. Well, failure forces you to build those qualities, even if your parents somehow messed-up.

What other choice do you have in the face of failure? You gotta keep going.

“Keep on Moving Forward” by Emma’s Revolution is my all-time favorite protest song. I think it inspires personal fortitude, as well as strength to keep fighting for a better world.

KEEP ON MOVING FORWARD
© 1984 Pat Humphries
Moving Forward Music, BMI
www.emmasrevolution.com

Gonna keep on moving forward
Keep on moving forward
Keep on moving forward
Never turning back
Never turning back

Gonna keep on moving proudly
Gonna keep on singing loudly
Gonna keep on loving boldly
Gonna reach across our borders
Gonna end the occupations
Gonna stop these wars together
Gonna keep on moving forward

Pat Humphries and Sandy O (Emma’s Revolution)

IT’S SUPER TUESDAY in the USA. Don’t waste your right to vote.

Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Maine
Massachusetts
Minnesota
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia