While living in Azerbaijan during my Peace Corps days, I would watch my host mothers make yogurt at home and relish the thick, creamy, sour taste alongside meals of dolma or fresh green beans and bread. When living on my own in that country, I learned to take large, clean, glass jars (bankalar) to a…
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Breast Cancer Rap
I’ve been trying out a new genre…rap! Here I am spinning verses about my recent experience with breast cancer. Lyrics below. What is the Answer? I had a lump in my breast it turned out to be cancer. The doctors said surgery’s the only good answer. Would I lose my whole breast, or only a…
The Grand Ball of Europe
Le Grand Bal de l’Europe, the Grand Ball of Europe commonly known as “Gennetines,” is a folk dance festival held each summer at a farm outside of Moulins, France, about a 2 ½ hour train ride south of Paris. It features traditional dance forms, known as balfolk, from various regions of France and Europe, plus…
Children, Go Where I Send Thee
This song was a traditional African-American spiritual that later became known as a Christmas carol. I have drawn here from the secularized lyrics by Nick Lowe that I discovered in a Pentatonix recording to create a festive holiday interpretation that brings in some of the activities we enjoy most about the season. Enjoy! Major lyric…
Redemption Song
Here is my latest video, a cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” After I started experimenting with playing this song a few months ago, I discovered that Marley had been diagnosed with cancer when he wrote this. His widow, Rita Marley, has remarked that she really hears, within this tune in particular, her husband’s reckoning…
Devolva-Me
I just finished a recording of a Brazilian song I’ve been working on. Written and recorded by Lílian Knapp and Renato Barros in 1966 and famously recorded by Adriana Calcanhotto in 2000,” Devolva-Me” translates to “Give it Back to Me.” In the song, the protagonist asks her partner to return a picture she gave him…
Por Amarte Así
I’ve just recorded a cover of a Latin love song I picked up earlier this year during the equatorial mid-day siesta times on the Galápagos. “Loving You Like This” or “Loving You This Way,” composed by Alejandro Montalbán and Eduardo Reyes and originally performed by Mexican recording artist Cristian Castro. The translation here in the…
Return to Galápagos
The Galápagos Islands of Ecuador were my first international travel experience at the impressionable age of 19. Feeling stuck and discontent in the Ivory Tower, and with a burning itch to see what else was out there, I headed to the Galápagos as a volunteer ESL teacher with the program WorldTeach the summer after my…
Living History in Death Valley
I recently uncovered a video of one of the living history tours I led in Scotty’s Castle in Death Valley in 2002 during my time with the Student Conservation Association and had it digitized. I was acting as a made-up character from the year 1939.
New Multi-Character Phone Recs
I’ve been experimenting with overlaying parts onto the Acapella app on my new used iPhone. First, the three-person song I love by Girlyman called “Everything’s Easy,” and then “Play a Simple Melody” by Irving Berlin, which is one I always used to sing with my mom growing up (but without the characters!). My daughter told…