Sketching To Music

I'm heading out to my second Sketching To Music Workshop at Kathy Herold's Center For The Arts.
Here is a picture a Colgate student sketched while listening to The Story Of Ed from my laptop.
Awwww. I sure do miss that little dog!

Nick Turned Twenty!

My youngest is now twenty. I'm almost Fifty! Time is a flying.
NIck request Mexican food and margarita's for his birthday meal. No problem!
I got my old wicker serving tray down from the shelf and dove in to mexican food preparation. It had been a while.
In another life i worked as a waitress in Reading Pa. at a place called Paco's Taco's and Tequila run by a jewish dude called R. Gregory Heckman aka Paco. This is a whole separate blog that I can't get into now. I'll blog more about my life with Paco another time. I'll have to hunt down pictures first and get them scanned in.
Here are some Happy Birthday Nick shots!

Sketching To Music

Kathy Herold founder of the Hamilton Center for the Arts has asked me to do a one hour workshop once a week with the kids. I accepted right away! Having done the Writers Jubilee four years in a row I'm quite prepared. I'll likely perform one of my original songs from my latest CD and have the kids sketch whatever comes to their mind while listening to the song. I'm hoping they will draw images of the story I'm singing about. A test of their listening skills. Here is some artwork by a few young artists from the Morrisville school sketched to the song about Adirondack hermit, Noah John Rondeau.

Magic Elizabeth

One sweet small gift came this summer that meant the world to me. A soft cover book from the Scholastic Book Services called Magic Elizabeth. Thanks to a new friend I met while on the Mad Art Farm tour at Alambria Springs Farm out in the green rolling fields of Lebanon. Her name is Beverly Cholco-Devins, a wonderful writer and librarian from Hamilton NY.
All these years later the one happy thing that I remember about school was coming home with the weekly edition of the Weekly Reader. Each week I would scour over each thin almost transparent newspaper edition looking at the covers of the books for sale and reading the paragraph about them before I would make my choices. My cousin Andrea who lived across the road and I would read and read and swap books. She owned Magic Elizabeth and let me borrow the book but was adamant that I return it. I loved this book and did return it. Now after all these years, I thought the book would probably be gone forever.
After reading a story in the Sherburne Pictorial, written by a local Sherburne woman from the early 1900's named Elizabeth Gladwin Bouton I became enthralled again with all the local history. Elizabeth wrote about writing and publishing a book called Grandmother's Doll! Just the author's name Elizabeth refreshed my memory of the book I read so many years ago.
Over the past ten years or so every time I went to book sales or garage sales I would subconsciously look for Magic Elizabeth but never found it. Just like looking for a needle in a haystack. Well thanks to Facebook! I somehow put it out there that I would love to have this book and Beverly did a inter library search and found it. I couldn’t believe it!
Bev’s path and mine were going in totally different directions so she kindly put the book in a manilla envelope and dropped it off in the Hamilton Library. On my rounds one sunny day not to many weeks ago, I finally got the book I loved so dearly as a young girl. As I slipped the book out of the envelope a tear came to my eyes as the cover was just as I remembered it. On a sticky note Beverly left me with this message stuck to the book in very neat cursive writing ”Hi Pamme, Please enjoy this reunion with your lost friend Magic Elizabeth! Best Beverly”.
My heart simply swelled with joy having a new friend and who was able to take the time to find this book for me. Free of charge even.
I got the book home and read it in several hours and the story was just a lovely and magical as it was when I read it all those years ago. Magic Elizabeth was written by Norma Kassirer and tells the story of an only child named Sally who goes to stay with an old Aunt whom she’s never met. Creepy old Aunt Sarah lives in an old house which is the last old home from a time forgotten left in a growing suburbia o apartment houses and skyscrapers. This grand old house is filled with beaded curtains, tea sets, grand father clocks, a cat named Shadow and an attic where trunks over flow with stories of a generation past. Elizabeth was the doll of a little girl who once lived in this very house and amazingly looked exactly like Sally. The last time Elizabeth was seen was a snowy Christmas Eve many years ago atop of a Christmas tree in place of a star. She simply disappeared much to the other Sal’s dismay. Now all these years later it became this Sally’s mission to find the doll and in doing so her friendship with her old Aunt Sarah bloomed and uncovered the secrete that Aunt Sarah was the little girl who lived in this very house and was nick named Sal.
Norma Kassirer was a genius to be able to take a young reader and put her in the now of the past and the now of the present. On a sea shelled lined garden path of the past to the overgrown weedy apartment enclosed forgotten yard of today.
Magic Elizabeth was written for young readers but the way this story is told would appeal to anyone of any age who loves family and history and has concern for preserving their family’s story.

The Original Music of Emilee Smith

Another fine musician from Smyrna. Fifteen year old Emilee Smith

The Original Music of Matt Nakoa

Sunny Smyrna sure knows how to pump out some great musicians! Enjoy!

Skyway 2009

Another Skyway has come and gone and I must say this years line up of music was phenomenal!
Tumbleweed Gumbo performers were Merner Koegst on stand up bass,
Steve Blaise on vocals, accordian, acoustic guitar and bodhran, Liz Friedel on fiddle and vocals and Larry Jordan on acoustic guitar and vocals. This fine bunch opened Skyway with their hand clapping, foot stomping, old time cajun folk songs. Bass guitar guru,
Zach Fleitz followed with his masterful technique, looping to his unique fret boarding style to fill out each instrumental.
The colorful swirling skirts of the Adiahakti Dancers in their third appearance on the summer green of the Skyway lawn is always welcomed! What great eye and ear candy with their fine workmanship of face painting, belly dancer attire, jewelry and exotic India music.
Hamilton teachers,Don Miller, Sean Kelly, Tyler Jablonski and Brian Rose teamed up for a classic rock four some and call themselves Commander Cockroach and the Mexican Bus rocking us out and into the set of singer/songwriter Emilee Smith. Emilee is an amazing singer/songwriter at the ripe old age of 15! Haling from Smyrna NY. she began piano lessons merely 3 years ago and is quite composed and accomplished for her age, Her voice is strong, wise and way beyond her years with every note dripping with soul. She has opened for Blue Oyster Colt and her first CD, Hall Of Mirrors has received a fine review from Mark Bialczak of the Syracuse Post Standard. Wow!
Next up was Hamiltons own and quite humorous, David Chlad. I was quite impressed with his acoustic instrumental open tunings and his “on the spot” Skyway song he easily pulled from the air to perform for us. David was quite a sport for that is when the misty rain began to fall! Unfortunately, I had to run around and move sound equipment and didn’t get to enjoy Putter Cox and friends who performed beautiful, lilting folk music with Susan Nolan on hammer dulcimer, Chris Vecsey on lap dulcimer and harmonica and acoustics, Adger Williams on stand up bass and Putter Cox on acoustics and vocals. The vocal harmonies of Putter Cox and Friends were right on and no-one seemed to mind standing in the rain to catch this performance.
While the Putter Cox trio broke down on the right side of the three stages of the Hamilton Bandstand. The Mark Shiner Trio popped up on the right side playing an unplugged set of very classy smooth jazz. I didn’t get to enjoy them at Skyway this year but have heard them many times at the Colgate Inn summer series on Tuesdays. The Shiner Trio consists of some very fine, well known professional musicians, Phil Flanigan, Dave Solazzo and of course Hamilton’s own Mark Shiner.
During the Shiner set was when I then made my trek around town to find a venue to finish up the Skyway day festivities and the Hour Glass eagerly agreed to let Skyway 2009 end there. With the help of my son Nick, we quickly broke down my set of Mackies and hauled it over re-set the stage in the front of the Glass.
Matt “Pryor” Nakoa a Berkeley student graduate and also from Smyrna wowed the crowd with his amazing vocal and keyboarding skills. Matt is the real deal and is one magical performer. He also plays acoustic guitar, right handed and upside down with a Nakoa style all his own. Matt is living in New York city and his music is supporting him nicely.
The night ended with a Colgate band called The Earthman Embassy. With Ben James Taylor on guitar and vocals, George Zeitler on keys/vocals, Michael Petersen on bass, Tommy Crocker on Drums/ vocals and Jeremy Padow on guitar, these young college dudes rocked the glass respectively wowing their fellow classmates who packed the hallowed halls of this long time favorite bar in Hamilton. Across the street, 2007 Skyway performers, The Hook, Jamie Jones on vocals and guitar, PJ Will on guitar and vocals, Johnny Jones on electric bass and Jayson Parker on drums and vocals put on quite a show and people had a great time getting down on Lebanon Street.
Cheryl Darrow won the 2009 Skyway lounger! Talk about the law of attraction at work here! Cheryl is a fine jewelry maker with a booth in the Hamilton’s Farmers market.
Each week she would admire the lounge chair as it sat right across the way from her booth next to my mothers hooked rug booth. She bought but one ticket and hers was the winner. The lounge couldn’t have gone to a better person! She was a good friend of Craig and I’m tickled the chair has a home in Hamilton!
The funds Skyway did manage to raise will be going to the Friends Of Music to help keep the next generation of music in the Hamilton Schools. Jimmy Wunderlich, Meredith and I put in many hours meeting at the Barge sipping lattes and many cups of coffee in the organization of this event. It was a day to remember with the sound of music from the talented musicians of the area echoing through town. A silly thought here folks. But wouldn’t the world be a nicer place if we could somehow replace guns with instruments in the hands of the worlds people. And give them the patience to learn their music well.
Ta La Pamme

The Onion Harvest

Here it is. Fall. The summer rained right on by! Hopefully that ole indian will grace us with some sun here in September.
This years tomatoes got the black spot blight and the slugs and deer feasted on the swiss chard and the hosta. We did grow some nice yellow thin skinned zucchini, carrots and a lovely mix of greens this summer. My perennials did really well! And the onions! Always grow a great crop of onions!

Skyway Starting On A Sour Note

Its four days before the third annual Skyway Festival. I received and email today from David Grace asking if Jimmy, Meredith or I moved the sign at the north end of the park. After contacting Meredith and Jimmy and confirming they hadn't touched it. I called the Hamilton Police and reported it stolen. How sad is this! Here we are trying to raise money for a great cause and some idiot has to steal our sign. I can only hope whomever stole the sign that when they sober up will realize what a stupid thing they did and return it undamaged.
The weather is looking like it may be a lovely day! Here is this years poster designed by the adobe photoshop queen LInday Szybist of Van Tine Imaging. And the two signs by David Grace.