Musical conducting from my dan tien

19 04 2011

Thanks for visiting again! I’ve been away from the studio a bit, doing some cool stuff. It’s never too late to learn something new!

As my Facebook friends already know, I went to a choral conductors workshop one weekend and a food forum with farmers and chefs the next.

Back in the studio I’m preparing for a visit from the Easter bunny, a group art show, a trip to Kohala to scout for a family reunion in 2012, and summer drawing classes for the neighborhood kids. Today’s story is …

CONDUCTING FROM MY DAN TIEN

A last-minute private plea to attend a choral conductors workshop appeared in my e-mailbox, saying only five conductors and four singers had signed up.

What a shame, because a delightful gentleman named Rodney Eichenberger was in Honolulu to show and teach how a choir director’s posture and hand movements produced a corresponding sound from a group of singers. A conductor’s conductor, the professor was now in his 80s; and who knows when he would come to the Islands again. Would I consider attending?

With 30 dollars I registered as a singer for two days (Conductors need singers!), with meals included. To me, this was a good deal, to learn from the best! I enjoy choral singing: school choirs, church choir, pit chorus, Honolulu Chorale, lunchtime choir, glee club, neighborhood Christmas carolers. If the opportunity presents itself and it feels right in my heart, I’m there.

Before teaching us his bag of tricks, Rod Eichenberger shared his rules for conductors:

• No talking. Except to identify the title of the piece, line or measure. The time spent talking is put to better use singing.

• No playing of individual voice parts. Just start right in and sing the piece start-to-finish two times. This encourages sight-reading, he said. For those singers who have personal issues with the music, they will resolve the issue by the end of the second time through. We had just one exception to this rule when the accompanist pointed out that the melody line was not being sung correctly.

• Conduct from your energy power center, your dan tien, not any higher or lower. Dan tien is a Chinese tai chi term referring to the area of your body about the size of your fist, below your navel and toward the curve of your back. Described another way, when conducting keep your hand movements directly in front of you, about waist level and below while standing perfectly straight.

*Trust the singers. They are here to sing and will deliver.

Each conductor took a turn at conducting a new piece. Then Rod would explain and show how to make it better. A turn of the wrist here. A tiny pinch with the fingers there. He found something to improve in each conductor’s style. In a second rehearsal each conductor could review a challenging passage with the singers, and Professor Eichenberger would suggest further changes.

The workshop results were so remarkable, our teacher had all of us giggling! So easy, so much better, and so much fun! In the end, I recall, say, eight conductors each with just a few minutes of instruction, eight new pieces music, and three dozen singers learned remarkably simple and logical choral technique. With an amazing piano accompanist who was reading the music the first day for the first time herself, we performed a concert at 8 p.m. on the second day. We were good! I feel so lucky to be a part of this group experience.

Copyright 2011 Rebekah Luke

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My aging cat

5 04 2011

Ula

Her name is Ula, for the red-brown color of her fur. She adopted us, sitting outside the door for several days. When no one answered the ad for “Found: big, brown bossy cat,” we surrendered to letting this beautiful creature move in. She’s old now.

I realized that yesterday morning when I made this portrait. I stopped a split-second-in-time and saw in another way the familiar soul I’ve lived with for at least 15 years. It’s an image of an aging cat.

Ula is the queen of the household, and she has both good (DH) and reluctant (me) staff. She rules with a loud, irritating New York meow that means one of four things: “feed me,” “let me in,” “let me out,” or “pet me.”

She can bang on the screen door as though to break it down. She delights in lying between the dog, who is smaller and arrived after her, and the dog’s way out to pee. It pains me to let her have her way, but I do because otherwise she’d continue to nag or, worse, scratch or nip me.

She is so crotchety, her vet once said, “Why don’t you take her to someone she likes?” On the last visit, we all agreed that she doesn’t have to make the trip to the vet any more.

But though old, Ula’s still got it. For hours last week she stalked a dove, who mistakenly flew into the studio, and nailed it. Feathers everywhere.

DH prefers to think of Ula as ageless and not aging. I ask, “Is she complaining because she is in pain?” because lately she’s barfed more than the normal hairball barf. He replied, “Ula always complains.”

When I reviewed the photo, I thought, “Ula, you grew old before my eyes, and I hardly noticed until now.” It gave me pause.

How we love to chronicle a child’s growth and development. Yet how easy it is to miss the physical changes of life’s winter, especially of those closest to us, unless we make a conscious effort to truly look and “see” them enough to extend some kindness.

Copyright 2011 Rebekah Luke

For more on Ula, click on the word “cat” in Favorite Topics (see the right-hand sidebar). Then scroll down to see previous posts about my cat.


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Go kiss Uncle and Aunty

20 02 2011

Friday I went to a funeral and cried. Not for the deceased Barbara, an artist friend who I wish I’d seen more of in the retirement home where she lived, but for life. I was hoping I would see Nancy, and I did.

Nancy was Barbara’s neighbor and my late father’s late cousin’s widow. Although I hadn’t seen Nancy since both our men died about seven years ago, I recognized her sitting two rows in front of me by her tall Chinese stature and her impeccable attire from head to toe.

As the service ended, I went to say hello, knew that she would have a welcoming smile. “Rebekah!” she said. In a couple of sentences she brought me up to date on her in-laws. “It’s sad,” she said. “We’re all leaving.”

Then, another voice behind me said hello. It was Rita. Rita, Barbara, and I were Arts members of the National League of American Pen Women in Honolulu. I had not seen Rita for a long time either. As I browsed Barbara’s prints and paintings on display, Rita followed and chatted about a lot of things, as is her way, and offered me Kleenex while I was still trying to process my grief.

When I paused, remembering to be in the present, and decided to really listen, I found that she was telling me I should teach art to children. That it was so important. I allowed that I had thought about it, that others suggested the idea too, even before I left my last full-time job a while back. That I might start with the neighborhood kids who live down the road from the studio.

Satisfied that she had finally “reached” me, Rita proceeded to suggest exactly how to go about it—tools, supplies, age group, language, jokes to tell—and said she would send me her teaching materials. Rita still teaches in another part of the island, and, of course, teaching art was one of Barbara’s careers. “Okay … thanks!” I said, and gave her my mailing address.

Fifteen minutes later I met some of my “big” cousins (Mom’s side) for lunch. I brought some old black-and-white photos from the Fifties so they could identify the people in them. Looking at the pictures of us as small kids and teenagers set off plans for the next family reunion in 2012.

I am a member of the third generation in Hawaii, and today there are three subsequent generations of this family.

The first relative I told about plans for a reunion was 13-year-old Jai, who found me on Facebook and asked me to be his friend. Jai is the adopted son of one of my first cousins. Jai and I chatted online last night—I have never met him in person—and he wanted to know how many relatives there were, how many cousins he had and was there anyone his age.

I wrote I didn’t know the total number because there are a lot of babies now, and that’s why we needed to have a reunion. I wrote I would look up the information and let him know this coming week. Promise.

Copyright 2011 Rebekah Luke

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Weekend reflections

24 01 2011

Got up early this morning to write a longer blog post, reflecting on a relaxing weekend.

FRIDAY. How honored I was by a lovely visit from Karen who stopped by after taking her wife Pat to Buddha-Buddha in Hauula for a weekend writing retreat with Mark Travis. Karen and Pat are authors of Courting Equality and spend part of the year in Massachusetts and part of the year in Hawaii. We’ve traveled to Kahoolawe together more than once, and a couple of years ago they stayed in the studio to take care of Alice Brown, Ula and the garden while DH and I went on vacation.

Among other things, Karen and I talked about tai chi over lunch. She left and then I cooked for seven.

I like to cook, especially for others, so I invited my hanai mom Ivalee and her son David and his wife Cherie who live in Alaska, and my friends Becky and Susan. I’d not seen them in a while.

The rain stopped, and it would be a nice drive for them from Honolulu to the windward side of the island. We all had to go to work on Saturday, so it would be an early evening, I promised.

The rain started in December—see my post “Waterfalls and the wet season”—on the day of DH’s birthday dinner, and  most of the guests didn’t make it out. The weather made driving treacherous. I had a bit of food left, plus I’d gone to Costco for that party. I haven’t had to do major shopping since. I just had to look around the freezer and pantry for inspiration to create Friday’s menu. Which was:

Hummus and pita chips / pork casserole with prunes and onion / veggie lasagna / bread /mixed field greens with housewife’s dressing / sachertorte / coffee or tea

Afterward my foodie friend Linda said the menu was “ambitious.” That is often the case with me, and it did feel like TV’s “Dinner Impossible” at times, except that it was possible and I’d planned and envisioned well, figuring out when to prepare each dish so they would all come out at 6 p.m.

I had made all the recipes before. Hummus is easy, I learned from DH’s daughter. The recipe is on the jar of tahini, one of the ingredients. Just make up a batch now and then and keep it in the fridge ready to serve.

I baked the dessert first, giving it time to cool and to free up the oven for the hot dishes.

The pork casserole is more elegant than it sounds. I first made it at Sunset magazine where I worked a long time ago, and where I met Linda—so great that we’ve remained friends. It’s in Quick and Easy Dinners. It bakes in prune juice, but to kick it up a notch I substituted umeshu, Japanese plum wine. Choya brand in the green bottle with the green plums at the bottom is my favorite. It’s from the same fruit, right? 😉 DH always says, “You can make that again.”

While most of the diners are carnivores, Becky is not, so I always like to have something especially for her. The lasagna recipe was meatless. Three kinds of cheese, red pasta sauce and roasted red peppers both from jars would have been adequate to layer between the noodles, but I had some long eggplant to cook up, so I sautéed slices and added them.

The two main dishes baked in the oven at the same time.

I purchased the greens already washed and mixed to save time. To save money, I whisked the dressing myself, using a little olive oil, a squeeze of lime juice, a smidgen of Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Minced shallots would have been great but I didn’t have any.

I learned to make sachertorte after sailing with Viking River Cruises to Vienna a couple of winters ago. It’s a classic, to be enjoyed with coffee in the ubiquitous coffeehouses there. It’s very chocolatey and meant to be slightly dry. Click on this word recipe.

What I hadn’t planned was a table setting, so I just served buffet style, and seven of us managed to gather around the coffee table to break bread together.

SATURDAY. I gave mini Reiki sessions at the Hawaii Wellness & Healing Expo in Aikahi Park. I do health fairs sometimes in addition to private sessions at my healing space. Although well advertised, the fair was tiny in terms of number of vendors and attendees. Faithful Lori, one of my Reiki teachers and now friend, stopped by with her mom.

There was a high booth vendor fee that I paid to get in, though it wasn’t an issue, really, because I wanted the opportunity to do energy work on people. Channeling Reiki helps me heal, harmonize, and balance myself as much as it helps my clients. There was no charge for folks to experience the Reiki; I worked on a freewill donation basis.

In the end, because of the low turnout, the sponsor gave me a free booth for next time! That will be at Koko Marina in the spring. Thank you so much!

DH, who helped set up and break down the Reiki tent, and I came back to the studio and crashed. In channeling Reiki, I have plenty of energy while with clients, using techniques to clear old stuff and refresh. However, it is work, and at the end of the day, as it is for everyone else, a warm shower and a good sleep are in order. Even the neighbors sipping wine across the driveway at happy hour couldn’t lure us from bed.

SUNDAY. Karen and I agreed to attend a lecture on tai chi chuan together given by Pastor Chris Eng at Waiokeola Congregational Church. The lecture was part of a “Ministry of Healing” series of eight talks. I will be presenting about Reiki at the church on February 13.

Besides being interested in tai chi, I wanted to preview the venue and audience. Karen and I practice Yang style, but we have different teachers and we thought hearing Dr. Eng’s perspective could only add to our knowledge. I said hi to my cousin Barbara who directs the church’s music and healing ministries, and I ran in to my friend Dorothy, a poet, from years past. She looks the same!

Because I don’t drive over the Koolau Mountains for just one thing, I went to Barnes & Noble across the street at Kahala Mall to spend a gift card. My bag included a book on bass playing, O The Oprah Magazine, and Your Chinese Horoscope 2011 by Neil Somerville.

The Chinese fortune reminded me that Rats such as I have a tendency to “become involved in too many schemes and chase after too many opportunities at once.” Haha! “If he [the Rat] can slow down and concentrate on one thing at time, he can become very successful.”

I am not a good multitasker. As 2011 is my year for “expansiveness” too, it looks like I’ll have to be disciplined as well and stay balanced in the upcoming Year of the Rabbit.

Copyright 2011 Rebekah Luke

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Aloha Uncle Walter and Mr. Bowers

8 01 2011

I am mourning and celebrating the lives of two greats today:

Walter Kau, wonderful friend to my mother’s family, died on Dec. 20, 2010.

“Uncle” Walter was a very dapper fellow with so much talent, impeccable taste, friendship, love and light. Really a wonderful man. He taught my mother organ. I remember the stage musicals he played for and directed. I remember the dinners he cooked for my aunties and uncles on Monday nights in Kailua, and I remember the day he wrote a check for my oil painting — I think he was my first customer — straight out of the trunk of my car. What an honor! I remember bumping into him not too long ago down at Ward Center and he told me he was buying new shoes. For dancing, no doubt! He was a great friend of our family. His obituary (click on his name above) recalls just the headlines of his full life.

Francis “Miki” Bowers, long-time teacher and friend of Punahou School, passed on New Year’s Day. My contemporaries called him Mister Bowers from the time he was their math teacher. Later our alumni class made malasadas for Carnival under his watchful supervision until we were banned for making non-regulation sizes and shapes. Most recently I had the pleasure of singing in the alumni glee club with Miki, who played ukulele and anchored our group sound. Sometimes he was the entire bass section. He was a trouper. In failing health, he attended last month in wheelchair with oxygen tank to perform at our last Christmas gig of the season.

Punahou president James Scott sent out to the school community a message that I quote, in part,

“It is with great sadness that I share the passing of Dr. Francis “Miki” A. I. Bowers  . . . on January 1, 2011.  Miki was our beloved Academy math faculty who retired in 1998 with 41 years of service.

“A 1945 Punahou graduate, Miki lettered in football and swimming and was student body president his senior year, the same year John Fox started as President.

“In his 41 years at Punahou, Dr. Bowers taught every math course offered, served as department chair for 12 years, supervised Punahou’s SAT testing program for 25 years, and revolutionized math instruction by creating a highly successful AP Calculus program.  He also coached swimming, water polo and volleyball.

“In 1957 Miki inaugurated the famous Carnival malasada booth and was fondly known as “Mr. Malasada.”  For over 50 years he worked with student, parent and alumni volunteers to ensure that fresh, hot, and uniform sized malasadas kept up with demand.

“In 1999, Miki was awarded the “O” in Life by the Punahou Alumni Association, its highest award to an alumnus – recognizing outstanding continuing service to Punahou and Hawai‘i that exemplifies the school’s tradition, spirit, and ideals.

“Proud of his Hawaiian heritage and raised in a home filled with Hawaiian music, Miki was known for his booming bass voice.  In the mid-1960s, he had a Sunday night television show called “Sing Along with Miki”, a live, call-in request format.  Miki also was an active member of the Punahou Alumni Glee Club and the Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club where he was a Director and a member of their choral group.

“Miki leaves Punahou a legacy of excellence and reminds all of us to, “Take charge of your own education, aim high, and don’t be discouraged.”

Aloha dear friends. Mahalo nui. You gave us so much. A hui hou.

Copyright 2011 Rebekah Luke

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New Year’s Eve 2010

31 12 2010

Home is the safest and most comfortable place for me on New Year’s Eve. I’m watching and listening to the New York Philharmonic play “The Nutcracker Suite” on PBS, Live from Lincoln Center.  Alice Brown is doped up and hiding under a blanket on DH’s lap. At least she is not trembling from the boom-booms,  pops, whistles and crackles of the fireworks that started on Christmas Eve and are building up to a crescendo tonight. Less than a couple more hours until 2011!

Kathryn's bouquet from her garden—yellow lehua, a vanda orchid, and hibiscus

I had a lovely day with three girlfriends who live here in Kaaawa. Dorothy, Kathryn, and I have birthdays around the same time, and Andrea has tried to get us all to celebrate together year after year. We live less than a mile from each other, one would think it would be easy. Not so with our busy lives.

I took a chance today and invited everyone over for lunch, conversation, and a round of board Scrabble. When our kids were young we used to play almost every Sunday at the beach. Well, they made time and came over! Dorothy brought champagne, Andrea brought pomegranate juice, and Kathryn brought her fried chicken, a lovely bouquet of flowers from her garden, and her Angel Cards.

I fixed a salad vinaigrette of Manoa lettuce, watercress, fennel, orange, and dried cranberries; turkey sandwiches, and my favorite lemon cheesecake. We played one game, drank up the champagne, then everybody left to do their New Year’s Eve thing.

Our thing was to spend a gift certificate for dinner at Haleiwa Joe’s with the rest of Miss Marvelous’s family (Mom, Dad, and Tutu) and my first college roommate Becky and her niece Katie, in town from New York. Becky gave me a box of Sparklers.

Alice Brown’s happiness at seeing DH and I arrive home must have temporarily overrode the benefits of the tranquilizer we gave her before we left, for she greeted us jumping up and wagging her tail as usual — so joyful!

I closed the windows, not wanting the smoke from the firecrackers to trigger my asthma. I opened a box of Island Princess Mele Macs and sat down to reflect on the end of the year and a decade. I’m so interested in seeing what we will all create in 2011! The Angel Card I pulled was “expansiveness.” I like that notion.

Well, I think I’ll take my Sparkler’s and champagne down the road and say Happy New Year to the neighbors. They were already burning the money as we drove back from dinner. (A ban on fireworks in the State of Hawaii takes effect on Jan. 2, so a lot of people are taking advantage of the last chance to burn them legally. Firecrackers will be regulated by permit.)

As the clock clicks toward midnight, I wish all of you every happiness, love, light, and gratitude! This is my last post for 2010. I hope you will continue to visit Rebekah’s Studio in the new year. All the same characters will be here, but we’ll have new experiences to share. I’d love to hear from you. ~ Rebekah

Copyright 2010 Rebekah Luke

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A few small traditions

23 12 2010

Miss Marvelous was at the studio yesterday. She discovered the “new” toy box with her grandfather’s name in big letters on the top. The one with toys her mom used to play with.

She had fun drinking “tea” out of the small plastic yellow cups and saucers she found, requesting many refills. She was able to fix my erratic laptop with a wave of her hand (which button did she press?!…for next time ;-)).

And she helped decorate our Christmas tree! The wooden ornaments were hand painted in 1977 by her great grandparents Walt and Dorothy of Pennsylvania. Merry Christmas!

Copyright 2010 Rebekah Luke

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