Don't We Love the Oscars??!!

Tonight, I'm watching the Oscars and wondering if my favorite movies will win. Although I don't enjoy watching violent, bloody scenes, one of the movies nominated is one I hope will win. It's called "No Country for Old Men" and the reason I want it to win is that my own daughter, Elizabeth Cash, worked on it!! She's go to be really excited too!!
According to www.mfiles.co.uk, the Academy Awards idea originated in 1927-28 as a method for the film industry to recognise individual achievements within its ranks and at the same time do some self-promotion, the "Academy" being the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences or AMPAS which originated the idea. The idea has progressed over the years, with different rules and methods developing over time but the basic premise is the same. There are a number of Awards for "Best Picture", "Best Director", etc. and films and the people involved go through a process of nomination. These days there are generally five official nominees for each Award, and the members of the Academy then vote to select a winner who receives a statuette known as an "Oscar" though the origin of the nickname is now uncertain. It was 1934 before film music was recognised with its own awards, and in the earlier years the winners in the music and other technical categories received a Plaque rather than the famous Statuette. But since 1946 there have been two or three statuettes awarded for music categories. Usually these are for "Original Score" or "Dramatic Score" and "Original Song" but often including a third award whose name has tended to change over the years for "Musical Score", "Music Adaptation", "Comedy Score" or similar.
Hope you're watching too!

Have you been to a Pow-wow?

One of the things that babyboomers have tried to do is go back into music history and revive some of the most meaningful types of music to humans. For a long time, the history of music was thought to be continually evolving so something that was more than 300-400 hundred years old was thought to be "interesting" but not particularly relevant. Things are different now and musicologists are going back and reviving, researching and performing music that is ancient. Enjoy this article about the "Indian Pow-wow."

American Indians have held ceremonial gatherings since ancient times, but intertribal powwows—in which members of several tribes convene to socialize and exchange cultural traditions—are a more recent practice.
“Everyone claims that their powwow was the first,” says Tara Browner, 43, associate professor of ethnomusicology and American Indian Studies at the University of California in Los Angeles and author of Heartbeat of the People: Music and Dance of the Northern Pow-wow.
Contemporary intertribal powwows began in the 1880s with the establishment of Indian reservations, but whether it was the Poncas in Oklahoma or the Winnebagos in Nebraska who first welcomed all tribes is debatable.
“The concept of powwows goes back before European contact, but they were strictly clannish,” Browner says. The word “powwow” is derived from the Algonquian word “pau wau,” meaning “he dreams” and is associated with medicine men and healing.
[…]”What’s important about powwows is the sense of community,” says Browner, who is Choctaw and a dancer. “You feel strong and proud of who you are, and there’s a comfort level there for just a weekend. All families have stories of sadness and displacement, and you’re with people who understand your background and how it shaped who you are.”
Finding a powwow isn’t a problem, Browner says.
“I tell my students that there’s a powwow within three hours’ driving distance of anyone in the United States.”
This year’s Gathering of Nations Powwow is scheduled April 28-30. For more information, log on to www.gatheringofnations.com, or to find a powwow near you, visit www.powwow-power.com.

Quieting the Mind of Babyboomers

I don't know about you, but I have trouble quieting my mind. I have what some people call a "monkey mind" and it just scrambles all over the place! There are times when I choose to have no music. Today a read a health tip that said:

To reduce stress have period of silence during the day. "Silence will slow down your organs, calm your brain and increase your awareness." Today I will choose silence!

Merry Christmas to All!!

Merry Christmas from Washington, D.C. where I'm spending the holidays with my daughter and son-in-law. We've been having a wonderful time and have done the usual sight-seeing plus concerts at the National Cathedral and awesome meals in great restaurants as well as delicious home-cooking!!

We stayed up late playing Wii and and just having an awesome time together. Tonight I return to Louisville and back to work! Hope you all have a fantastic day with friends and family!! Keep the music playing!

Babyboomers love Christmas/Holiday Music, right?

I have a feeling that we babyboomers were all really steeped in the Christmas culture of the 50's, 60's, and 70's. That's when all the TV specials really got started and Christmas got more commercial than ever before. Nevertheless, I love Christmas and have been wanting to create a Christmas CD for a long time.

This year, I DID it!!! And I want to share it with as many babyboomers as possible. If you love Christmas and Christmas music, please go to www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com/Christmas. I'm offering everyone a really great deal if you buy multiple CD's!

Keep the music playing!

Hugs,

Alice

What song do YOU remember from High School

There are just sooo many songs that I remember from my high school years. I would really hate to be limited to just one. But, let me see if I can choose my top 5. And keep in mind, that's today. If I had to choose my top five tomorrow they could very well be different. So.....today I choose: (not in any particular order)

1. Sealed with a kiss

2. Cupid

3. Up on the Roof

4. Downtown

5. Big Girls Don't Cry

Just writing those names down bring back memories of boyfriends, and football games, and certain outfits and certain teachers. WOW!

What IS that?? Well, now a I know that a lot of it is brain chemistry and the release of endorphins and dopamine. Are you a babyboomer? Are there songs that you loved back in high school. Then go listen to some of them! Nowadays you can download all kinds of music and have them in your car or your home or wherever you want it. Try it and enjoy!!!

Baby Boomers Will have Music for Surgery

As my readers surely know by now, I am a great believer in the benefits of music through headphones during surgery. As a matter of fact I now have a patent pending on headphones that will deliver the perfect music to the patient before, during, and after surgery.

As we babyboomers age, there is a very good chance that some kind of surgery will be in our future. Please go to my music and surgery blog if you know you'll be having surgery and feel free to contact me for a personalized surgery playlist! And do tell all your friends about this!

Baby Boomers and Music in Sarasota

This week I was on vacation in Sarasota and one thing I love to do on vacation is to find a miniature golf course to play. We found a place called Smuggler's Cove and, to my delight, they had the oldies blasting through loudspeakers. I'm not sure that it really helped my game, but it sure made it a lot more fun!

Enjoy the little video made on one of the harder holes!

One BabyBoomer's Story about Music

Growing up in S.C. in the 50's afforded me loads of opportunities to listen to music. My father was a Methodist minister and all five kids were at church every time the doors opened. I guess that church music was the first music that I really loved and that made me feel safe, secure, and loved. I loved singing hymns out in the congregation and I loved hearing the choir sing each Sunday and the organist playing her preludes and postludes. When I was about in fifth grade, they started a junior choir and I thought that was heavenly! Of course I was already taking piano lessons when we moved to Clemson in 1957 and I continued those in Clemson.

One of my fondest memories of music in Clemson was being taken to a concert at the old Field House given by the Obenkirchen Children's Choir. I never knew that children could make such a beautiful sound and I wanted to be in a choir like that too!

Because we lived by the church, up on "Holy Hill," we were also across the street from the football team's practice field. We could watch the team doing their spring training but we could also hear the marching band practice. Even today when I hear snare drums I think of the Clemson Marching Band and I can smell the Fall leaves and feel the excitement.

As I became a pre-teen and then a teen, I had a little transistor radio at my bedside and I learned all the popular songs of '61 and '62. I also began going to dances at the school, in the church basement and at the "Y Cabin. You should have seen me doing the "Twist" and the "Mashed Potato!" (I should probably do more of that now!)

Well, gotta stop for tonight. I'm getting ready to return to Clemson on Thursday to speak and I'm creating more CD's to take with me and working on some piano pieces to play during my presentation.

If you live in Clemson or anywhere near by, please come to see me! I'll be speaking at 7:30 on the Calhoun lecture series. Call Donna Arterburn for more info at 864-656-0605 . Hope to see you there!

Why do BabyBoomers respond so powerfully to music?

Last week I was right outside of Helen, GA giving a fun, fun presentation to a room-full of activity directors for Senior Centers across the state of Georgia on "Music and Babyboomers: An Inseparable Connection."

One of the things we talked about was how recorded music and live music has been available to the babyboomers more than any previous generation. As a babyboomer I know that I had a tiny record player as a little girl, a radio of my own starting at about age 8, a transistor radio as a teen. Then came my stereo in college, a cassette player later, 8-tracks as a young married, then CD's and now MP3's in my iPod! Wow! That's a lot of access to music. So probably we babyboomers have heard more different music than any generation plus we've gotten it on TV and had more and more access to live concerts than any previous generation!

I'd love to know your thoughts on this topic, especially if you're a babyboomer!

Also, don't forget to visit my other site:http://www.blogger.com/www.babyboomerarticles.com.

Baby Boomers and Music in Georgia

Yesterday I spoke to a room full of activity directors from all over Georgia. They were attending a convention about "mature adult programming" or M.A.P. and I was invited to do the opening session! The topic was "Baby Boomers and Music: An Inseparable Connection" and we had a great time! First of all, we listened to loads of baby boomer hits from the 50's, 60's, and 70's and got up and danced, clapped and snapped fingers to all of these hits. We listened to everything from Elvis and The Temptations to Carole King and The Carpenters. We talked about the music of our childhoods and teen years and the messages we learned from those songs.

The setting was beautiful Unicoi State Park near Helen, Georgia and we were in the main lodge, a perfect setting for chanting, toning and drumming. We talked some about that and agreed that maybe next time we'll do a workshop on that.

All of these vivacious activity directors were participating fully and sharing some fascinating stories from their own musical backgrounds. If YOU are a baby boomer or have some in your family, you can always get a smile if you play the fabulous babyboomer music from the 60's, 70's and 50's! Give it a try!

Soothing Sounds

As we baby boomers age, we often find ourselves needing more and more medical tests and procedures. I think you'll find this information from "Times Online" today very interesting:

Soothing sounds
MUSIC does not only soothe the savage breast, it is also the best way to calm people undergoing minor surgery or an invasive test, reports an authoritative study covering more than 1,400 women.
Researchers working for the Cochrane Collaboration scrutinised the results of 11 trials on anxiety in women undergoing a colposcopy, the cervical exam that follows a suspect smear result. They report that three common methods for lowering anxiety: leaflets, counselling and videos had no effect. But playing cool music to women undergoing the test reduced their fear levels significantly.

Some Musical Memories from this Baby Boomer

This plast week I had the pleasure of entertaining one of my former School of Music professors. Prof. Richard Spalding conducted the chorus at the music school for my last coupleof years there and I had not seen him in several years even though he is actually in the same neighborhood. I've been listening to some of the music that we sang in chorus recently and just decided that I'd like to have him and his wife over for lunch. It definitely brought back lots of great memories for me and, as they say, "a good time was had by all." The picture are of Prof. Spalding and myself and also a picture of the ice cream cake I made for our dessert. Now, on to the gym!! (to burn off some of those ice cream calories!)

Healing Music for Memorial Day

Many babyboomers went to Vietnam and the Vietnam War. Far too many never came back, including friends of mine and boyfriends of mine. It makes me very sad to think that the same thing is happening today with all the young men and women going overseas, never to return to their families and friends. Is there anything all that can help? Today, on Memorial Day, we're honoring all the fallen men and women in every war. One thing that will happen during every service will be the playing of some of our best patriotic music. Of course we'll hear "Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies," "My Country Tis of Thee," and "Proud to be an American," among other things. What will this mean for you? Do you find these songs healing, purposeful, and uplifting? I know that the composers who wrote them wanted them to make a difference in your loife and to inspire feelings of patriotism and gratitude. What songs do you want to hear today on Memorial Day? Please let me know.

Click Here to Hear this Music

Has George Bush heard about healing music?

I was listening to the news tonight, somewhat absent-mindedly, when I heard the say something about George Bush conducting an orchestra in Virginia?! I thought my ears had deceived me! George Bush? Conducting an orchestra? But then I did some research and found that it was true...George Bush was attending an event in the Jamestown 400-year anniversary celebration and decided he would like to try his hand and conducting an orchestra. He "slyly" tapped on the conductor's shoulder and indicated that he would like to give it a try. At first she didn't recognize him (Joanne Fallon) but when she realized who was asking to conduct, she turned the baton right over to him! Amazing!

What makes music healing for baby boomers?

Why do baby boomers have healing music that is different from anyone else's healing music? Well, one of the special categories of healing music is the music that an individual "fell in love to" or "courted to." For we baby boomers that's going to be anythings from the early rock and rollers like Elvis or Jimmy Dean to the Beatles, Jimi Hendricks or The Who. When we are in our 80's and 90's, there's a very good chance that we'll want to hear that music and that it will make us feel warm and fuzzy and really good inside. Strange? Not really. It's the music that first gave us a physical rush when we danced to it or kissed our boyfriend or girlfriend to. There's a powerful connection between our feelings, our hormone rushes and the music we're listening to at that moment.

I've already started trying to re-collect some of my favorites now that so much music is being re-issued on CD or MP3. How about you?

Baby Boomers at Carnegie Hall

You may have read in my other blogs about my recent trip to NYC to hear my sister conduct her orchestra at Carnegie Hall! I'm on my home now and thought you might enjoy seeing a few pictures from this fabulous and memorable trip! The concert on Tuesday night was just awesome and I was so proud of my baby sister. She, my other sister who was there, and I, were three babyboomers for whom music was extremely healing. Enjoy the pictures...you'll also see our mother in one of these pictures!

New Presentation for Baby Boomers Delivered Tonight

Tonight I gave a brand-new presentation. It was called "The Power of Music with Babyboomers and we had great time! We listened to lots of oldies from the 50's, 60's, 70's and even a few 80's ad had a contest where the winner got a free book and CD of mine! We also talked about all of the wonderful things that music can do for the mind, body and spirit.

If you're looking for a program or a presenter that knows the babyboomer music and loves it and IS a babyboomer, please give me call! I'd love to com to YOUR town!

Last Night at Riverdance

Well, I promised you last night in my Brain and Music blog that I would let you know how I liked Riverdance. As I expected, I loved it!

The haunting melodies, played on ancient Irish instruments, the fantastic dancing and the audience interaction combine to provide an evening of sheer and total jubilation. This was at least the third time I had seen it, not to mention that I own a videotape of the show. It changes just a little bit each year but it never fails to exhilerate me and make me want to learn more about Celtic and other ancient Irish music. Yes, Cash is an Irish name but it is my married name. Nevertheless, I must have some Irish blood or DNA in me or I don't think I would respond so powerfully to these melodies, harmonies, and rhythms. What about you? Do you like Riverdance?

What oldies do you like best?

What oldies do you like best? There are so many different kinds of oldies for us babyboomers depending on whether you were born closer to 1946 or 1964! Basically, the music that you listened to from ages 13-20 (give or take 2 or 3 years on either side) will be yor best "oldies" music! As we babyboomers age, the marketers are coming out with loads of CD collections of all kinds of "our" music. I'd love to see some DVD's of American Bandstand, wouldn't you? I never missed it! How about you?