Today I was trying to decide what colour of T-shirts to order for this summer's Suzuki Valhalla Institute. The decision-making has become a considerably more onerous task since we noticed a disturbing trend over the past two years.In March of 2006 we chose a trendy and fetching chocolate brown colour for the shirts. In June the main septic system at the school where we hold the workshop stopped functioning, with replacement taking until late August. We were reduced to hauling water, restricting washroom use and our poor lunch caterer had to cart the dishes from 65 patrons and all the preparation down through two doorways to the tiny staff room sink to hand-wash them there.
In May of 2007 we chose this lovely forest green colour for the next year's shirts and put the logo on in a fiery orange and white. On August 1st, less than five days before the workshop began, forest fires closed the main highway from the south, threatened us with evacuation and blanketed the area in smoke.So what colour do we choose for this year? Do we go with red and risk bloodshed? Do we choose a lovely royal blue, but bring in some sandbags to cope with the inevitable flooding? Perhaps we could go with black -- after all, stringed instruments are acoustic, and we could run our classes pretty easily during a power failure. Do you think deep purple is safe, or is there some sort of horrific disaster that is coloured purple that I'm just not aware of?
Perhaps we'll go with red. There will be at least one physician on site. I'll bring bandages.
~sigh~ if your an old hippie like me, you'd know tht the band Deep Purple wrote a top chart song called "Smoke on the Water"..anyhow.. the song is about the fire at the night club they preformed at.... burnt it to the ground... I'm thinking I'd go with white since snow would be something novel in summer and something you all know how to deal with!!!
ReplyDeleteLea
Oh yes, I know that song. Thanks for reminding me. Hmmm... white would be safer, wouldn't it? Unless it falls as hail ....
ReplyDeleteHmmm, what about Rainbow colors? It might rain quite a bit but as long as it doesn't flood you'd be alright. Or you could try gray and risk dreary, overcast days.
ReplyDeleteIf you went with gray you would only have to plan for rain.
ReplyDeleteHi Miranda,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Erin J. and I am a Suzuki Mom too. I stumbled across your site looking for Suzuki resources. While reading the earlier entries, I felt almost as if I was reading my own autobiography and since my daughter and I are going through one of the REALLY frustrating phases; your later pages gave me a lot of hope.
My oldest daughter, Natalie, started Suzuki Violin last fall just before she turned three. She's the youngest student in her class by far, but I talked the program directors into accepting her anyway because my husband and I both have music degrees. I am a flutist and he is a classical guitarist. I taught band in the public schools for two years before getting married and becoming a stay-at-home mom.
We have a wonderful Suzuki program here. Since I do freelance web design, I barter website work in exchange for class tuition, so here is our web page. http://www.palousesuzuki.com I think I remember reading that you went to a Suzuki Institute down here a couple of summers ago.
Reading about your experiences teaching your own children has hit a lot of chords with me. I really really want to develop the intrinsic motivation that is so necessary for a lifetime love of music. I have a 16-month-old son who would LOVE to get his hands on Sister's violin. It sounds like you have had those days!
Anyway, I have ended up writing an absolute book here. It has been terrific reading through your site.
Thanks for the good blog and the encouragement it offered.
Erin J.
Moscow, Idaho
http://whistlererin.livejournal.com
P.S. I can't think of any natural disaster associated with yellow? ;)
I had to chuckle upon reading Erin J.'s comment, because that's how we found your site, too. And we go back a long way with moomins. A forgetful child is a "silk monkey" (from Comet in Moominland), and we have a 14-year old feral cat named Thingumy, although brother Bob was resettled at a farm when I disbanded my feral cat colony when I had to move eleven years ago...
ReplyDeleteAny of your natural disaster t-shirt colors would trump the cheesy ones from the amateur chamber music workshop I attend every year. I never got the one with the really horrid woodcut of Beethoven, because the starving-artist who made it ran out of shirts but cashed my check anyway. At least I then had a good excuse for not wearing it. Last year's grey tee has some stylized mountains (which look more like handwriting practice) and the legend "I play Brahms, therefore I count". Yeek!
Deborah
I suggest GOLD... :) I'd like to stake my claim in any gold found as a result of t-shirt colour choice ;)
ReplyDeleteIf it was left to my daughter, it'd be purple, to elder boy - green, to younger boy - red.
ReplyDeleteHey, how about Orange? Or would that invite forest fires as well?