Blues Monday

Richmond Beach Saltwater Park, Shoreline, WA
BLUES CLUES: We cracked the math books first thing to start our school day. While the kids were working away, I decided to put on some music. I started with "Manic Monday" by the Bangles, followed by "Monday, Monday" by the Mamas and the Papas. Then it was a catchy hip hopish tune called "Monday" by Jimmy Dub. Then there was "Monday," a piano piece by Ludovico Einaudi, and lastly it was "Stormy Monday" by Humble Pie. Collectively, we decided that we were not fans of the last track - it went on and on and on (9 minutes worth). I told the kids that that's often the case with the blues - which led into a discussion about what the blues is. I gave them a loose description too largely based on my not really a blues fan perspective. To balance things out, we watched a great BrainPOP video on the topic. It (briefly) covered the history of the blues, including its origin with slaves in the American south more than 200 years ago. We learned that blues tunes are often about work or hardship or pain or love gone wrong.

The video told us that a traditional form is the Twelve Bar Blues, which has three lines of four measures apiece. The lyrics of the first line state the theme. The second line repeats that theme with, perhaps, a slight variation in words and in the third line the chords are changed and the words change - it's perhaps a twist or a punch line. There was an example in the video, and to back that up, I played Elvis singing "Steamroller Blues," which definitely fit the Twelve Bar format, as the first two lines are, "I'm a steamroller baby, I'm gonna roll all over you; I'm a steamroller baby, I'm gonna roll all over you." And the third is, "I'm gonna inject your soul with some sweet rock-n-roll and shoot you full of rhythm and blues." After that, I challenged the kids to write their own Twelve Measure blues tune. I told them to think of something or someone who causes them grief or hardship.

CJ wasted no time penning lines about a situation with his toys that has him down. CJ had Annabelle accompany him. His lyrics, in case you can't make them out, are: "All my Mega Man Retro Roto toys did not come with Build a Bot pieces. Oh my Mega Man Retro Toys did not come with Build a Bot pieces. Oh I hope I don't have to buy two of each one."
Try as she might, Annabelle couldn't think of anything to write about. I told her she's lucky if she doesn't have the blues. :) I suggested maybe it would be easier for her if she wrote a song from someone else's perspective. She decided to give Kirby the dog a voice. She wrote (and sang) "I have doggie bone blues and they're killin' me right now. Oh, I got dog bone blues and they're killin' me right now. At least I'm gonna get one soon. I really want one from a cow."
TAGGERS: It was supposed to rain all day. Mercifully, the forecast was wrong. While Christian and I worked to make sure the south side of the house didn't collapse (longish, "funny" story there involving a completely rotten main support post), the kids played in the alley. At one point I heard CJ say he was doing "water graffiti." I looked and saw Annabelle and he were using the hose nozzle to write letters and words. A bit later he declared "CJ's Service Shop" was open and he washed scooters. SHORELINE SHORE: This afternoon we headed out to Shoreline to check out the Sears Outlet in search of a dishwasher. Since we had to drive that far, we decided to make a bit of a field trip out of it. We headed to a Puget Sound coastal neighborhood on the west end of Shoreline called Richmond Beach. There, we found a terrific park.We had to cross a foot bridge over the railroad tracks to reach the beach. As luck would have it a super long, fast moving freight train was going under just as we crossed. If you look closely at the photo, you can see the train stretches all the way around the point at the right of the picture. Standing watch over the water was "Welcoming Figure," depicting a man and woman in Coast Salish style. The plaque on the statue says the beach was once known as q' q' e' waidet (k-eh k-EH wai dut), for a tobacco like plant growing naturally at the site. Above, CJ looks across at Whidbey Island. As coincidence would have it, the playground at the park was blue, in keeping with today's theme.