Breaking My Silence

Imported from my now defunct book blog: 

Sheesh. I haven't posted here in a month. It's been pretty quiet, huh? Unless you count all the cricket chirping. And the sounds of paint drying. What gives?

Well. It's not that I haven't been reading. I could have/should have been updating a lot of things here, both my reading and that of the boys, but I had some kind of book-lister's block, I think. The longer I put it off, the more I shied away. Pretty soon I felt awkward coming to my own blog. Like it was going to judge me. Like a sadly neglected friend you are afraid to call because you simply have no excuse this time. Except it's just a blog. And thus has no phone.....

Anywho....I'm going to try to get back to posting here because I know I'll like being able to look back on our year of reading, and I'll need the little reminders of plot and substance because these days I seem to be getting forgetful.

Soooooo.... what's the big motivation to post at this point? Well, I'll tell you. I read a message on one of the home school boards about a new Lemony Snicket book/CD combo called The Composer is dead. I simply could not ignore this!

From a review at Amazon:

This irreverent picture book is built somewhat along the lines of Who Killed Cock Robin?, but imbued with Snicket’s charmingly snide wit. The Composer is dead (“This is called decomposing”) and the Inspector is called in to uncover the murderer—or murderers. The sections of the orchestra are personified as the Inspector interrogates the Violins and Woodwinds and Trumpets and even the Conductor. Each has an alibi, though by the end it becomes clear that they are all complicit in the butchering of countless dead composers.

I must add it to my next book order and treat the the kids to a lesson in orchestral instruments. We've done Prokofiev's Peter and The Wolf, we've done Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals, we've even done Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide. I think a little bit of Snickett is just the thing we need to add some humor to our music studies. And speaking of humor, may I make a joke at the expense of a woodwind?

Q: What is a burning oboe good for?

A: Setting a bassoon on fire.

(H/T Jay)

Take a gander at this interview/performance...you'll want to rush out and buy it, I bet!