Embracing music of all kinds

Summer is here and I have been in throes of flashback to the music of my youth. Both my girls are into music, therefore, it is blaring at my house from their waking hour, noon until way after midnight.
So instead of becoming that mean mom and yelling, “Turn down that awful music!” I have decided to embrace it. I have listened to Green Day, Korn, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco and other weird tracks of songs my daughters have discovered on the internet more hours than I care to mention.
The oldest is contemplating being in a band. Her boyfriend is lead singer in a local band called “Lost and Forgotten.” I saw their first concert live. I lasted until 11 p.m. They were good and loud. Loud is hard to take after 40. Now she has had two years of mandolin and guitar lessons but has decided to play keyboards.
I could have reminded her I paid for her to have piano lessons, but no, she hated the piano. I keep my mouth shut and say, “That's nice,” as I contemplate the amazing Stratocaster steel guitar that my husband bought for her last summer or the incredible mandolin she received the Christmas before. I marvel that my younger daughter chose the saxophone to play in band even though one Christmas brought her a full trap set that she was just dying to have. It is now gathering dust in my old shop. I bite my tongue as I see them finding their way through music.
People who know me think that beauty and books are the driving force in my life. They are but I have many other interests and music happens to be one of them. Music can sooth the savage beast and it can also provoke one to random acts of violence. Like me, if I hear “Helena” just one more time!
My husband and I recently watched Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown” which is just about the greatest movie we have decided that we have watched all year. We keep playing that movie repeatedly and have gathered my daughter's friends to watch that film. What makes it such a great story is the soundtrack, the music.
I know that the book is always better than the movie but we recently watched a full day of Star Wars movies and that music just blew me away. Could it have been the surround sound? Probably, but what I have decided is that to fully experience everything in life we need to use all our senses. Okay, where is the buttered popcorn, peanut M & M’s and a frosty Coke?
My daughter and her friends were wailing about there was no parent to take them to the Warp Tour that was coming up in Dallas. This is a day where the kids get up at dawn to mold their hair into liberty spikes, don black corsets, fishnet hose, black net mini skirts and ten ton black buckled leather boots to listen to all their favorite bands and get totally sun burnt and dehydrated.
I, being the good mom, not the mean mom, volunteered to take my daughter and her “Goth” entourage with my daughter going, “We are not Goth or even Emo or as defined by the kids, means emotional, mom, we are just expressing our own personality.” Whatever, as I am thinking what in the world is a almost 50 year old mom going to wear and do at this event?
I have decided I am going as a reporter, to document this event with an unjaded eye for a future blog. There is no way I am going to fit in so I am even thinking about carrying a briefcase. Could I be an agent, publicity manager?
I flashback to 1976 as I and my friends are in the nosebleed section of this outdoor stadium in Kansas City to see in concert Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles and surprise guest Dan Fogleberg.
My date who was the brother of my co-hair stylist’s boyfriend and I double-dated to this event. I remember my date as never saying a word, having really long black wavy hair, wire rimmed glasses and continuously going to the concession stand to buy me buckets of popcorn.
You see on the way to the concert my friends had baked some incredible brownies and I was starved. I woofed down two of those gigantic and delicious chewy chocolate squares not realizing they had made them with a special herbal recipe. I can remember my friends as laughing their fool heads off as I asked my date, could I please have one more bucket of popcorn, I was really, really, hungry.
It was the best concert I have ever been to in my life even though I had to use binoculars to see the band. Well, I can't declare like Clinton, I inhaled those brownies but I was a total innocent. I almost killed Teresa when I found out what exactly was in those brownies that made them so fibrous! Good grief, whatever would make anyone want to eat or smoke something that made them eat like a pig! To this day, I still pick through a brownie to make sure it is safe before eating.
I find it highly ironic that playing in Linda Ronstadt’s band was lead guitarist, Richard Bowden who now runs with his wife, The Pulpwood Queens of Linden, Texas at Music City Texas. How cool is that? I think I will have to tell Richard my brownie story. I can guarantee you that he will then tell me a story that will leave mine in the dust.
Richard is president of Music City Texas, a not-for-profit organization that is bringing great music to East Texas. I have gone to see Don Henley, Marty Stuart, John Anderson, and recently took a carload of teenagers to see The Terms. They went grudgingly thinking, old folk’s music. By the time we left the concert after they spent an hour talking with the band and getting their autographs on everything from their arms to CDs to t-shirts, all they could talk about was how cool was that band all the way home.
I have spent a good part of my life trying to get kids to read. I have always felt that given the right book, they will go on to be lifetime readers. I have also found that music can be a wonderful bridge to reading. Someone had to write the songs and those songs really speak to kids in the angst of finding their own selves. You get a teenager that won’t read and loves music? Hand them a Cameron Crowe book, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Almost Famous,” “Elizabethtown” then get them the soundtrack. Who says reading has to be boring? Give them something they can relate too and you will not be able to keep books in their hands fast enough.
Got a great book that has music ties? For me check out “The Song Reader” by Lisa Tucker or “And These Shoes Keep Walking Back to You” by Kathi Kamen Goldmark. Now “Panic! At the Disco” has come on full blast. I am thinking my paying job is working at Beauty and the Book but my real job is raising these kids to be responsible citizens, good readers, but who says they can't have some BIG TIME FUN while they are at it!
Tiara wearing and Book sharing, Kathy L. Patrick
For more information on the above check out these websites: www.cameroncrowe.com for the wonderful world of Cameron Crowe www.musiccitytexas.org for Richard Bowden and Music City Texas www.myspace.com/theterms for more on the Baton Rouge, Louisiana band, The Terms www.lisatucker.com for author, Lisa Tucker www.dqydj.com for author Kathi Kamen Goldmark

By Richard Bowden
June 9, 2006 06:24 PM Link to this
Kathy — enjoyed your blog on “music in your life.” My recommendation to you as your kids get deeper into the music that you don’t quite understand … eat more brownies!
Richard Bowden

By Kathy L. Patrick
June 11, 2006 08:44 AM Link to this
And my guess Mr. President is that you have a killer brownie recipe! Now you will love this, I just got off the Warped Tour website and they have what they call a REVERSE DAY CARE. No kidding, it is a place to put the parents while the kids are at the concert. They will have movies, Ensure and Metamusel for refreshments, wheelchair access, and a special restroom facility for Depend changes. Just kidding on the imenities but I am seriously checking it out! I just hope they are not showing “On Golden Pond”. My favorite name for a band that are playing at this event! The Pink Spiders! Last night the girls and I fell asleep coming up with names for bands. We about fell off the bed in stitches with Madeleine came up with The Butter Sticks. I’ve got the music in me, kat