More student stuff

One of the pieces in Suzuki Book 2 is "The Two Grenadiers" by Schumann.

One of my 8-year-old students took to calling it "The Two Granite Ears". Another kept calling it "The Three Grenadiers" by mistake (too much Dumas...or candy...); now he's calling it "The Three Minus One Grenadiers".

In other news, Meeska Mooska Mouseketeer! Mousecartoon Time now is here!

Check your algorithm

OK, so I just looked up the lyrics for "C is for Cookie", because I couldn't remember which other food "with a bite out of it looks like the letter C". The site pulled up the lyrics, which is right, the other songs from the "Sesame Street Platinum All-Time Favorites" album, which is right, and a list of other similar songs.

Which turns dreadfully wrong when you look and see that the second song is "Y'all Niggaz" by DMX (to which I will not link, as I want to keep this a basically family-friendly blog).

Upon reflection, I can see how it happened...gangsta rap and Sesame Street songs share characteristics of a fairly strict meter and rhyme scheme, simple harmonic structure, and repetition of key words or phrases, so they are quite structurally similar. However, in this situation, one might want to figure out a way to analyze for content.

Now I want to write my thesis on the comparision between Sesame Street songs and gangsta rap. I think that might not get approved.

Celebrity sighting! I think.

I swear I saw Cameron Diaz walking her dogs in the Public Garden yesterday. If it wasn't her, it sure looked like her...regular people don't have cheekbones like that. The only reason I'm not positive is because she was alone (except for a single photographer), and nobody was mobbing her, but then again, this is New England, and people tend to respect others' space.

I love my students

In which I relate some of the things my students have said lately. I will give only their ages; if you happen to belong to one of these students (although I'm not aware that any of my families read this, one never knows on the Internet), please realize that I post in the spirit of love, never mockery. These are all different kids.

"This is going to take forMINUTES!" --age 4 (did not mean "four minutes", definitely meant "forminutes")

"I hate zippers. They get caught on everything. Once I zippered my skin. I don't even like sliding doors." --age 9 (after getting violin strings stuck in the zipper on the violin case; neither of us knows just how.)

Me: Try putting your second finger across from your thumb.
*long pause*
Student, age 8: Oh my God. I forgot what "across" means.

Me: What does this little dot here mean?
Student, age 8: Soft. Loud? Short-long-fluffy-ARGH!