Born to Run: RIP Clarence Clemons

My family is a Bruce Springsteen family.  My dad was introduced to him by his brothers and saw him in around two dozen concerts, probably more.  When my parents started dating, my dad took my mom to a few concerts and when they lived together, those were some of the first albums played in the house.  My sister and I were born into a house playing Springsteen (not literally, we were born in a hospital, but you get the picture).  I knew the words to Born to Run and Born in the USA when I was around 6 years old. Granted, I didn't know what the songs meant, I just like the rhythms and the drums...and the saxophone.  By 8 years old, I could pick out Clarence Clemons in just about any song.  His style and technique is so unique, there isn't a soul who can make a saxophone sing like Clarence could. And lets be honest, he wasn't half bad at the tambourine either! When I began playing the saxophone in college, I knew I would never get close to his talents, but it was his music that inspired me to want to play.

Below are a few youtube videos featuring the Big Man, including an epic intro that Bruce gave him in England one time, a great Jungleland solo and, my personal favorite, his Born to Run solos.  The Born to Run video is from a live concert and is a little movement-happy, but the views of Clarence is great, plus I love what Bruce did to him in that video.

To quote something that I saw posted on a youtube video: Heaven is having one hell of a jam session right now! Rest in Peace Clarence and thank you for sharing all of your gifts with us.

Counting to the Magic: 38 Days

There are different sights, smells and sounds that, no matter where you find them, you are immediately transported to Disney and this sense of happiness flows over you! For me, that feeling comes when I hear Main Street Music.  I just cannot get enough of that music! It puts me right on Main Street, staring at the castle, friendly cast members waving, the bakery smell wafting out of the doors....Ok, how much longer til I am in Florida?!

What, whether it is a taste, sounds, smell, sight, anything, what takes you right back to the parks when you are at home? Let me know!! And if one of your comfort sounds is Main Street Music, here are a couple video links that will set the daydream scene for ya!

Main Street Music 2, 3, 4

Zooey Deschanel performing for Winnie the Pooh!

Being the HUGE Winnie The Pooh fan that I am, I am very excited about this new movie coming out in July!  He is just so cute and cuddly! This is what the singer Zooey Deschanel thinks too.  She is performing some of the songs for the new movie and seems very excited to do so!  Check out the press release and video given to us from our dear friends at Walt Disney Pictures:

Actress/Musician/Singer/Songwriter Zooey Deschanel Performs Three Songs for the Philosophical Bear’s New Big-Screen Endeavor

BURBANK, Calif. (March 31, 2011) – He’s a bear of very little brain. She’s half of the acclaimed band She & Him. This year, they come together on the big screen in “Winnie the Pooh,” which hits theaters in select international markets in Spring 2011, and in the U.S. on July 15, 2011. Actress/Musician/Singer/Songwriter Zooey Deschanel (“Almost Famous,” “(500) Days of Summer”) joins Winnie the Pooh and all of his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood, performing three songs for the film, including her own take on the classic “Winnie the Pooh” theme song, “A Very Important Thing to Do” and the original end-credit song “So Long,” which was written by Deschanel and performed with She & Him bandmate M. Ward.

“This has been one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had,” says Deschanel. “And I’ve just been thanking my lucky stars that I was able to work on this movie, because it’s delightful.”

Filmmakers were drawn to Deschanel’s signature style. “She was the perfect choice to do the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ song—a classic theme from the Sherman Brothers,” says director Don Hall. “Her music actually embodies the underlying spirit of the movie. We’re taking something that has vintage roots in the sixties, but spinning it in our own way and updating it. If you listen to Zooey’s music with She & Him—that’s their sound to a tee.”

Adds director Stephen Anderson, “It’s a perfect way to start the movie, letting the audience know right off the bat that this is Winnie the Pooh like you know him, but it’s something for today. We wanted to keep the same charm as the original, but give it a fresh spin, a contemporary feel, and she opens the movie with so much freshness, so much energy.”

“It’s always fun to have a contemporary artist rediscover a classic and that’s exactly what Zooey did,” says producer Peter Del Vecho. “She brought her own personality to the song—when she sings about introducing the individual characters, it’s as though she’s known them her whole life—and she has.”

“I’m a big fan of Winnie the Pooh and all his friends,” says Deschanel, who also plays the ukulele in the song. “It’s really hard to pick a favorite: Winnie the Pooh is so special, he loves honey and he’s just cool. Eeyore is amazing, I love Eeyore. And Piglet is so small. It’s really a four-way tie between Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet and Tigger.”

Among the songs Deschanel performed for the film is “A Very Important Thing to Do”—a song that helps illustrate the contest the friends from the Hundred Acre Wood take on to find Eeyore a new tail. She also lent her voice to “Everything is Honey” and “Pooh’s Finale,” joining Jim Cummings (the voice of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger), Tony Award®-winning songwriter Robert Lopez (“Avenue Q”) and other cast members. 

For the end-credit song, Deschanel teamed up with Ward to perform “So Long,” a song Deschanel wrote.  “When I was writing ‘So Long,’ I just held the images for the end credits in my mind,” she says. “I spent a number of days tinkering with ideas, melodies and chord progressions that I thought would fit the images, the new music being written and the original Sherman Brothers stuff-- but still be my own thing. The song definitely has its own feel, but also pays respect to the original.”

Deschanel plays piano for “So Long” and turned to the instrument when it came time to write the song. “I usually write on piano because that's the first instrument that I learned when I was a little kid,” she says. “All of my musical theory knowledge is in linear piano form.”

Her heart, however, is in the vocals. “I’m always thinking in terms of vocals, and arranging a fabric of vocals is the most exciting part. I love to sing backup parts—I always try to squeeze in as many as possible,” she says. “It’s fun; it’s my style.”

Deschanel’s songs, plus the Sherman Brothers classic and a host of original songs by Robert Lopez and wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez (“The Wonder Pets”), as well as original score from composer Henry Jackman (“The Da Vinci Code,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”), will be included on the “Winnie the Pooh” soundtrack (available Spring 2011 in select international markets, and in the U.S. on July 12, 2011) from Walt Disney Records.

Tron: Legacy- The Music

Are you interested in the music of the upcoming movie Tron: Legacy? Then you should check out this link:

http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb/mb101129tron_legacy_soundtra 

 A DJ at KCRW.com interviewed the director of the film, Joseph Kosinski, about the film and the music within it.  They even preview a few of the tracks and talk about how they fit into the film.

Are you excited for Tron: Legacy yet?? Its coming out December 17th!

Celebrate Halloween in Disney Style!

We are only a week away from Halloween and us Disney fans always have to find some way to incorporate our Disney touches into our celebrations.  The parks do it well with the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, but there are a lot of us (including myself) who are not able to celebrate the season with Mickey.  So, if we cannot visit Mickey in his home, we just have to bring him to ours!

When I think of scary and Disney, there are two attractions that I think of right away; Tower of Terror and Haunted Mansion.  There are several ways to incorporate these attractions into your Halloween.  My first and one I find very fun and interesting is http://www.themagical.nl/. I did blog post quite a while ago about this website, but for Halloween, I just had to bring it out again.  This site has ride simulators on them, allowing you to be in charge of and run some of the hit attractions on Disney properties around the world.  For Halloween, there are two simulators that I wanted to highlight, though all of them are good.  There are simulators for Tower of Terror and Disneyland Paris' Phantom Manor (aka Haunted Mansion) and not only are they fun to play around with because you can find out how some of your favorite attractions work, but they have the spooky atmosphere perfect with Halloween.  Play these simulators by yourself or with your children and feel like you are in the parks!

Want to learn everything there is to know about The Haunted Mansion? Check out http://doombuggies.com/ and get everything from pictures and audio clips to personal interviews with Imagineers and where to buy great HM Merchandise! A spooky and fun website for any time of the year!

Another way you cannot go wrong when it comes to Disney and Halloween is with music.  Going back to Haunted Mansion and Tower of Terror, these soundtracks make great background music for a Halloween party. If you want to feel like you are in the park celebrating, you could get the Magic Kingdom Event Party Music CD, which has the full soundtracks from the Boo to You Parade, Hallowishes and Halloween Villains Mix and Mingle, among other fun soundtracks including music from the Pirates and Princess Party.  Other music you may not have immediately thought of could be some of your favorite villains "theme songs" per se.  Some of these tracks include "Poor Unfortunate Souls" (Ursula), "Gaston" and "The Mob Song" (Gaston), "Prince Ali (Reprise)" (Jafar), "Be Prepared" (Scar) and so many more! Oh, and don't forget to check the music from Fantasmic, there are lots of villainesque music from that soundtrack as well!

Movies are a great way to get in the Halloween Spirit! Every movie has a villain, which is scary for Halloween, but there are some movies out there that specifically for this time of year.  One scary movie would the The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, as featured on the October 25 Tweetwatch, sponsored by http://www.disneyfilmproject.blogspot.com/ (look for a post about Ryan's project coming soon). The "Halloweentown" series are very cute and fun movies to watch this time of year, my little sister and I love to watch those!  Some others include Black Cauldron, Nightmare Before Christmas (also could be used for Christmas), Haunted Mansion and, from television show "House of Mouse"- "House of Villains".

Those are just some ideas that I have on how to incorporate Disney into your Halloween.  There are tons more ideas of course, I would love to hear how you incorporate Disney into your Halloween! Leave a comment here or send me an email with your ideas!

I will leave you now with just one more idea, a picture that I took at Linvilla Orchards. What would you carve into a Disney pumpkin??

Concert with a Disney Flair!

Ok everyone, it is officially shameless plug time! (not that a blog isn't a shameless plug device to begin with)

Tomorrow at 8pm EDT, the Neumann University Jazz Band and Wind Ensemble will be performing for everyone to watch, including YOU! That's right, the concert will be streamed LIVE online at media.neumann.edu! Just go to that page and click on Neumann Live, it should be up on there, running live! (If it is not, there may be technical difficulties and I apologize in advance)

So, why should you watch this concert at my university? Well...I am in it!....Yea, I know, so what? Well, here is the real reason - We are playing a Disney Medley! That's right, the 3rd song in the concert, the last one played by the Wind Ensemble is filled with Disney songs! I am very curious as to who can name them all! There are quite a lot! So I post this challenge to you - Name all of the Disney songs in the Medley played! Just leave a comment under this post or send me an email with all of the songs you got! I will post after the concert all of the songs played so you can see if you were right.

And, if you are curious, I will be the flute/piccolo player in the center of the flute section during wind ensemble and in Jazz band.....just look for the little girl playing the BIG saxophone! ;)

New Posts for DDL

Starting today, I am going to have a weekly post on the Disney Driven Life about....what else, a Disney topic of course!!! I will put the link up here every week so that you can check out the post!

This weeks post: All Im gonna say is it has to do with Villains, a boat and music! If you want to learn more, go check out my new post over at the Disney Driven Life by clicking here. And keep your eyes here every week for what the new post is of the week!

Who the heck am I?!

So, if you have read up to here and have stuck with me so far, you must have found something I said interesting. I figure its only fair for you to know some things about myself.

As I said before, I am a 20 year old college student. I am a junior at Neumann University (Formerly Neumann College, we got our University status in May!). My major is Elementary Education with a Special Education Certification and I am minoring in Music.

Music is one of my big passions. I've been playing flute for 14 years, piccolo for 5, baritone saxophone for 8 months and alto sax for 6 months. I've played a little piano, but nothing huge, I'm trying to teach myself. I've done some singing in musicals and in a couple choirs, but it is not my big thing. Music is a huge part of my life and you can guarantee that I'll be talking about it often, especially the music program that I am working on for a nearby elementary school. That's a story for another blog post though.

I live with my Mom, Dad and little sister Emily...ok, so she's not that little anymore. She's 16 and a good couple inches taller than me. I keep telling her though, I don't care how tall she gets, she's still my baby sister.

Another thing you will notice about me, I love pictures. This blog will be filled with pictures from trips to family and friends. Pictures are not only with 1000 words to me, they are the portal to treasured memories. Looking at pictures of past vacations helps me relive the fun that I had and always is able to put a smile on my face. Plus, I feel visuals help get points across or make them stand out. So, if you don't like pictures, this is not the blog for you!.....should have had that in my warning......oh well.....moving on...

I am a big sports fan! Been so for about 7 years now. I love Football (Fly Eagles Fly!), Baseball (Phillies and Blue Rocks) and Hockey (Flyers and Phantoms). Yes, I am a huge Philly fan. That's what happens when you grow up 20 minutes from the city. Feel free to send team bashing comments, I'm expecting them. I also play Fantasy Football. Played my first season last year on the College Radio station team and came in first place! Needless to say, the boys in the station were not very happy with my good fortune.

So that's just some information on me and my life. If you have any questions for me, please don't hesitate to ask!