DayJams 2009 Take 3: July 24, 2009

Week Two of DayJams for Hannah was a fun week. She was in an all-girl band named Pushing Up Daisies and since there were only four bands at the San Fernando Valley campus her band wrote and performed two songs!

Pushing Up Daisies - Solo Serenade

Pushing Up Daisies - Yesterday I Found Myself

Once again, I didn't take the video - this time it was shot by Emily while I took pictures.

DayJams 2009 Take 2: July 17, 2009

Hannah just completed her first week of DayJams for 2009. This week she opted to be a vocalist in her band, Rockestra. Vocalists in a DayJams band write their own lyrics and melody to go along with the other music being written by their band mates. So, how did their song come out? You be the judge:

Paul manned the video camera and I had my 40d so here are some still shots of Rockestra for your enjoyment:

DayJams 2009

Emily is a counselor this year at DayJams. On the first day of the camp each week, the teachers hold a jam session as people are arriving. The voice teacher, K-Lee, asked Emily to join the band on a number.

Emily amazes me with her total lack of fear on stage. Here she is at a Radio Disney event in May:

DayJams 2007 - 3rd & Final Take!

The girls' last week at DayJams was unique in that rather than just being vocalists both Emily & Hannah wanted to try playing some kind of instrument.

Hannah decided before we signed up this year that she wanted to spend one week playing guitar. She had a great time and learned a few things and of course now wants to take guitar lessons. Hannah's band was named The Shock:

Hannah introducing the band


Playing during the show

Emily had been fooling around with Hannah's guitar at home and trying to figure out guitar parts on songs that she liked. She found that she couldn't really do that but she could pick out bass parts. So, she decided that she wanted to try playing bass. Now the only problem is we don't own a bass - luckily Emily's voice teacher was gracious enough to let her borrow his. In Emily's final week at DayJams she played bass and sang backup vocals in the Psychedelic Hors Dourves and was the vocalist in That's What She Said.

Emily on bass


Emily on vocals

We didn't get any videos this week but a friend of ours has promised us a copy of their video.

And as promised here are a few photos from the first week at the San Fernando Valley campus.

Ground Zero


Dogs of Rock

Torch The City

If you're interested in seeing more DayJams photos send me an email.

DayJams 2007 - Take 2

Both girls were at DayJams this week and both were vocalists. Hannah was the singer is two bands: Dogs of Rock & Ground Zero and Emily was the singer in one: Torch The City. Emily was very pleased this week when her logo design was used for her band. I took a bunch of pictures and will get those online at some point but for now you can watch the performances of all three bands!
Dogs of Rock - Today is Tomorrow
Ground Zero - Let's Get Crazy
Torch The City

DayJams 2007 - Take 1

Emily attended the Los Angeles DayJams campus this year for 2 weeks. Paul, Hannah & I went the first week and I took a bunch of pictures. Here's one of Emily with her band, The Alchemists.

Last week, Emily went to DayJams again but Paul & I weren't there for the concert on Friday because we went away to Catalina for the weekend. Since we weren't going to be there Hannah (who went with her grandmother & aunt) videoed Emily's performances for us.

First up is The Movement with their original song "Things Aren't What They Seem". Emily wrote the lyrics for this:

Since Emily will be attending DayJams for 4 weeks she was also in a band of DayJammers who attended or will attend for 3 or more weeks. This band covered Led Zepplin's "Rock and Roll":
DayJams Los Angeles: July 27, 2007 from V Sedgwick and Vimeo.
And speaking of DayJams, remember that I said Emily & Hannah participated in a segment filmed for yourLA? Well we didn't find out that it aired but you can see it right here:

Day Jams - Your LA TV!
Check it out and let us know what you think.

Reconnecting with Family

It's been a long time since we got together with my family. We're spread out all over the U.S. and just haven't had the chance to spend time together in the last few years. Last weekend we all gathered in Tucson for a mini family reunion where we had fun reconnecting and in some cases meeting new members of the family.

Here's a little of what we had fun doing:

Hanging out in a park

Going to the zoo

For Emily, singing at dinner

And for Hannah, getting wet!

Merry Christmas from us ... to you

December has been a whirlwind of activity for us. The girls performed in the Nutcracker for the first two weekends of December (8 performances for Emily & 10 performances for Hannah - she did 10am Friday shows for schools in addition to the other 8 shows) and since I help backstage for most performances (and attend the few where I'm not helping) I was busy that whole time too. Emily was a skater and a soldier this year and Hannah was a party guest.

Right after the Nutcracker was done, it was time for the annual school Christmas show at Hannah's school. Even though Emily has graduated and no longer attends the same school, she was also in the show this year (as a special guest) since the music teacher at the school is still her voice coach. Spencer Davis was in attendance at the show and he commented to his wife about Emily's performance and her stage presence - he said that had he closed his eyes he would have thought it was a black gospel choir singing (it was a gospel song). Spencer also told his wife that Hannah has a great voice and will be giving Emily a run for her money in a few years!

The day after the Christmas show was the last day of school before vacation for the girls and I was busy with the class party for Hannah's class since I'm the room mom this year. I'm happy to report that even with all that, we do finally have our tree up and the presents are all bought (though not all wrapped yet) and the cat has knocked the tree over once already so I guess it's officially Christmas time for us!

We want to wish everyone the merriest of Christmases and hope that you enjoy the time with those that you love.

The Next Disney Star?

Disney was wanting to hire some kids for a band for an upcoming project and Emily's voice teacher thought she'd be great for the project. Her voice teacher wanted a photo of her looking young - I'm guessing they want 12 year olds or so for this project - so Emily & I went to a park one day and took some photos at Hannah's school the next. Okay so she doesn't necessarily look young in some of these but here are a few of the ones I liked best ...

And who knows what's going on with the Disney project - for now that's on hold - but at least I got a cooperative subject for photos and some fun shots of Emily out of it!

So You Want to be a Rock-n-Roll Star

August 11th was the date for the second DayJams concert for Emily & Hannah. This week Hannah was in a band named Red Bullet and they wrote and performed a song titled Electric Shock. At the end of their performance the director of the camp joked that we'd all go home with the song stuck in our heads! Unlike the previous week, this week Hannah's band was a mix of girls and boys. Hannah said she liked the all-girl band better but that she definitely enjoyed both weeks of camp.

Emily was only in one band during this week of camp and I think she felt less pressure because of it. She said that she enjoyed the second week of camp more than the first week but was quick to say she liked both weeks! Emily's band was named Free Parking this week of camp and included 3 members from one of her previous week's band. The director of the camp liked the song that her previous band, Hot Laundry, performed and asked that they do it again. So in addition to singing their song, Moosifiction, Free Parking also covered Hot Laundry's song, Set Me Free. I noticed during the Hot Laundry song that Emily was having a problem reaching the high notes and she told me that her throat had been bugging her and was really dry at that point so I guess she's experiencing what it's really like to be in a band and have to perform when you're less than 100%. She still did great though!

It was fun to see both of the girls perform two weeks in a row and I enjoyed taking pictures of all of the bands. The August 11th concert convinced me that I need to get lens hoods for my lenses though - the sun shining through the trees onto the bands just caused all kinds of issues with the photos.

Time to get back to the real world and concentrate on getting ready to go back to school - oh and go to Paul's brother's wedding next weekend too. Emily starts high school on the 28th of August and needs to finish up her summer reading. Hannah also has summer reading to complete but she doesn't go back to school until September 6th.

Rock Stars!

This week and next both the girls are attending Day Jams. Emily went to Day Jams for a week last year and really enjoyed it and this year both girls are going for 2 weeks. On Monday, all the attendees to the camp are put into bands (basically by age and skill level). Each band has to name themselves, design a band logo and write a song during the week. On Friday the camp puts on a concert where each band performs their song.

Hannah was in an all-girl band named Black Lightning for the first week of the camp. She had a blast and was not at all nervous introducing the band and singing lead vocals!

Emily was lead vocalist in 2 bands: Not So Average Joes and Hot Laundry. Since the vocalist has to write the lyrics to the songs Emily was kept very busy attending rehearsals for both bands each day and writing lyrics to 2 songs! She looks very comfortable in front of a band but she was a bit disappointed in the performances on Friday. The mix was bad for Not So Average Joes and you couldn't hear her vocals very well and the band started too soon so Emily had to play catch up with the vocals. And, she says she messed up a couple of lines during the Hot Laundry song too. I don't think anyone in the audience realized she had blown any of the lines - that's the beauty of performing original songs!

Emily on vocals for Not So Average Joes


Emily on vocals for Hot Laundry

This coming week they get to do it all again with brand new bands and brand new songs! If you're in the area and want to come to the Friday night concert contact me for information!

This looks like such fun that it almost makes me want to attend Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp!!

Thank You ... or something else?

What do you say when someone compliments your child? Thank you just doesn't seem right but agreeing with them somehow seems wrong too. I've been going through that this week after the Talent Show at school.

The Talent Show is an 8th grade project in that they produce the whole show with the help of the music teacher. What a big job it is to put it all together and I think they did great! Last year there were 16 8th graders and the show was held in the church. This year there are only 6 kids and we actually rented an auditorium at a school near ours. YIKES!! It went extremely well considering all there was to do. Yes, there were a few problems when the sound system didn't work quite right but all in all it was a wonderful night and everyone (performers and attendees) enjoyed themselves.

Hannah was in two numbers (and the finale which included all of the performers in the show and all of the 8th graders) in the Talent Show this year. First, she was in a magic act with one of the boys, Nicholas, in her class. The magic wasn't super impressive from either of them but Nicholas was hilarious and Hannah made a pretty decent straight man even though I don't think she had a clue that that was what she was doing. This year, Hannah decided that she wanted to sing too. She worked hard and learned all the words (I was concerned for awhile there about that) and Emily worked with her on doing a dance routine with it while she sang. During the rehearsals, Hannah didn't do the dance because she was nervous but she pulled out all the stops at the show and sang and danced her heart out!! The only problem was the microphone was off so you could barely hear her - aaargh! About halfway through the M.C. came out and gave her a new mic but that one didn't work. Poor kid but she never missed a beat and just kept going. So many people came up and said they should have had her do her number again. Oh, what did she sing? Hilary Duff's Why Not.

As a member of the 8th grade class, Emily was the Talent Coordinator for the show - I'm not sure what all that entailed but there was talent so I think she did her job. Ü In addition, Emily also performed in two numbers and the finale. Emily and one of her best friends, JoAnna, did a duet of Our Lips Are Sealed. No, not the GoGos version but the remake by Hilary and Hayley Duff. And, Emily was the last act before the finale where she sang Christine Aguilera's Beautiful. She was awesome and I have been told by more than one person that Emily was definitely the star of the show! As a parent I wish she had remembered to take her jacket off and she had intended to but that didn't detract from her voice which was amazing.

So, to get back to my original question ... what is the correct response when someone says something like "Wow! Emily has an amazing voice."? Thank you just doesn't seem right but yes, she definitely does.

Another Annual Christmas Event Done

Every year, there is a Christmas Program at the girls' school. This year the program was written by the music teacher at the school, Joseph John. It was a story about the true meaning of Christmas. Emily had one of the speaking roles in the program this year. She played a poor mom who was staying in a homeless shelter with her son and she had a solo singing part on Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Hannah's class and the 5th Grade were a Jamaican choir and they sang two songs: The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy and Song of Exaltation. It was very cute - the girls all wore red robes and the boys wore white. If Hannah were any shorter it would have been a big problem since the shortest robe was all the way to the ground on her. It's also a good thing they were paired with the 5th Grade or Hannah would have been the only girl since she is the only girl in the 4th Grade this year - it's just her and 10 boys.

At the end of the program the entire school (Kindergarten - 8th Grade) sang four songs together: Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Jesus is the Rock. The program was excellent and it's sad to think that this will be Emily's last year and this was her final Christmas Program at her current school since she'll be going to high school next year.

Now it's on to the class Christmas parties next week and then Christmas itself. I'm still madly trying to get all the shopping and wrapping finished before the girls are out of school. It will be interesting to see which happens first.

Speaking of Christmas, to me it's always been a magical time revolving around family and friends. As a friend of The Cowsill family, I am praying for a Christmas Miracle this year. Barry Cowsill has been missing since Hurricane Katrina and it would be a wonderful gift for the Cowsill family and all of their friends and fans to have Barry safely return for the holidays.