Skip to main content

Sing-along Café 2025-01-23

Our café last night was so nice! I baked the most wonderful blueberry muffins, with a nice crunchy golden-brown top and juicy blueberries. Everyone wanted the recipe, so I'll include it at the end. Nibbling our muffins was easy, as a few of the songs we sang had very long instrumental interludes. 

Our theme was Disney movie music. It was interesting to hear how different eras sounded different, from the 1940's to the present. It was partly the technology developing, but also the styles of music and the kinds of bands and orchestras that were popular. We don't hear a lot of twittering birds in the more recent Disney musicals, or coloratura singing with lots of tremolo. There were a few princesses whose singing we couldn't match. 

Listening to and singing all those movie songs, we remembered times we watched them in the theatre or at home on our televisions when we were small and when our children were small. I had a memory from when I was 6 years old, and lots of stories of my kids when they were little. We happily noted that the way that girls and women are portrayed has improved over time. And, we sadly noted that our culture seems not to have learned the lessons in respect for the land, respect for people who are different from you, respect for people over financial rewards, and other good values taught in the movies. The Colors of the Wind from Pocohontas was a little painful. 

We made an interesting discovery, a song about Canada that none of us had heard before. I promised to find out about it. It was the theme song of the film O Canada! in the Canada Pavilion at Epcot from 1982-2019. It's lovely. Do check it out. 

Next Thursday, January 30th, we will continue with our theme of movie music, starting again with Disney (because we have to sing songs from Frozen and Mulan, and Moana,...) but then branching out to other movie musicals. 

We used an album called "Disney Classics", and here are some of the songs we sang:

  • Whistle While you Work from Snow White
  • When You Wish upon a Star from Pinocchio
  • Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah from Song of the South
  • A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes from Cinderella
  • Once upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty
  • What a Dog/ He's a Tramp from Lady and the Tramp
  • Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmations
  • A Spoonful of Sugar from Mary Poppins
  • The Bare Necessities from the Jungle Book
  • Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat from the Aristocats
  • Under the Sea from the Little Mermaid
  • Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast
  • Colors of the Wind from Pocohontas
  • A Whole New World from Aladdin
  • When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2
  • Strangers Like Me from Tarzan
  • Canada (You're a Lifetime Journey)
  • I See the Light from Tangled
Blueberry Muffins (eat fresh- the next day they lost the nice texture)
1. Combine in a large bowl:
  • 1 3/4c flour
  • 1/3 c sugar
  • 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
2. Add 
  • 1 c frozen blueberries
3. Combine in a small bowl (or in the measuring cup as I did):
  • 1/3 c milk (recipe said 3/4 but I wanted them to be dense)
  • 1/3 c melted butter
  • 1 egg
4. Add wet to dry until just moistened
5. Drop into muffin tin (greased or lined with paper or silicone cups)
6. Bake at 400F for 25 minutes.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Singing Together in July and August

I posted this on my YRCC blog, and I think it applies to my Trinity Singers too. While we’re not singing together in July and August, please find opportunities to sing in other places and with other people.  You can always sing in your car and in your kitchen. You can accept all invitations to cottages, camping, and beach days, and do some campfire singing. Or, sing while you paddle around in a lake. Sound carries over water, so have some buddies join you if you’re not comfortable with a solo performance.  Orchestrate some backyard sing-alongs if you can.  Singing outdoors in the summer is an opportunity you don’t want to miss. I’ve enjoyed the free concerts in Aurora and Newmarket in the past. They have ‘tribute bands’ who perform all the hits you know, and you’ll want to sing and dance along. (would be nice if they projected the lyrics for us, because we're used to having those words now) I’ve added these concerts to my YRCC Calendar to encourage my choristers to go. I’...
Post a Comment
Read more

June 5th, 2025 Sing-along Café is Outdoors!

We're going to be outside, singing along with a cover band, Telltale Sounds, at the 2025 Newmarket Music Series Lineup Launch Party! Then, we'll sing and dance to Glenn Marais and the Mojo Train!  I think we'll want to bring lawn chairs, and maybe a snack and a beverage. There will be a food truck there if you want to get something fun.  We are asked to bring a Food Bank Donation. We'll head down together on foot from the Park Street entrance at 6:15. Hopefully that will be early enough to get parking behind the church and get a spot to sit at Riverwalk Commons.  We'll walk across Main Street, down the stairs to the parking lot, and across towards the community centre, unless some of us have issues with stairs, then we'll go down the ramp at the next block that ends up just behind the community centre.  Wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather (should be perfect, not too warm, not too cool). I'm a big fan of these free summer concerts. Can't wait...
Post a Comment
Read more

Summer Break 2025 Starts Early for Sing-Along Café

I apologize for the short notice, but I've decided to break for summer a couple weeks early. For July and August, you can spend every Thursday at Riverwalk Commons at the free concerts there. Thursday night is still "my singing night". I like to take in as many of those free concerts as I can. If you like, you can send me a text or an email and we can go together, or meet up there.   Aurora has free concerts on Wednesday evenings, so I might go there sometimes instead, or too, depending on the weather, other summer plans, and whimsy.  We'll open the café again in September. I hope to see you then. 
Post a Comment
Read more