Apparently, I'm a blogging fool!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I not only have this kind of pseudo personal blog, I also maintain one for my chorus here on Blogger.com; see links in the column to the right.

Now, I have also begun one for the chorus on the newly updated Web site of The (Monroe) News-Star. My "pen name" there is "salroshol," and the name of the blog is "Tapestry of Song: Piney Hills Harmony, Sweet Adelines and Me."

The good news about that site is that whenever I update the blog, it's featured on the home page until enough newer posts bump it off. That's pretty neat that such a large readership will have a chance to see it quite often.

Of course, multiple blogs mean I don't have enough time for any, really! Maybe that will change with retirement in August. Hope so .........

Meanwhile, my chorus is singing at the Lincoln Parish Library tonight in a program that is sponsored, in part, by the Smithsonian Institution. A news release explaining the whole thing can be found here.

So, with that, I'll sign off for now.

Former connections renewed in bari section

Building on the last post, here are a few more photos of Piney Hills Harmony's newest baritones. (Am I proud, or what?!?)

The first shot is Belinda Parks Reid being sung into the chorus last fall. I went to high school with her and have SO much enjoyed renewing our acquaintance and -- now more than ever -- friendship. We were in the band together, her on clarinet and me on flute. She was one year behind me; she married someone who was one year ahead of me, Randy Reid.

Randy has been undergoing some health issues recently, and our chorus and many others have been praying up a storm for his recovery -- and for Belinda's being able to deal with it as well. They're both so sweet!

The good news: Randy's treatment is going well. He still has a ways to go, but the prayers continue to ascend. More good news: Belinda was back at chorus this past week, and it was great!



Another renewal of an old-time acquaintance: Kathy Hightower Hightower (yes, that's right) joined PHH as a bari this past fall as well. I knew her when she was a journalism minor and a history major at Louisiana Tech in the mid-'70s. Never taught her, but remember her being there and recall some of the incidents that she now relates from that time.



After a career that spanned at least three states (including time covering GWB), Kathy is back in her hometown of Homer, editing the paper there that her father once edited. She was my roommate at regional competition this year. It's been a joy to renew this "old" acquaintance as well. Kathy, sorry; this pic is kind of small. It's from our Christmas party, and they're all small. But you look great!

Other bari pix from Piney Hills Harmony

While one of the newest baritones in PHH is shown in an earlier post from a group shot during our Singers Wanted campaign (Kathy H.H.), I still need to add a few more pix of the latest people to join the chorus.

Here's a group shot of the rookies who joined last fall after the Singers Wanted vocal lessons.



They are (from L) Charles Etta, bass; Rebecca, lead; Ginny, lead; Kathy, baritone; and Belinda, baritone. Note: There are multiple baritones! Yea!!! All these folks are still very much active in the chorus except for Ginny, who had to resign because of family obligations. (Ginny, we miss you!)

As bari section leader, I don't really know how to act with seven baritones in the chorus now. We're at an all-time high. :-D Go, PHH bari's!!!

Me at William Faulkner's house

For years, I had wanted to visit William Faulkner's house in Oxford, Miss.

I actually got an assignment from Travel & Leisure magazine to do a story on it in the '80s, but due to a mix-up in the editorial chain of command (let's just call it "cronyism"), my article got assigned to someone else. True story. Details available if interested. (Note: I had a little cronyism going on myself with a couple of T&L editors, but the editor-in-chief trumped 'em!)

Anyway, I finally got to visit Rowen Oak this year during the Southeast Journalism Conference that several representatives from the Louisiana Tech journalism department attended. Here I am in front of it.

My colleague, Judith Roberts, and I drank it all in, trying to imagine THE William Faulkner walking these grounds, climbing these stairs, using that typewriter, telling ghost stories in that bedroom to his grandchildren, probably smoking his pipe on that balcony ....

OK, that's it. I'm going to submit another query to another publication. What the heck? I already have one written, and it already got the go-ahead from one of the best editors in New York City! Hmmmm. Nobody out there steal my story within the next three months before I retire!

Please pray for my best friend's grandchild

If you're reading this and you're a praying person, please keep the grandbaby of one of my very best friends in your thoughts and prayers. Little Camille Davis, granddaughter of Ben and Becky Martin of Ruston, has MLL, a bad form of leukemia. She is being treated at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. We need all the support we can get!

Camille is the daughter of Lois and Casey Davis of Quitman. Her aunt, Sallie Marie Martin, is named after me.

These are two precious shots of her before she began her treatment in February when she was around 8-9 months old.

To all of Becky's children, I'm "Aunt Sallie."

Just in case some of my feature writing students are watching ...

Hey,

This is my first post to this blog in a long time. Most of my Web work goes into the blog for my chorus, www.pineyhillsharmony.blogspot.com. And even my postings to that blog are sporadic, to say the least, though it does get the job done. (In case you're interested in other Web "things" in my life, see links in the right-hand column of this blog. Some have to do with my husband's artwork.)

I plan to post more items to Melodious Musing in the near future. (Yeah, right, huh?) I have some photos from a Hot Springs vacation, some family reunion photos, etc. etc. Not to mention some more chorus goings-on. Scintillating.

TTYL -- srh

New baritones visit with Piney Hills Harmony

During our recent "Singers Wanted" campaign sponsored by my chorus, Piney Hills Harmony, we had a plethora of people who wanted to sing baritone. It was so exciting! We had 26 visitors overall.

Here's a pic of the "bari ladies" who attended the first night. Hope they return next week for the second lesson on Aug. 16 -- and also on the 23rd. Also hope others return, as well as having a whole new passel of folks.

For full details concerning "Singers Wanted," please see www.pineyhillsharmony.blogspot.com. (The post on that site which contains the relevant news release was made a couple of weeks ago, so please scroll down.)

I have lots more personal photos to eventually share on Melodious Musing. The trick? Finding the time to do so! :-) I never even posted pix from my and Hooshang's trip to Hot Springs for our anniversary last September, plus I've got shots of me and several Tech alums who have visited the journalism department, etc. Sometime in the days and months to come .....

A word of explanation about the posts below

Hello, Readers of the MM Blog,

This is the revamped "Melodious Musings" blog, now renamed "Melodious Musing" (i.e., ONE musing, not multiple musingS).

The posts below were manually transfered from the old blog, so they have odd post dates, mostly all on the same day in February 2007. However, an "original posting date" notation at the bottom of each post should provide clarification.

I also transferred the comments, but instead of showing up in the actual comment section, they are pasted at the end of the appropriate posts. (So please don't look at all the "zero" comment notations and think that NO one has ever sent a comment to Melodious Musing! :-)

This switch was made because when Blogger re-invented itself recently and forced us to go to an new version, it somehow couldn't handle the fact that some people had multiple blogs. Therefore, Blogger merged my dual profiles (this personal one and also the Piney Hills Harmony Chorus profile) into one. Many bloggers suffered similar fates.

Well, that just wouldn't "do"; I mean, the chorus wouldn't want its profile plastered on my own personal site! So I manually switched over most of my earlier posts and then deleted Melodious MusingS entirely.

Hope to post some new items in the near future.

Till then,

-- sr

Piney Hills Harmony bari section at all-time high! (Take 2)

The baritone section of Piney Hills Harmony has grown again since my last posting. We've even had a show -- "Star Struck" -- since then, and both our new bari's participated. (OK, so it's been a while since I posted here to my personal site, but check out PHH's blog; it has had many, many more postings than this -- and there are only so many hours in a day, you know!)

In the above group photo, the other new baritone is shown on the far left, Ginger Hicks from West Monroe. She is pictured with other PHH rookies Karen Downs of Monroe and Jean Dunham of West Monroe, both basses. They have just been "sung into" the chorus and are posing with some of their paraphernalia that they were presented that night.

In the action photo, yours truly is awarding Ginger with an angel pin as part of the ceremony. Jean is getting hugged by our director, Wanda, and Karen is getting pinned by our president (and bari), Judy.

Hooray for PHH and the bari section!

-- Originally posted 1/11/07

Piney Hills Harmony adds new baritone (Take 2)

The baritone section in my chorus has added a new bari -- the first one in several years. As a result, we're all singing a very happy tune! Her name is Lisa Holmes, from Homer, and she's going to be great!

This brings us to a section of four at the moment. Others are waiting in the wings as well. Yea!

Here's a pic of Lisa getting a hug from another chorus member on the night that she was "sung in." And another shot of Lisa with her brand new "Girlfriends in Harmony" T-shirt. I posted them on the chorus blog as well, but a Sweet Adeline can never get enough of the spotlight, so figured it was OK to repeat 'em here. :-D

-- Originally published 10/7/06

Final photo installment from Aug. & Sept. '06 Arkansas treks (Take 2)

Hello again!

Here are a few more pix from the recent fabled trips to Hot Springs and Lake Ouachita State Park. The top three shots show my and Jules' cabin and what can be seen immediately behind it; the bottom pic is around Three Sisters Springs, nearby.

I finally figured out how to use images here without having to crop so ruthlessly as I did in the posts below: It's all about image size. Even though it would be nice, there's no way that I'm going to re-do the original postings, though. We'll just have to live with it! Thankfully, you can see much more scenery in these new pix. These were made with a digital camera, as opposed to the ones from film, below.

Will keep in touch.
-- srh

-- Originally posted 9/17/06

2nd installment of photos: S&J visit Lake Ouachita State Park (Take 2)

I'm ba-a-a-cckkk!

Here are some more scenes from my and Julie's recent trip to Lake Ouachita State Park. These are shots during our two-hour boat tour of the lake. (See posting and comment below -- "Back from trip to Lake Ouachita State Park" -- for more about the trip and the tour.)

I got to pilot the boat for a few minutes while the Park Ranger wiped water off the seats. Don't I look official??? The other pix are of the lake or the surrounding area. It is SO pretty -- hardly developed at all -- surrounded by the Ouachita National Forest. As a former travel writer, let me give this succint review: It's definitely worth a trip up there. These photos in no way do justice to the scenery and how it makes you feel.

Maybe even more later .....

-- Originally posted 9/17/06

Photos from sojourn to Lake Ouachita State Park (Take 2)

Hello, all,

At long last I have scanned some pix from one of my recent little vacation jaunts to the Hot Springs area. This is the last time I take a non-digital camera on a trip like this! Too much trouble to scan!

These are some of the shots from my trip in August with Miss Jules to Lake Ouachita State Park.

They show, from top to bottom:
* Our cabin, with Julie waving from the front door; note the lake in the *immediate* background; we just loved that!
* My car being towed into town the morning of our first full day there; the brakes had kind of gone out during the latter part of our trip to the park. But ... all's well that end's well ....
* Me, during a little hike on the half-mile Dogwood Trail, not far from our cabin.
* Me, "touching Lake Ouachita," as we called it.

OK; so there are a lot of me. Sorry!

My husband wants to know why I am posting this vacation stuff when my blog is named "Melodious Musings." Well, unofficially this was chorus-related business: Miss Jules is both my chorus and quartet buddy. That's enough connection for me! Anyway, as my sister says about the book that she's writing, it's my blog (book), so I can do it however I want to! :-D

More to come later ....

-- srh

-- Originally posted 9/17/06

Back from trip to Lake Ouachita State Park (Take 2)

Hi, folks,

I'm back from a short vacation to Lake Ouachita State Park, which is near Hot Springs, Ark. Spent three nights up there with my close friend, Miss Jules,* and managed to have a grand time even though my car's brakes began to fail during the latter part of the initial journey to the cabin. Yikes! Lots of hills/mountains there, you know! Had the car towed into town the next morning. Rode in style in a pretty and comfy new tow truck with a very nice man.

Then, lost a half to two-thirds of a day's worth of vacation time, tooling around a mall while the car was being fixed. The good news: bought two pairs of Crocs shoes -- and -- didn't buy anything from the candy store!

Will post some pix later when I get things organized. Highlight of the trip: a WONderful two-hour evening boat ride on the lake when the temperatures felt like spring! I got to "drive" the boat while the Park Ranger wiped water off the seats! Almost mowed down a buoy first thing (well, he should have pointed it out!), but managed to swerve around it in fine style.

Another highlight: sitting on the lakeside deck of our little A-frame, watching the twilight slowly stealing across the sky. It doesn't take much to make me happy, but then again, God's wonders can't really be considered "not much."

If any of you new baritones in Piney Hills Harmony are reading this: I'm sorry I missed this week's rehearsal, but hope to see you next week. I'm sure the one bari who was left behind managed in my absence very well; she is SO capable and talented! [Another bari's granddaughter had her 5th birthday party that night :-) ]

For now, ta-ta -- or should I say, do-re-mi?
-- sr

* See if you can pick us out of the pick-up quartet pic in the post below. ;-D

-- Originally posted 8/26/06


Comments:

Hi, folks, (if you're the copyright police, don't read this) (HA, I cheated :P )

I'm back from a short vacation to Lake Ouachita State Park, which is near Hot Springs, Ark. Spent three nights up there with my close friend, Sallie, and managed to have a grand time even though her car's brakes began to fail during the latter part of the initial journey to the cabin. Yikes! Lots of hills/mountains there, you know! She had the car towed into town the next morning. We rode in style in a pretty and comfy new tow truck with a very nice man.

Then, lost a half to two-thirds of a day's worth of vacation time, tooling around a mall while the car was being fixed. The good news: didn't buy anything except a yummy corndog -- and -- didn't buy anything from the candy store!

Highlight of the trip: a WONderful two-hour evening boat ride on the lake when the temperatures felt like spring! I got to watch Sallie Rose "drive" the boat while the Park Ranger wiped water off the seats! I'm glad he didn't ask me to drive. And I promise that while I was humming the theme to "Gilligan's Island" (to myself, of course) it wasn't while Sallie was driving the boat. But seriously, I'm not sure why the song popped into my head. (My goofy sense of humor, I guess). I would do that boat tour again!

Another highlight: sitting indoors in the air conditioned cabin while Sallie sat outside on the lakeside deck of our little A-frame, watching the twilight slowly stealing across the sky.

Yet aNOTHer highlight: Getting to see a little of Hot Springs. Sallie is a wonderful tour guide. We went to a park where I got to see a hot springs waterfall. It was quite lovely. The climb to the top of it was not easy, but it was worth the trip to see the view. I hope the pix come out.

We also went on a hike in the woods. There were signs pointing out the various flora and fauna; the last sign was for poison ivy. We thought that should have been the FIRST sign because there was a lot of it. Turns out it WAS the first sign: we had walked the trail backwards! No, we didn't walk backwards (HA!) we just walked it clockwise instead of counterclockwise. But it was a fine hike no matter which way ya go!

We also went to the water's edge and touched Lake Ouachita. When I told Mom about this, she asked me, "Did you bring any of it home?" And to think I had a water bottle with me! RATS! Missed my chance! Oh well, maybe next time.

Do-re-mi for now!

Sunday, August 27, 2006



Sheila said...
Well, Jules, the theme from Gilligan's Island is pretty cool if you ask me. Hey, it could be worse... you could have thought of the theme from "Titanic."
Sheila

Monday, August 28, 2006

Once again, with feeling! (Take 2)

Just wanted to update you on the second week of our chorus's free vocal lessons for women, "Ready, Set, Grow." Tonight was fantastic!

(Please forgive; this is mostly the same posting that I put on the chorus's blog.)

Quite a few of the participants from last week's lessons returned, and we also had several new attendees. They -- and the director -- outdid themselves this week! Last week the vocal lesson ladies learned a tag (the last couple of lines of a song) during the lesson and performed it for the chorus after the session was over.

This week, RSG participants got on the risers with chorus members and sang a complete, though short, song -- appropriately titled "One More Song." It was tremendous! So many good voices among those who attended!!!

<<< And I am so proud of my new baritone buddies! They were GOOD! >>>

Many of the participants expressed an interest in possibly becoming members of the chorus. To that, Piney Hills Harmony says, "Yea!" No pressure, but we're glad to hear that news :-D

And anyone else out there who is interested in a cappella singing, in having a great time and in meeting (cover your ears, my fellow chorus members, or they'll start burning!) a wonderful group of ladies ... please contact us. We'd love to have you visit as well.

Hugs and harmony!

Note: The picture at the top of this post is from this week's vocal lesson. The 2nd photo is of a pick-up quartet with yours truly in it that Wanda asked to sing for the RSG ladies.

-- Sallie Rose

-- Originally posted 8/17/06

We have Promise! (Take 2)

Well, our would-be quartet spent an enjoyable two hours together tonight. We think we have promise. In fact, we kidded that that could be our quartet name: We Have Promise!

Of course, we have a long way to go before we're "really good," but in the meantime, we hope to become better singers ourselves as well as help to improve the chorus. Wish us luck! Or ... bid us to break a lip!

The pix above show quartet members at previous regional competitions or performances with Piney Hills Harmony Chorus of Sweet Adelines.

-- Originally posted 8/15/06


-- Comments:

Sheila said...
Hey, SR! I'm sure you guys sounded awesome tonight! Such great voices, you couldn't help but sound wonderful! The blog is great! Keep it cranking!
Sheila

Wednesday, August 16, 2006



JudySis. said...
Sallie,
So glad to hear that you, Carolyn, Julie and Teresa are forming a quartet! More power to ya!! Ya'll will become closer as friends and sisters in song, plus, you're going to sound GREAT!!
Break a lip!!
Love ya,
Judy Sis.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006



Teresa said...
Hey Sallie,
I think this blog thing is kind of cool! I also really enjoyed getting together last night and trying to really stretch our vocal skills. Can't wait to pick some fun songs to sing.
See ya tomorrow night at practice. Can't wait.
Love ya,
Teresa

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Perhaps another Piney Hills Harmony quartet in the making? (Take 2)

Tonight, three other chorus members and I are gathering to see if we want to form a quartet. Currently, two other quartets function within our chorus -- Sweet Harmony and Masquerade -- and they're good! I don't know what the odds are of having three good quartets from a chorus of about 25 people, but we're going to give it a go!

Keep your fingers crossed. Will report back as soon as ....

The above photo is from our regional competition in Dallas this spring.

-- Originally posted 8/15/06

On a barbership roll (Take 2) ... AND ... My first posting (Take 2)

"On a barbershop roll"

Tonight I'm going over my music because my chorus has a performance tomorrow at one of the local malls. Gotta go over some words and notes so I'll be prepared! Must prepare for an upcoming performance at one of our members' churches, too -- the 60th anniversary of the congregation, if I'm remembering correctly.

And after going over my music: "Monk"!

-- Originally posted 8/11/06

-- Comment:

At 9:29 PM, Sheila said…

Hey, SR!
You go with your practicing, girl! I need to be practicing up myself.
Sheila

"My first posting"

I am attempting to post my first message on my blog. I have just gotten home from the weekly rehearsal of my chorus, Piney Hills Harmony of Sweet Adelines International. It was the first of two weeks of free vocal lessons that we are offering area ladies. Tonight we had around 18 visitors. I'm PR/Marketing chair, so I was interested in seeing how many people attended and from where. We had a good mix of hometowns, so that must mean the word got out fairly well.

I'm going to sign off now to see if I can post this! :-D

-- Originally posted 8/10/06

Transferring one blog to another

Hello, all,

I am going to transfer my previous personal blog, Melodious Musings, to this new one, Melodious Musing. (Needed to name it something different, so I just left off an "s" at the end of "musings."

The reason for the switch? When I changed from the old version Blogger to the new version, my personal profile from Melodious Musings got merged with the profile from a blog that I maintain for my Sweet Adelines chorus, Piney Hills Harmony. That is confusing and not how things need to be, so I am attempting to fix the problem.

This will be an attempt to move my previous posts that are still pertinent to this blog. We'll see what happens. I will probably omit a few. And now the dates will be wrong. And I'll have to cut and paste the comments in a non-traditional fashion. But in the end, hopefully, it will work out OK.

We'll see ....

-- Sallie Rose