Habitual Habitat of the Amy

I kept reading advice columns for how to bring sales to your etsy shop, and one thing they all said is to get a blog.

I can't say this blog has boosted my etsy sales, but it has given me yet another outlet for talking about myself, and that can't be bad--can it?

The direct link to the Etsy shop is HERE

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Who Cooks for You?!


When I worked at my one Outdoor Education job, we'd do a little sing-along each night before sending the kids off to bed.  I think it was traditionally supposed to calm the kids down so they'd be ready to sleep, but, well... "Don't Stop Believing" isn't a greatly calming song.  Neither is "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road," for that matter.

I didn't arrive at that job able to play guitar, but after watching the people who could play I decided I wanted to learn, so I went to Target and bought myself a Lyon by Washburn ('cuz Target is Known for their quality instruments) which I then haphazardly learned how to play.

A few years later I'm still around the 'intermediate beginner' stage, but that's oky because I could play enough to be up in front of all the kids--which meant I didn't have to sit with them and try and keep them quiet and/or singing.

The last site I worked at even had a proper stage that we played on, and because I was the person who always started talking first I got to introduce the "band."  In order to keep the kid's interest up while singing old songs/songs they'd never heard of, we liked to name our band, sometimes introduce the various players...y'know, make it 'fun.'

The first site I played at we ended up naming the band the 'Tally-me Banana Slugs' which went over really well, even if the kids never quite got the joke (it's not like we played the 'hey Mr tally-man, tally-me banana) song, but the kids were frequently obsessed with the band.

My final season I kept trying to name the band things, but I couldn't quite get anything to stick.  We were the nematodes for a few weeks, but it just wasn't something the kids could get their minds around (although there are nematodes in all of us).

But then--THEN I renamed the band the 'Bard Owls' (And you thought this would have nothing to do with owls.) .  Now, there's a real owl called the 'barred' owl (not to be confused with the 'barn' owl), and it makes a call that sounds like 'who cooks for you' (if you're drunk and on the far side of a lake, I think, 'cuz I never quite heard it), but that gave us an AWESOME call and response to shut the kids up, a fuzzy mascot AND a whole slew of fascinating facts that I could babble about while everyone else tuned their guitars and picked out the songs we'd be singing.

Did you know barred owls sometimes crossbreed with spotted owls to create 'sparred' or 'botted' owls?

I still think it was the best band name ever.

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