END OF YEAR CONCERT 2009

You are invited to our End of Year Student and Choral Concert!
The concert is at 4.15pm on Sunday, 13th December 2009
St Leonard's Uniting Church, Meeting Room at 2 Wolseley Grove, Brighton, Melbourne
Hope to see you there!
Piroska

Twelve Benefits of Music Education

1. Early musical training helps develop brain areas involved in language and reasoning. It is thought that brain development continues for many years after birth. Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain's circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds.

2. There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things). This kind of intelligence, by which one can visualize various elements that should go together, is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for everything from solving advanced mathematics problems to being able to pack a book-bag with everything that will be needed for the day.

3. Students of the arts learn to think creatively and to solve problems by imagining various solutions, rejecting outdated rules and assumptions. Questions about the arts do not have only one right answer.

4. Recent studies show that students who study the arts are more successful on standardized tests such as the SAT. They also achieve higher grades in high school.

5. A study of the arts provides children with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy, as opposed to development of greed and a "me first" attitude, provides a bridge across cultural chasms that leads to respect of other races at an early age.

6. Students of music learn craftsmanship as they study how details are put together painstakingly and what constitutes good, as opposed to mediocre, work. These standards, when applied to a student's own work, demand a new level of excellence and require students to stretch their inner resources.

7. In music, a mistake is a mistake; the instrument is in tune or not, the notes are well played or not, the entrance is made or not. It is only by much hard work that a successful performance is possible. Through music study, students learn the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence and the concrete rewards of hard work.

8. Music study enhances teamwork skills and discipline. In order for an orchestra to sound good, all players must work together harmoniously towards a single goal, the performance, and must commit to learning music, attending rehearsals, and practicing.

9. Music provides children with a means of self-expression. Now that there is relative security in the basics of existence, the challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Everyone needs to be in touch at some time in his life with his core, with what he is and what he feels. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expression.

10. Music study develops skills that are necessary in the workplace. It focuses on "doing," as opposed to observing, and teaches students how to perform, literally, anywhere in the world. Employers are looking for multi-dimensional workers with the sort of flexible and supple intellects that music education helps to create as described above. In the music classroom, students can also learn to better communicate and cooperate with one another.

11. Music performance teaches young people to conquer fear and to take risks. A little anxiety is a good thing, and something that will occur often in life. Dealing with it early and often makes it less of a problem later. Risk-taking is essential if a child is to fully develop his or her potential.

12. An arts education exposes children to the incomparable.

Source: http://childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/12benefits.html

Umeboshi - Japanese Salt Plum

Besides their dramatic flavour, Japanese plums have remarkable medicinal qualities. Their  powerful acidity has a paradoxical alkalizing effect on the body, neutralizing fatigue, stimulating the digestion, and promoting the elimination of toxins. This is the Far Eastern equivalent to both aspirin and apple: not only is it a potent hangover remedy for mornings after; more than that, an Umeboshi a day is regarded as one of the best preventative medicines available. The plums are pickled, left outside to be exposed to the elements of the sun and evening dew, packed in barrels, with crude salt and shiso leaves, and then pressed by a weight. The combination of these elements, pressed over a period of at least six months, creates the natural bacteria, enzymes, organic acids and powerful alkaline qualities of the Umeboshi Plum. In fact, Umeboshi Plum has been called "The King of Alkaline Foods". 
Alkalinity is an important factor for health. We want our blood to be just to be slightly alkaline (about 7.35). If the blood is too acidic, then harmful bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, fats and mucous thrive and grow, contributing to degenerative blood and disease. Our blood can become too acidic from consuming an excessive amount of sugar, refined flour products, alcohol, toxins and animal foods. This condition worsens with an inadequate intake of oxygen, often caused by sedentary lifestyles. 
You will find them in Organic Health Food Stores or in Japanese Food stores!
An Umeboshi Plum a day keeps the doctor away!

JOIN OUR NEW CHOIR - BRIGHTON UP!

BRIGHTON UP! CHOIR

Join our new CHOIR commencing on 
Thursday, 5 November 2009!

Come and sing Christmas Carols with us! 
Bring friends!

Rehearsals on Thursdays 7.15-8.15pm

St Leonard’s Uniting Church, Meeting Room

2 Wolseley Grove, Brighton (off New St)

Mini Concert 4pm Sunday, 13 December 2009

Rehearsal fee: $5   
You can find the Choir on Facebook!

Giza the ancient's prime meridian

Mind blowing to think of how previous civilizations drew a map where the line of zero longitude, instead of running through the Greenwich Observatory in London, ran through the desert, just adjacent Cairo. 

The Great Pyramid (the Pyramid of Khufu, or Cheops in Greek) at Gizeh, Egypt,

demonstrates the remarkable character of its placement on the face of the Earth.

The Pyramid lies in the center of gravity of the continents. It also lies in the exact center

of all the land area of the world, dividing the earth's land mass into approximately equal quarters.

The north-south axis (31 degrees east of Greenwich) is the longest land meridian, and the east-west axis (30 degrees north) is the longest land parallel on the globe. There is obviously only one place that these longest land-lines of the terrestrial earth can cross, and it is at the Great Pyramid! It means that Egypt, the Great Pyramid at Giza to be precise, lay at the centre of the last world. Incredible.

Can a soprano's voice really shatter glass?

Theoretically, yes. Wine glasses each have a natural frequency - the ringing note you hear if you clink one gently. If a singer picks exactly the note that a glass resonates at, and sings with enough intensity, her voice will cause the air molecules around the glass to move causing it to vibrate in sympathy.

If the glass has a microscopic flaw or weak point, the vibration could cause it to shatter into pieces. The singer's voice would have to be extremely loud, and the glass very fine and delicate, however. Strangely enough, it's the same technique that dentists use when they scale and polish teeth using ultrasonic sound waves!

The secret to age-restoring, fat-fighting, cancer-preventing sleep is...routine

I am sure you noticed that there are millions of e-somniacs out there, because they are out there on Facebook, email, Twitter, Plaxo, RSVP, ect at the same godforsaken hours sending messages instead of sleeping sweetly in their beds.

Strangely, the moment we are out of the big cities camping, TV, DVD player and computer are taken away, we go back to a more natural body rhythm, going to rest as it gets dark and raising with the sun. We have a pre-historic body that still responds to prehistoric body-clock cues.

There is nothing worse than being constantly tired, grumpy and getting sick gradually because our body is lacking that repairing, healing sleep. There are some very simple rules you need to follow to get back on track. The secret to perfect, age-restoring, fat-fighting, cancer-preventing sleep is.....routine. It's really not a sexy revelation...

So here is how it works. Rise as early as you can. Slide straight into sneaker. Exercise straight from home- none of this driving to the gym business: it invites procrastination. A simple 30 min walk is perfect. Use your favourite music collection of energizing music or personal development on your Ipod if that is your preference instead of being with your ow thoughts and bird song. Then meditate. By exercising first your mind is settled and ready for meditation. It sets you up for a great day! Then shower, take a teaspoon of apple cedar vinegar (to wake up your digestion and for general well being) and have a Herbalife nutrition shake or eat porridge. According to Eastern traditions, a hot, dense breakfast is the best way to ground energy; cold foods, such as muesli, require heat to digest, which saps energy from your system at that hour.

At night, it's simple. Eat a light dinner by 7pm. Avoid foods like avocado, aged cheese and soy sauce at night. Turn computer off by 8pm. Be in bed by 10pm. If you don't, your body will ache because the body repair occurs between 10pm and 2am. Get 7 to 8 hours sleep in a well aired, cool room. Don't overheat your bedroom. Sleep debt causes cortisol to rise, which shuts down metabolism so you start putting on weight.

Repeat this routine for a week or two and watch your skin glow, your phone manner become more attentive and sleep strike you like a blow to the head with a fat doona. After the improvement shows, you won't want to go back to your old habits because you will feel and look so much better!

If you are an owl like me, adjustment can take much longer and can be a tough transition but it is worth the experiment.

I wish you a good night sleep, a healthier body, glowing, young looking skin and a big smile on your face!

Please let me know of your results!

(This writing is based on an article by Sarah Wilson in A better life section of the Sunday Age July 2009. Sarah attended a sleep retreat at Gwinganna in the Gold Coast hinterland.)