Weeping for Belinda, the most beautiful willow in the East!

Another green treasure in our midst is gone. I just read that Belinda, the willow tree that was immortalized and beloved in Deborah Henson Conant’s song, “Belinda”, was cut down from her home in Davis Square. Despite the efforts by locals, Deborah and even the Arlington High School Choir, the precious tree is gone, no longer able to bring joy, green and a breeze to passers by. We’ll miss you Belinda!

Here is an excerpt of Deborah’s page dedicated to this wonderful tree. Check it out! You can even hear the internationally famous song, Belinda here!

” In short, I’d ridden past this beautiful tree many times on my bike, but one day I stopped, saw it and was completely overwhelmed with how magnificent the tree was, how unexpected in Somerville and how inspired I was that someone loved it enough to protect it and let it grace the city in that way. I loved it, but had no idea it had a name.

Then one day I was working with a temp in my office. I asked him where he lived, he said he lived just down the street from the beautiful willow. I knew exactly the tree he meant! He told me the willow’s name was “Belinda.” The next time I walked by the tree I looked up and thought, ‘That’s Belinda!” and spontaneously began singing a little samba, which became the song “Belinda.”

I sang “Belinda” for years in my concerts – with the audience singing along. I even wrote a version of the song for full orchestra — so people have now sung and heard the song all over the US and Europe.

One day, about five years after I’d started performing it, a man came up after a show and said, “That tree you sing about? I know that tree. But it’s not called Belinda — its name is Bertha!” So the NEXT time I walked past I looked up and thought, “Hunh! So that’s BERTHA!” and AGAIN, spontaneously a very different tune came into my head. That became the song, “Birth ‘a Bertha.”

I’ve gotten many stories from fans who’ve visited the tree and love it. One of my favorites is from a woman who wrote to tell me that she was picking up a twig from under the tree when a man asked her what she was doing. She said she wanted to take a part of Belinda home with her, root it and plant it in her own garden. The man was surprised and said it was his own father who had first planted the tree.

In Summer 2008, the Arlington High School Choir Director, Cheryl Christo, asked if I’d come do a project with the High School music students. I live in Arlington and have long been impressed by the music and theater departments there, so we agreed to perform three pieces of mine: one with chorus, one with orchestra and one with band. The vocal piece they chose was “Belinda” and composer (and former music department head of AHS), Pasquale Tassone, took my orchestral score and arranged it for 4-part choir of about 80 kids.

Here’s an idea Deborah: To prevent other Berthas and Belindas from going on, let’s hear from folks out there who have their own favorite trees that they want to save!

When times get tough SING and PLAY

As the world dipped into dark economic times this past fall, I decided one great thing I could do for the planet, my family and myself was to get up and SING. One gorgeous fall evening my daughter Valentina and I went down to the River Sing concert on the Charles River where met up with our dear friend, musical inspiration and Windsor Mountain founder, Richard Herman and his wife Paula who were singing along with hundreds of others. Knowing my love of singing, they encouraged me to join the Mystic Chorale, a wonderful group of singers of all ages and backgrounds that meets and practices weekly in Arlington Center. Since this is my year to indulge myself making and learning music ( I have teaching myself guitar since the New Year), I sign up pedal up to my first practice session at the First Parish Church. The room is filled with smiling, relaxed people all taking their seat according to their voice type. Unknowingly I sit down in the Baritone section and am soon guided to my proper place with the Altos!

In walks Nick Paige, the group’s beloved founder and director Nick Page. A Boston-based song leader, composer, and author I learn that Nick is dedicated to teaching people of all ages that they are capable of great miracles through the simple yet powerful, act of singing that he outlines on his website, Nick Music. In addition to being the founder and Artistic Director of The Mystic Chorale, he also works extensively with children and with educators, both classroom teachers and music specialists.

For the first 15 minutes, Nick vigorously guides us through voice exercises and body stretches to get us ready for the rigorous but wonderfully fun two-hour practice. This fall’s concert theme: “We the People” was scheduled three week after the National election which would prove a driving inspiration for the chorus. The concert, a celebration of democracy, our voices, and how we shape the world we live in, caused a great stir of emotion particularly on the election night and the weeks following.

Ever Choral member gets a practice CD and over the 11 weeks of practice I would have my IPOD dialed to a delightful collection of beloved folk anthems that I would sing to in the car, on my bike and while cleaning the house. My kids got used to hearing me sing classics like “Bread and Roses”, Holly Near’s “Singing for Our Lives”, and the jazzy, “Woke Up This Morning”. I learn to sing a unique harmony for “The Star Spangled Banner” and struggled to memorize the lines and notes for “Lift Every Voice and Sing”. Not only were my voice and mind stretched but I discovered what Nick Paige teaches every day, that singing is a great healer. No matter how difficult the headlines became, I would sing and listen to these tunes and feel great hope and inspiration.

This past weekend our efforts culminated in a glorious concert in Cary Hall in Lexington. After having attended so many of my kid productions, it was nice to see them smiling in the audience. Dressed in blue and purple, our eyes were on Nick as he passionately guided us through every song. Regularly wiping his brow, telling stories, smiling and encouraging audience participation I found myself completely inspired by his love of sharing the joy of singing with others.

He pleasantly suprised us on several occassions by introducing and teaching the choir and the audience new songs such as Let the Life I lead Speak for Me or by leading us on jazzy vocal and sound games. The audience was totally game for his teaching conducting style. In response to our singing, Nick would get the audience to sing, sway and stand to the music. At the end of Life Every Voice and Sing we all belted out a powerful AMEN and it sounded like Heaven on Earth. I looked out into the audience to see people of all ages smiling and nodding their head to the music. The collective spirit of song renewed every sould in the room. Thanks Nick, thanks Mystic Chorale!

A Day in the Life of a Bicycle Advocate. YES WE CAN!

Greetings

I am making slow progress on kids cycling to school in Arlington. At Thursday’s Community Relations meeting in the superintendent’s office we confirmed that there are some very challenging and extremely concerning anti-cycling attitudes among the Arlington principals, the superintendent and the crossing guards. While our group handled ourselves very diplomatically, they all firmly believe that, despite our best arguments and most documented and reliable sources and successful national Safe Routes to School models, that Arlington is way to dangerous for kids to cycle to school. They will not allow bike racks on school property for that would send the wrong message that they support cycling to school which they currently do not. These attitudes are out of synch and touch with most surrounding towns who are making progress with kids cycling to schools.

They said that they are “open” to cycling but want Arlington to FIRST make changes in infrastructure, add police, crossing guards and closes streets around the school before they will sanction cycling. We all know how unrealistic this request is, how long it would take and how much ground cycling to school will loose if we wait for such changes to occur. We cannot wait for perfection to make progress on more liveable streets. There is so much we can do now and getting more people safely cycling and walking around Arlington is one of them.

Cycling and walking to school as part of the Safe Routes to School program is part of the solution to reduce traffic around the schools but we may be facing a losing battle: SRTS is losing participants, content and clout in Arlington.

In this meeting, we discovered that one source of their anti-cycling sentiment stems from a memo from Nate Levenson in which he totally misquotes and misrepresents a statement from Mass Bike stating that the superintendent and the director of Mass Bike determined that Arlington was not safe for cycling. This meeting, as I suspected, never occurred and these statements were never made by Mass Bike. On the contrary Dorie Clark, ABAC and I were working very hard throughout 2005 (as we are now) to educate and inspire the principals and superintendent towards a change in attitude and policy with regards to cycling. After all the work we had done, I was never asked to attend any final meeting nor was informed about the decision. When I met again with Hardy’s previous principal Carmody in the early spring of 2006 to launch an after school bicycle safety program, it suddenly became “sorry no cycling, case closed”. One school committee source tells me that Mr Carmody’s views stemmed from previous Superintendent Kay Donovan who was openly and adamantly anti-cycling. Her anti-cycling legacy and misinformation unfortunately prevails and is preventing progress throughout the Arlington Schools

SPINNING FORWARD:

We wish to thank the School committee for making this a priority! We will be presenting a PILOT cycling program to the School committee on December 16th and need support from as many residents as possible. If you would like to attend this meeting or offer support for our initiatives, please email me your name and email address and I will keep you updated on our progress in my growing list of Arlington Cycling to School advocates. Tell your friends too.

At this Thursday’s meeting we requested that the principals and superintendent remain neutral on cycling to school throughout the pilot process and refrain from making any more anti cycling statements. If you are a parent in East Arlington, please write and/ or tell the principals (and cc school committee member Jeff Thielman, Sue Scheffler and Ron Spangler) that you support kids and parents cycling safely to school and ask them to encourage more walking to school until we have a cycling program in place. Please ask them to refrain from negative comments about cycling and instead demand that cars respect the speed and parking laws around the schools. Tell them to ask parents not to not park on the streets surrounding the schools if at all possible. We ask that crossing guards report drivers breaking the law to the police. Spread the word: YES WE CAN (cycle to school) The principals agree that they cannot tell us how to get to school. For those of us who are not in walking distance, cycling is a viable option. I travel 3 miles by bike to bring my kids to three schools.

Winter is coming, many more cars will surround the schools. Children that are walking and those that choose to safely bike with their parents, are in serious danger due to car traffic.

ALL Principals must all do their part to REDUCE traffic around the schools and increase healthy habits for our kids and the planet. They must be a part of the solution, not the problem. We need to make them accountable too.