Clean house yay.

Sunday school lesson done yay.

Most of the annoying errands run yay.

I had my first piano lesson of the summer. The teacher said, "You know, when we finish these books...maybe I should just start you out on, you know, regular sheet music." She also assigned me to start practicing Schumann's "The Wild Horseman." I like being able to play "real" music, in the sense that it's something actually recognizable to people other than those who have done that specific set of piano exercise-books.

(Though I will say one of the exercises for this week - I guess it is to teach the eighth-rest? - is called "Touchdown Tune," which I immediately recognized as a simplified version of "Let's Go Blue," which is sort of the unofficial Michigan fight song (the official one, of course, being "The Victors".) The book coyly lists it as "Traditional" but I feel duty bound to report that the REAL composers are Joseph Carl and Albert Ahronheim. (And yes, I had to Google that to remind myself.) I was once told that when other schools started using the cheer (and it is quite widely used) they had to pay royalties. I don't know if that is still the case.)

It's funny, I was never really a football fan when I was at Michigan - and yet that old cheer makes me happy. I think it's probably because it reminds me more of fall Saturdays spent while my dad was listening to the Michigan games (broadcast by Bob Ufer) on the radio while puttering about the house.

I will also observe that Michigan has one of the more interesting alma maters* that I've heard; so many of the others with which I am familiar seem to use the same tune, and "The Yellow and Blue" is actually distinctive, if perhaps a bit archaic seeming.

(*And that's a .pdf link, there.)

Sadly, I cannot find any reference to the Michiganized version of "Heave Away," which my parents used to occasionally sing when I was a kid. The only line I remember is, "OH! Ypsi** girls are very fine girls, heave away, heave away! With codfish balls they comb their curls, heave away, heave away!" I'm sure it was some old Down East tune that probably some glee club member or fraternity man converted to at least vaguely apply to Michigan***.

(** Ypsi = Ypsilanti, a town near Ann Arbor that I think had a teacher's college, where there was more likely to be a female contingent in the days when Heave Away was written).

My parents were at Michigan in the late 50s; it seemed that a lot of the traditions were still alive then - but they had sadly died back a lot before I got there in the late 80s. A lot of the romantic images I had of what "college life" was like came from my parents; it was kind of a rude awakening to show up on campus picturing something like Norman Rockwell's Willie Gillis at College and find something a bit more closely resembling The Satyricon.

Of course, I suppose it's also possible that they cleaned up their memories of the time somewhat before presenting them to me, especially when I was at more tender ages. And yet, I kind of think there wasn't too much sanitization - at least of their own personal experiences - that went on.)

(*** No codfish balls, but here's the tune, called Michigan Men. Unfortunately it's a bit hard to hear and the videographer is GIGGLING at it and talking during it. Grr.)