Josh's Blog.: July 2014

2014/07/28

Downtown Summer Strings

Last week I played in a concert with Downtown Summer Strings. It's a cool camp put on by the Toronto District School Board. All of the kids there play string instruments - violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. We got together for two weeks to prepare.

I was in the more advanced group this year. We played songs like Gotye's "Somebody that I used to know" arranged by J. Zaza, "A Baroque Bagatelle" by O. Goldsmith and "Beginning Bartok".
Both the less advanced and the more advanced groups got together and played "Sonata Vivant" by E. Del Borgo and "Swallow Tail" arranged by Ian Guenther.

There is one day in the camp that is different from anything I've done anywhere else. It's "Stuffed Thing Day". On that day we all carry a Stuffed Thing and they get prizes. This year my Stuffed Thing got a prize for "Best Name". His name was Alexander the Great Ape. :-) We even have a mini-concert for our Stuffed Things.

I love everything about the camp. I especially love when we all get together and play in the really big group. I love being around so many people who love music! And I love that we all get to perform together for all the parents and friends at the concert.

Here are some pictures from after the concert.

I was surprised to see Marie Gelinas and Ed Hayes at the concert. I get to see Marie at the TSO all the time and they both came to my school when I was young to play. It was really cool being able to perform for them.

This is Sylvia and she volunteered for the first time this year.

Andres is our resident comedian and cellist.

Felix is a cellist as well and he also keeps us laughing.

Rebecca led the more advanced students.

And we would be completely lost without Ian.

And here is a picture of me with my Mom and Dad. :-)

Here is a link to my blog post from last year's Summer Strings camp.
http://joshdlee.blogspot.ca/2013/07/summer-strings.html

2014/07/05

Family Fun Fridays at the Ontario Legislature

Mom and I went to the Ontario Legislature yesterday for "Family Fun Friday".

I never noticed the top of the roof before.

In Queen's Park there are a lot of statues.
There is one of George Brown. He was the Premier of Ontario for a few days in 1858.

There is a statue of Sir John A. MacDonald that faces University Avenue.

The first thing we did was a Scavenger Hunt!
We used clues in the building to find the answers of our scavenger hunt.

This is a section of a silver vein from a town in Ontario.

There was a model ship.

I liked the display of Ontario's symbols. I didn't know we had an official tartan!

This camera was pretty cool too!

There was a display which shows the way the Speaker dresses.

And a painting of the Fathers of Confederation in 1864.
Can you find Sir John A. MacDonald and George Brown?

I wonder who used this piano and when?

There is a Coat of Arms on the glass ceiling!

Of course, Mom had to take a picture of me. :-)

We got to go inside the Chamber where the Members of Provincial Parliament meet.

When legislature is in session, they put the mace on the table facing the governing party.

We had time to look around and ask questions.
The legislative building was built 121 years ago! It opened on April 4, 1893!

There are so many carvings and details all around.

We got to have a fake debate in this room.

We chose to debate about banning home work.

The children (the government) were arguing to ban home work and the parents (the official opposition) argued to keep homework.

I actually crossed the floor because I disagreed with the bill.

The parents won this time and forced an election.

We had time for crafts as well but I won't post pictures of that.

I really liked this lightbulb which Mom pointed out to me. :-)