The Laurie Berkner Band Blog

Make a Dance!

Making music is as easy as creating a few dance moves!  We love dancing - it's not only great to get all your wiggles out, but it's also an excellent way to exercise.

So, try it out, in 3 easy steps:

Step 1: Pick 5 moves you like to do.  Here are some examples:

• Jump
• Twist
• Clap
• Spin
• Pat your knees
• Kick your feet
• Side step
• Go bananas (wiggle your whole body)

Step 2: Pick a song you already know, such as:

• I Know a Chicken
• We Are the Dinosaurs
  
• Old MacDonald
• ABC's
• B-I-N-G-O

Step 3: Decide how the song will go!  All you need to do is replace the words with your moves.  You can do this a simply as you'd like, or you can get REALLY creative!

  For example, to the tune of Old MacDonald, you can sing the following and act out the moves every time you sing them:

"Old MacMommy had a house, e-i-e-i-o. 

And on in her house she had a kid, e-i-e-i-o

With a "Jump Jump" here

And a "Jump Jump" there.

Here a "jump", there a "jump",

Everywhere a "jump jump"!

(and pick a new move for each verse)

OR

"Old MacJUMPy had a SPIN, pat-pat-pat-your-knees!

And on that SPIN he had a CLAP, pat-pat-pat-your-knees!

With a "SIDE STEP" here

And a "SIDE STEP" there

Here a "STEP", there a "STEP"

Everywhere a "SIDE STEP"

You can even make up your own tune if you are feeling particularly musical!

Do you ever move around when you are listening to Laurie Berkner Band songs?  If so, what types of moves do you do, and during which songs?  Do you ever change the lyrics so you can do different moves?

We really hope you have fun making up songs and dances!  Share them with your friends and family, and teach them your moves! 

We'd love to see what you come up with - send us your lyrics or a video of you and your family dancing to your songs! 

Grow Your Own!

You may remember our post about Food and Big Business.  It received a lot of responses suggesting that a way to combat the Big Business takeover of the food industry is to grow your own fruits and veggies. 

Even apartment dwellers with a little sunlight can grow fruits and veggies on their window sills or other apartment spaces.

Spring is here and summer is just around the corner.  Warm weather is the perfect time to start a small garden of your very own!

Remember - when you purchase seeds, you can get organic or non-organic.  We suggest organic - they're not too much more expensive and they are free of chemicals, pesticides, and cultivated in an eco-friendly manner.  Try this site: Seeds of Change

Some good produce to start growing in a small garden:

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Snow peas/snap peas (you can snack on them right off the plant!)
• Strawberries
• Herbs (Basil, mint, thyme, rosemary, sage, etc)
• Radishes
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini
• Squash
• Carrots

There are tons of tips online about the best ways to get a good yield in nearly ANY space.  Nurturing a garden is a great activity for kids of all ages, too - it teaches responsibility, the delicacy of ecosystems, and appreciation for the environment.  Plus, veggies go down a lot easier when your own hard work helped them grow!

Happy gardening!  Send us your progress

Click Here to Play "Song In My Tummy"

Green Office #3

Last week we received our Sustainability Plan! 

 

It's an 8 Page booklet put together for us by our "Green Consultant", Michele.  In it, it details each category of the office and how many "green points" we receive for each.

For example, everyone in the office uses public transportation to come to work, so we received 10 points in the "transportation to work" category.  

In areas where we need to do better, there are suggestions for the actions we can take and the potential green points we will receive if we do.  This is broken down into "Immediate", "Next Steps", and "When Ready" so we know how to prioritize our actions.

Right now, Two Tomatoes Records falls in the "Silver" category of sustainability.  We are making it our goal to reach the "Gold" level in 90 days - a goal that we hope to reach while also working hard on getting music to the fans!

The past two blogs about the greening process:

Green Office #1

Green Office #2

Let's Talk about Food

(FYI: This blog entry's writing style is mainly directed towards adults, but we would love for you to share the ideas with your kids - they can be part of the solution, too!)

In the past, we've mentioned Laurie's profound interest in food production and sustainability.  A few days ago, Laurie received an e-mail from The Food Democracy Now Team with information and statistics about some of the major problems affecting our food system.

There is currently a lot of information out there about the food industry problems, such as books like The Omnivore's Dilemma and documentaries like "Food, Inc." The information we most frequently hear is: "most of the meat, grain, milk — and even the grocery stores themselves — are all owned and controlled by just a few corporations." (quoted from the e-mail) We have a lot of facts about the problem, but the solution isn't always clear!

When we started writing today's blog, we wanted to offer some easy-to-follow (and afford) ways to avoid subscribing to these food problems - however, we were frustrated to find that it's REALLY tough to give foolproof advice, since nearly every major grocery store primarily stocks food owned by these major companies!

Laurie was talking about this issue as a working mom - she said it is sometimes really difficult to pack up her shopping bags, shopping cart, daughter, and work materials to walk the 8-10 blocks to the local Farmer's Market once a week in order to stock up on sustainable food.  She belongs to a CSA, but not everyone has access to these awesome programs.

So, we're asking YOU - how much do you think about where your food comes from?  Do you have any tips or ideas for working families to help buy food from local markets that don't support big business farming?  How easy is it to find food that fits your budget and lifestyle?  If you leave us comments with ideas, we will send your little ones an autographed postcard (be sure to leave your e-mail address so we can get in contact with you)!!

We would LOVE to offer some really good tips to our fans so that we can all be sure we are eating healthy, sustainable food that will fuel our lives and our spirits.  Let's take back our power to decide what we eat!

Below are some statistics from the e-mail Laurie received:

"• A single company (Monsanto) controls the seeds of 93% of soybeans and 80% of the corn grown in the U.S.3

• 4 companies (Tyson, Cargill, Swift & National Beef Packing Co.) control 83% of the beef packing industry4

• 4 companies (Smithfield, Tyson, Swift & Cargill) control 66% of the pork packing industry

For too long now, food and agricultural production has been consolidated into the hands of a few agribusiness giants. These companies dictate to us how our food is produced, how much farmers are paid for their crops and livestock and how much consumers pay for food."

To sign the petition to help break up big business in the food industry, Click Here!

Musical Memories

A few days ago, a fan wrote in to say that she thought "Rocketship Run" sounded different from Laurie's other albums, and she asked if something had happened in LB's life between albums.  Well, something BIG happened - her daughter Lucy was born!

One way that Laurie approaches songwriting is to take herself on a trip down memory lane to her childhood.  It's a method she uses all the time, and it's done a lot more than just help write music.  When Lucy was born, she began to connect even more deeply to those memories from her childhood because she was seeing the world through Lucy's eyes.

From Laurie: 

The oldest memory I have of feeling pure joy through creating and listening to music:

When I was around 2 or 3 years old, my parents would ask me to stay in my room in the mornings on the weekends 'til (I think) 8am, so they could catch up on their sleep.  I had my own record player (I remember it being a Fisher-Price plastic one but I might have mixed two memories here) and I would put on Do Re Mi from the Sound of Music and marching around on my bed singing my heart out in my room. (At the other end of the apartment from my parents!)    

I can still feel it in my body as I imagine myself marching on that bed.  The good feeling that that memory evoked was part of the inspiration for writing We are the Dinosaurs, and having kids march around.

Tell us about your experiences!

Listen to "Five Days Old"