Jayda Guy, aka Jayda G, a native of British Columbia, has
embraced her dual passions for science and music like few other
people in the world today. She has somehow been able to link her
experiences as a killer whale researcher to a creative mindset as a
musical DJ, singer, songwriter and producer, with a debut album
coming out this month.
The new album, “Significant Changes,” was inspired in part by
the orcas and the natural wonders of the Salish Sea, where she
conducted her studies. The album came together last year, not long
after she completed her master’s degree in resource management from
Simon Fraser University. Her research focused on the effects of
toxic chemicals on our southern resident killer whales.
“I’m trying to bring my two worlds together to bridge the
communication gap (and) engage people in a new way,” she told Andy
Malt, editor of
Complete Music Update. “I don’t know if people in the
electronic music world will want to talk about the environment, but
I think I should try! I think it’s our duty to use a platform like
this in a positive way; that’s our social responsibility.”
Classical composer Alex Shapiro, who lives on San Juan Island,
has a nice way of connecting music with her passion for the local
waters in Puget Sound.
“When I’m not crawling around the shoreline and shooting photos
of wildlife, I’m working on becoming a more adept note alignment
specialist,” she writes in her blog “Notes from the
Kelp.” “I compose music, mostly for chamber ensembles and
symphonic wind bands who kindly offer my notes to the air and
anyone within earshot.”
“Notes from the Kelp” is a nice play on words, since it is both
the name of a blog
and an album of
music, two ways of communicating with people about what Alex
calls a “heartbreakingly beautiful part of the planet.”
The first video on this page is Alex’s composition “Deep”
from “Notes from the Kelp.” When I close my eyes and listen to
this piece, I think about scuba diving along the bottom of Puget
Sound in very cold waters. In my vision, I first encounter all
sorts of bottom-dwelling organisms, such as sea pens and sea
urchins, but the music also inspires a feeling of doom, which I
associate with low-oxygen dead zones where nothing can live.
Here’s what Alex writes about “Deep”: “Sometimes I make the
mistake of believing that I’m not being unless I’m
doing and moving. This piece was my challenge to
myself to be still and present. And in doing so, I’ve never
been as much before. Like the sea, my truth lies below,
and I am happiest when I am immersed.”
The second video shows clarinetist Jeff Gallagher performing
Alex’s “Water
Crossing” during a concert in Santa Cruz, Calif., in 2016. Alex
writes about what she was thinking during the composition process
in the “Recordings”
section of her website. She describes a mythical voyage in a canoe
that turns into a sailboat. Dolphins dance ahead of the boat before
it returns to the safety of shore.
I have spent some time lately perusing this “Recordings”
page for a smorgasbord of music and observations on life. It’s
here you can find a list of Alex’s musical contributions, listen to
recordings and read about her music.
I first learned about Alex and her work from the third video on
this page. It was created as a promotion for the University of
Washington, yet Alex finds a way to talk about the importance of
science and how her music is like scientific exploration. The San
Juan Islands, where she lives, has always been an important place
to study sea life and shoreline dynamics — and it’s not just
because the islands are home to the UW’s Friday Harbor
Laboratories.
Alex has been traveling a lot lately and working on various
projects, as she freely describes on her Facebook page. Also, as
it turns out, she is moving from the home on San Juan Island that
she has written so passionately about. But she’s not going far,
since her new home is another waterfront location on San Juan
Island. I look forward to further notes from the kelp.
Knowing more than a few sewer operators in my day, I can tell
you that their leading pet peeve is all the stuff that people dump
down their toilets and drains.
I’ll never forget the courtroom description of a giant “rag
ball” — some 30 feet long — found in Bremerton’s sewer. Rag balls
are the accumulation of diapers, tampons and baby wipes that get
flushed down the toilet and become caught somewhere in the sewer
lines.
Bremerton’s famous rag ball became wrapped up in courtroom
testimony during a lawsuit against a sewer contractor hired by the
city to run the operation. For details, check out my story from
April of 1998.
Steve
Anderson
What I really wanted to share with you this week is a song
called “O Christmas Grease” by Steve Anderson, a water resources
analyst at Clean Water Services. This is the agency that manages
wastewater and stormwater in a 12-city region west of Portland,
Ore.
Steve often writes music and performs in a band when he’s not
working at the utility. He told me that he started writing original
songs as well as parodies of existing tunes to entertain his fellow
water experts at conferences. Last week, for example, he showed up
at a conference to help educators decide whether humor is useful in
educating people about wastewater issues.
Steve says the public-education folks at Clean Water Services
tolerates his songs, but they do not fully embrace his activities.
His first song — a parody about the low levels of drugs that make
it through the treatment process — got him into a little hot water
with some folks in the business. “Dope in the Water” is sung to the
tune of the Deep Purple original.
“The Ballad of Betty Poop” was written as a kid’s song for
Take-Your-Children-to-Work Day. It’s about the adventures of a
plastic GI Joe and other characters. It includes these famous
lines: “Give it up, you toilet treasures… You’ll never make it all
the way to the river…”
Steve has not released these songs to the public, though he
readily shares them with friends and anyone who will listen. I must
thank Gayle Leonard, who writes a blog called “Thirsty
in Suburbia,” for bringing Steve’s songs out into the light and
putting me in touch with this creative force in the sewer
world.
I’m still impressed, and a little amused, by the number of
videos continually being made about the water cycle.
I guess it’s good to know that even the youngest children are
coming to understand this multi-layered concept that regulates all
life on Earth. See YouTube video “Water
Travels in a Cycle, Yes It Does.”
Government agencies, including the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, have produced dozens of animations
about the water cycle. But sometimes it takes a little music to
keep one’s attention. Check out “NASA
the Water Cycle” and keep your eye on the little red water
molecule.
Speaking of music, it seems everyone has a song about the water
cycle. Believe it or not, most are called “The Water Cycle
Song”:
Organizers are getting ready for the third annual Great Peninsula
Future Festival, which is being moved from Port Gamble to the
Kitsap County Fairgrounds between Bremerton and Silverdale to make
it more convenient for people to attend.
Poster for Great Peninsula
Future Festival (click to enlarge)
The festival will be Saturday, July 31, and Sunday, August 1, in
the lower field north of the Kitsap Sun Pavilion. This morning,
organizer Gene Bullock sent me a copy of the new poster for the
event. (Click to enlarge.)
The basic idea remains a combination of entertainment, food and
environmental education, all coordinated to create a fun and
educational event. This year, the plan is to offer a bluegrass
festival on Saturday and more of a mixed variety of music on
Sunday.
“We are trying to appeal to a larger audience,” Gene told me.
“Saturday, we will have a festival within a festival, and we’ll
bring in several bluegrass bands.”
Last year’s price of $7.50 per adult has been reduced to $5, and
readily-available coupons will bring the price down to $3 for many
people. The admission price and location are designed to increase
interest in the event, which started two years ago with about 5,000
people but failed to match that attendance last year.
Great Peninsula Future Festival’s website will be updated as
new entertainers and activities are added between now and the end
of July.
