Watonga - 6/20/2011

The Watonga library is another of those that has had me back nearly every year I've been doing summer reading programs! We always look forward to seeing what they've done to decorate, and this year they did not disappoint. There was a huge igloo in the program room, made out of empty milk jugs!

Evalyn is counting - trying to guess how many jugs for a drawing for a stuffed penguin.

Never mind that penguins are South Pole and igloos are North Pole, this is still the coolest thing ever!

I stood between a rain forest and an igloo for this program - and you thought the weather was weird where you are today!

This little guy fell asleep and was dead to the world while other kids did the "Acrocanthosaurus" dance.

Coming up - programs in Talequah, Tulsa, Hollis and Altus this week. See the full schedule here: http://www.montyharper.com/Schedule.html

Ada - 6/16/11

We always love to visit Ada! This time Lisa had to stay home, so Evalyn and I went on our own. Well, we did bring Evalyn's stuffed buddy, Purple Monkey. He was given to her by the Ada librarian the year she was born, so she makes sure he gets to have a little homecoming every summer.

We had a great group and lots of fun with the performance as always!

Evalyn took the photos for me during the show!

AND Evalyn ran the sales table for me. She did a great job all by herself - her first time!

SE Oklahoma Trip

These past two days we've been in Southeastern Oklahoma. I did four library shows - Hugo, Valiant, Poteau, and Heavener.

Hugo is a circus city - three different circuses overwinter there. The library is decorated with a circus theme.

Evalyn with her new worm buddy.

The program room in Hugo was decked out with a world travel theme, including the giant colorful hot air balloon in the corner.

"Pop!"

Must've been something I said. ;-)

"Back off!"

At Valiant we had a small but fun group.

It's been years since we visited Poteau! Great to be back!

Evalyn on Poptropica.

Heavener has a new program room - a renovated stone building with a wooden ceiling that Evalyn says looks like an upside down boat.

We had a great audience in Heavener - the boys and girls club, which included quite a few older kids. They were super attentive and great singers!

Next up: Ada! See you soon!

Kansas Trip

Can I really be two weeks into summer shows already?!?

So sorry I haven't been keeping up, but here are some photos from our trip to Kansas last week. More to come!

The first set are from the library in McPherson. I did two shows there, with two fantastic audiences. We met some big-time fans who knew my music from checking it out at the library, and we ended up going to lunch with them!

The second set of photos are from the Junction City library. We had a very small group, and sometimes it's tough to get small groups to participate. But as you can see, that was not a problem in Junction City!

We took advantage of the space and moved around a lot, especially during "Roundy Round."

We've got a very early morning tomorrow as we head for SE Oklahoma. Stay tuned for more photos and video as I try to play catch up.

My schedule is here:

http://www.montyharper.com/Schedule.html

I'll be in Ada, Stillwater, Wichita, Norman, Tahlequah, and many other places. I hope to see you soon!

Silly silly silly...

Signing autographs for our new friends,

who had lunch with us between shows.

Back off!

Roundy Round in Junction City

Roundy Round!

Big Red Fire Truck

Everybody got a kazoo after the show!

A Song Is Born - the Making of "Super Scientist"

This week I've been working with 4th and 5th graders at Richmond here in Stillwater, getting started on a songwriting residency. During our first session I gave them an overview of my writing process, using the song "Super Scientist" as an example. Below is the Prezi I've been using (with some improvements).

Check it out! Have fun!

A Song Is Born on Prezi

More Photos From the Science Frontier

More from last week's Songs From the Science Frontier shows. They all went really really well! I am excited to have this program on my hands!

Love this photo Lisa took of the cool shadow guitar dude, whoever he may be...

My audience at the South Broken Arrow library, following along with the "Wind Energy" song. Check out the artwork - it covers every wall in the room!

Here they're doing the "Roundy Round!"

This is after the show at Brookside Library. We had a very small crowd there - this is most of them!

This is a drawing of wheat aphids 3 year old Caroline made for me during the show:

Songs From the Science Frontier Shows!

I performed at two Tulsa branch libraries today, and this was the first time I presented my full-fledged "Songs From the Science Frontier" program with visuals all the way through. This show represents the culmination of about three years of work getting into the topic of science, and figuring out how I want to present it for kids. It's also just the tip of the ice burg - much more to come!

Both programs went very well!! I have some tweaking still to do but I'm incredibly happy with this new program. Each song is connected to a real scientist and an aspect of science that I want kids to learn about. The whole thing hangs together really well, and I love having the lyrics up on the big screen so kids can read and sing along. I really enjoyed interacting with the kids between songs, talking about science. Both librarians were very positive about the show. There's a lot of depth to it, and I'm excited about bringing it to schools in the Fall!!

I have two more Tulsa programs tomorrow, and a fifth program Friday at the Sam Noble museum in Norman. If they all go as well as today I'll be on cloud nine!

Here I am posing before the morning show at Rudisill. The colorful background is my home slide, which shows the entire program laid out over my CD cover. This slide launches the program and from here we go to lyrics and images for each song.

This is from the afternoon show at Nathan Hale. I'm just chatting with the kids before we got started.

Here we are doing "Wind Energy" - a human wind farm!

Tomorrow:

South Broken Arrow, 11:00 AM

Brookside, 2:30 PM

:-)

Classroom Visit at Richmond

Today I got to visit Mrs. Brown's 2nd grade at Richmond here in Stillwater; one of her students won one of ten visits I donate each summer to the Stillwater Public Library for summer reading prizes.

What a great group! We had a good time singing, laughing, and chatting. We did "Take Me to Your Library," "Silly Song," "Lisa Lee Elizabeth," and "The Cat Came Back."

Many thanks to Mrs. Brown for taking and sending these photos!

Cedar Ridge in Tulsa

Thanks to Lori Mecke for sending in this photo of me with Principal Crager at Cedar Ridge Elementary Friday afternoon after the show! It was good for me to get out and perform, getting back into the swing of things after basically taking a semester off to make and release the new science CD. I've got another school show coming up later this month, and a bunch more stuff in the works, so you'll hear more from me soon. Also the new season of Born to Do Science starts this Saturday. I hope to see you there!

Evan and Tom Paul

Here is a fantastic photo of a fan, Evan, with his cat, Tom Paul. The cat was named after the Tom Paul from my song, "Lisa Lee Elizabeth!" How cool is that?

And a drawing Evan made of Tom Paul (the cat)...

I promised long ago to post these up on my website! I've been excavating my office this week and I just unearthed the folder that contained them. So, up they go. Sorry to take so ridiculously long at it, Evan! 

Now back to the pile - I wonder what else I might come across!

Skyline Visit

On Dec 10 I visited Mrs. McDonald's 1st grade at Skyline Elementary here in Stillwater; just now getting around to posting photos! This was another of the classroom visits I donated to the Stillwater Library to give as prizes for their summer reading program. We had a fun time, as always!

Here we're doing the Wind Energy song:

Posed together after the singing:

Happy holidays!

Delivering Donated CDs to Schools

As part of the fundraising campaign to record my new Songs From the Science Frontier CD I gave my backers the option of purchasing CDs to be donated to schools or other institutions where lots of kids would get to hear them. 

Eighty-one CDs were purchased as donations! 

Over the past two weeks I've been hand delivering and mailing CDs to schools all over the country. Not all of my backers specified recipients for their donations, so I had the fun and surprisingly time-consuming task of choosing where about 2/3 of them would go. 

I made sure all the schools here in Stillwater got a copy, as well as schools in surrounding communities. I also sent them to far-flung places such as science magnet schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Wichita, Durham, and Los Angeles. 

For anyone who's curious beyond reason, here is a list of all the CD recipients.

Last week I visited each of the Stillwater schools to deliver their CDs in person. Lisa came along and took a few photos. 

Here I am handing off CDs to the librarians at Westwood, Highland Park, and Sangre Ridge...

To all the CD recipients: May they inspire and challenge your students to explore the science frontier!

Signing and Mailing CDs

I signed and mailed out about 170 Songs From the Science Frontier CDs this weekend! Thanks to all who ordered one.

Here's an epic film of the process. Watch to find out how (and why) I signed one CD in American Sign Language!

The Day After Turkey

Twas the morn after Turkey Day. All through the house

Not a creature was stirring, save this eager mouse!

Through the darkness I tiptoed to start up my sleigh

In the early A.M. of this famed shopping day.

I tore across town with a gleam in my eye,

Pulled into a spot right in front of Best Buy,

And zipping my coat up to fend off the cold

Sought the end of the line...

As it lengthened ten fold!

Soon I and these legions of fellow deal-seekers

Hopped forward a bit on the balls of our sneakers,

And into the aisles of the store we all flooded.

Merchandise flew as the shelves were all gutted!

That's when this poor wretched mousey was told

That the two reduced netbooks they'd offered were sold.

Yes, I had been lured to that store with a story

Then slapped with excuses of low inventory.

The mice who had snatched up the netbooks I'd sought

Had camped for three days in the south parking lot!

So I turned on my heels and went back to my ride,

Empty handed, downhearted, defeated inside.

As I tumbled my poor mousey soul back to bed,

Visions of empty shelves danced in my head.

I tossed and I turned and I tried to dismiss this

Foreboding that Santa might skip us this Christmas.

But when I awoke I felt rested and fine,

And resigned to complete all my shopping...

Online!

- Monty Harper

My friends,

If you take advantage of my Thanksgiving sale,

You will get a free CD with the purchase of my new CD,

I guarantee that I'll not run out of free CDs,

There is no parking, no line, no cold, 

No shipping, no tax, no kidding!

And what better gift than the gift of music?

Please check it out at MontyHarper.com!

Songs From the Science Frontier is Here!

Songs From the Science Frontier is now available to order or download!

This week only: Order the new CD and get one of my older titles free! This offer is available through my website at MontyHarper.com, and expires next Monday Nov 29.

CDs will arrive in plenty of time for Christmas!
If you are one of my Kickstarter.com backers, your CDs will be first to ship, and they'll be going out very soon!

I'm excited, people! I've been working on this for months, and I'm very proud of it. Can't wait for you to hear it!