"Holiday" stories

Are you a Jew who decorates a Christmas tree? A Christian who lights a Menorah? An agnostic who does both? Are you someone whose family has developed a unique holiday tradition that gathers from a variety of cultural and religious sources?

Send us your stories! The Deedle Deedle Dees are doing a "holiday show" on December 11 and we want everyone, no matter what they celebrate (or don't celebrate), to feel welcome. Erase from your mind the holiday specials you saw on TV as a child. We're not going to put on sweaters and sing that song about chestnuts. Instead, we're creating a holiday event from scratch with your help. We want to know about the special things that you and your family do in the months of December and January, a time when, no matter what you believe or where you're from, things in our country slow down and there are opportunities for rest, reflection, and re-connection.

Try to think of things that you and those you love do that anyone, anywhere in the world can appreciate. Ways that you show that you care for each other. Things that you do in your community that bring you together.

If you live in New York -- or you're going to be visiting the city the weekend of our show -- we might ask you to tell your story onstage. We might turn your story into a song. Or you can turn your own story into song. We're starting the planning on this show early so that we can gather a lot of ideas and create a really meaningful event.

We look forward to hearing your stories!


Lloyd (Ulysses S. Dee)


The Deedle Deedle Dees Family Variety Show
December Edition: Holiday Show!
December 11, 2010
11am
The Knitting Factory
361 Metropolitan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
bk.knittingfactory.com

Win a free concert for your school!

We're having a costume contest at our October 30th variety show! The kid with the best underwater-themed costume will win a free concert for their school by me, Lloyd Miller (AKA Ulysses S. Dee).

Saturday, October 30th
11am
The Deedle Deedle Dees Family Variety Show
Underwater Halloween!
The Knitting Factory
361 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY

Costume Contest Rules:

1. You must be 12 or under to enter
2. Your costume must have some sort of underwater theme to it. There are all sorts of characters that could fit this description: sharks, pirate ghosts, squid, bubbles, starfish...
3. You can't be a member of the immediate family of any of the performers -- not even the kid performers.
4. You must buy a ticket to our Oct 30 show at the Knitting Factory and appear in person to be eligible to enter (no entries by e-mail, etc.)
5. You must sign up as an official contestant at the beginning of the event.

PRIZES:
First prize: A free 45-minute concert at your school. Not in school yet? We'll figure out another non-profit organization or community group for the performance. Sorry, no birthday parties or other private events. Lloyd does perform at birthdays, but the concert that we're giving away at this show must be for a school or other organization that we approve.

Second prize: Free family ticket ($20 value) to our next Deedle Deedle Dees Family Variety Show on November 13th (featuring musical guest Rachel Lipson and author Robert Sullivan)

Third prize: Signed copies of our last two albums, American History + Rock-n-Roll = The Deedle Deedle Dees and Freedom in a Box.

Costumes will be judged by a small panel selected day of show.

Camperdown Elm

Camperdown Elm

words and music by Lloyd Miller
(c) (p) 2004, 2011

Camperdown Elm, branches so crooked
Camperdown Elm, branches so low
Camperdown Elm, you're funny lookin'
But I want to sing to ya like Marianne Moore

I sing...
Low, low, low branches grow
on the Camperdown Elm in the Brooklyn borough
Grow, grow, grow branches grow
but, Camperdown, keep 'em crooked
Camperdown, keep 'em low

Camperdown Elm, grafted in Scotland
Camperdown Elm, two elms combined
Camperdown Elm, sick and soon dying
Camperdown Elm, we saved you with rhymes

Now we sing...
Low, low, low branches grow
on the Camperdown Elm in the Brooklyn borough
Grow, grow, grow branches grow
but, Camperdown, keep 'em crooked
Camperdown, keep 'em low


I wrote this song when I was teaching the Nature Babies program in Brooklyn's Prospect Park a few years ago. Story as I heard it is this: on the estate of the Earl of Camperdown in Scotland, an elm's twisty branches were growing along the ground. His gardener grafted this tree onto another type of elm and created a new "mutant" tree. This new type of tree was still super twisty -- and the branches still threatened to touch the ground -- but at least they were now up in the air like a proper tree. This was the Camperdown Elm, a very unique-looking tree that wouldn't be out of place in a Lord of the Rings film. The Earl gave one of his singular trees to Prospect Park at some point. You can see it by entering the park on the east side at Lincoln Road.

In the 1960s, the Camperdown Elm was dying. Often, given how swift and brutal elm disease can be, ravaging every tree nearby, elms are just cut down when they first show signs of illness. But when the Camperdown Elm got sick, concerned citizens -- aided by a Marianne Moore poem hailing it as "our crowning curio" -- managed to convince officials that this tree was different and worthy of being saved.


photo by Lloyd Miller

Birds of America lyrics

Birds of America
words & music by Lloyd Miller
(c) (p) 2010

Watch a rough-draft version of this brand-new song on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/SingalongwithLloyd#p/u/14/7DY75o0PXao

Birds of America don't care-oh
How they look in pictures
Well maybe sparrows
the coot is vain
so's the black cap titmouse
Creeping warblers complain
but not like the screech owl

If they'd been alive to see themselves drawn
what would they have to say about John James Audubon?

Other creatures would be flattered
to see themselves in handsome books,
postcards and calendars
But birds are fickle, fancy fellows
a canary'll take you to court over a shade of yellow

If they'd been allowed to critique his work
Would his name still be synonymous with birds?

Would the Grey-Crowned Purple Finch take offense?
Or the Least Peewee Flycatcher be incensed?
Can't you see Bonaparte's gull now, hand to his breast?
And we've all seen bob-o-links and vireos bothered by less

Never a man to hunt birds for sport
Audubon still ate some Birds of America
after he finished up their portraits

What we're gonna play Sunday

We're excited about the brand-new show we've put together for 92YTribeca this Sunday. Here are the tunes we worked on yesterday. We'll be playing all of them.

Showtime: 11am. Be there.

Thoreau and Thoreau
Birds of America
Camperdown Elm
Growl Growl
Henry Hudson
John Muir
Teddy Days
I'm a Duck
Sway (like trees do)
Gowanus Canal

I'll put putting up YouTube videos of all the songs above that aren't already posted. Will try to have them all up by Saturday.

Lloyd (Ulysses S. Dee)

¡Sí Se Puede! lyrics

¡Sí Se Puede!
words & music by Lloyd Miller, arrangement by Chris Johnson, Ely Levin, Lloyd Miller, and Anand Mukherjee
(c) (p) 2009

Spanish translation by Greg Helmick and Roger Miller

César Chávez said
Today I will not eat.
No grapes, no rice, no beans
No tomatoes, potatoes... just water

César Chávez said
the people are abused
on the farms that make our food
I won't eat anything til they do

He fasted for
1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 10 days
but he wasn't done
He said no food please
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,
18. 19,
20 - 25 (in Spanish)

César Chávez decía
Hoy no voy a comer.
Ni uvas, ni arroz, ni frijoles
Ni jitomates, ni papas, nomás* agua

Spanish words that follow say roughly the same thing as English words above.

César Chávez decía
La gente es maltratada
En las granjas que nos dan la comida
No comeré antes que el cosechero.

El ayunó uno dos tres cuatro cinco
Seis siete ocho nueve diez once días
Pero no había terminado.
Fue sin comer día y noche once doce catorce
Quince dieciséis diecisiete
Dieciocho
Diecinueve
20-25.

Sojourner Truth lyrics

Sojourner Truth
words by Charlotte Banigan-White and Lloyd Miller
music by Lloyd Miller
(c) (p) 2008

Sojourner Truth traveled up the mountain
and the moon was right behind her
she looked down the mountain
at those who tried to stop her

The moon looked like a light
and shined on Sojourner Truth
Where she's going
you're invited too