The theme of this newsletter is the Paris Summer Olympics. I have never been athletic or into sports, so I am continually in awe of how amazing the athletes are. Whether they won a medal or not, they are all awesome!

My main exercise has always been swimming. When I was eight, my father and older brother helped a contractor build a large rectangular pool in our back yard, and that's where we spent most of our summers. Our property was on two levels, with a retaining wall separating our house from the higher backyard. The pool was positioned up against the wall, so Father installed two porthole windows so people could watch the swimmers in the water! This photo shows my brother and sister in the pool, as seen through one of the windows.

My grandparents lived with us, and my grandmother was not at all happy about having a pool. I doubt that in 20 years, she ever put her feet in the water a single time. I remember her commenting that the windows were there "so that their mother can sit in the living room and watch the children drown!" Luckily, we never gave her that pleasure.

Now that I live in Hawaii, I still love to swim!

Keep reading to find out about another favorite "sport" of mine.

-- Sylvia

In 1982, on the 90-minute drive home from an Alan Stivell harp concert in Santa Barbara, I wrote the lyrics for a silly song called Harpers Are Not Bizarre. It has nothing to do with Alan, and he definitely is not bizarre, but his concert somehow inspired me. Since then, I've ended all my concerts with this wacky sing-along, including shooting an arrow with a suction cup tip from one of my harp strings during the last verse. This photo is from my concert at my Glendale store in 1998.

In 2009, we made a video of me singing Harpers Are Not Bizarre (and shooting my arrow, of course) at the end of a concert at my parents' retirement home. You can watch the video on the Harpers Are Not Bizarre music page on my site, or YouTube.

Of course, the Harpers Are Not Bizarre sheet and PDF are on sale this month! See the sale section below.

My arrows always have rubber suction cups on the end, and I usually shoot them towards the ground in front of the first row of the audience. Often, an audience member will "retrieve" the arrow for me. I then lick the tip of the arrow and stick it on the soundboard of my harp.

This photo with Ray Mooers, one of the owners of Dusty Strings, was taken after a 2002 concert at their store in Seattle. You can see my arrow on the soundboard.

For the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympic Games, I propose a new archery sport that I invented called "HARPchery." This sport involves shooting a suction cup-tipped arrow at a target using the strings of your harp. Lever harps and pedal harps would have separate competitions. Since I always aim for the floor when I perform Harpers Are Not Bizarre, I've never tried shooting at a target. But if the target is close enough, it should work!

There could also be team events where harp ensembles play songs using the sounds the strings make when the arrows are released. The harpists would shoot the arrows toward the floor instead of at a target. Event divisions could include classical music, Celtic, jazz, etc. This team competition would be almost impossible to implement because it would involve thousands of arrows, one for every note in the piece, and LOTS and LOTS of harps and harp players. But I love this FUNny HARPchery idea! 😉 

In the one-in-a-billion chance that the Olympic Committee hears about and approves the silly imaginary sport of HARPchery, I hope to see you all in Los Angeles in 2028! (Tee hee!)

Disclaimer: If you shoot an arrow with your harp, please do so responsibly. Always use an arrow with a suction cup tip. (You can find them on Amazon.) Never shoot an arrow toward a person, animal, or another harp. Sylvia Woods and the Sylvia Woods Harp Center take no responsibility for broken strings or injuries. Have fun!

My sister Sheryl has lived in Paris since 1970 and taught English at the Sorbonne for many years. She is a wonderful sister and helps me edit these newsletters every month. I asked her to write a bit about the Paris Olympics. Here's her response.

Sylvia has mentioned numerous times in her Newsletters that I live in Paris, and this month she asked me to give a first-hand account of the 2024 Summer Olympics.

The French have the reputation of being eternally pessimistic and critical, and for months there have been dire predictions that the Games would be a flop, with half of the Paris population leaving town to avoid the traffic, and foreign visitors staying away. But the stadiums were full for every match, the public was present from all over the world, and the enthusiasm has been absolutely unbelievable. I’ve been surprised at the number of families with children under the age of five at every venue. 

Many of the competitions were held in or next to some of the most spectacular monuments of the city, and the views of the city and the surrounding areas during the Opening Ceremony, the Triathlons, the Road Bicycle races, and the final Marathons were incredible. Even the rain on opening night didn’t dampen the Olympic spirit. It simply watered the public’s enthusiasm, which continued to grow throughout the duration of the Games. I hope that now you will all want to come and discover Paris! 

As in every Summer Olympics, new disciplines were added. This year it was the spectacular Breaking duels and the Mass Participation Marathon, which twenty thousand twenty-four amateur athletes ran on the final Saturday evening. There was also a 10-kilometer race through the heart of Paris that began at the unusual hour of 11:30 p.m. Saturday. Both races were open to all profiles, including those with a disability who have specific needs, such as a guide, wheelchair, or all-terrain chair. Sixteen thousand four hundred and forty people, aged 16 to 94, crossed the finish line for the 10-km race, including the daughter-in-law of a close friend, who took this picture during the event. Even before the upcoming Paralympic Games, the organizers have insisted on male-female parity and have done everything they could to make the Games as inclusive as possible. 

At every venue there were games for the public outside the stadium, basketball courts or free-throw lines, ping pong tables, mini volleyball or badminton courts, or the family field hockey courts shown in the photo below. You could get your picture taken holding (an unlighted) Olympic torch or with the official mascot, Phryge (shown here with our grandson), a Phrygian cap that is one of the iconic symbols of France and an international symbol of freedom dating back to the Roman Empire. My husband and I stopped by one of the big Fan Zones, where there were two huge TV screens, an Aikido demonstration, giant chess boards, numerous vintage wooden games including a bean bag throw, and a chance to try shooting baskets from a wheelchair. And everywhere, we encountered some of the forty-five thousand volunteers holding a big pink finger to point the way.

In my immediate family, we were lucky to attend eight matches in seven different sports: soccer, tennis, volleyball, equestrian jumping (in the gorgeous park of the Chateau of Versailles), field hockey in the only stadium that also served in the 1924 Paris Olympics, both qualifying and quarter-final matches for women’s basketball, and a quarter-final for men’s basketball, which France won before advancing to the gold medal match, only to lose to the US in the final minute. And I have to mention the fabulous women’s basketball final just a few hours before the Closing Ceremony, in which the Americans beat France by a single point. 

With 206 countries and more than 10,000 athletes participating, the United States and host country France had the largest delegations, of 593 and 573 athletes, respectively. When the Summer Games closed on August 11th, 1,225 medals had been awarded in the 32 official disciplines, numerous Olympic and World Records had been broken, and 62 different countries had heard their national anthem played for gold medal winners. What was billed in the popular imagination as a fiasco-to-be turned out to be an enormous popular success, and the athletes loved it too. My family and I expect to buy tickets for at least one match of the Paralympic Games, to begin the end of August. 

Long live the Olympic Games: "Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together!"

-- Sylvia's sister, Sheryl

Harpers Are Not Bizarre

composed by Sylvia Woods

Sheet or PDF

15% off with Arrow code

------------------------------

Brave

music from Disney/Pixar movie

arranged by Sylvia Woods

Booklet or PDF

15% off with Arrow code

------------------------------

Safe and Sound

from The Hunger Games

arranged by Sylvia Woods

Sheet or PDF

15% off with Arrow code

------------------------------

The Duckling Swims

by Kathleen

Blackwell-Plank

PDF

15% off with Arrow code

------------------------------

Small Tunes for Young Harpists

including the song Swimming

by Bonnie Goodrich

Book or PDF

15% off with Arrow code

------------------------------

Mermaids

by Carol Wood

PDF

15% off with Arrow code

------------------------------

The Bridges of Paris

by William Mahan

PDF

15% off with Arrow code

------------------------------

Paris Once Again

by William Mahan

PDF and mp3

15% off with Arrow code

------------------------------

Fields of Gold

arranged by Sylvia Woods

Sheet or PDF

15% off with Arrow code

------------------------------

15% off select sale items when you use the code word Arrow

Our newsletter promo codes are redeemable online and are only valid for the products listed above in the monthly sale section. They are not valid for phone or email orders. This month's code word is Arrow.

Here's how to get your newsletter discount at harpcenter.com:

#1. Put the items you want to purchase in your cart.

#2. On the page where you view the items in your cart, type this month's code word Arrow in the "Enter Promo Code" box and click "Apply."

The actual price of the featured sale products on this page will then automatically change to reflect the discount. For example,

   Unit Price: $9.95 (the original price)

   Total Price: $8.46 (the discounted price)

You'll also see a note below the Promo Code box saying the name of the promo code you entered and the percentage amount of the discount.

REMEMBER: You must enter this month's code word Arrow in the Promo Code box and click "Apply" on your shopping cart page by August 31, 2024, to get the discount!

If you forget, or if you have trouble adding it to your order, email Sylvia immediately.  

This offer expires at the end of the day on 8/31/2024.