Nature in the City
Originally published on Monday, Sep 19, 2005
Nature in the City is a new live show and soon to be CD featuring original songs about the natural world as it thrives in the urban environment. Billy has been working with the good folks from Centers for Nature Education, headquartered in Baltimore Woods, Marcellus New York, in developing the project. He has already presented the live shows in a number of Syracuse schools. The Centers for Nature Education has been developing accompanying lesson plans for teachers which can soon be found at www.takeahike.org .
Inspired by the number of Peregrine falcons and other birds of prey now living in the skyscraper/canyon environments of the city, Billy has created a song and audience participatory dance called
“It’s There Again, The Peregrine”. In hip hop fashion Billy and the kids act out the lyrics, “Pow, the pigeon, explosion, Pow, the pigeon, quick death motion, Pow the pigeon, caught from above, Pow the pigeon, just because……it’s there again, the Peregrine”.
The CD will feature the Peregrine song as well as a song Billy has been performing for years but has not recorded, his parody of “Men in Black”, “Flies in Black”. In performance this song is introduced after a street sense monologue on water quality as determined by the “macroinvertebrates” or insect larvae living in the water.
Birds migrating through city parks, winds whipping between buildings , flower gardens, animal and insect adaptations, rivers, and basic environmental civic responsibility are presented with humor, rhythm and a daily awareness of Nature in the City.