Support the Arts with Quality Products!

A very limited supply of Xanthe Moon, Fine Arts Junkie products remains. Order now for holiday giving, or tell us what kind of product you'd rather see XM,FAJ hocking. She's got ideas but wants to hear your opinion first.

Save the World from Plastic and Keep the Tap Pirates in Synch

This ecologically correct shopping aid and fashion accessory tells the world that you care about the future, that you are committed to keeping it clean for the adults of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and that you want those generations to have thicker cortexes and an intricate mastery of collaboration. ($20)

 

Save the World from Plastic Bottles and Dead Pointe Shoes

Our cute and infinitely reusable water bottle will not only help you achieve lofty hydration goals without risk of outgassing but will also support the safe acquisition of fine arts, time management, and budgeting skills by the Class of 2018! ($17)

 

Or Go Old Skool

 

Your Vote Counts

Cast your vote for what Xanthe Moon should do with her two week break from scheduled activities.

1. Read a stack of books.
She has selected several tomes only her mom would find entertaining and has a plan to read them all in one day. This is her favorite option for freetime activities, but there's a slight chance it would take her away from the careful study of all prior episodes of 30 Rock and Psych.

2. Finish the critically acclaimed Cup Trix movie project.
It's pure genius, and she has all the video and video editing tools she'll need, IF she can track down her costars, who are not on break from scheduled activities. Hire stand-ins? Not likely, due to their particular magic and acting skills.

3. Purge and remodel the garage to become a dance practice space.
Sure! Her parents will enjoy a nap while that's happening.

4. Make sculpey miniatures of nearly everything.
These are pretty cute and make great going away presents for dance teachers.

5. Bake sale/yard sale/earn money.
This would probably involve lots of planning sessions with Grandma at her pool.

6. Hang out with friends from school before school even starts!
A classic, it never gets old.

Big Sale, Not Quite a Bake Sale

She did bake these cookies, but they've all been eaten, so now Xanthe's selling these two practical, fashionable, pro-health accessories to support her habits. One third of the total inventory is already out the door! Hurry and buy stuff before she leaves town!

Save the World from Plastic and Keep the Tap Pirates in Synch

This ecologically correct shopping aid and fashion accessory tells the world that you care about the future, that you are committed to keeping it clean for the adults of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and that you want those generations to have thicker cortexes and an intricate mastery of collaboration. ($20)

 

Save the World from Plastic Bottles and Dead Pointe Shoes

Our cute and infinitely reusable water bottle will not only help you achieve lofty hydration goals without risk of outgassing but will also support the safe acquisition of fine arts, time management, and budgeting skills by the Class of 2018! ($17)

 

Or Go Old Skool

 

A Fundraiser!

Any sales or donations also create an opportunity for Xanthe Moon to learn about managing a checkbook, tracking inventory, calculating shipping, saying thank you, and more.

Save the World from Plastic and Keep the Tap Pirates in Synch

This ecologically correct shopping aid and fashion accessory tells the world that you care about the future, that you are committed to keeping it clean for the adults of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and that you want those generations to have thicker cortexes and an intricate mastery of collaboration. ($20)

Save the World from Plastic Bottles and Dead Pointe Shoes

Our cute and infinitely reusable water bottle will not only help you achieve lofty hydration goals without risk of outgassing but will also support the safe acquisition of fine arts, time management, and budgeting skills by the Class of 2018! ($17)

Or Go Old Skool

Xanthe Moon would love to bake you a cake or cookies, and she enjoys making virtual treats just as much, so do let us know if that's more your style.

Donations are appreciated, and if you prefer to receive nothing but the invisible benefits which accrue from knowing you made the world a better place, here's just such an opportunity.

Find Us on Facebook

Like it or not (HA HA HA HA HA HA), kids wind up on facebook. "XM, FAJ" has more than just parental supervision... it has a complete administrative staff! Get updates as the drama unfolds!

In the Driver's Seat

She's not really asleep at the wheel. Xanthe Moon has agreed to participate in supporting her own fine arts addiction. She has set up an account to save her allowance, earnings from occasional work opportunities, and whatever she and Grandma rake in at their annual yard/garage/lemonade/produce sale. However, estimates of ongoing costs related to piano and dance lessons (pointe shoes, e.g.) exceed projected revenues. As a result, Xanthe's dreaming up a line of products to raise money to fill that gap. Coming soon!

A Message from the Administrative Team at "Xanthe Moon, Fine Arts Junkie"

Welcome to the "Xanthe Moon, Fine Arts Junkie" blog. Unlike Twitter and Facebook, blogposts will let us say all that we want to say about the importance of fine arts education for developing minds and bodies - including those which continue to develop throughout life!  We are pretty sure that if the artist herself were to start journaling about what she learns, a twitter feed wouldn't cut it. Somewhat accidentally, we've learned about what these activities could be doing for her, but without a cute kitten picture, they don't even belong on facebook:

The neuroscience of dance is in its infancy but it has the potential to unify several domains, including motor control, rhythmic timekeeping, body contact, imitative learning, gesture production, emotional expression, and theatrical role playing, among many others. (Steven Brown, Psychology Today, November 23, 2011)

We view dance as a marriage of the representational capacity of language and the rhythmicity of music. This interaction allows people not only to tell stories using their bodies but to do so while synchronizing their movement with others' in a way that fosters social cohesion. (Steven Brown and Lawrence Parsons, Scientific American, July 2008)

As for the positive effects of music on development, children of Xanthe's generation were guinea pigs in testing the Mozart Effect, which promised that listening to classical music before or shortly after birth would give them an edge in math and reasoning. We know intuitively that listening to music, of any kind and at any age, is good for us, and neuroscience is beginning to describe the benefits specifically (more dopamine, for one), although not supporting the Mozart Effect. It turns out that there is very good news regarding the study of music, especially in mastery of an instrument:

The strong association between gray matter differences and musician status in our study lends further support to the proposal that the brains of musicians show use-dependent structural changes. Amateur musicians showed an intermediate increase in gray matter volume when compared with non-musicians and professional musicians. (Christian Gaser and Gottfried Schlaug, The Journal of Neuroscience, October 2003)

For these reasons and many more, the Administrative Team at "Xanthe Moon, Fine Arts Junkie" is committed to facilitating Xanthe Moon's continued studies of piano and various dance forms. She has been very successful academically and attends school in a district with excellent college prep. Although we're not sure what college itself will prepare her for, we have come to appreciate the wisdom of this girl's passion.