4.5 billion BC to 80 million BC: Molten lava hardens, mountains and oceans are formed, first protein meets first amino acid, fish grow feet, big lizards, apes walk upright etc…
80 million BC to 6000 BC: People stop wandering around and plant food.
6000 BC to September 6th 1996: Pyramids are built, Greece and Rome stuff happens, Italian Renaissance, (some decent art) lots of wars, industrial revolution, a guy named David Weinstone loses his job as a waiter.
October 1996 to July1997: David Weinstone takes a job teaching for a national music program for pre-schoolers, plays in grunge rock band at night.
August 1997: Weinstone checks out some other children's music classes with his toddler, decides kids need better music, writes a few songs about taxis, skyscrapers, bagels, boogers and stuff, friends say "Yeah!"
September 7th 1997: First Music for Aardvarks and Other Mammals class is held in the basement of a restaurant in the East Village of Manhattan, six families attend and leave with big smiles.
It should be noted that the incredible events following that first class are hazy at best. Historians believe that the six original families were each given a cassette of Weinstone's songs for their children to listen to at home. Bootleg copies were made and circulated around the neighborhood and within a few weeks angry (well, at least disappointed) mobs of stroller pushing parents were being turned away at the door. It is well documented that Fox 5's Good Day New York, Metro Guide TV, NYU Arts and many small local papers and radio stations ran features on the music and the classes. This, along with strong word of mouth and the continued spread of the tapes transformed a fledgling music program into a bona-fide local phenomenon. Within one year of it's conception MFA had become a household name in New York City.
The children's songs by David Weinstone, originally intended for use simply as a reference to class activities, have since captured the imagination and touched the hearts of families all across the country and around the world. Today MFA continues to enjoy astounding success and praise with recent full-page profiles in Time Magazine, The New York Times and The New York Daily News. National exposure seems imminent as more and more music educators discover the music that so many children have already come to treasure, and utilize it in their school programs.
Experts agree, something very exciting and new came into being that fateful day 4.5 billion years ago, and then again on September 7th 1997. What impact these events will have in the grand scheme of things both past and future is yet to be seen, and yet to be written.