ASU Choral Union Concert

The spring concert for ASU Choral Union (Chris, Paul Jr. and me being members) was Thursday evening, April 26. The performance included the ASU symphony orchestra and various other choirs (per usual for the spring performance).

The concert was the culmination of a series of events focused on Jewish music (with the organizers being upfront throughout in saying that this is a somewhat loose concept). I thought the series was very worthwhile (and educational); we attended a lead in concert (described here) and a symposium (described here).

First piece was the orchestra performing Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 1 (Jeremiah) - this actually was quite beautiful. As you might expect, it's based on Jeremiah's lamentations; the third movement (with soprano soloist) was really mournful. I liked it more than I expected to.

Then the choirs, with orchestra, performed the Sacred Service by Ernest Bloch (described here). I think it came off very, very well. The baritone soloist was good; the idea to project a translation of the Hebrew text onto a screen over the choir was very well received.

We appreciated our fans who showed up to support. This included Patrick, who drove up from Tucson and then had to return immediately after. One additional benefit of him showing up was that he took a movie of the entire Bloch performance - which is great to have.

Top photo = four performers; bottom photo = Linda Prideau with her Chaparral HS vocal music alums.

Patricia took the short movie shown here of the first 2 1/2 minutes of the first movement. I love how the piece sounds at the beginning; over the balance of the 50 minute performance, the initial themes keep coming back. It's delightful.



After (and during) something like this, I'm left with a sense of wonder at why good music works on us the way that it does. But I suppose its power, or magic, depends in large part on the fact that we cannot rationalize or verbalize its effects. This was very good music, with a very strong effect. I was grateful to be a part of a performance like this, for folks that show up to listen (including Patricia also showing up for the Tuesday rehearsal), for being able to do this with two of my sons.

This Place is Shaping Up

Update on CPG's house. I hadn't been over there in about a month, and lots of progress has taken place. It's only too bad that we don't have more "before" photos. Popcorn ceilings have been removed throughout (which I'm told involved a ton of labor). Wood flooring has been put down throughout. The yellow paint in the main living area is history. Nice trees in back yard. Etc.

In CPG's room, the popcorn ceiling was removed, carpet pulled, and first coat of paint put on. So our task last Saturday (April 21): lay wood flooring, finish painting. Got started about 1p.

Top photo: CPG and enterprising assistant, Steve Buck, ponder the floor installation task with unwarranted optimism. (The portion shown as laid down in the photo had to be taken apart . . . and we started over from the other side, to match the line of the wood in the hallway.) You also can see the paint edging needed where ceiling and wall collide.

We did finish up the flooring (except the "quarter round" edging). Experienced some stress regarding whether we had enough product, and ended up at the point where every last piece was used. The product really was quite simple to put in, once we had the right starting methodology. One problem was breaking saw blades trying to trim pieces (at least until master bladesman Blaha was called in, per photo 2).

I pretty much watched the flooring process, then did the painting while CPG started moving in furniture. As you can see in bottom photo. Finished around 8p. The place looks great, will post some other views in future.

Pottery

Here are photos of a vase that Kerry sent. It is quite the beauty. I personally like the parrot on the vase better than the other bird, whatever it is.

We saw something similar when in Tucson a few weeks ago, but it wasn't nearly as nice.

Recalled to Life

Back in January I posted a couple times about the damage that resulted from some unusually severe frosts. We ended up losing quite a few of the smaller plants in the backyard. Most hibiscus had to be cut back to the ground, and some didn't make it.

The main victim was the big tree out front. It is springing back to life but I'm not sure how it will end up looking. Maybe we'll have to lop off some of the dead small branches at the extremities? Or not.

Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service, 1933)

This is the name of the piece we're working on in our ASU choir this semester. Composer is Ernest Bloch; you can read about him here. Like many other Bloch works, the Sacred Service draws on Jewish liturgical music. We're singing the Hebrew text.

Our choir (the famous ASU Choral Union) will be performing with several other choirs plus the ASU orchestra (per usual for our spring performance) plus cantor plus soprano and tenor soloists. I think it will sound wonderful.

Something neat is that the concert is the culmination of a series of events related to Bloch (and Leonard Bernstein). Information about the series is here.

Hard to believe the calendar is this far along, but we're almost out of practice time. So I think I'll run through parts of the piece yet this evening.

Easter 2007

Easter totally brings out giant rabbits. Here are photos of two traditional versions - a colossal chocolate rabbit surrounded by admirers in 1971 (Carol, Charlie, Mary, Barb with Therese) and a "bunny cake" that I believe Patricia has made pretty much every year since the kids were old enough to be able to recognize a chocolate cake as a rabbit. This is a 1988 version, with Patrick as chief admirer.

This year we also had a different version of a giant rabbit, as Linda Prideaux donned a full-size rabbit costume that she uses for their church's Easter celebration. She and Ray stopped over on Saturday to help celebrate Christopher's 25th birthday (yes, it was a couple days early, and yes, he's at a milestone quarter century mark). And to help celebrate Patricia's unnumbered birthday, which fell on Friday. Nice food and drinks, plus a good Hearts game.

So lots of good celebrations over the Easter weekend. Patrick and Paul Jr. were back from school for most of the weekend, and we saw a bunch of Chris. Had a highly enjoyable Easter party on Sunday. Gorgeous weather; we sat outside for dinner and yakking. 15+ folks around, all as nice as could be.

Suns game (almost finished with Christmas)

Chris had given me two tickets to a Suns game as part of my Christmas gift. It was Sunday's game against the Dallas Mavericks (April 1) - an excellent choice. The tickets were located on the upper level behind the basket - not normally considered a prime location, but it is my favorite place to watch basketball. On TV, I'm always complaining that the camera focuses too closely on the ball, and after a made basket, focuses on the scorer while ignoring the entire setup of the next possession. From this location we had a great view of the entire sequencing of each possession.

And the Suns are the right team to make this particularly interesting. The best play was an oft-repeated favorite where Leandro Barbosa cuts back-door while Steve Nash throws a bounce pass through a keyhole. It was fun being able to see them peeking at each other down the court while setting this up. The short video below (from a Sacramento game) shows how well this works (complete with the camera missing most of a play while focusing on the scorer from a play that's already history). Three straight trips, Nash-to-Barbosa! This is how basketball is supposed to look. By the third time, the defenders appear to realize they have a problem.



By the way, the Suns won in a blow-out over the team with the best record in the league. So that was fun. Plus the section beside us had some mouthy-but-funny fans who said unkind things about Dirk Nowitzki. And the NBA is just awesome in general. (Don't get me started about the college game.) You can read about the game here.

The team handed out "thunder stix" to fans in our general area, and Patricia finagled a set. It's not clear that every fan should be entrusted with these devices. Look at the photo, you can tell she was having too much fun.

So now our Christmas gifts are pretty much fully realized. All that's left are a few cookies packed and shipped to Patricia from Iowa. But it's already April, so we enjoyed great mileage out of this year's gifts.