Midwest tour (Nov. 13-18, 2009)

What a trip - don't think we ever covered this much ground, this quickly, on our various Midwest tours over the years.

Our flight had been rescheduled to a very early start time (thanks, M.B.) and we also arrived early. So had lunch at W.A. Frost - I think the best we've had there.

Onto the House house, always a fine landing place; we stayed there overnight. Dinner at Barley John's, which is a place we like quite a bit; Therese and Mark joined. Had to wait out a couple tables who lingered, to put it mildly, so that threw us off schedule a bit.

TMG stopped by with "Bread and Chocolate" treats Saturday morning; visited Cecilia's neat newish workplace and toured downtown Minneapolis; then to see the house where Margaret had moved in just recently.

On to Eau Claire, arrived mid-afternoon. First time, and we were very glad to make it. Beautiful house, nice area outside town. Delightful daughters, enjoyed the continuous artwork (including art on your pillow). Met "Champ" the new dog. Much enjoyed a driving tour of EC, including the PB logging camp where we had so much fun back in the 1990s. Saw various of the old Haag stomping grounds. Big dinner, long-ish conversation, nice evening.

Sunday Mass; brunch in downtown Eau Claire. Then made our way to Mason City - pretty day, easy trip. Nice dinner with Steve & Liz; Grandpa and Grandma were there, even Julia made an appearance. Glad we made the stopover.

Then to St. Joe. Spent some hours looking over Grandpa's recent photos, which is always fun. Relaxing Monday; road trip to Algona and saw Daryl & Kathy and Mary Lou (new house with Fr. Thomas). Played cards with Clarence and Caroline for some hours in the evening, had the usual beverages and a fine dinner there. We kept running into apple crisp for dessert, which was good luck for us.

Tuesday - went to hospital in afternoon because Grandpa had scraped his leg up. But first had lunch at Maggie's, and watched (to our consternation) Grandpa climb a bin at a site where they were harvesting for Mike Kohlhaas.

To Storm Lake in the evening - dinner, concert, conversation. All good, it was fun as we hadn't been over there in a few years. Wednesday morning - went by too fast and we were on our way.

So it was a full trip: New Brighton, Eau Claire, Mason City, St. Joe, Storm Lake. Drove 800 miles in addition to the flying. Very nice indeed.

This actually turned out quite well

Brined and smoked (by CPG), then eaten (by all).

PJ's stuffing outdid all prior versions - apricots were a fine add-in.

Note (a portion of) the new-ish planters serving as PJ's herb garden.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I sang with Chanticleer . . .

. . . as part of 100+ singers doing a workshop-type event on November 8. Who would ever have thought I would have this opportunity?

It was a unique and memorable event. PJ and MB showed up for the Chanticleer workshop portion (including the performance), which was much appreciated.



I'm posting the video off PJ's phone for the Ave Maria, even though the audio portion is just awful (though how amazing is it that we can capture any video at all off a mobile phone?) It does trigger memories for me, which is what this is all about anyway. I'm grateful she captured it.

This was a pretty unique event. We began with sessions with Charles Bruffy and Brook Larson, all of which was quite fine.

Chanticleer then showed up (they were performing in Wickenburg in a couple days). These guys can just sing. A few elements of interest (at least to me):

1. They talked about how the Ave Maria became one of their signature numbers - became known in the US in the late 70s.

2. They talked about meeting the composer (Franz Biebl, who wrote the piece in 1964) in Berlin - this was recounted by the choir member with by the far most experience, a bass who had been with the group 20+ years. (We had seen him at NAU with the Chaparral folks in ~2000.) A nice story.

3. The musical director was a pretty talented guy; he talked about how the 20th century seemed to need its own Ave Maria, and that the composer was perhaps a transcriber for something coming from outside himself. Nothing hip about those comments, which perhaps is why they struck home.

4. When we got around to singing the Biebl I had to pause during the first run-through. Evocative, to say the least. I first ran into the song at the ND Glee Club reunion in 2000; they had adopted the song sometime after my graduation. (By coincidence, the NDGC reunion was this same weekend and those guys no doubt were singing this same song.)

The WSJ had another article in the past week or so where the author discussed how various folks try to describe in words how/why music works. It was somehow reassuring to see how these attempts don't (and can't, I would say) succeed.

Nicole and POC in town

Short/fun visit by Nicole and POC the weekend of October 28 - November 1.

On Thursday arrival most of the group had lunch at House of Tricks in Tempe (where this photo was taken by PJ).

Had a v. nice gathering at the house on Friday evening, then the group went to the Homecoming football game at ASU on Saturday. Complete with another ASU loss, and an appearance by Meghan Stern as part of the homecoming court.

Our visitors left on Sunday just before our Choral Union concert, described here. It was nice to have 'em in town.

We (Choral Union) had a concert

We performed on Sunday, November 1 at Chaparral Christian Church. I ended up liking the program a lot.

There were three Anton Bruckner compositions. PJ did a nice job recording "Os justi" in particular (posted here) - and it is a delight.


English translation:

The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,

and his tongue speaks what is just.

The law of his God is in his heart;

and his feet do not falter. Alleluia

I read that for this piece, "Bruckner created an extraordinary motet in the Lydian mode, which achieves striking harmonic effects without ever using a single sharp or flat note." It is the Mass part known as the "Gradual" - which I believe disappeared post Vatican II (i.e. quite awhile ago).

Another highlight was a Te Deum by a contemporary composer - Ron Nelson - this was quite a challenge for a once-a-week choir, one of the more difficult pieces we've taken on. But it was exciting to learn and exciting, if not stressful, to perform.

And the composer even showed up and expressed compliments for our performance, which was nice of him on both counts. CPG 'n me posed with Mr. Nelson.

This seems a little unnecessary

Notre Dame staggered to another loss to Navy - at Notre Dame Stadium, of all places. And Navy didn't even have Roger Staubach on the field.

Charlie Weis just hasn't worked out as head coach, to put it mildly.

It seems like a long time since I put up this post, probably seeking to bask in CW's reflected glory in the very early days of his reign.

The kid holding up the sign in this photo (click to enlarge) probably needs to consult that saying about glass houses.