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A Cappella Singing

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Many family and friends know that our son Andrew is the real singer of the family.  After a stellar career as a cathedral chorister (assuming you can have a career that ends at age 13), he began singing in high school last year with his new baritone voice. 

Candice and I were so pleased last evening to hear Andrew’s first performance with the five-boy a cappella group at his school.  They got a great reception and Andrew was pleased with this first performance.  We expect to hear a lot of a cappella singing around our house over the next three years…

…And that thought led us to think about what happens to people who get too deep into a cappella singing.  Fortunately, there’s an institute for "A Cappella Recovery."  Watch this video…and pray this isn’t in Andrew’s future.

🙂

More to come…

DJB

Architectural Icon Farnsworth House Under Water

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The storms in the Midwest from Hurricane Ike and related weather systems have resulted in flooding at the Farnsworth House , a modernist architectural icon and National Trust Historic Site.  National Trust Graham Gund Architect Barbara Campagna posted a report on the PreservationNation blog which describes the impact.  Site Director Whitney French and other staff and volunteers from Trust partner Landmarks Illinois are on site and made this short video on Saturday which shows the water rising at the site.

Stay connected to www.PreservationNation.org for updates as the situation develops.

More to come…

DJB

Monument Valley

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Today’s Washington Post Magazine had a travel-related article on Monument Valley in Utah.  The author is a huge fan of John Ford’s classic Western The Searchers and he went to Monument Valley in search of sites from the film.

Mexican Hat
Mexican Hat

We had just visited Monument Valley in August, so the article brought back fond memories of our vacation.  Everyone who travels to this special place takes photographs because the landscape is so evocative.  You’ll find a gallery online in the Post website, and I’ve added a few here from the Brown family collection.

Monument Valley Panorama
Panorama View from Goulding’s

More to come…

DJB

UPDATE: Here’s a wonderful photo of Monument Valley taken by my friend, the professional photographer Carol Highsmith.

Navajo Eula M Atene holds three month old Leon Clark on a ridge in the Arizona portion of Monument Valley by Carol Highsmith

Top image of Goulding’s View at Monument Valley by Claire Brown

Random Ridge

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Double Rainbow at Glen Ellen

Double Rainbow at Glen Ellen

I just heard from my good friend Susan in California.  Her note reminded me of a wonderful time that my daughter Claire and I had a couple of years ago at Susan and her husband Bill’s vineyard and winery on the Sonoma/Napa border.  Susan was writing to say she enjoyed the blog and that she loved baseball, acoustic music, historic places, and teenagers.  Hey, she’s my target audience!  This is a post to connections and friends.

Susan is a preservation lawyer.  Bill is a surfer, poet, and winemaker.  Their wonderful wine is Random Ridge and Claire and I enjoyed a delightful lunch and afternoon at their winery a year or two ago with the staff and families of the Western Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The day was rainy (hence the appropriateness of Susan’s photo of the double rainbow at Glen Ellen) but the friendship was warm.  Claire and the other children enjoyed playing with Susan’s dog and marveling at Bill’s ceilings made of surfboards.  The adults enjoyed the wine, food from the nearby town of Glen Ellen, and conversation. 

Since wine isn’t one of the things I claim expertise in (although I do enjoy it), don’t take my word on Random Ridge.  Gourmet magazine has written, "…the Zinfandels of such tiny producers as Lore Olds at Sky and Bill Hawley at Random Ridge are memorable of course…"   Candice has 30+ years of Gourmet , so they are like the Bible in our kitchen.  If you are in California, search for some Random Ridge on the wine list.  (It is available in a few places outside the Bay area .)   And if California isn’t in your plans, then simply connect with a friend this weekend and enjoy the company.

More to come…

DJB

Searching the Internet and Finding Miss Music Nerd

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One of the unexpected joys of starting a blog is that as you move around the Internet to find information or connect links, you stumble across interesting blogs that catch your fancy.  These blogs may or may not be connected to your topic(s), but you find the writing or subject so compelling you want to share with others.

So every now and then I’ll share a discovery with you.  And the first such find is Miss Music Nerd!…because nerd is the new cool .  Last evening after posting a story on the new Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile CD, I clicked on the tag I established for Edgar Meyer and was taken to Miss Music Nerd’s blog.  There I found a wonderful posting entitled Music Vocab:  Catching Some Bass .  Here was a witty take on the "lowest instrument or voice part in an ensemble, whose name is spelled like a fish but pronounced like a foundation: the bass." 

Miss Music Nerd is classically trained, but lest you think she’s boring (or too nerdy), read some more from Catching Some Bass to see the musicians she’s listening to;

But enough with the jargon… let’s listen to some badass bassitude!

Some other posts I enjoyed on my perusal of the writings and music of Miss Music Nerd:

  • A delightful paen to organmaster shoes entitled Play a Mile in These Shoes
  • A wonderful collection of original short pieces called the 30 Days Project , where Miss Music Nerd wrote a new short piece of music every day for 30 days

And finally, a post about Mahler’s 9th, which lends itself to big thoughts:

Hearing a live orchestral performance brings to mind Many Great Truths — for example:

  • Despite what numerous naysayers, nervous Nellies, and nattering nabobs of negativism like to say, classical music is not dead and the symphony orchestra is not obsolete.
  • The sound of a live orchestra will never be equalled, even by the most audiophile’s-dream-come-true, money-no-object sound system you could imagine
  • It is possible to listen to a piece of music lasting nearly 90 minutes, with no intermission, without feeling bored or impatient even for a moment
  • The contrabassoon is frickin’ cool!

I’m sure you’ll find something on Miss Music Nerd to enjoy.

More to come…

DJB

Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile To Release First CD Together

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Double-bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolin phenom Chris Thile are set to release their first CD together on September 23rd on Nonesuch Records.  Entitled – appropriately enough – Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile , the new release brings together two of the most amazing instrumentalists of their respective generations of acoustic musicians. 

My friend Scott Gerloff and I had the chance to see Meyer earlier this year when he played in Washington with Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas.  The show was terrific and Meyer was phenomenal.  We were both slack-jawed.  And I’ve written to countless friends through the years following Nickel Creek concerts with accounts of some amazing piece of musicianship from Thile.  Needless to say I’m looking forward to this collaboration.

The Nonesuch site provides a good background on both musicians:

Throughout a lifetime of performing and composing, Edgar Meyer has turned the double bass into a modern virtuoso instrument that is equally at home in classical music and in the American vernacular. In 1994, Meyer became the first bassist to win the Avery Fisher Prize. He is also a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award and three Grammy Awards. Meyer has found devoted audiences through a vast range of projects, from his own double bass concertos that he continues to perform regularly to recital collaborations with Emanuel Ax and Amy Dorfman and performance and recording projects with artists including Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Mark O’Connor, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Mike Marshall, and many others. The New Yorker calls him “the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of his instrument.”

Widely regarded as one of the most interesting and inventive musicians of his generation, mandolinist Chris Thile has elevated his instrument from its origins as a relatively simple folk and bluegrass instrument to the sophistication and brilliance of the finest jazz improvisation and classical performance….As the San Francisco Chronicle asks, “Why didn’t someone think about mixing bluegrass, jazz and classical music together sooner? Chris Thile … is doing it with his new outfit, Punch Brothers, and the result is totally mind-blowing.”

There are a couple of good videos on You Tube of the Meyer/Thile duo.  Check out the one above.

More to come…

DJB

Help End Breast Cancer

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My mother died of cancer more than 10 years ago at the age of 68, so like just about every American family ours has been touched by the disease.  A colleague from work is participating in an upcoming 3-Day walk to raise money to fight breast cancer.  I’m posting her most recent email on the topic to encourage you to donate…but also to encourage you to take a look at her blog from last year’s walk, which is a joy to read.  Click on her personal page and read Dolores’ stories from the Boston walk (begin at the bottom and work up).

More to come…

DJB

I write this email tired but happy — I actually trained today!Yes, that’s right, I’m back in training for the Breast Cancer 3-day to raise money for Komen for the Cure. Some of you saw my email of about a month ago announcing my 3-Day redux. This email is just a short update on how things are going — and oh yeah, a fundraising request of course!As I last reported, I dutifully bought shiny new sneakers, going to a running store in downtown Silver Spring. Decided to spring for the expensive shoes since let’s face it, I’m 50 and these ankles have seen a lot of miles.I was all hepped up to start training and then of course, life got in the way. Before I knew it, I had only a month to train and I figured I’d better get the lead out. So last week I attempted my inaugural "walk home from work" regimen (a lovely 6-mile jaunt up 16th Street). After about a mile, my toes were numb. At 1.5 miles the numbness had subsided, only to be replaced by searing pain. Damn, damn, damn. Will I EVER find a pair of sneakers that fit?I hopped on a handy Metro bus and limped home from the metro station, ready to call it quits. I mean, maybe 50 is just too old, right?But them a funny thing happened. I got an email that someone had made a donation toward my $6,000 goal. And then, I got another one — one that put my fundraising total at $2,217 ($17 more than minimum required to participate in the event.) So much for quitting.

Those donations — and some encouragement from Jamie and a colleague at the office — convinced me to give it another go. So today I dug out my OLD sneakers and hit 16th Street one more time. I am proud to report that I more than doubled my first training walk and logged 3.7 miles!

But I’m not stopping at 3.7 miles. And I’m certainly not stopping at $2,217 (what kind of a fundraiser would I be if I did that???)

Last year, dedicated family, friends and colleagues like you helped me raise $5,400 for the Boston Walk. This year, I’ve set a goal of $6,000 to help fight breast cancer. Won’t you help me meet this ambitious goal by making a donation today?

Just follow the link below to visit my personal fundraising page and make a donation.

Just in case you missed my account of last year’s walk, follow the link below to visit my personal page, where I tell my story. This event isn’t easy, but I promise you, I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t believe 100% that it was worth every muscle ache (and after today’s walk, that whole "every muscle aching" thing is definitely coming back…)

If you have any questions or want to hear more about what I’m doing, I love talking about the event. Thanks for all of your support. I’m incredibly lucky to have people like you in my life!

Never give up, never surrender,

Dolores

P.S. Don’t wait – donate today!Click here to visit my personal page.
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/WashingtonDCEvent?px=1338211&pg=personal&fr_id=1192&et=w4KgPqvYWoOsoYVxUd9QQw..&s_tafId=6386
For more information about the Breast Cancer 3-Day, Susan G. Komen for the Cure or the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund, visit http://www.the3day.org/ or call 800.996.3DAY.

Speaking in Memphis

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Later in September I’ll be in Tennessee to speak as part of the Memphis AIA’s Architecture Month Celebration .  My talk will include an overview of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual listing of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places (see 2008’s Boyd Theatre listing at left) and I’m looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues from Memphis Heritage.

I wouldn’t want to return to my home state without letting family and friends know I was in the area.  (“In the area” is a bit of a stretch, I’ll admit.  Here’s a bit of useless trivia for you:  Bristol, TN is closer to Canada than it is to Memphis, TN.  It is a looooong state.)  So if you can drop by Memphis on September 24th, it will be great to see you.

More to come…

DJB

Nats vs. Mets – On Any Given Night

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One of the great things about baseball is that on any given night, the worst team in the league has a decent chance at beating the best teams in the league.  You may believe that’s true in any sport, but think about how often you see a lousy NBA team give a top-notch NBA team a close game.  I can’t think of many times.  However, with baseball you see it virtually every night.

And tonight’s no exception.  I’ve been doing chores and keeping my eye on the televised game between the Washington Nationals and the New York Metropolitans .  The last time I checked, the Nats were battling the Mariners and the Padres for the worst record in baseball.  The Mets, on the other hand, had the third best record in the National League and were leading the East.

So the Mets jump off to a 2-0 lead and you think to yourself, “Uh-oh, it is going to be a long night.”  Well, that’s true, but not for the reason you think.  Everytime the Mets pull ahead the Nats battle right back.  They tie the game 2-2.  The Mets go up 5-2.  In a crazy 4th inning, the Nats send 9 batters to the plate when they could be excused for folding their tent and they end the inning leading 7-5.  But the Mets are good, and the very next inning they come back to tie the score at 7-7.  (That’s right, 7 runs scored between them in the 4th.)  In the 5th the Nats add another run to go up 8-7…and that’s where it stands as they head into the bottom of the 6th.  I have no idea how it will turn out, but it is a fun game to watch.

As retired Orioles manager Earl Weaver said, “This ain’t a football game.  We do this every day.”  And because they do it 162 times a year, when you check in on a game you’ve got a decent chance of seeing a good game, no matter the seasonal stats of the participants.

Whoops – Mets go up 10-8 in the bottom of the 6th with their 4th home run of the game.  Go Nats!

More to come…

DJB

PNC in 2013

Monday night thoughts – about baseball

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“It breaks your heart.  It is designed to break your heart.  The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.  You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.

“The Green Fields of the Mind” by A. Bartlett Giamatti

While channel surfing past the opening telecast of Monday Night Football, my thoughts naturally turn to the winding down of the baseball season. This year I picked up a new book by Garrett Park, Maryland author Paul Dickson entitled Baseball’s Greatest Quotations . Here are some samples to whet the appetite:

Choo-Choo Coleman would…give you the sign and then look down to see what it was. – Roger Craig quoted in “Bad Beyond Belief”

Blind people come to the park just to listen to him pitch. – Reggie Jackson commenting on Tom Seaver.

Fans don’t boo nobodies. – Reggie Jackson

Out of what? A thousand? – Mickey Rivers on hearing Reggie Jackson brag about having an IQ of 160

I cussed him out in Spanish and he threw me out in English – Lou Piniella as a Yankee, on an argument he had with umpire Armando Rodriguez

Hating the Yankees is as American as pizza pie, unwed mothers, and cheating on your income tax – Mike Royko

Don’t quit until every base is uphill – Babe Ruth

The only good thing about playing in Cleveland is you don’t have to make road trips there – Richie Scheinblum

But they had a Bob Uecker Day Off for me once in Philly – Bob Uecker on his lack of recognition

I made a major contribution to the Cardinals’ pennant drive in 1964.  I got hepatitis. – Bob Uecker

The average age in Sun City, Arizona, is deceased – Bob Uecker

Good pitching always stops good hitting and vice versa – Bob Veale

Don’t know, they were wearing a bag over their head – Yogi Berra (you knew I had to include at least one) when, after seeing his first streaker, he was asked if the person was male or female.

A fun read. 

More to come…

DJB