The House on the Street on the Blog that Mark Wrote.

Labor Day Tacos and a Cuban

2009-09-08T22:27:00.004-05:00

Preface. I just deleted it. The trite summary of this past weekend that is. The problem: my readership, or potential readership at least, for this blog is so diverse that I end up writing with everyone in mind—my college friends, my family, my fading high school pals, and my current amigos, and perhaps a few renegade co-workers or facebook acquaintances. The result: blogs that are pervasively boring and fumigated with censorship. And as a result of the whole mess, I'm rarely motived to spend thirty minutes typing them up (or two hours as the case usually is).

So tonight I'm going to try something a little more reality based. If that doesn't seem more worth while than what I've been doing, I'll probably abandon the whole venture all together. But I have high hopes.

Here goes. Last night dinner sort of fell together. When I arrived home from work my roommate Anna was cooking up a taco extravaganza. I called up Oscar, and he joined me for the impromptu Labor Day celebration. The kitchen and dinning room were filled with a quirky sample of Portland's thirty-ish nurses and some engineers and some techies. After a funny conversation about randomly seeing neighbors hanging around naked, it turned out that the main voyeur lived on the other side of the river right across from Oscar (who enjoys the perks of living alone).

Following dinner Oscar and I decided to go rent a flick. After our cinema upset over Ghost World on Sunday (how many teen angst movies can you watch until you just get tired of their emotional ridiculousness? Probably one.), I wasn't sure what we'd walk home with. Luckily Oscar found Before Night Falls. Editing that drives the drama, stimulating writing, and realistic acting. A beautiful adaptation of Reinaldo Arenas's autobiographical novel by the same title. Ed, you'd like it. Yes, so would you, Lindsey. Give it a watch when you're feeling adventurous, then call me and we'll chat it up.

My dad's coming out to visit in the middle of next month. I've been trying to prepare for it. Obviously he and I exist in two separate paradigms. I'm familiar with his, but I'm not convinced he really knows mine. Ideally the visit will involve him getting to know me rather than us just recycling our old conversations about the intrinsic value of music and learning how to make... stuff. We'll probably visit the city gardens, ride bikes through the local neighborhoods, and eat lots of great food that most other people in my family wouldn't enjoy. That's something I can definitely count on: Dad liking all the sea food variations I put in front of him.

Happy Father's Day... from the son that looks like the other one

2009-06-22T00:38:00.003-05:00

If you've flipped through photographs enough, you've surely had the, "oh, I look just like my brother (or sister) even though I'm quite certain that we look nothing alike in real life" moment. Well, I had one a couple days ago when Oscar was giving me copies of pictures that he took at my birthday bash. I thought I'd share.

Here is David, scratch that. No, here is... well, me... blowing out the candles on my cake. It took me a while to figure out what made the difference. It's the eyes, I discovered. Put your fingers across my eyes. (Click on the picture for a larger image.) I have just become, undeniable, in any court of law by anyone who knows him, my brother. Well the good news is: I look seven years younger. The bad news is: you just put your greasy finger on the computer screen.

Books in Trees

2009-05-13T15:05:00.004-05:00

Not much is going on these days. I have my last concert of the season this Saturday and Sunday. The Portland Symphonic Choir is performing Rachmaninov's vespers. I am practicing some Bach Duetto's that I didn't know before last week. They are not duets, but rather like an Invention (a two voice piece where the two voices imitate each other.) There is a lot of amazing invertible counterpoint (where the melody and the bass-line can switch places and still work harmonically.)

I thought I would include a photo of the painting that I made for Oscar. The quality isn't great, but you get the idea. It uses a technique that I hadn't tried before. First I painted the background with acrylic paints mixing iridescent gold and reds and cream directly on the canvas. Then I drew on top with oil pastels. I had to spray the background so that the pastels would stick. It turned out better than I expected. Don't ask me what it "means." I wanted to have a forest of "book" trees and this is what it turned into.

We qualified for State! ... and then I left.

2009-04-08T18:01:00.002-05:00

On Friday I took my group to the regional OMEA festival. And slam dunk!! We took first place with a 8 point average lead and qualified for the state competition in May. Yay!! On the down side, it was my last day of substituting so after the triumphal win, I got in my car and returned home. I'll be back to accompany them for their spring concert. On Thursday, two of the girls from the treble choir made me brownies with mint chocolate chips and chocolate drizzle. Talk about heaven.

As an aside, the bus got pulled over on the way back from the competition. Apparently the bus driver forgot to pull over at a train crossing. After twenty minutes of waiting, we were back on our way with a ticket for the driver. As little towns go, some of the passers-by had called the bus barn and the poor driver's phone was ringing off the hook (or as much as a cell phone has a hook) for the rest of the drive back. She never answered it.

Well, I'm back job hunting. In the mean time, I transfered to another Starbucks that can give me more hours. I am still working at the Methodist Church. It has been my most reliable employment since I moved out here. My roommate, Rivka, is the projects manager for the local public access TV station. She's helping me refine my resume. Anyway, on to the next chapter in employment.

Oh, and the sun has been out for the last THREE DAYS!!! Winter is finally drying up.

How does first place sound?

2009-03-20T00:14:00.005-05:00

So, as many of you know, I've been long-term substituting for a choir teacher in Scappoose, OR—it's about 25 minutes north of Portland—since the first week in February. Well yesterday I took my chamber choir to the NE Oregon League Festival and walked home (actually rode the two hours back to Scappoose) with first place!! I was very proud of my group. Since I started we have shifted their literature around, learned and memorized two new songs, and refined preexisting ones. Further we were two points away from qualifying for the state competition. We'll have one more chance to qualify a week from Friday. I think we will have no problems.

Here's a picture of my kids.

In other news, I have been performing quite a bit recently. Last week I sang Bach's Cantata BWV 131 with a solo quartet and the Bach Cantata Choir. Tomorrow and Sunday I'm singing the tenor solos in Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with the Portland's Columbia Symphony Orchestra. The concert celebrates the recently renovated organ in the First United Methodist Church. Tonight was the dress rehearsal. The other soloist are soooo good. I am very lucky to get to sing with them. The conductor, Huw, sweats like a bulbous glass of British Schnapps on a hot humid day. If the choir isn't cutting off together, he twitches his head on beat three as large drops of sweat fly over the bass soloist and onto my score. At first I thought there was a leak in the ceiling. But no. It was just the conductor.

Next week is spring break in Scappoose and at Portland State University where Oscar teaches. Over the last month we've been building an assortment of camping necessities and I'll think we'll use them for the first time next week. I love camping and will be excited to go with Oscar. I think we may have some of the singers from Symphonic Chorus with us (Jim, Lauren, and maybe Bill.) Aside to Jim's stalker: sorry you aren't out here to go with us.

This is a wire and paper sculpture that I made for Cheech for his birthday.

Snowflakes and Paper Koi

2009-01-28T03:01:00.009-06:00

So I figured at some point I should update this. And what better way than to post some of the little creations that I'm proud of. So here are a couple of this year's snowflakes. The rest are at Oscar's or Cheech's house.

Concert Review

2008-08-11T18:07:00.000-05:00

http://www.crosscut.com/arts-beat/16546/Tallis+in+Seattle/

Yes, we're the pirates of despair!!

2008-06-30T16:08:00.006-05:00

This past weekend I performed in the chorus of Pirates of Penzance with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players and the Missouri Symphony at the newly renovated Missouri Theatre. The show was really fun. With only four rehearsals, two with the orchestra and crew, the event flew by. The show was a lot of fun and it allowed me to be a ridiculous character actor. AAAARRRR!

The conductor/director was a bit of a mess. This Daddy Warbucks, Humpty-Dumpty fellow would cue the choir to say lines and make reactions that we had never rehearsed. Sometimes we went along with it, other times we just stared. Despite his schizophrenic nature the show came together really well to a packed house.

Yesterday I finally finished my thesis composition. That has been a long time coming. Now the review process begins. We'll see how long that takes.

This Thursday the University Summer Singers are performing a Motet and a Mass by Orlando di Lasso, a famous Renaissance master-composer. His music is so great, constantly surprising the listener and performer with twists in major verses minor. Some of the sections are intensely beautiful and profound. The plan is to have Mom and Dad come down and grab the furniture that I can't load in my car, which is most of it, and take it back to KC after the concert.

Lindsey's Recital

2008-05-15T09:11:00.004-05:00

Let me document a recent event for you. (Although I should be practicing for my last final.) So for the last four weeks I have been creating/sewing this dress for best friend and roommate, Lindsey Lisle Lang. After the forty or so hours I spent tacking and cutting and sewing, Lindsey premiered her famous gown this past Sunday. As self-appointed aesthetics coordinator, I did all the tasks one might expect. It was quite a bit like planning a wedding, but instead of a groom, there were arias. I suppose it was a marriage of art and interpretation or voice and instruments or something... On Sunday we met The Langs for lunch, which was full of crazies and elitist food dishes that I'm not sure had real names. Then we raced home to fix Lindsey's hair, which by the way, had to be fixed AFTER her dress was on as it could only be put on over her head. Then Rachel AuBuchon (or should I say Nell), her pianist, came over for a crash course in curling irons. It was a little like My Fair Lady staring the Indian princess from Dances with Wolves. Then we raced to the First Baptist Church, but only after I spilled a vase full of water and flowers on my back, which consequently, also broken the vase. Lindsey and Rachel ran a few of the Baroque pieces with some instrumentalist, I made an announcement to turn off your cell phones, and it was under way. Anyway... it all went off swimmingly! Lindsey and Rachel sounded amazing. The dresses matched the stage, the intermission didn't last too long (thanks to a quick call to Lindsey back stage. "Pss. You can go back out now"), and Lindsey managed to never knock over the vase of flowers at the base of the piano, even though she nearly did every time she walked by. Afterward we all chowed down on cupcakes (didn't I say this was like a wedding?) that Lisa Lang brought, while we listened to Dr. Budds rant about his middle school drama experience.

Oh, and here are a few cherished pictures.

Keep scrolling down. There a a few new posts.

2008-05-13T13:12:00.005-05:00

Rachel came down to Columbia to participate in the Missouri All-State Music contest. David and Rebecca drove down to listen, and then Becca stayed behind. That night we beat the pants off of Lindsey and DJ at Taboo. Before the game, Rachel and Becca and I made some oatmeal-peanut butter cookies. They were really good.

The Aryan triplets. It was sure nice to see Mary and her family.

Babies!!!

And a couple family shots.

Carrie Marker's Hindu Wedding

2008-05-13T09:20:00.006-05:00

A few weeks back I was Allison Ross's date to Carrie Marker's Two Weddings: the first was an Indian wedding and the second was a more traditional western wedding.

Carrie and Samir who are currently living in New York.

The women's sari's.

Yum. Mango. The food was amazing. Except the after dinner mints that tasted like "Old Man" cologne.

Allison and me at the traditional wedding.

Filling in the gaps

2008-05-13T09:05:00.009-05:00

Here are some pictures back from April 5 at the University Singers Concert where my piece was sung.

Always talking...

It's the soloists!! Lindsey and Kyle.

Me and my boyfriend, DJ.

My choir family, including Kyle Stegall, Lindsey Lang, Paul and Ginny Crabb, and Ryan Hampton.

A busy week

2008-04-01T10:46:00.004-05:00

Mmm. Everything and nothing seems to be happening. Everything includes tests, comps, performances, thesis, classes... and I still have no idea what I'm doing next year. I wish Grad schools would email out responses.

New York was really fun and stressful. I wonder if every trip I take will sustain flight problems and schedule crunches? We'll see.

The exciting news is that Lindsey and I were accepted into the Tallis Scholars summer institute in Seattle for the last week of July. We will get to sing with and study voice under the world's leading Renaissance Chamber musicians. When we heard them in Kansas City last month, they were breath-taking.

Today MU's Homepage, Tomorrow's Depressed Frozen Yogurt Shop Employee

2008-03-20T07:52:00.005-05:00

So, check out MU's homepage!!! www.mizzou.edu If it doesn't appear right away, keep clicking refresh.
A warning about the second audio file: I sound like an idiot. "Um....um....um..."

I still have not heard back from North Carolina. I hope a thick letter comes soon or I'll be asking, "Do you want that in a waffle bowl?" in the fall.

PETER GRIMES. PETER GRIMES.

2008-03-18T22:04:00.003-05:00

So I saw the sharpest, most refined production from the Met's HD broadcast series on Sunday, Peter Grimes. The tenor was unbelievable, and the music, divine!

Well, my midterms are quickly coming to an end, and I have to say, I think I fared pretty well. My German test was today, and it went as well as I could have expected. I was the second one finished; although, I'm not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing.

It was really nice to have lunch with Laura yesterday when she was in Columbia. We both seem to be anticipating transitions and yet not really know what they are or what to expect from them.

Today's Missourian

2008-03-12T21:00:00.004-05:00

Meh...

2008-03-11T20:27:00.002-05:00

So I haven't post anything in a while, but rest assured that I am busy like a monkey. In the next couple weeks I need to finish my thesis composition and prepare for its defense, brush up on a few topics for "comps" (Comprehensive Exam), study for mid-terms, finish preparing for the Bach solo I have this weekend, and keep my friends sane.

If anyone is interested, Bach's St. Johannes Passion, accompanied by organ and orchestra, is this Sunday at the Methodist church at both 8:50 and 11:00 am. Seventy-five percent of the piece will be solos by yours truely. If you can't make it, I believe it will be recorded. Later.

Concert Announcement in the Missourian

2008-02-25T10:27:00.007-06:00

This clipping was given to me by Jan Harrison from MUMC.

Vampire at the King Singers

2008-02-24T20:29:00.003-06:00

A really nice senior couple at MUMC gave me two tickets to the King Singers who performed this past Friday at the Folly in Kansas City. DJ and I drove up and had just enough time to stop by 11601 to say hello and grab a sandwich before racing off to the show. (I had intended to stay a little longer at the house, but there was a terrible car accident just outside of Columbia that slowed us down by 45 minutes.)

The concert was a lot of fun. The King Singers are amazing musicians and entertainers. They performed some classics like "My spirit sang all day" and "Dindirindin" and "Fair Phyllis." About half way through the first half, something fell past the lights from the fly area. It was a little weird but easy to pass off as nothing. Then over the performers and into the audience swooped a bat! The poor critter spent the rest of the concert trying to find its way out of the Folly. It was amusing to say the least, and the King Singers handled it really well. (One of the singers pulled an imaginary gun out of his jacket during the second and pretended to "help the bat out.")

Also I ran into Alan Wegener from Raytown before the concert. It was a brief encounter but nice none the less.

Bernstein's Candide!!

2008-02-14T10:37:00.002-06:00

So you have to watch this brilliant performance of "Glitter and Be Gay" from Bernstein's Candide! The soprano is Natalie Dessay, whom I LOVE.

The song is about a woman tortured by her decisions to trade her virtue for a life of style and expensive things. I heart her acting and her attempt at English pronunciation.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. And Happy Birthday, Andrew.

It's a Bach in a Bach

2008-02-09T13:12:00.000-06:00

Last night we had our first rehearsal for Bach's Cantata No. 4 "Christ lag in Todesbanden," BWV 4 with orchestra. It went pretty well. I'm singing one of the tenor/soprano duets as well as the choruses. The concert is next Friday at 8:00 at the First Baptist Church. It will be really good.

Here's the website for the concert series. http://www.odyssey.missouri.org/pi.html

And here's a recording of the Cantata No. 4 that I found. The piece was split into two videos. So while they look like the same thing, they are different. This is a pretty good performance. (My duet starts in the second video at 4:25.)

So U. Singers read through my piece this week... and it was awful. It was an awkward rehearsal to start off with, but man, they botched it. It's all about whole steps and half steps. Granted, it is a difficult piece, but ouch. I'm sure it will come together. We have three and a half weeks.

In other news, I received my first graduate school letter yesterday. It looks like we can scratch Eastman/up-state New York off the list. In an act of desperation, I emailed the other three schools to check that they had received all my materials. Each confirmation let me know that they had, but they would not be making a decision until the first part of March. That seems a little slow/late, but what to do? It looks like I have some more waiting to do. That's what. All in all, a bizarre week.

Voting and Raining

2008-02-06T00:55:00.000-06:00

So today I voted, and it rained. Two things I enjoy very much. Unfortunately I left my sticker at home when I stopped by for some brunch, and was therefore unable to silently boast about my "just fill in the bubble" accomplishment.

Tomorrow U. Singers begins rehearsal on my choir piece. Excited!!!

Here's me with Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. It's huge. Random as it may seem, pointillism and rain and voting seem to all be in similar families, no?

Soup!!

2008-02-02T08:25:00.000-06:00

Two shots of me with Craig Davis and Lindsey Lang at the memorial union yesterday afternoon grabbing a bite after U. Singers. Apparently I'm the only one interested in making faces.

So, last night I made my Thai soup again. It turned out great. Aside: I forgot to say ginger on the list of spices. I used powdered, but I bet shredded or minced ginger would be great too. Last night we deviated from its vegan-ness by adding a pound of browned ground beef to the doubled recipe. It was a little meat heavy, so I added two more cans of black beans to shift the ratio.

I also baked some crescent rolls. Roommate and French corespondent, Ryan McNeil, suggested we make peanut butter toast to go with the chili. Since we were already planning on rolls, I then suggested that we put a swipe of peanut butter in the crescent rolls before we baked them. They turned out delicious!!

Yesterday was event-filled. It began with breakfast with Lindsey and Rachel AuBuchon at Cafe Berlin. Rachel's boyfriend cooks there Friday morning. The three of us always have a good time; we laughed a lot. Then after classes, I gave Joey Giaccotto from U. Singers a haircut, shipped Lindsey off to her audition at IU-Bloomington packed in a car with her mother (who showed up in flip-flops despite the three inches of snow on the ground), made Thai-chili-peanut-butter-crescent-rolls-extravaganza with cooked green beans and carrots on the side with Ryan for a slew of friends: Joey and his boyfriend, Drake (who now sings bass with me at MUMC), DJ, Tim Whipple, and Kate Springer. It was a riot. They are so funny. Then all of us except Ryan and Kate drove to the theatre to see Juno, all five packed in my little car. Fortunately, it's a quick drive. The night ended with some selected scenes from Will and Grace and Shortbus.

Thai Soup

2008-02-01T08:23:00.000-06:00

I made this soup the other day for Lindsey when she was sick this past week, and it turned out swimmingly. I don't remember exact measurement for everything, like spices; I just threw in slightly more than what seemed appropriate.

Mark's Faster than Crazy Thai Soup

In a large pot:
Brown half an onion and about two tablespoons of minced garlic in wok oil (if you have it-wok oil is a high temp oil so you can really them going. It has a slightly more "Asian" taste than its Italian olive oil counterpart, which is a low temp oil.)

Stir in:
1 can of black beans
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of tomatoes and peppers
1 granny smith apple chopped into large bit size chunks

Season with:
Herbs de Provence
curry powder
dash cayenne pepper
ginger
one cake mix of your choice
pepper jelly
salt and pepper

Bring this to a low boil. (Aprox. 4 minutes)

Stir in 2 big dollops of peanut butter. It'll take about a minute of stirring for the peanut butter to melt and combine evenly.

Dish into bowls and top with chopped cilantro.

Serve with crackers to your friends or random people from the street. They'll all love it.

Yield: about four bowls. You can easily double it if you have a bigger pot.
(I'm just kidding about the cake mix part)

"I need my 3 1/2 hours a month!" ...enough to merit a metal sign

2008-01-30T23:37:00.000-06:00

This is a little picture I took this summer. I just came across it again. It makes me laugh.

Bach's John's Passion

2008-01-30T23:14:00.000-06:00

Another day, another rehearsal. Tonight I rehearsed for the St. John's Passion that I'm singing the week before Easter at the Methodist church in town. In this cantata, there are two main characters, the Evangelist/Narrator (tenor) "and he spake unto them saying..." and Jesus (bass). There are also significant chorus parts and little roles for Pilate and Peter, etc. I'm singing half of the Evangelist recitatives (sharing them with another tenor) and in the chorus. It's a lot of singing-every time the line is not a quote from Jesus et al, I sing it-but I really love this piece of music.

Unfortunately because the two hour piece has to be crammed into an hour, most of the beautiful arias have been cut. It's nice to be learning so much of it. I'm sure I'll perform it again somewhere, and I'll already have half of the solos learned. BACH!

Oh, and I'm teaching the Syntax, Structure, and Style IV music theory class. Back to my lesson plan.

My last classes at MU

2008-01-29T10:04:00.000-06:00

So this semester is off and running. I am excited about my classes. My two academic courses are ones that I have wanted to take for a while, Beginning German Reading and Figured Bass Keyboard Harmony. Otherwise I'm singing in University Singers and working on this thesis. Things are coming well with the composition but I need to write some more poetry.

There is this little restaurant just off campus with really amazing food. But even better than the food is the cashier who works there. She's this little brunette who is ridiculously happy all the time. When Danny lived in Columbia, he and I would go just to order from this girl. She is so genuine and content that its impossible to be anything but happy when you are around her. One day I'll decide to stop being so cynical and give the whole "content" thing a whirl. I know that'll surprise Buddy Green.

Opera, yeah!

2008-01-27T12:43:00.000-06:00

Check out the world's greatest, Marilyn Horne, the mezzo-soprano. Her voice is so amazing. Just a little reminder about the Met broadcasts. For more information about times and locations close to you, check out http://www.fathomevents.com/details.aspx?seriesid=622

Back and busy

2008-01-24T23:07:00.000-06:00

Well, the choir trip was really fun. The highlight was the hour and a half tour of the Chicago Lyric opera house. Our tour guide was an older man who had been volunteering there for the last forty-five years. He was a trip. He not only knew everything, it seemed, about the opera house, but also told us funny stories about different famous singers who had come through. (Deborah Voigt uses the prompter more than most sopranos.) It was incredible. He took us on a catwalk in the fly space that went up forever (twelve stories), showed us the vast costume shop, and introduced us to the main people in the wig shop. I even got to put on a wig they were working on for Falstaff. The man in charge of that department said each wig takes forty man hours! They looked real, even up close. It was hard to believe they were dyed yak hair.

A lot of time was spent on the bus...a lot of time. My friend Kyle came up with a game where we created an obscure job that best suited for each person on the bus. Some of them were really funny. Then we announced them over the loud speaker. Mine wasn't so obscure--the next professor with an outdoor office who harasses students as they walk by (an ode to Dr. Budds, of sorts)--but Lindsey's was pretty funny. We named her the next cheese-on-a-stick sample pusher at a grocery store. As an aside, we never could convince the people on the bus to watch an opera with us, so Lindsey and I watched Bellini's I Puritani on my laptop. Amazing, I live for a good "mad scene."

This week has been busy as classes started. I am finishing up the middle movement of this choir piece that will be premiered in the first week in March. Work. work. work. and to bed... I'll tell you about classes later.

Oh, Bus Trips

2008-01-16T23:31:00.000-06:00

I always forget what it's like being on a bus of peers. While I had a nice ride to Chicago, I found myself "enjoying" Labyrinth with David Bowie. I hadn't seen that movie since the early nineties when the Barnetts lived next door. Wow, it was worse than I remember it. There are some things that puppets should never be cast as. I think Lindsey and I are going to try to convince the bus crew to put on a DVD recording of La Boheme that we brought. We'll see how that goes.

Singing in the Windy City

2008-01-15T17:47:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow morning I leave for Chicago with University Singers for our annual choir tour. It is mostly a recruitment tour, singing at high schools and churches. I am most looking forward to Saturday when we will be touring Chicago's Lyric Opera house! I'll also be visiting the Chicago Art Institute to see what cool exhibits they have there. Last time I visited CAI in 2004, they were showing a traveling Impressionist exhibit.

Winter Intercession

2008-01-14T12:53:00.001-06:00

This has been a really nice break. It started off with Rachel's holiday choral concert (which by the way, turned out to be a Christmas concert as there was not a single Hanukkah or "winter" song performed). After the concert I picked

Andrew up from the airport--who I have not seen since spring break '07--and enjoyed the 2 1/2 hour drive back to Columbia.

It was great to have him in Columbia again. Such a large part of sustaining a relationship just deals with experiencing everyday life together. So while I can enjoy discussing political candidates over the phone, there's something special about getting ready for the day and

grocery shopping and visiting friends together. In the end, it's irreplaceable.

We traveled out to Fort Wayne, IN to see his family for Christmas. They were a lot of fun. Our last day there, Andrew, his mom and grandma, and I visited the local indoor botanical gardens. We returned to Columbia a few days early so we could drive to Independence for Dad's surprise birthday party. It was a smash. Mom's food was great, and a lot of Dad's friends stopped by. It finished with the two Woodward classics, a piano sing-along followed by a personal tour de poulet (and Lucy, of course).

New Years started with a bang. Lindsey, my roommate, and I threw a hors d'oeuvres party. We had fifteen friends over and twelve or so different finger foods. My favorite were the pistachio and blue cheese covered grapes that Lindsey made. Andrew's hummus was great as well. Most of the people were 'school of music' friends so we of course had a sing-along, including a "The Twelve Days of Christmas" competition. (The lucky winner walked home with a bottle of cheap cologne--an appropriate holiday gift.)

We finished our celebration the next day by attending the New York Metropolitan Opera's HD broadcast of Hansel and Gretel at a local movie theater. (For more details about the Met's HD broadcast at your city's local theaters, go to www.fathomevents.com/details.aspx?seriesid=622 )

Since Andrew flew back to Portland on the second, I've been composing a piece for University Singers, the top choir at the University of Missouri, for a concert in March. The second of three movements is almost finished. Well, back to the piano. And thanks for being so nice to Andrew when he was here.

And it begins...

2008-01-14T12:00:00.001-06:00

I recently had an epiphany. Blogging was on-line journaling. I'm not really sure what I used to think it was, perhaps some complicated online debate or the sound mashed potatoes make when you push them from the pot to the serving dish. Anyway, I have been wanting to record my existence for some time now. A few months back I just started writing emails to myself, which works just fine, but it's not reader friendly. And you certainly don't get to play around with cool pictures and fonts. And if you croak, who's going to wade through your inbox in future years just to see if maybe this short guy kept an email journal.

So today begins what I hope will be a regular event, blarging , or what ever it's called.