Day One - Cincinnati May Festival

The first day went rather well.

In the shower, I listened to Robert Porco's interview on WVXU, during which he said nice things about our chorus and told a little of his interesting life story. I had to wait to rinse the shampoo out of my hair so that I didn't miss a word.

At Music Hall, the morning began with coffee and donuts (my favorite: custard-filled and covered with chocolate).

The group sang Happy Birthday to all of us who have birthdays in May and June, and then after everyone started to wake up and get down to business, we started off at 10:00 am by giving each other backrubs and then the vocal warmups began.

By 10:10, we were digging deep into the Mahler 8th. By lunchtime, at 1:00 pm, we had done 90% of the music. There is a women's section left to do, but otherwise, we're about as ready as we're going to be. Considering that we've only rehearsed the second movement once before, I'm impressed.

The word is that the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, who will be joining us for the Mahler performance, has been rehearsing nothing but the Mahler for weeks -- and Bob made them all sing it for him in quartets last week -- almost a reaudition. All this, while we've been working on the Mahler on a limited basis, along with works by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Verdi, Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Vaughan Williams and Brahms.

Maybe it's easier to blow off preparing when you only have one thing to work on. We have so much to learn in such a short time that we have to do a lot of work outside of rehearsals just to keep up.

At lunchtime, I went to the box office to get tickets for my daughter Alex and her boyfriend, Justin. They will attend all four Music Hall concerts, as well as the concert at Covington's Basilica. Justin's mom, Cheryl, will join them for the last two.

Ouch. It cost $343 for the 12 tickets, after my chorus discount. I told Alex about the expense, and she commented, "Doesn't it make you appreciate the Know Theatre's $12 seats?" Always marketing...

Lunch was the standard catered buffet with sandwich makings, salads, and fruit.

Then it was back the rehearsal room, working on Mendelssohn's Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, which is something about Druids and the slaughtering of children and the peasants storming the gates with pitchforks and something called "klapperstucken" (there should be an umlaut on that "u" but I don't have one handy).

Both the women and the men were recipients of Bob-isms.

During a women's chorus, Bob asked, "Can you be more pathetic?"

My first reaction, was, "Sure. We've often been pretty pathetic!" But he was asking for pathos, since we were singing about the murder of our children.

At one point in a men's chorus, the men were singing along, but not making much of an impression of the anger I think they were supposed to be expressing.

Bob commented, "Come, on guys, dotted rhythms are macho!"

Apparently that comment caused an immediate rise in testosterone levels, because the next time they opened their mouths, it was definitely a male chorus. Of course, the women were hooting and hollering and clapping to beat the band -- along with lots of laughter. Now we know what it takes to get them to sing like men.

Once we finished the Mendelssohn we worked on a movement of the Bach Magnificat, the Beethoven Hallelujah (from The Mount of Olives), and two choruses from Schubert's incidental music from Rosamunde.

Five o'clock had arrived, and we headed for home.

Day two begins on Sunday, May 17 at 1:45 with a rehearsal of the Chamber Choir, who will be joined by the regular chorus at 3:00 pm. Dinner will be at 6:00 and from 7:00 to 10:00, we'll rehearse the Mozart Requiem with the May Festival Youth Chorus. If James Conlon's plane arrives as scheduled, he'll lead that rehearsal.

It's about ready to begin again

OK, folks. Tomorrow is the first day of the 16-day marathon known as the Cincinnati May Festival. As a member of the May Festival Chorus, I will have no more free time (after tonight) until June. We will prepare for five performances on May 22, 23, 24, 29 and 30 by giving up every evening and all our weekends, dedicating ourselves to choral music.

As I did last year, I'll keep you all informed of the goings-on and any drama that comes up (I'm sure it will -- we're in the world of divas, after all).

Final Round of Photos

The Roman Baths at Bath

Longdon on Tern, Shropshire

Ironbridge, Shropshire

Bridgnorth, Shropshire

Round Three

The City of Bath

Bath Abbey

Salisbury

Salisbury Cathedral

Stonehenge

Second Round of Videos

The Tower of London

The Imperial War Musem

The Houses of Parliament

First four videos - London

Around London

Westminster & Vicinity

The City

The British Museum

Just got back from the UK

UK, April 2009

A theatrical weekend

Friday: Imagine a really, really bad 1950’s science fiction movie.

No. Imagine a SPECIFIC really, really bad 1950’s science fiction movie: Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space (often called the worst movie ever made).

Now, imagine you’re sitting in a lovely theatre, waiting for a production of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors.

OK. Now imagine this: a man in a suit, riding on some sort of rolling cart with a large Chinese gong attached, holding a coffee cup with a light inside of it to his chin so that the light illuminates his features in a scary, Hallowe’en sort of way.

Then imaging that same man in the suit humming a high-pitched Theremin-like wail (the sort you’d hum when commenting on something that is really “out there").

Finally, imagine him repeating, word for word, the monologue from Plan 9 from Outer Space that was given by the 1950’s “seer,” Criswell.

You can see the original here:



(The term, “grave robbers from outer space” was left out for this particular play, since there were no grave robbers from outer space in Shakespeare... that I know of.)

So, the stage is set. There is a little bit of Balinese shadow-puppetry, there is a bit of Keystone Cops-like mad chase (with Boots Randolph’s Yakety Sax playing as the actors ran around in circles), there is a “space doctor” whose nurse (in webbed feet and a beak) shocks people with her touch (she even lays an egg at one point), there is a plea from the Criswell-esque narrator at intermission to go out to the lobby and buy stuff (with the old movie theater organ intermission music playing), there are people with aluminum foil space helmets, AND, yes, there is someone in a gorilla suit to round out the mayhem.

And, oh, by the way, the cast performed Shakespeare’s play with all the dialogue as the Bard himself wrote it.

It was WONDERFUL. I wish they had filmed it. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long, long time. The genius of Shakespeare (who will be 445 years old next week) came through. He wrote a very funny play.

Saturday: A more somber play, Vigils at Alex’s Know Theatre (the other show was by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company). A widow who has forced her dead husband’s soul to remain with her, locked in a trunk in her room (because she doesn’t want to let go quite yet), goes on her first date. ("Can we talk about this not right in front of your husband's Soul?" he asks early on. "It's weirding me out.")

You can see the trailer here:



It’s a complicated play, too difficult to explain, but I really liked it. The actors actually speak about being in the play, breaking down the barriers between them and the audience. It was about love and loss and moving on, and there were tearful moments and there were some very funny moments, as the husband’s soul converses with the new boyfriend. I’m totally flummoxed by the ending, however. I made a joke afterward that I would have to wait for Arthur Clarke’s novelization to come out so I would know what the hell it was about (like I did after first seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey). Actually, Alex said that the actors were of differing opinions about the meaning of the play’s ending.

Bat Masterson, Job Re-org, Fixing the Garage Door, and Daughter in Career Crisis...

As Bat Masterson rides off into the sunset (isn’t the THIS network fun?) I’m sitting here in peace and quiet, just me and the cat. It’s been a busy week, and I’m glad to have some alone time.

My boss is no longer my boss. The reorg is afoot, and Matt, who was my boss the last time, is my boss again – and he’s here in Cincinnati (what a concept). I really like him, so it’s all good.

My garage door opener is fixed, my personal best for the week. It was fulfilling to be able to take it apart and figure it all out for myself, and to end up with a working garage door that can be disabled (without help) if there’s a power outage.

I had lunch Thursday with my daughter to discuss her career crisis, per her request. By the time I picked her up, she’d made her decision, and was asking for affirmation that she’d done the right thing. I think she did.

It amounts to this: the theatre is in financial crisis (as are most of the city’s arts organizations) and has to downsize significantly next season. The non-production staff next season will consist of the executive director, education director and a position that handles both development and marketing -- so my daughter will do two jobs. She wanted to do marketing anyway, so that’s good. The current marketing person has decided that she’d rather be performing, so she’s off to New York next season.


So, mu daughter came up with a list of “demands.” She’ll stay on at the same salary, but the theatre will provide free housing and utilities (her current share of the rent is $313 plus electricity). They will also provide free parking (she currently pays $50 a month), and she’ll have some paid time off for vacation. At the end of next season, she wants to be able to renegotiate the salary when things are better, and she wants a “real” apartment provided just for her (versus the shared housing that she and the actors will live in next season – a 12-bedroom house with three kitchens owned by the theatre). It looks as if all her demands will be met. They know how valuable she is to the organization.

So her beau will be off to grad school, and each will focus on their individual tasks at hand. He’s writing a book (requiring travel) as well, so both of them will be doing two things at once. They’ll see each other on weekends, and neither will have to feel guilty about neglecting one another. They are joined at the hip, and are each so supportive of one another. Not being together will be hard for them, but they are smart enough to realize that this new arrangement will make sense until Justin is out of school in a couple of years (assuming he doesn't go on for a PhD -- which is possible). One step at a time. They're each taking the right steps to prepare for their future together.

All in all, I thought it a very mature decision. She’ll finally be responsible for marketing, which is her special interest, and this will be a huge thing for her resume. She did marketing at the American Rep at Harvard last year on co-op, and loved it. Her goal is full-time arts management, and so every bit of experience is really a do-it-yourself arts MBA. She told me about other people in local arts organizations with master’s degrees in arts management who are spending their days walking the ballet director’s dog (and scooping their poop) or running errands, while my daughter is actually responsible for something.

Two weekends running she organized fund raising parties. The first one went 25% over the goal and the second one was 150% of goal. I think she’s doing something right and the theatre recognizes her contribution.

At lunch with her on Thursday, I saw yet again how much of an influence she’s been in the ten months she’s worked at the theatre. As we ate in a trendy restaurant in the Over the Rhine neighborhood known as the Gateway Quarter, a very classy guy walked by and greeted her effusively. “Hi, Alex! Good to see you!”

Alex introduced us, “Mom, this is [so and so]. [So and so], this is my mother, [Meridian13113].” Handshakes and greetings all around. After he left, she explained that he’s the president of the Over the Rhine Chamber of Commerce. He is typical of the people I been introduced to by Alex of late. She knows all the local movers and shakers in town – in less than a year since she graduated from Antioch.After lunch, she took me on a shopping tour of all the new trendy retail in the neighborhood, where she knows who owns what, what cool stuff is for sale (did you know that Marimekko is still putting out new stuff?). As we went through the stores, she was checking the supply of Know Theatre brochures in each one. They were all empty. She's doing something right, it appears.

Oh, and she’s also actively involved in the Antioch Alumni association, as part of the national communications committee, too.

I am SO proud of her.

17 days until we leave for London!

------ In The City (Fill in the blank)

Sex?  

Crime? 

Business? 

Overcrowding?

No, no, no and no.

Give up?

How about eagles?  American Bald Eagles?

Yup.  Whodathunkit?  There is a colony of 12 American Bald Eagles in Syracuse, New York, of all places.

See them here.

They're the revered bird of the Onondaga Nation, and they're back at Onondaga Lake.

Onondaga Lake abuts the city of Syracuse and was once the most polluted body of water in the country.  The Solvay Process dumped industrial waste into the lake and along its shoreline for decades, turning it into a putrid and stinking morass, and essentially killing it.  City sewage compounded the problem.  It was surrounded by oil tanks, and the asphalt smell was the punch line of many jokes about the village of Solvay on its banks ("Evening in Solvay" perfume, for example, was often listed as a gag door prize at parties).

There is a lot that can never be cleaned up, such as the mercury that is embedded in the lake bottom, but there has been a concerted effort to improve things.  The oil tanks have gone, and the piles of pollutants and refuse have been removed.  A new sewage treatment plant has significantly reduced human pollution.  A fancy mall sits on the site of the old oil tanks and there are plans afoot to build housing and more shopping (some under glass with year-round golf, of all things).  

Whatever has been done so far has helped a miracle to occur.  Maybe it's time to just stop and forget "progress."  I think what's happened here now is an excellent height to reach.

I wonder what the people of the Onondaga Nation think.  Many of them live not too far away, south of the city.  The bird they revere has returned, in numbers not seen for a century or more.

Isn't it wonderful?

What a mess...

was my garage. David was a trooper, helping me to destroy and recycle the myriad carboard boxes ("Save the box in case you have to send it back, or to transport it when you next move" was the mantra, and of course the things that came in those boxes are long gone). The recycling truck will be busy -- we filled the recycling bin and two trash cans with cardboard, plus one trash can with trash. Once those are gone, there should be room for the car.

Once the boxes were flattened, we hit Home Depot and bought 24 feet of shelves and installed them. That got a lot of stuff and all my toolboxes off the floor. There are still some boxes to go through, but by and large, I'm done. I may go back and get more shelves for the other side of the garage when spring comes. There were already three shelves that cover the entire width of the garage at the back and they could use some neatening up when it gets warmer. That cold concrete slab just sucks the heat out of your body through the soles of your feet, so doing much in the garage will have to wait -- the space heater we had out there didn't do much good.

The garage door was replaced this afternoon and it looks great. It's a paneled door. One young man did mine and my neighbor's in under three hours in the bitter cold -- all by himself. I spent my time digitizing the three choruses from Schubert's Rosamunde, a much warmer occupation.

Saturday night I went with a fellow chorus member to see a lovely musical, I Love You Because, at Alex's theatre. It was really a great show and got a standing ovation. Good singing, good acting, good musicians, good play. It was funny and sweet and very enjoyable.

Sitting behind us was a couple that used to be in the chorus, and who, in fact, let us all watch their courtship many years ago. Their oldest son is a year older than Alex, and they used to bring him trick or treating at our house when the kids were small. They loved seeing Alex as the mature young woman she has become and we had a great time catching up.

Yesterday David and I went to Dayton for a family get together. His sister April is still here, waiting for all her papers to arrive so that she can go back to the UK to work for the next 8 or 9 months, and she is staying with their mother. We took them out for pizza and met David's two other sisters and one brother-in-law at the restaurant. Such a family -- in your face, opinionated, funny.

David and I and perhaps his recently widowed sister Debbie are planning to go to visit her in April.

We came back here for the night, and David left very early this morning to get home to vocalize. He sang at a funeral this afternoon for the mother of another former chorus member while I waited for the garage door to be installed. He just called a while ago to say that it went well and that he was heading home for a nap before going back to work tonight.

I'm enjoying a peaceful day after the crazy and busy weekend, and I may just take a nap. It's back to work tomorrow.

I hope to be able to walk across the street to the Underground Railroad Freedom Center to watch the inauguration (they're broadcasting on a big screen in their auditorium), but in case there are business things happening, I'm taking a portable TV to the office just in case.

One of my co-workers, Babacar, a naturalized US citizen from Senegal, was given inauguration tickets by our newest Congressman, Steve Driehaus, and flew to D.C. yesterday. He was so excited to be a part of the event. He's promised to wave to every camera he sees -- so if you see a 6'5" black man with glasses with a big grin on his face, it's probably him.

The way he came to know Congressman Driehaus is a great story. About a dozen years ago, Babacar and a Senegalese friend were eating at a restaurant in northern Kentucky, just across the Ohio River. At a nearby table was a man (Steve Driehaus). He was with two women. Babacar's friend made some cute comment to Babacar, in their native language, Wolof, about how lucky that guy was to have two women to eat with.

Driehaus responded to the remark -- in Wolof -- and of course, Babacar and his friend nearly fell off their chairs. It turned out that Driehaus had served in Senegal in the Peace Corps and knew Wolof well. Babacar and (now Congressman) Driehaus have been friends ever since. It really is a small world, after all.

Hope for Antioch College

From today's Dayton Daily News!

Another step taken towards a new Antioch College
By Dave Larsen
Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 13, 2009

DAYTON — A newly independent Antioch College moved one step closer to reality on Tuesday, Jan. 13, with the approval of a letter of intent by the boards of Antioch University and the Antioch College Continuation Corporation.

"This letter of intent seeks to protect the interests of Antioch University while creating the prospect for a newly independent and viable Antioch College," said Richard Detweiler, president of the Great Lakes Colleges Association. "This letter of intent, while not binding on the parties, establishes the framework to negotiate a more detailed and comprehensive definitive agreement."

Detweiler is the mediator and chair of a task force of alumni and trustee representatives that has worked since August 2008 to create a new, fully independent Antioch College.

The letter of intent, dated Jan. 9, between the Antioch University Board of Trustees and the Board Pro Tempore of the Antioch College Continuation Corporation outlines the terms and conditions under which the two boards intend to enter into one or more definitive agreements.
Under the basic terms and conditions of the transaction, Antioch University would license the right to use the name "Antioch College" to the independent college.

The independent college would acquire the right and title to assets including the Antioch College campus in Yellow Springs, the real estate comprising Glen Helen Nature Preserve, the "Antioch Review" periodical, the Coretta Scott King Center assets, and the real estate associated with the university's power plant.

Antioch University would retain assets including WYSO-FM (91.3) radio and its associated FCC licenses, the Antioch Education Abroad program, and the Kettering Building at 150 E. South College St. in Yellow Springs.

Cash provided by the independent college on the closing date would total $6.5 million, including $5 million cash at closing and $1.5 million for bonds payable.

The boards will attempt to finalize the definitive agreements within 90 days of signing the letter of intent.

Antioch College closed June 30, 2008 because of declining enrollment and other issues.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Seeing More Clearly

The Champion Window installers came on Monday, and I was impressed. They replaced the window in the living room, the two windows in the front bedroom, and the patio door (the new one has little blinds between the panes of glass).

All that remains is the 8-foot wide window in my bedroom and the 4-foot wide window in the kitchen. That's another $1500, so will have to wait until I see that the tax refund looks like.

Champion was founded here in Cincinnati, and has become a national firm. Their reputation is pretty solid, and I saw why during the installation. The installers were polite, neat and thorough, and after the installation, explained the warranty in detail and gave me all the information I could ever want. Then they left, with a handshake and a "Thanks for using Champion."

Despite the cold outside, I've already noticed that the furnace isn't cycling on as frequently as usual, so I'm hoping that these energy-efficient windows will mean lower gas and electric bills.

I ran out the same night and bought new curtains for the living room and bedroom windows, and both rooms now have a new look. The yellow walls of the living room are now complemented with pale gold faux silk curtains with light cotton semi sheers underneath (they have a lovely lace border.). The bedroom, which has periwinkle walls, now has creamy damask balloon curtains.

The patio door will get a white wooden rod and white tabbed curtains eventually, replacing the former very 80's vertical blinds. The room is painted in two shades of yellow with white woodwork and a cobalt and gold border paper above the chair rail. I think the white curtains will look great, softening the expanse of glass in the doors, and will usually be open. There is a white wooden shelf about the door that has part of my teapot collection arrayed on it . There are 15 teapots, in shades of white, yellow, gold and blue.

Rehearsals started up again on Tuesday, and it was good to get back to music. We've begun to learn Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony, and it's difficult. We have only 5 more rehearsals to learn it, so homework will be needed.

Also on Monday, I came back to work after the long break for the holidays. Things are still pretty quiet. I've got one major regulatory project mandated by the FDIC, as well as a number of small maintanance projects for an existing system. All our systems will continue to run for two years, as customers are going to be converted to the other bank's systems by geographic areas over the conversion period. Once they're all converted, we'll turn the switch and we'll all be together for real.

I'm not yet involved with any conversion projects, but I'm hoping that I will be -- which would mean continued employment for a while. This not knowing what's going to happen business is irritating. The other bank doesn't seem to have a clue as to how to approach such a massive integration of customers (they have 2.5 million accounts, we have 4 million) so we're doing most of the work, it appears. That's a good thing, and should keep some of us employed for a while. I hope I'm one of them.

Romantic Off-Broadway Musical Brings Love to OTR

Play about finding love where it’s least expected to show at Know Theatre

Know Theatre of Cincinnati is excited to announce the regional premiere of Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham’s hit Off-Broadway musical I Love You Because. I Love You Because will open on Saturday, January 17 and close February 21 with two performances on Valentine’s Day.

I Love You Because is a modern day telling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Set in New York City, the six-person cast, comprised entirely of the Know Theatre's Resident Acting Company, takes the audience on an adventure through two completely different relationships between four lovably awkward characters.

When Austin, a conservative greeting card writer, discovers that his long-time girlfriend has been cheating on him, he thinks his life is over. His knuckleheaded brother Jeff immediately runs to his rescue and encourages him to play the field. In no time, the two are on a double date with best friends Marcy, a free-spirited photographer, and Diana, a number-crunching actuary. Marcy is wild and liberal and knows just how to push Austin's conservative buttons. Diana is an actuary who tries to teach Jeff to be practical in his life.

While the individuals in the relationships contrast vastly, their love develops in interesting and comedic ways. The musical tells the story of two unlikely relationships that somehow make sense, and how each of the characters learn how to let themselves fall in love again.

Director Jason Bruffy believes that Cincinnati will fall in love with I Love You Because. "It's a wickedly funny musical with enough heart to make the cynic in all of us melt," says Bruffy. "It's a perfect musical for a romantic date or a date with friends!"

I Love You Because debuted in 2005 at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and became an immediate hit. Since then it has played across the country and internationally at Broadway Overseas Theatre in Korea (December 2007), and Royal Holloway Music Theatre Society in the United Kingdom (March 2007). Know Theatre will host the Midwest regional premiere of this internationally acclaimed musical.

I Love You Because will be directed by Artistic Director Jason Bruffy and will feature resident actors Fang Du, Courtney Brown, Daniel Hines, Jenny Guy, Ayla Ocasia, and Babs Ipaye. I Love You Because is sponsored by The Court Family Foundation.

The opening night party on Saturday, Jan. 17th will be sponsored by Rick Robertson and Tim Conway. Food will be provided by Mixx Ultra Lounge and wine will be provided by City Cellars. The opening night party starts at 7:00 pm, performance at 8:00 pm with reception to follow.


Tickets for the entire season are $12 thanks to a generous partnership with the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./US Bank Foundation, and can be obtained online at knowtheatre.com or by calling the Know Theatre box office at (513) 300-KNOW (5669).

Synopsis:

Set in New York City, this musical comedy follows Austin Bennet, a young greeting card writer, whose life is turned upside down when he finds his girlfriend with another man. Forced back out into the treacherous New York dating scene, Austin meets Marcy, whose spontaneity is matched only by her ability to drive him insane. It's a comedy that explores the rules and nuances of dating and reminds us that true romance is learning how to love someone, not in spite of their differences, but because of them.

Bios:

Joshua Salzman (music) and Ryan Cunningham (book and lyrics) met at the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Their thesis musical, "I Love You Because", went on to be professionally produced Off-Broadway, earned a Drama Desk nomination for the team, spawned a cast album on PS Classics, and garnered a licensing deal with Theatrical Rights Worldwide, resulting in productions both nationally and internationally. They continue their collaboration with many projects; "Queen Esther", a family musical comedy based on the story of Purim, commissioned by the Kauffman Center; "Next Thing You Know", a song cycle currently in development with director John Simpkins; and as contributing songwriters on the Disney Channel's "Johnny and the Sprites." Their song "Just Not Now" from "I Love You Because" was featured on Lauren Kennedy's new solo album "Here and Now". Ryan and Joshua are both members of the BMI Advanced Writing Workshop, ASCAP and the Dramatist Guild.

Creative Team:

Director: Jason Bruffy
Musical Director: Michael Flohr
Lighting/Set Designer: Andrew Hungerford
Sound Designer/Engineer: Doug Borntrager
Stage Manager: Marcie Schellenberger
Assistant Stage Manager: Rachel Collins

Cast:
Austin- Fang Du
Jeff- Daniel Hines
Marcy- Courtney Brown
Diana- Jenny Guy
Man- Babs Ipaye
Woman- Ayla Ocasio

Graduation Day

On December 19, 49 graduates of the Cincinnati Police Academy threw their hats into the air and you could see the relief on their faces, as well as their pride. They had just completed 26 grueling weeks at one of the most rigorous police academies in the country, and this time, every single person who started the program finished, which is unusual.

At the academy, they learned about law, self-defense, cultural differences, mental health issues, marksmanship and probably completed thousands of pushups apiece. They ran several thousand miles. Two of the class members lost over 50 pounds apiece (one of those two lost 83 pounds!). The class valedictorian had a degree in Biology (with a minor in Chemistry) and a large number had bachelor’s degrees in Criminal Justice or Criminology. There were many with military service (including Iraq and Afghanistan) and one man had 24 years in the U.S. Army. One was a brand-new US Citizen (from France) with family members service in police organizations in France and the Netherlands. She had only been here ten years, but in the time learned English, got a GED, took college classes and earned her citizenship.

David was dethroned as the oldest-ever CPD rookie. Louis Arnold, 56, the father of a Cincinnati Police officer was in the class. David was 54 when he graduated, 53 when he started the Academy.

Although he no longer has that age-related distinction, he is now a Field Training Officer and he will train some of the new grads as they complete their 6 month probationary period, taking them along with him on patrol for two of the six months.

David started off the ceremonies with a stirring rendition of the National Anthem. I didn’t get the first couple of words, but the rest is on the video above.

A local TV station covered the event and included a video on their website:

When you look at that video, I appear briefly (right after the announcer’s picture disappears) as the blonde in the gray sweater in the front row of the audience (with my back to you). So now you know who I am!

Winter Wonderland

In mid-December we had a delightful weekend in Kentucky at the Pine Mountain State Resort Park. The storm that came up from the south the day before we arrived gave the south side of the mountains a glorious snowfall, while on the north side it was warm enough for David to get in 18 holes of golf.

Gilbert Kaplan and Mahler 2

Friday and Saturday night we (the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus ) performed the Mahler 2nd Symphony with Gilbert Kaplan and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

The concerts went well.

It was a fun experience to work with Mr. Kaplan. He's a little stiff as a conductor, but his obvious passion for the work carried him through. The orchestra was little ragged here and there, but by and large, they did the piece justice.

The Mahler 2 is a wonderful thing, and even a bad performance of it is better than a great performance of many other works -- and this was not a bad performance by any stretch of the imagination. There are places in it that move me to tears every time I hear it.
Being able to sit on the stage and watch it being performed is a rare privilege. And a live performance is infinitely more exciting than any recording.

As a singer, my only problem with the piece is that after waiting for an hour and quarter, getting wrapped up in the splendor of it all, I always wonder if any sound will come out of our mouths when it's time to sing "Auf erstehen." Eventually the sound comes, but those anxious few seconds before it does are terrifying.

I've been lucky enough to perform the piece with several conductors. In my opinion, the best was with Jesus Lopez-Cobos. James Conlon, whose performances are usually more about James Conlon instead of about the music, does a fine job with the Mahler 2 as well.

Kaplan, on the other hand, has a metronome in his head and approaches the music almost scientifically, never taking a chance or varying his approach. The emotional content of the performance does not come from Kaplan -- it comes from the music itself. The music on the page, if played in time and together, can't really be screwed up. Mahler's genius will always come through.

As a conductor, Kaplan is OK. He is a precise conductor. From intense and in-depth research, he knows (or at least believes he knows) what Mahler's intentions were, and conducts accordingly. He set his precise tempos and interpretation, and the music and the musicians did the rest.

Under another conductor, it might have been more polished or more emotional, or more something else, but it was still Mahler's music and Mahler's genius that was the star of the show and you can't go wrong with that.

I feel privileged to have participated in the performance. I find it hard to understand how the mind of one man could generate such an incredible work.

Bravo to Mahler. Bravo to the orchestra. And Bravo to Gilbert Kaplan for loving the music and promoting it all over the world. His intriguing story brings new listeners to this wonderful piece.

Knitting, Mahler 2nd, other miscellany

I finished the vest illustrated here the other night, in slightly different colors. It looks awesome over a white long-sleeved shirt. Can't wait for the weather to cool off so I can wear it.

I also finished another vest , that one a pullover, that's been sitting in the knitting basket waiting for the neckline ribbing for about six years. It's made in a celadon green twisty yarn with narrow vertical cables and knitted-on pockets. I'm very pleased with how it came out, but it's going to have to get really cold before I can wear it, since it's so heavy.

Well, the bank hasn't been sold, so I guess the rumors of an immanent merger / acquisition weren't as accurate as they were cracked up to be. Our stock has gone up about 40% since I bought some last week. I wish I had bought more -- it would have been worth going into debt to buy them, but it's too late now, and it's really too much of a gamble to do that anyway.

With all the other mergers and acquisitions, we're now the ninth largest bank in the country, but we weren't invited to the table in Washington over the weekend. If we had been, that would have sent a message that we're in bad shape, and that we weren't sent the same message. You can't win.

We have the highest tier I capital ratio of any bank in the country, but the market still hasn't figured that out yet.

I had a good day today. It's another "Work at Home Wednesday," my normal pattern these days, but with a twist. The project lead on one of my projects is an all-the-time telecommuter, and we had a meeting today. Instead of going to the office, we met at a cute restaurant halfway between our homes and had a great working lunch. The food was great, and we accomplished our task. It was a beautiful day, but although it looked very fall-like, the temperature was in the 80's.

We (the May Festival Chorus) rehearsed with Gilbert Kaplan last night on the Mahler 2nd. He was impressed with us. He was apparently unaware that some of us have sung the damned thing almost as many times as he's conducted it. Well, not exactly -- but I sang it as far back as 1981, which was two years before he first conducted it.

I was sort of impressed with him, primarily because of his passion for the piece. He had facsimiles made for us of the opening choral parts in Mahler's own hand, a nice gesture, with the names and dates of our performances at the bottom, suitable for framing, I guess. He presented Bob with a facsimile of the entire choral section, with all of Mahler's ink colors, intact -- from black, to blue, to purple at the end (it gets really passionate at the end).

His conducting was easy to follow, much better than that of many of the big shots we've worked with. One of my good friends in the chorus worked with him before, when she sang with the London Symphony Orchestra Chorus. She related how rude the musicians were to him -- taking forever to tune the timpani, delaying the start of the rehearsal in the process, and then ignoring his direction and playing however they damned pleased. Half the chorus refused to sing, and they had to bring in outside singers.

The stories I've heard about that orchestra and its arrogance have always amazed me. The musicians usually step out to the pubs during rehearsal breaks and seem to have little respect for anything or anyone but themselves. The chorus' rehearsal discipline is apparently appalling as well.

Bob gave us a pep talk last night after Kaplan left, telling us how proud he was of us and our rehearsal with Kaplan. "People some to the midwest and always seem surprised that something this good should be here -- as if the midwest was in the backwoods somewhere. New York City does not have a chorus half as good as you are. Your discipline and work ethic and talent always amaze me -- and you should be proud." Then we worked a little on the Brahms Requiem and he let us go an hour early.

There will be no orchestra run through -- just the dress rehearsl tomorrow night, and Kaplan is being good enough to do the choral movement first, so we can leave early. Performances are Friday and Saturday at eight. If you're in the region, please come. It will be worth any trip -- the piece is amazing (like Kaplan, I, too, have a passion for Mahler). Details of the performance can be found at: http://www.cincinnatisymphony.org/Events/Details/oct17-18cso0809.asp

Tomorrow at lunch I need to look for some artwork for David's house for his 60th birthday on Sunday. When Carol moved out she took all of her little pictures of cats and her gawdawful crewel embroidery off the walls, (thank god - her taste was pure kitsch), his house has had bare spots ever since and he needs some decent art to hang there. He bought her furniture, but he's in the process of replacing 99% of it, so it's finally beginning to look as if a man lives there.

I guess that's it. I need to do some laundry.

Celebrate!

Thursday was a busy day of dining out experiences. David was downtown singing for the Rotary luncheon of bigwigs at the Hall of Mirrors at the Netherland Hotel (nice work if you can get it -- he shows up, sings, leaves, and gets paid for a full shift). He blew off lunch there to meet me.

Hall of Mirrors:

We met in my building's lobby: (While it says PNC bank on top, I don't work for them). I work in the annex, the low building at the left)

We headed for Tiffany's to find a present for Alex. Alex turned 23 on Thursday, which doesn't seem possible, but -- there you are. I bought her the Venetian Link Bracelet, which turned out to be the perfect choice -- at night in the right light it sparkles as if it were diamonds.

After Tiffany's we went for a quick lunch of wraps at Roly Poly -- not exactly Tiffany-esque, but much better than a PB&J at my desk.

After lunch, we walked back to my office and he came up to see where I work. He was wearing his dress uniform, and looked very impressive. Of course, he had the gun and the taser and all the rest of the weaponry, too, which I could have done without. Oh, well.

He walked back to his car, and I went back to work. At day's end, I ran home, picked up a couple of things of Alex's and drove to her apartment to pick up Alex and Justin for dinner.

Alex decided that Pekoe's birthday is the same as hers, so she bought the silly cat a birthday present.

A fish.

In a bowl.

Swimming.

The cat is scared of it.

Dinner was costly, but delightful. The place was Nicola's Ristorante, a hip place located in Over the Rhine in an old car barn for the incline cars from streetcar days. It's a pretty special place, with fabulous food and the possibility of spending as much as $400 for a bottle of wine. We didn't do that. We had the three-course tasting menu, with wine.

The waiter brought us water and bread. The bread selection was a work of art. The bowl was about eight inches across, and was filled to at least eight inches above the top of the bowl.

There was enough bread for a table of ten people. There was a huge variety -- probably 20 different things -- and the variety was interesting. There were little one inch pillows with a filling we couldn't identify, cracker-shaped flatbreads with cucumber or tomato or onion slices baked in, slices of cake-like herb breads, crusty rolls, dark bread, light bread, you name it. Inserted into the pile of bread were reed-like breadsticks about 18 inches long. It looked like a flower arrangement. Beautiful. And delicious.

The waiter solemnly intoned that he wouldn't bring the first course until we had finished all the bread. Alex believed him.

After the bread, they started us off with complimentary champagne.

Before the main courses, they brough out a complimentary (not even on the menu) tomato and basil pudding and butternut squash soup with goat cheese. Then it began:

Seared scallop "Spiaggia" with sauteed shiitake mushrooms, Mache salad, Parmigiano Reggiano and brown butter vinaigrette; Wine: Sauvignon Blanc Alto Adige, San Pietro, 2006

Crispy Potato Gnocchi with four cheese fondue, truffle oil and truffle shavings; Wine: Rosso Piceno Vigna Piediprato, 2005 Umbria

Skinless Peking Duck Breast Confit with seared Grade A Foie Gras, pinenuts and raisin sauteed spinach, celery root puree and jus; Wine: Bardolino superiore Santa Lucia, Veneto 2006.

Justin got a little drunk from the four glasses of wine. The wine was good, and he drained his glasses. Alex and I tasted.

I really enjoyed the Rosso Piceno Vigne Piediprato - it was rich and dry and velvety. I thought the Bardolino was way too acidic, but Alex and Justin liked it. It was interesting that we had such different opinions.

For dessert, we shared an order of gelato -- hazlenut, french vanilla and pink grapefruit sorbet. Yummmmmm.

Then, the waited appeared with one more scoop of gelato, this time dutch chocolate, with a candle for the birthday girl.

When we finished, we had been at the table for nearly three hours. My credit card groaned, but I'm sure the waiter was happy with his $45 tip. He and his cohorts were amazing. Each time we were served with a new plate or glass, three servers appeared and every plate and every glass arrived simultaneusly. The choreography was precise.

As we left, Nicola, the chef, appeared from the kitchen to thank us in his beautiful Italian accent. A wonderful experience, all around.

The meal was reminiscent of Alex's 13th birthday, when a friend took us to Cincinnati's legendary Maisonette, now gone, to celebrate her arrival as a teenager. That meal ended up costing my friend over $400, much more than I spent at Nicola's. That night, Alex drank some of the champagne, and ate snails and marveled at the service and the elegance of it all. I think a monster gourmet was created that night, because she's now a foodie.

It was quite a night, and Christmas will be a little less expensive this year as a result -- but it was worth every penny. Both Alex and Justin really appreciated the experience, and the conversation was a delight. It sparkled like Alex's bracelet.

Alex had a great year -- being recruited by Harvard's theater for her internship, the great work she did there, her graduation from college, being recruited by her theatre company (and how they love what she's done for them!), her involvement at both the local and national level of her college's alumni efforts to revive Antioch College. She's flown my nest and is on her own and is being responsible and happy and so grown up. I'm very proud -- did you guess? The evening was an attempt to show her how very proud I am.

Her father phoned her, a day late, to wish her a happy birthday. But he did phone. I don't expect him to spend money on her. He doesn't have any money to spend, and never has (never a penny of child support), but perhaps he could have sent a card, or come to visit or invited her to his house for dinner. In the past twelve months, he came to her graduation, had her sing at his wedding, and hired her to show houses for an afternoon for an auction he was running on a foreclosed housing development in Kentucky. So in twelve months, he's seen her face to face maybe three times. Grrr.

Friday I indulged myself. I bought a new TV. Circuit City sold me the floor model of a 26" Sony for about $100 less than the usual price, with the same warranty, and it's wonderful. I had been resigned to getting cable or satellite, but I don't think I need to now.

I'm a PBS or Netflix person. In the analog world, I had Cincinnati PBS and a very fuzzy Kentucky PBS, plus CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, and a couple of local independents (with a lot of infomercials). Now I have CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, and a couple of local independents PLUS 2 Cincinnati PBS channels, 4 Kentucky PBS channels, and 5 Dayton PBS channels. So from two PBS stations to 11, I'm in heaven. And of course, all the channels are crystal clear. Bye-bye, analog.

Yesterday's class in Yellow Springs was again an inspiring and electric afternoon. I presented my findings on the role of women as expressed in the Qur'an, and told of my plans to contrast that with the teachings of the Haditha and Islamic traditions next week. We read some Old Testament stories in both the Qur'anic and Biblical versions to see the differences, which were subtle, and talked a lot about current Islamic behavior.

One of our class members lived in Bahrain for a couple of years and has some interesting observations. He's taking the class to better understand his experiences there. He knows nothing about the the Qur'an, or the Bible either, for that matter, so he's learning both of the traditions at once and has great questions that inspire fascinating discussions.

I'm so glad I signed up for this class. It's worth driving 150 miles each Saturday to do it.

________________________

My Sister

It's hard for me to think about Connie without tears. It has been just thirty years since she died, but I still miss her terribly. She was my role model, my ideal.

She was 17 when I was born. She graduated from high school a month after my birth, and went off to Alfred University (the school of Ceramic Design) that fall. She was a bit overwhelmed at Alfred, and thought she didn't have the talent needed to compete with the more sophisticated students from NY city (she was wrong).

The summer after her freshman year, she took some courses at Cornell, and transferred to what was then Buffalo State Teachers' College. (The University of Buffalo was private then and had not yet become part of SUNY, and there was a separate state school just for teachers.) She majored in Home Economics.

She put herself through school by working as what we'd now call an au pair, living with dentist's family in Buffalo. She graduated in 1950.

That fall, she started teaching, and just taught home economics for one year. She and Bob married in August of 1951. Bob had started school at Cornell before the war and had finished up his degree in Agricultural Engineering in 1948 once the war was over. I believe he served in the European theater, I think with General Patton's tank corps.

Once they married, they moved into the big house on the farm that Bob had just bought. I remember when they first moved in that the place was a disaster. It had been lived in by some bachelor hired men, and was a real mess.

Milli arrived about 11 months after the wedding, and the boys arrived at regular intervals after that. Connie was pretty busy being a mother and helping to keep the books for the farm and keep Bob and the hired men fed. When Grant, the fifth and youngest, was about three, our mother, who had retired, came to the farm to help out, and Connie went back to teaching, this time teaching art. She didn't have the proper credentials, but she took classes at RIT in Rochester at night and got the certification she needed.


Outside of the farm and the kids and teaching, she was a force to be reckoned with. She sang in the choir at church, and got lots of laughs as a member of a ridiculous vocal group called "The Lee Sisters." They were Ug-lee, Ghast-lee, and Beast-lee. The accompanist was Marian Dud-lee.

I remember the first time I saw them perform. I was home from college and went to a fireman's show at the school, with local talent doing silly things (it was a replacement for the politically incorrect minstrel shows that they had done for many years). I had no idea that they even had a group, much less that they were coming on stage. Out came three women in fright wigs and strange makeup, singing songs about being pregnant and about udder supports for cows. They were hilarious. They sang at events all over the county, much like my high school trio had done -- farm bureau banquets and the like.

Apparently she sang in high school and I think was in her senior play. Of course, I wasn't around, so I only have memories from long ago of things I heard as a child. She played a little piano, although not as much as mom and I did. She played cornet in the high school band, too, I think.

Connie was very active in the county Farm Bureau. She was also instrumental in getting zoning laws for the Town -- they hadn't existed before. She pretty much steamrolled that into happening.

I don't know how she managed it all, trying to raise five kids and being so involved in the community. Somehow, she managed, despite the frustrations of not being able to be perfect at everything. She was not the greatest housekeeper (it runs in the family -- my house is always a disaster, too -- but she had five kids; I have no excuse). She would, like me, start projects that somehow didn't always get finished, and there were always too many books around (same here).

She also had the family photography and gadget bug -- with good cameras being proud possessions. I think that, had she lived, she would have been as crazy about computer technology and the assorted related gadgets as I am. We both inherited that from our father's side of the family -- the more gadgets the better.

She was a great cook (so was our mother). She also had some health-food obsessions. I used to hate eating breakfast at her house, because I was forced to drink mass quantities of brewer's yeast in a tall glass of orange juice. I still gag at the memory of how awful it was.

I think that she decided (like me) that an interesting life, raising your children well, improving your mind, pursuing your bliss and surrounding yourself with worthwhile people were more important that a clean house and a tidy life.

Before she died, she said something that I've tried to keep as my mantra. "This isn't fair. But nobody said life was fair. As I look back on my life, I can say that I loved every single minute of it." I want to be able to say that when my time comes.

She lived life to the fullest. She was a fascinating woman with an excellent mind, many talents and unlimited energies. She produced five fabulous children from the happiest marriage I've ever seen. I am proud to be her sister.