Musical Wanderer

I never cried reading a newspaper.  Until today. Last night we screamed when Howie Kendrik's home run clanged off the foul pole (I wonder how many people in DC will use that sound as their phone's ring tone.).  Robin and I kissed and hugged the cats and each other at the last out.  We fell asleep in bed saying "The Nats won the World Series." to each other in the dark as the cats made themselves comfortable on the bed. This morning I put on a Nationals cap and went out to buy a Washington Post and have a cup of coffee at Hype Cafe, the home of the best cup of coffee on Capitol Hill, perhaps in all of Washington, DC.  The woman serving the coffee and I smiled and laughed about the headline on the newspaper.  Then I sat down and started to read Thomas Boswell's column and other articles about the game. And I started to cry. I had watched all the games, so it wasn't as if anything in any of the articles was news to me.  Sure it's fun to relive the ...

This weekend we went to the 2019 US Gaelic Athletic Association Finals out in Leesburg, Virginia.  After traveling in Ireland last summer, Robin and our friends Kay and Florence were curious about the Gaelic sports after meeting someone in Belfast who actually came to Maryland to play Gaelic sports.  We found info for the championships held here last weekend and we drove out on Sunday, inviting a friend of mine from college who lived in Leesburg to join us.  We had no idea what to expect, though we were heartened to see Guinness would be served. WOW.  Hurling is my new favorite sport.  Gaelic football was fun too, but the hurling was really exciting and compelling, especially as we learned more about it. Starting the ball (called a sliotar) is a bit of a scramble as in hockey.  In hurling there are sticks (called a hurl or hurley) but no protection other than helmets unlike hockey (helmets have only been required in hurling since 2010).   Fol...

You see them everyday.  Waiting for an Uber, at the center of a crowd in bars and restaurants, at the market.  They are different. They are DC's perfect people.  Well pedigreed, charming, successful, they are a breed apart.  They are truly America's aristocracy, the people who the MAGA folks resent, the folks who can't help but win. But who are they really?  A little bit of research found the following data on the folks who are now everywhere in town, even your favorite breakfast place, hardware store, or Mexican restaurant. 1. When they were conceived, their dad used only one sperm, he was that confident. 2.  They were born preloaded with 1000 friends on facebook, perfect SAT scores, and genes for phenomenal future tits and penises. 3.  As infants and toddlers, they never cried, never puked, always slept soundly.  Managed their portfolios well too. 4.  Steve Jobs sent them their first Mac laptops. 5.  Entry into preschool...

Handel's Messiah .  Both disdained for its popularity and loved for its beauty by musicians, it is a rite of passage for singers.  I've had a fun and lucky history with it, going back nearly 40 years.  My first meeting with it was singing "And the Glory of the Lord" at Christmas Vespers at Lafayette College in Colton Chapel in 1980.  Another bass, Juan Jarrett, and I danced away in the back row as we sang, drawing joking ridicule from friends in the audience.  My next meeting with Messiah was on a larger scale, four years later at Washington National Cathedral, with 300 singers (the Maryland Chorus and the Cathedral Choral Society), 100 baroque instrumentalists (the Smithsonian Concerto Grosso), soloists from Germany, England, Norway, and Finland, all under the direction of the former conductor of the National Symphony, Antal Dorati.  The performances were a bicentennial recreation of a 1785 performance at Westminster Abbey to commemorate the 100th annive...