Musical Wanderer

As a kid, I loved the Winter Olympics and watched every minute I could.  My interest flagged as an adult and I didn't watch them for a long time.  In addition, I didn't even have a TV for a while and every time I was in a bar with a TV on during the Winter Olympics, the events seemed to be either figure skating or curling.  I liked watching ski events, both alpine and cross-country, but they tended to be shown at 2 a.m., so I didn't bother watching.  Until this year. I started watching this Olympiad during the second week, when, while idly passing a Saturday afternoon, I flicked on the TV and saw the Women's 15k Biathlon.  I love Biathlon.  The combination of skiing and shooting reminds me of Finnish ski troops whooping Russia's ass during the initial stage of Russia's invasion of Finland in 1939 and 1940.  I didn't even know they had women's biathlon events now (Title IX reaches across borders).  The event was won by Darya Domracheva from Belar...

Every December holiday season, people journey home to be with family.  Though it feels like a duty at first, it can be a pleasure to spend time with relatives.  The only problem with the family assemblies is the crazy relative (every family has at least one) with views so different from the rest of the family that conversation is either stopped dead by their comments or turns into a brawl.  Many a meal has been consumed in grim silence after a wild comment from Uncle Walter or Aunt Mary.  Whether the comments were about religion, politics, or a combination of the two, families suffered through the holiday in the past, knowing they only had to endure the strange views for a day or two, then hug everyone goodbye and return to normal life. That has changed with the growth of Facebook.  Everyone wants to connect with friends and family online, but there's a catch.  Those crazy relatives you patiently endured for one day per year before tend to post their craz...

Yippee!  Woohoo!  Yea! 
Um, anniversary of what? 
Well, it's not a big anniversary.  It's not my marriage anniversary.  Not even a friend of a friend's work anniversary that linked-in keeps notifying me of.  It's been one year since I started this blog with comments about Beyonce lip syncing at the Inauguration .  'Wrote a fair bit since then.  Some was even read.  According to the statistics kept by blogger, these are my most viewed posts: MPC Miniature Military Vehicles: 1960s toys - about miniature plastic toy tanks from my  childhood Sharing my name - about the guitar player from RATT and his sharing or taking over my name for all eternity A year ago, I buried my parents - on the anniversary of my parents' death Important Baseball Statistics - End of Regular Season - about the money and team performance in the MLB Come on in the Cathedral--if you have $10 - thoughts on the Cathedral charging an entrance fee ...

I have a strange idea for casing West Side Story to make it current, though it would make the show very uncomfortable for viewers.  Today it doesn't cause much strife, as it is very familiar between the popularity of the movie version and frequent school and community productions.  When it premiered 55 years ago, it was a very controversial topic, as the US had not started to confront its racist tendencies. The original story featured conflicts between Irish Catholics and Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe and their expression via gang struggles in the city.  During the formative stages, the creators seized the popularity of Latin American music and changed the heritage of the immigrants from Jewish to Puerto Rican.  Jewish Americans were more assimilated in the population after the Second World War than recent immigrants from Puerto Rico, so the conflict was more raw. The problem is creating the conflict between the Jets and the Sharks.  There aren't ma...

Since the early 80s I've been reading and rereading the Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin. Left on the formica topped dining room table in our group house that one housemate grew up with back in PA--we joked that she was born and, when we were very drunk, even conceived on the very table--I picked the first book and found it a page turner, as it was written as a serial in a newspaper. Lots of drugs, sex, witty characters. We devoured the books because they were fun and, living in a group house in DC, reminded us of our paths in some ways.  People in DC are always from somewhere else (well, except for me, a native). They come for careers often, but sometimes just to get away from the provincial mores and intellects of their hometowns. Reading stories of the occupants of 28 Barbary Lane reminded us of our own departures from home and finding new friends in a new city. Over the years I read and reread them, particularly the first one. Ten years after...

We went to a concert as part of the Serenade festival put on by a music ensemble tour promotor that had  a mix of choral groups, including two children's choirs, an a capella quartet, a Polish mixed voices choir.  The stand out revelatory sound was that of  Latvian Voices .  The seven women had well trained voices that joined fluidly, especially in the acoustic of the Church of the Epiphany downtown near Metro Center.  The  Post review  was similarly impressed by the Voices, though a little smarmy about the a capella quartet. Most of their repertoire was in Latvian, arranged by a member of the group.  The demonstrated great affinity for the music, letting the solo lines soar of the lush chords of the ensemble.  They reminded me a little of the Bulgarian Women's Choirs that were popular 20 years ago, but this group's sound was more polished and clean. They did an arrangement of the Elizabethan madrigal All Creatures Now are Merry Minded by...

Thoughts on 42 Came home last night after seeing 42, the movie about Jackie Robinson, and all I could think about was the movie Lincoln.  Both movies were about extroadinary people who made the US better. Lincoln whose pragmatic nature shifted to powerful idealism made the rule of the land equal for all.  Robinson, who broke the code that kept inequality alive.  Both true heroes for all time. Both lived in wretched times.  The US was not living up to the powerful ideas that brought the nation into being.  After both did what they did, we became a more perfect union.  And this made this typically cynical pessimist see a better nation ahead. When I was born, most white women could only find work as teachers, nurses, or secretaries.  Opportunities for black men and women were even less than those for white women.  I remember hearing white men addressing grown black men as "boy." A non-heterosexual  person had to hide who he or she was from...