Memorial Day and the End of the World

Not really.

(Not the end of the world, I mean.)

For the marching band, Memorial Day means a parade. It's one of those days when everything feels like the essence of a small town- people lining the streets, a slow, amiable feel to the atmosphere. We headed out this morning, slightly disorganized but in good spirits. It's only been a year for me, but it's the last time I'll march with everyone. Sad, but true. You people are awesome.

The (academic) year is winding down. Actually, it's probably already ended for most people, but we're still plugging along. We're down to four more days of classes. I'm graduating with honors. There's a good school waiting in the fall. Things are looking pretty decent. I'm still swamped with work and deadlines and obligations and other stressful things like that, but all in all, not bad. 

It is also, by the way, Towel Day. (For those who have no idea what that means, kindly read Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.) 

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

And remember. When in doubt, don't panic. 

Skywatch No. 17

Tulips in the sky.

It's been a very overly warm two days here (which does not make me feel better about being in Taiwan this June), but everything's looking nice now. I have a week left of classes, then I'm out. It's good.

Anyhow, I went out earlier this week and noticed that these bright fuschia tulips had bloomed out front. I'd always wanted to take pictures of flowers from beneath, and I finally found some whose stems were long enough for it to be easily done. The number of good/passable photos from this shoot was surprisingly high. If I upload them somewhere else, I'll post the link.

Confessions

Dear Neighbour,

I haven't any idea who you are, except that you live somewhere in my neighbourhood and you deem it necessary to cut through our property all the time. This is not only slightly rude, but kind of unnerving. If you don't want to ask, fine. But you should at least say hi.

Dear Friend,

Sometimes I wonder how friends can be so embarassing. Don't get me wrong, we've been good friends and it's going to stay that way. But if you weren't so oblivious, defensive, selfish, self-righteous, and self-centered, people might like you better. Also, a little tact goes a long way. Kindly take that to mind. I'd like to tell you to not take it too personally, but maybe you should.

Dear Strange Spiky Plants on My Lawn,

You are highly disturbing. You're all "hey, look at me, I'm fuzzy," and then surprise! Barbed thorny leaves everywhere. I understand that grass is a minority in our lawn anyways, but you should not be here. That is all.

Skywatch No. 16

We drove through Ontario on our way to New York last month, and stopped at Niagara Falls. This is the second time I've been there at night- their nighttime display is quite exciting, but a little over-dramatic. Personally, I still think it's more impressive by day.

Strobe lights illuminating the mist over the falls: 

The photo is actually from my previous visit a couple of years ago- this year's was a cold, wet, and rather miserable fifteen-minute excursion. But hey.

Spring at Last

Finally, two months late, comes spring in Michigan.

(This is a very rare occurance, as we usually have winter, winter, a period of hot weather, and winter.)

The temperatures are warming up (though we're to be hit with a cold front again tomorrow) and things are blooming. A robin has commenced its ceaseless flying into our rather very filthy and visible windows. Neighbours' cats have been let out and are irritatingly roaming here and there. The sky is at last starting to lighten at 6 am and the sun in the sky by 7. It's about time, I say.

More From NYC

Hey. We're in the paper. I approve.

So... the morning before our Carnegie performance:

We hit all the typical tourist magnets- Times Square, Central Park, Ellis and Staten Islands. I think my shutter-button finger was very pleased.

On Etsy Today

Thank-you to Rockology3 for featuring me in her Etsy treasury today:

In the Shop...

Designed a new header/banner, one that matches the blog's. It's much nicer looking, though.

I also have a couple of new prints from NY up. Check them out!

New York, New York

This past weekend, we sang at Carnegie Hall. (Remember the last entry? If you haven't read it, go on. I've explained the details there.)

The performance as a whole- the entire trip really- was a little surreal. How many people are fortunate enough to count this among one of their life experiences? To, though part of a large group, stand on one of the world's greatest stages?

Not everything progressed smoothly, however. During the performance, an audience member's phone went off. Not once, not twice, but at least five or six times. As we were singing onstage. Now that's blatantly disrespect of the highest degree. I have reason to believe a number of us were ready to bash heads.

As if that weren't enough, we:

-had two members of the chorus end up

in the hospital on the departure days (there and back)

-were delayed as a result, and did not make it to the CBS studio where we were scheduled to sing, nor could we make another performance stop days later

-were held at the US-Canada border for nearly an hour

-experienced multiple mechanical problems with the charter bus we were riding

It all made for a very interesting experience. Quite decidedly, I would acknowledge it to be one of the most valuable of my life, well worth all the time, expense, and energy.

Check out another (and rather better) take on this whole deal by a fellow blogger.

Look out for more NYC photos next week! All the over-publicized tourist-magnet locations, yes, but I returned with a good number of shots with which I was very pleased.

Amelie Soundtrack

Courtesy of friend Ian, here is a streaming playlist of the hauntingly beautiful Amelie soundtrack. Enjoy.

We're Goin' Places

Last spring, we, as in our choir, participated in our usual festivals. We, for lack of a better term, owned. The reprotoire that year consisted of the some of the most beautiful choral music I have ever had the fortune to perform. If you have never heard Sergei Rachmaninoff's Bogoroditse Devo, look it up. It is much more impressive in person, certainly. Not to sound smug or anything, but I have felt that our performance, our interpretation, sounds far... well, superior to many others'. Never have we felt such deep emotional connection to our music. When we sang this piece in particular, some of the audience became moved to tears. We were moved to tears.

So in May we took a road trip down to the Heritage festival in Cleveland, which hosted not only choral but instrumental groups. And there we did more than well. There were not many other ensembles present at the time we were there, but we received the highest score. One of the judges, in fact, specified that he had never or only once given a higher score in his (approximately) fifty-year career. As a result, we have earned a spot in another gathering to be held this spring, when the nation's best high-school choirs convene under the direction of one Dr. Eph Ehly.

In Carnegie Hall.

There are no words to express how honored we all are. Most would have been awed to sit audience in that famed hall. We are to take part in a performance. Many who dream of getting to Carnegie deserve it, yet never reach the stage. We are no world-class symphony, no legendary musicians, but we are going to be there. We are going to stand on that stage, and we are going to sing.