Today was the first day of the first weekend of the 20th anniversary season of the South Florida Renaissance Festival. The weather obviously had been drizzly and rainy earlier in the morning, but when I looked outside about 8:00 this morning it hadn't been raining for a while and although it was still grey & cloudy it didn't look like it was going to rain, so because I'm working tomorrow I needed to go today if I wanted to go at all, I took the chance and left right after doing my daily 45 minute/2 mile walk for exercise. (No rain the rest of the day, and the sun actually broke through the clouds about 3ish, so I took my sweatshirt off until I needed to put it on again around 4:30-4:45.)
I actually wound up with a parking spot that was probably the easiest to find afterwards I've ever had at any event.
The faire fare for adults is $20 each day, but the season ticket--which allows you to go as many times as you want--is $50. Since I plan on going at least one day each weekend the faire is on, even taking Mom along when she's here, I went for the season pass.
Let me make one thing clear at the start--I primarily go for the music. Although I do enjoy things like acrobatics such as Jayna Lee
(she's also rather cute and has a great sense of humor), juggling and comedy such as Moonie, Broon, and Moonie & Broon together, and comedy shows like the Washing Well Wenches and the Mud Show, and musical comedy like Iris & Rose, I'm really there for the music. On weekends when I'll go both days, I'll focus on music the first day, and then try to take in a couple of the other shows the next day.
This season looks like it's going to be great for the music. There are a couple of acts I've seen before in the past, like Celtic Mayhem, and the Harper & the Minstrel, whom I like quite a bit. A couple of the local Irish dancing schools are making appearances, as are some gypsy belly dancers, and I'll try to catch them a couple of times as well. One of the traveling carillons of Cast in Bronze is there again this year, and I really like that as well. In a couple of weeks the feature guest band will be Fushu Daiko, S Florida's resident taiko band, of whom I'm a big fan.
What I'm really excited about is that I haven't actually seen three of the bands there throughout the show, and this weekend's guest/featured band, live at all but only on the Ren faire podcasts I listen to, and I've liked what I've heard of the music from each of those acts.
This is Celtic weekend, a bit early to my way of thinking (oh well--the faire ends the weekend before St Patrick's day, and that's Battle weekend).
This weekend's guest band is Albannach, who play Scottish tribal drumming with a bagpiper. I caught all four of their shows, and they were fantastic, although since they didn't introduce any of their songs you could sometimes wonder if you'd heard that one before.
I also caught some of an act from two of the other bands I've never seen before. I saw the Iron Hill Vagabonds, two brothers who perform Irish music, and liked them quite a bit. I also saw Wolgemut, who play Renaissance and earlier music from Germany, Flanders, and France. They're probably one of the more serious musical acts there this year, and they're also very good, but I have to admit that one of the best parts of hearing their music on the Ren faire podcasts is listening to the hosts try and pronounce the names of their songs.
There were a lot of very lovely women wandering around the faire, many of them in costume which made them even lovelier--I have to admit I love a gorgeous woman in a pirate costume. Belly dancers are also a popular outfit, and many of the women wearing those could actually dance as well.
Here's the kind of mashup that takes place which makes me really love the faire. Each time when Albannach were playing--the ones with the Scottish tribal drumming and the bagpiper--there were belly dancers in the audience, and they were often over on the side dancing. At one time, not only did we have the belly dancers off to one side of the area, but on the other side we had a gypsy lass, an adorable little girl in a lady bug costume, and a red-haired fairy dressed in red dancing together, with the gypsy's guy just kind of stepping along by himself. And when I saw Wolgemut, which consists of two drummers, a guy playing the dudelsack (German bagpipe), and another guy playing a double-reed instrument that kind of sounds like the chanter on bagpipes, there was a bellydancer in the audience--the guys were able to convince her to dance while they played for her. And here's the thing--because the music that Albannach and Wolgemut play are so heavy on rhythm, their music and the belly dancers actually worked very well together.
At the end of the day, I did something I've never before--I hung around for the Pub Sing. This is when most of the musicians from the different acts get together, and take turns leading and soloing, and play lots of music to sing along with. It was fantastic, in some ways the best part of the day. I have to admit that during the last song, "The parting glass", I did get a bit teary eyed, remembering people I once knew and loved and lost or just don't see anymore, and people like my family I don't see much of anymore either.
It was a wonderful day. It'll make getting through tomorrow and the rest of the work week, which really isn't all that difficult anyway, all the easier. Since I work tomorrow, I'm off three days next weekend. That means that if the weather's good I can run errands Friday and go back to the faire both Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Friday, December 30, 2011
Walking
Day 365. I used the abs exerciser early this morning, and since it’s a lovely day I left early enough to do the RiverWalk before work this morning. Today’s soundtrack, the latest episode of the Celt in a Twist podcast, their 2011 top 12 (1 for each month, of course).
I have now gone for a walk, outdoors or inside on a treadmill, for at least half an hour (usually 45 minutes) every day for a whole year now.
Towards the end of 2000, I was seeing a bit of chatter on FaceBook about something called the 100 Days Challenge—get at least half an hour of exercise every day for 100 days in a row. I hadn’t been doing too well at getting some exercise for as little as two or three days weekly but a year ago I thought I’d see if I could make myself do some walking every day for 100 days, which at the time seemed like a hell of a long time, but I did it, and continued to do so.
Walking regularly became a lot easier once Mom helped me move to somewhere that is large enough to have a treadmill of my own right at home (thanks, Mom!). Although the place where I lived previously until I moved this Spring was conveniently located for walking, in the sense that there are fairly major N-S roads .25 miles on either side of my duplex and a major E-W road a half mile and a mile away, there are large sections where there are no sidewalks at all. That meant I usually had to go over to the gym and use the treadmill there, or stop at the park with the nice 2-mile path I regularly drove past, or do the RiverWalk downtown, but I still managed to get a walk in every day once I started.
Having my own treadmill at home really has helped. I really enjoy going for walks outside, either in my new neighborhood, along the RiverWalk, or down in the park near where I used to live but I have to admit that some mornings I just can’t get motivated to shave and shower and leave early enough to drive somewhere else to walk and still make it to work on time. For instance, I left home before 8 this morning to be able to do the RiverWalk. I can start using the abs exerciser at 8, be on the treadmill by 8:15, use it for 45 minutes, shave and take a shower, and still have time to make it into work by 10. Then there are the days where I just haven’t been able to get myself motivated to just use the treadmill in the morning, but even then I’ve still used the treadmill later that day, in the afternoon or later. (This doesn’t count the weekend days when I use the abs exerciser in the morning, and plan on doing my walking in the afternoon. I’m talking about days like the one where I pretty much had a sinus headache all day until after dinner, which is when I used the treadmill, days like that.) Or the days where the South Florida weather isn’t conducive to walking outside (high heat/humidity, heavy rain, lightning, etc.).
I don’t know if I feel better since I started walking/exercising regularly, but then again I wouldn’t have said I felt bad when I wasn’t exercising at all. I don’t think it’s affected my allergic sensitivity to dust, which is my major noticeable health problem (other than there being more of me than there should be, of course), but Mom thinks the walking/exercise has to have improved my resistance. Although I have lost quite of weight over the last year and a half, most of it was before I started walking and I still have quite a bit more to lose. I do know that I probably wouldn’t have been as able to do as much walking around as I did in Glasgow and Edinburgh when I was there this summer if I hadn’t been doing my daily walking.
My goals for the next 35 days/year? Keep up the walking, outside whenever possible, maybe do a full 60 minutes on weekends/days I don’t work/Tuesdays & Wednesdays when I work 12-8 PM (unless accident or injury prevents me prevents me for walking or even limping on the treadmill and if that happens, I’ll just start again from day 1 and see how far I get that time—I’m not going to allow not feeling well to keep me from dragging myself on to the treadmill for at least the minimum half an hour). Use the abs exerciser every day I’m home, eventually moving on to the longer, more involved intermediate work out. Eat at home more often and do a good job with portion control, and concentrate on having lower-calorie snacks like fruits and low fat yogurt.
Happy New Year’s, everyone!
Stephen
I have now gone for a walk, outdoors or inside on a treadmill, for at least half an hour (usually 45 minutes) every day for a whole year now.
Towards the end of 2000, I was seeing a bit of chatter on FaceBook about something called the 100 Days Challenge—get at least half an hour of exercise every day for 100 days in a row. I hadn’t been doing too well at getting some exercise for as little as two or three days weekly but a year ago I thought I’d see if I could make myself do some walking every day for 100 days, which at the time seemed like a hell of a long time, but I did it, and continued to do so.
Walking regularly became a lot easier once Mom helped me move to somewhere that is large enough to have a treadmill of my own right at home (thanks, Mom!). Although the place where I lived previously until I moved this Spring was conveniently located for walking, in the sense that there are fairly major N-S roads .25 miles on either side of my duplex and a major E-W road a half mile and a mile away, there are large sections where there are no sidewalks at all. That meant I usually had to go over to the gym and use the treadmill there, or stop at the park with the nice 2-mile path I regularly drove past, or do the RiverWalk downtown, but I still managed to get a walk in every day once I started.
Having my own treadmill at home really has helped. I really enjoy going for walks outside, either in my new neighborhood, along the RiverWalk, or down in the park near where I used to live but I have to admit that some mornings I just can’t get motivated to shave and shower and leave early enough to drive somewhere else to walk and still make it to work on time. For instance, I left home before 8 this morning to be able to do the RiverWalk. I can start using the abs exerciser at 8, be on the treadmill by 8:15, use it for 45 minutes, shave and take a shower, and still have time to make it into work by 10. Then there are the days where I just haven’t been able to get myself motivated to just use the treadmill in the morning, but even then I’ve still used the treadmill later that day, in the afternoon or later. (This doesn’t count the weekend days when I use the abs exerciser in the morning, and plan on doing my walking in the afternoon. I’m talking about days like the one where I pretty much had a sinus headache all day until after dinner, which is when I used the treadmill, days like that.) Or the days where the South Florida weather isn’t conducive to walking outside (high heat/humidity, heavy rain, lightning, etc.).
I don’t know if I feel better since I started walking/exercising regularly, but then again I wouldn’t have said I felt bad when I wasn’t exercising at all. I don’t think it’s affected my allergic sensitivity to dust, which is my major noticeable health problem (other than there being more of me than there should be, of course), but Mom thinks the walking/exercise has to have improved my resistance. Although I have lost quite of weight over the last year and a half, most of it was before I started walking and I still have quite a bit more to lose. I do know that I probably wouldn’t have been as able to do as much walking around as I did in Glasgow and Edinburgh when I was there this summer if I hadn’t been doing my daily walking.
My goals for the next 35 days/year? Keep up the walking, outside whenever possible, maybe do a full 60 minutes on weekends/days I don’t work/Tuesdays & Wednesdays when I work 12-8 PM (unless accident or injury prevents me prevents me for walking or even limping on the treadmill and if that happens, I’ll just start again from day 1 and see how far I get that time—I’m not going to allow not feeling well to keep me from dragging myself on to the treadmill for at least the minimum half an hour). Use the abs exerciser every day I’m home, eventually moving on to the longer, more involved intermediate work out. Eat at home more often and do a good job with portion control, and concentrate on having lower-calorie snacks like fruits and low fat yogurt.
Happy New Year’s, everyone!
Stephen
Sunday, January 31, 2010
It's all in the name
Although when I was young my family called me (my Mom still does) and I answered to Steve ever since I turned 21 I've introduced myself as Stephen. For the last 32 years, then, the only people who call me Steve instead of Stephen have been Mom, some family and family friends who have known me since before I turned 21, and a certain number of people who are clueless and never seem to notice that I never introduce myself as Steve and always answer the phone or identify myself as Stephen. I've worked with some people for about 8 years now who are in that clueless category.
This never really was too much of a problem at work, because I was able to wear a nametag that said Stephen and not Steve. A while back, however, my employer decided that we needed to wear our official employee ID as a nametag--and my employer takes your official name from your Social Security card. Since I got my card when I was 15 or 16, it of course says Steve.
So this past Friday I finally went in to my local (not in the sense of nearby but only in the sense of being the nearest of the few that are in this part of the county where I live) SS office. I waited there for about an hour and a half for business that took less than 5 minutes. When I get my new card in the mail, it will have my name as Stephen, as does my birth certificate, passport, and driver's license. I can then go in to the payroll office at work and have them make the change, and then get a new employee ID that says Stephen.
The funny thing about the whole process? The guy at the Social Security office said I've always been in their database as Stephen; back when I got my card, the local office had the option of typing your nickname on the pre-numbered card they issued you.
I will answer to any full version of my name. Stephen (pronounced Steefen or Steeven) is the usual Engilsh, Irish or American version of the name. If you're feeling Greek, you may call be by the original version of the name, Stephanos which is Greek for crown. If you're feeling Slavic or Balkan I'll answer to Stefan. If you're feeling French, I'll answer to Etienne, or to Esteban if you're feeling Spanish or Latin American. But please, don't call me Steve (although I'll probably answer you anyway).
SMC
This never really was too much of a problem at work, because I was able to wear a nametag that said Stephen and not Steve. A while back, however, my employer decided that we needed to wear our official employee ID as a nametag--and my employer takes your official name from your Social Security card. Since I got my card when I was 15 or 16, it of course says Steve.
So this past Friday I finally went in to my local (not in the sense of nearby but only in the sense of being the nearest of the few that are in this part of the county where I live) SS office. I waited there for about an hour and a half for business that took less than 5 minutes. When I get my new card in the mail, it will have my name as Stephen, as does my birth certificate, passport, and driver's license. I can then go in to the payroll office at work and have them make the change, and then get a new employee ID that says Stephen.
The funny thing about the whole process? The guy at the Social Security office said I've always been in their database as Stephen; back when I got my card, the local office had the option of typing your nickname on the pre-numbered card they issued you.
I will answer to any full version of my name. Stephen (pronounced Steefen or Steeven) is the usual Engilsh, Irish or American version of the name. If you're feeling Greek, you may call be by the original version of the name, Stephanos which is Greek for crown. If you're feeling Slavic or Balkan I'll answer to Stefan. If you're feeling French, I'll answer to Etienne, or to Esteban if you're feeling Spanish or Latin American. But please, don't call me Steve (although I'll probably answer you anyway).
SMC
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Bon
This evening was the annual Bon celebration at the Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens, which are about 45 minutes North of where I live, up in Delray Beach in Palm Beach County.
Bon at Morikami
For those of you who don't know, Bon is the traditional Japanese summer celebration to honor and remember the ancestors and those who have gone before us. Even if you don't personally believe that the dead somehow actually come back to visit us--which is the traditional basis for Bon in Japan--or even if you've been lucky so far not to have lost any friends, classmates, family, coworkers or even just casual acquaintances to death, I think it's a nice idea to somehow remember and celebrate those who have been lost from your life, even if they're just people you've lost track of over time. They don't have to be family or friends, either--just someone who made even the slightest positive impact or memories in your life who is no longer in your life for whatever reason. (Besides the family members my family have lost, I remembered some classmates from high school and college who haven't been part of my life for decades but whom I still remember with great fondness.)
I have to admit, though, my primary reason for going to Bon is that the Fusho Daiko taiko group was performing. I love Fusho Daiko, although I hadn't heard them for a while (the last time was over a year ago, I think). I haven't heard that many taiko groups since I moved here to S Florida 8 years ago, but before that I heard several at events in Portland and Seattle (each of which had at least one taiko group) and several times throughout the years at the NW Folklife Festival in Seattle over Memorial Day weekends. Fusho Daiko is one of the best I've ever seen/heard.
The routines FD perform are excellent for several reasons. They are just some very good pieces of music (I know that a lot of people will say that taiko is boring musically because it's all drums and percussion; each drum, however, is capable of being played to produce several different tones of different pitches and timbres; tones in different pitches and timbres combined in different arrangements make melodies). ("It has a great beat and you can dance to it.") They also use a whole bunch of different physical arrangements of drums of different sizes including the really big ones (I was once told that the largest drums were once used to actually delineate the size of villages--you were still in the bounds of the village if you could still hear the big drum). And all of the performances and performers are quite dramatic, with huge arm movements--they really put their whole bodies into their playing.
FD also used several different lineups, including their basic students, their advanced students, and the advanced performers. I like that, too.
I will also admit that all the performers are in very good physical shape, and that most of the guys seem to be handsome and good looking--if you're into handsome, good looking guys. Me, I thought all the ladies in all the FD lineups this evening were all very attractive--every one of them. And those ladies can DRUM as well and hard as the guys, including on the biggest of the drums, and still look attractive and sexy, too.
Next Friday is "Sushi & stroll" at the Morikami, with performances by S Florida's other taiko group, "Ronin Taiko", which includes some members of FD as well. I'll be there.....
Bon at Morikami
For those of you who don't know, Bon is the traditional Japanese summer celebration to honor and remember the ancestors and those who have gone before us. Even if you don't personally believe that the dead somehow actually come back to visit us--which is the traditional basis for Bon in Japan--or even if you've been lucky so far not to have lost any friends, classmates, family, coworkers or even just casual acquaintances to death, I think it's a nice idea to somehow remember and celebrate those who have been lost from your life, even if they're just people you've lost track of over time. They don't have to be family or friends, either--just someone who made even the slightest positive impact or memories in your life who is no longer in your life for whatever reason. (Besides the family members my family have lost, I remembered some classmates from high school and college who haven't been part of my life for decades but whom I still remember with great fondness.)
I have to admit, though, my primary reason for going to Bon is that the Fusho Daiko taiko group was performing. I love Fusho Daiko, although I hadn't heard them for a while (the last time was over a year ago, I think). I haven't heard that many taiko groups since I moved here to S Florida 8 years ago, but before that I heard several at events in Portland and Seattle (each of which had at least one taiko group) and several times throughout the years at the NW Folklife Festival in Seattle over Memorial Day weekends. Fusho Daiko is one of the best I've ever seen/heard.
The routines FD perform are excellent for several reasons. They are just some very good pieces of music (I know that a lot of people will say that taiko is boring musically because it's all drums and percussion; each drum, however, is capable of being played to produce several different tones of different pitches and timbres; tones in different pitches and timbres combined in different arrangements make melodies). ("It has a great beat and you can dance to it.") They also use a whole bunch of different physical arrangements of drums of different sizes including the really big ones (I was once told that the largest drums were once used to actually delineate the size of villages--you were still in the bounds of the village if you could still hear the big drum). And all of the performances and performers are quite dramatic, with huge arm movements--they really put their whole bodies into their playing.
FD also used several different lineups, including their basic students, their advanced students, and the advanced performers. I like that, too.
I will also admit that all the performers are in very good physical shape, and that most of the guys seem to be handsome and good looking--if you're into handsome, good looking guys. Me, I thought all the ladies in all the FD lineups this evening were all very attractive--every one of them. And those ladies can DRUM as well and hard as the guys, including on the biggest of the drums, and still look attractive and sexy, too.
Next Friday is "Sushi & stroll" at the Morikami, with performances by S Florida's other taiko group, "Ronin Taiko", which includes some members of FD as well. I'll be there.....
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Portland Highland Games
Yesterday was the 57th annual Scottish Highland Games here in beautiful, sunny Portland, Oregon.
My own connections with the Games don't go quite that far back. My family moved here in 1972, when I was a sophomore in high school. I can't say I went to every PHG until I moved to S Florida in 2001, but I think I went to about 75% of them over the years.
I usually go alone, but until my Dad became very ill he went with me a couple of times. Yesterday I wore his Irish-style walking cap, which Mom gave me after his death.
I've been to highland games here in Portland, of course, but also the ones in S Florida, Central Oregon, and the Seattle area and Portland's is always the best. Part of the reason is the physical setup. At the other three games I've been to, they all take place in a flat field, with the bagpipe competitions being only one of the events going on, and taking place in a corner of the field. Here in Portland the games take place out at Mt Hood Community College, with the bagpipe band competitions going on down on the 50 yard line on the track at the base of the grandstands--and the stands are always packed for them, so several hundred people are there. And after the competitions they have the advanced level caber toss, and then the massed bands (after they can get them all out of the two beer tents).
Of course it helps that at the Games, the seats in the grandstand are shaded from noon on....
There was lots of other stuff going on--fiddling competitions, vendors of all kinds, the Highland athletic events, a specialist in Scottish genealogy, etc. There were also other entertainers, whom I was not able to hear, since I don't have a clone with a group mind or the ability to bilocate.
The entertainers this year were:
Beltaine;
Rebecca Lomnicky and David Brewer , a Scottish fiddle & bagpipes duo; and,
and Cathy Speer, a local singer/songwriter.
Highland games here in Oregon and Washington benefit from having I-5, the major West Coast N-S route, running through the Western parts of the states. Portland is 3 hours South of Seattle, and 6 hours South of Vancouver, BC, so we always get bands from the whole area and sometimes from further afield. Two of the bands had placed in the top 10 at the world competitions in the last couple of years.
This year's bands in the competitions were as follows:
In Grade 4 were the:
NW Junior Pipe Band from the Seattle area;
Portland Metro Youth PB (who challenged up a grade as well);
Portland Police Highland Guard PB;
White Spot PB, from up near Vancouver BC.
Grade 3 had:
Bushmills Irish Pipers PB, up from San Francisco;
Greighlan Crossing PB, also from the Vancouver BC area;
Portland Metro PB, which also challenged up to Grade 2;
and the Keith Highlanders PB, down from the Seattle area.
In Grade 2 were:
New Westminster Police PB, from the Vancouver BC area, who under their previous name (Maple Ridge) are long-time favorites here in Portland; and,
the Chilliwack & District PB, also from BC.
Our only Grade 1 pipe band was another long-time favorite here in Portland, the Triumph Street band also down from the Vancouver BC area. This band is huge. I've been to other games where the massed bands were smaller than Triumph Street alone.....
All the bands yesterday were excellent, and I heard some great music. I really wish I knew which pieces each band played because some of them had some jazzy elements, and several of them really rocked.
Speaking of the massed bands, yesterday's was very impressive. It took up the entire width of the football field, and was about 30 yards long.
All in all, a great show.
My own connections with the Games don't go quite that far back. My family moved here in 1972, when I was a sophomore in high school. I can't say I went to every PHG until I moved to S Florida in 2001, but I think I went to about 75% of them over the years.
I usually go alone, but until my Dad became very ill he went with me a couple of times. Yesterday I wore his Irish-style walking cap, which Mom gave me after his death.
I've been to highland games here in Portland, of course, but also the ones in S Florida, Central Oregon, and the Seattle area and Portland's is always the best. Part of the reason is the physical setup. At the other three games I've been to, they all take place in a flat field, with the bagpipe competitions being only one of the events going on, and taking place in a corner of the field. Here in Portland the games take place out at Mt Hood Community College, with the bagpipe band competitions going on down on the 50 yard line on the track at the base of the grandstands--and the stands are always packed for them, so several hundred people are there. And after the competitions they have the advanced level caber toss, and then the massed bands (after they can get them all out of the two beer tents).
Of course it helps that at the Games, the seats in the grandstand are shaded from noon on....
There was lots of other stuff going on--fiddling competitions, vendors of all kinds, the Highland athletic events, a specialist in Scottish genealogy, etc. There were also other entertainers, whom I was not able to hear, since I don't have a clone with a group mind or the ability to bilocate.
The entertainers this year were:
Beltaine;
Rebecca Lomnicky and David Brewer , a Scottish fiddle & bagpipes duo; and,
and Cathy Speer, a local singer/songwriter.
Highland games here in Oregon and Washington benefit from having I-5, the major West Coast N-S route, running through the Western parts of the states. Portland is 3 hours South of Seattle, and 6 hours South of Vancouver, BC, so we always get bands from the whole area and sometimes from further afield. Two of the bands had placed in the top 10 at the world competitions in the last couple of years.
This year's bands in the competitions were as follows:
In Grade 4 were the:
NW Junior Pipe Band from the Seattle area;
Portland Metro Youth PB (who challenged up a grade as well);
Portland Police Highland Guard PB;
White Spot PB, from up near Vancouver BC.
Grade 3 had:
Bushmills Irish Pipers PB, up from San Francisco;
Greighlan Crossing PB, also from the Vancouver BC area;
Portland Metro PB, which also challenged up to Grade 2;
and the Keith Highlanders PB, down from the Seattle area.
In Grade 2 were:
New Westminster Police PB, from the Vancouver BC area, who under their previous name (Maple Ridge) are long-time favorites here in Portland; and,
the Chilliwack & District PB, also from BC.
Our only Grade 1 pipe band was another long-time favorite here in Portland, the Triumph Street band also down from the Vancouver BC area. This band is huge. I've been to other games where the massed bands were smaller than Triumph Street alone.....
All the bands yesterday were excellent, and I heard some great music. I really wish I knew which pieces each band played because some of them had some jazzy elements, and several of them really rocked.
Speaking of the massed bands, yesterday's was very impressive. It took up the entire width of the football field, and was about 30 yards long.
All in all, a great show.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Weird 4th of Julies
I've had some weird and a bit odd July 4th experiences.
One year I had to drive from the Tacoma WA area down I-5 to Portland that evening because I was working a summer job and had to be at work on the 5th. I-5 along that whole stretch passes through or near a lot of municipalities as well as going right past McChord air force base & Ft Lewis just south of Olympia. During the entire almost 3 hour trip I saw every municipal fire works display and every single backyard display of illegal fireworks along the entire route. (In OR & WA anything which explodes is illegal, but vendors on the Indian reservations can sell them anyway.)
One year a friend invited me to go with him to his small beach house near Rockaway on the OR coast. We went to see the municipal display from a bluff above the beach where they were being set off. Due to an odd air inversion, all of the smoke collected in a layer below the bluff and none of the fireworks actually made it above the smoke. (It was kind of pretty anyway.) And of course lots of people in the parking lot had their own illegal fireworks.
One July 4th my then-girfriend had tickets to the professional soccer game being played in Portland's stadium. After the game, there was a very excellent fireworks display which was set off from the football field of the high school across the street. What was weird or odd about this? Well, the stadium did an EXCELLENT job of collecting and amplifying the explosions which took place right above it--it was amazingly loud.
I've also had some very nice Independence Days, too.
When I was growing up in Highland Park IL, which is North of Chicago along Lake Michigan, we always went down to the beach where you could see all the municipal displays from all the cities up and down the lake shore.
Independence Day fireworks in the Bend OR area are shot off from the top of Pilot Butte, which is the highest not actual mountain point in the area and so could be seen from all around. This made it really easy to drive to a vantage place and tune the car radio in to the station broadcasting the musical accompaniment.
During the summer between my two years of Library School at the U of Washington up in Seattle, I went down to the W Seattle shore along Elliot Bay to watch the fireworks being shot off from the top of the Space Needle.
And several times I volunteered at the Waterfront Blues festival in Portland OR, which always takes place around the 4th, and they always had nice fireworks displays.
Happy Independence Day, everyone!
One year I had to drive from the Tacoma WA area down I-5 to Portland that evening because I was working a summer job and had to be at work on the 5th. I-5 along that whole stretch passes through or near a lot of municipalities as well as going right past McChord air force base & Ft Lewis just south of Olympia. During the entire almost 3 hour trip I saw every municipal fire works display and every single backyard display of illegal fireworks along the entire route. (In OR & WA anything which explodes is illegal, but vendors on the Indian reservations can sell them anyway.)
One year a friend invited me to go with him to his small beach house near Rockaway on the OR coast. We went to see the municipal display from a bluff above the beach where they were being set off. Due to an odd air inversion, all of the smoke collected in a layer below the bluff and none of the fireworks actually made it above the smoke. (It was kind of pretty anyway.) And of course lots of people in the parking lot had their own illegal fireworks.
One July 4th my then-girfriend had tickets to the professional soccer game being played in Portland's stadium. After the game, there was a very excellent fireworks display which was set off from the football field of the high school across the street. What was weird or odd about this? Well, the stadium did an EXCELLENT job of collecting and amplifying the explosions which took place right above it--it was amazingly loud.
I've also had some very nice Independence Days, too.
When I was growing up in Highland Park IL, which is North of Chicago along Lake Michigan, we always went down to the beach where you could see all the municipal displays from all the cities up and down the lake shore.
Independence Day fireworks in the Bend OR area are shot off from the top of Pilot Butte, which is the highest not actual mountain point in the area and so could be seen from all around. This made it really easy to drive to a vantage place and tune the car radio in to the station broadcasting the musical accompaniment.
During the summer between my two years of Library School at the U of Washington up in Seattle, I went down to the W Seattle shore along Elliot Bay to watch the fireworks being shot off from the top of the Space Needle.
And several times I volunteered at the Waterfront Blues festival in Portland OR, which always takes place around the 4th, and they always had nice fireworks displays.
Happy Independence Day, everyone!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Listening vs reading
OK, I admit it--although I've been the librarian in charge of the audiobook collection at the library where I work for over 8 years, I don't listen to them at all.
There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is primarily the time involved--I am a fast reader, and read much faster than normal human speech. Consequently it usually takes me a lot less time to read a book than it would take to listen to the audio equivalent. And I'm not above speed-reading or skimming when I get to any boring parts--over-long descriptions, or when the narrative has switched to the interior thoughts of a character I don't particularly like, or in some romances the mushy parts, that sort of thing. There is no equivalent of speed-reading or skimming available for audiobooks--even though most CDs are split into tracks every three minutes, if you jump to the start of the next track you don't hear what's in between.
Even though I don't listen to audiobooks--someone reading a book out loud--I do listen to, and am very fond of audio theater, full-cast productions with music and sound effects. The ones of which I am most fond are those produced by the folks over at ZBS.
They are a reseller of audio productions done by other folks, but they also offer several other series created and produced entirely in house. The two biggest series are the ones involving Jack Flanders and the science fiction series featuring Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe (I just ordered the latest installment in that series today). Both the Jack Flanders and Ruby series incorporate wonderful music and sneak in very interesting elements of magic, mystery, mysticism, philosophy, and social commentary.
I've been listening to these productions for decades. My first exposure to them came late one night over 30 years ago when I tuned in to the college radio station at the University of Puget Sound, where I was a student, into the middle of one of the episodes of "The 4th tower of Inverness" and was hooked. I had to call the station and find out what they were playing, and I think I made sure I tuned in and listened to the succeeding episodes. Many years later, after I had moved back to Portland, I was driving around one day and had tuned into the PBS station at a time I didn't usually do so and had no idea what they played that time of day anyway and caught an episode of "Moon over Morocco"--and had to pull over and listen to the rest of the episode.
Over the years I've collected each episode of both the Jack Flanders and Ruby series, and have listened to the entire cycle of each yearly.
I love them--they are wonderfully done, and manage to be a bit weird but very interesting, often thought provoking, and highly absorbing and entertaining. I love listening to them on head/earphones. (I admit it--although I've been listening to stereo almost all of my life, when I'm listening to really well done stereo on ear/headphones I often feel like looking around me to see where the noise is coming from.)
There are a few negative things I could say about the ZBS productions--side-effects of their interesting, entertaining, and absorbing qualities, if you will. When you're listening to them, especially if you're using ear/headphones, do not try to read or indeed do anything involving using language creatively like writing. You will not want to be interrupted while listening, so if you have family living with you tell them not to bother you until you tell them the episode is finished. If you try listening to them in a car with other people you'll find yourself asking everyone else to please shut up.
Listening while working out works very well. You might find yourself doing so for longer than usual, though, because you'll want to listen through to the end of an episode. I copy my CDs as CDs to my iPod through iTunes, and not just as the individual tracks. The CD-equivalent I was listening to today while using the treadmill has 2 episodes, each about 25 minutes long. I hadn't been on the treadmill for a while, and today I wasn't sure I'd make it to a half-hour; when I got to the end of the first episode at 25 minutes, I thought "Hmmmm....maybe I'll just keep walking until I get to the end of the CD"--and did, another 25 or so minutes later.
I highly recommend either of the two series.
ZBS
SMC
There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is primarily the time involved--I am a fast reader, and read much faster than normal human speech. Consequently it usually takes me a lot less time to read a book than it would take to listen to the audio equivalent. And I'm not above speed-reading or skimming when I get to any boring parts--over-long descriptions, or when the narrative has switched to the interior thoughts of a character I don't particularly like, or in some romances the mushy parts, that sort of thing. There is no equivalent of speed-reading or skimming available for audiobooks--even though most CDs are split into tracks every three minutes, if you jump to the start of the next track you don't hear what's in between.
Even though I don't listen to audiobooks--someone reading a book out loud--I do listen to, and am very fond of audio theater, full-cast productions with music and sound effects. The ones of which I am most fond are those produced by the folks over at ZBS.
They are a reseller of audio productions done by other folks, but they also offer several other series created and produced entirely in house. The two biggest series are the ones involving Jack Flanders and the science fiction series featuring Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe (I just ordered the latest installment in that series today). Both the Jack Flanders and Ruby series incorporate wonderful music and sneak in very interesting elements of magic, mystery, mysticism, philosophy, and social commentary.
I've been listening to these productions for decades. My first exposure to them came late one night over 30 years ago when I tuned in to the college radio station at the University of Puget Sound, where I was a student, into the middle of one of the episodes of "The 4th tower of Inverness" and was hooked. I had to call the station and find out what they were playing, and I think I made sure I tuned in and listened to the succeeding episodes. Many years later, after I had moved back to Portland, I was driving around one day and had tuned into the PBS station at a time I didn't usually do so and had no idea what they played that time of day anyway and caught an episode of "Moon over Morocco"--and had to pull over and listen to the rest of the episode.
Over the years I've collected each episode of both the Jack Flanders and Ruby series, and have listened to the entire cycle of each yearly.
I love them--they are wonderfully done, and manage to be a bit weird but very interesting, often thought provoking, and highly absorbing and entertaining. I love listening to them on head/earphones. (I admit it--although I've been listening to stereo almost all of my life, when I'm listening to really well done stereo on ear/headphones I often feel like looking around me to see where the noise is coming from.)
There are a few negative things I could say about the ZBS productions--side-effects of their interesting, entertaining, and absorbing qualities, if you will. When you're listening to them, especially if you're using ear/headphones, do not try to read or indeed do anything involving using language creatively like writing. You will not want to be interrupted while listening, so if you have family living with you tell them not to bother you until you tell them the episode is finished. If you try listening to them in a car with other people you'll find yourself asking everyone else to please shut up.
Listening while working out works very well. You might find yourself doing so for longer than usual, though, because you'll want to listen through to the end of an episode. I copy my CDs as CDs to my iPod through iTunes, and not just as the individual tracks. The CD-equivalent I was listening to today while using the treadmill has 2 episodes, each about 25 minutes long. I hadn't been on the treadmill for a while, and today I wasn't sure I'd make it to a half-hour; when I got to the end of the first episode at 25 minutes, I thought "Hmmmm....maybe I'll just keep walking until I get to the end of the CD"--and did, another 25 or so minutes later.
I highly recommend either of the two series.
ZBS
SMC
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