Category: The Show Must Go On

If you are a student of an instrument in a high-school in the United States, you will recognize the title of this post at once to mean only one thing:  the annual event designed to strike terror and awe in the hearts of students and parents alike!

Technically, the solo/ensemble contests are intended to provide student musicians an opportunity to perform a solo or an ensemble in front of an adjudicator and a limited audience, and to receive constructive comments, both spoken and written, from the adjudicator. The primary benefits to the students are the experience of performing alone or in a small group, and a critique from someone other than their regular music teacher(s). These contests also serve as regional qualifying events for the State Solo/Ensemble Contest every spring.  A solo is considered to be a piece performed either entirely alone or with a piano accompaniment. An ensemble is a group of from 2 to 16 musicians performing together, with or without a piano accompaniment. The adjudicator (often called a judge) is a professional musician not teaching school in the students’ district. The solo/ensemble contests should not be confused with the orchestra, band, or choir festivals, in which the entire large group performs for a panel of adjudicators.

Well, yesterday was the much-anticipated annual Solo & Ensemble event.  And I was the proud parent to witness an ensemble event by my firstborn on Alto Saxophone.  The piece is called Allemande by Purcell.  This is a traditional German dance.  An audio recording is attached for your listening pleasure.  The higher notes that form the backbone of the tune are the ones that I strain to listen to– for obvious reasons! 

Also attached are two token pictures of the performer herself, for your viewing pleasure. 

Needless to say, the dozen white roses that were offered to the performer for her impeccable recital pale in comparison to the beauty of the performer herself!

Hair color: ten bucks.  Time: one hour.  Having your husband for a colorist:  PRICELESS!

p.s.  This picture?  Totally unrelated.  Like this post, an impulsive camera-phone shot in the DIA’s giftshop.

And why is this post housed here, you ask?  Because the idea of being loved is so excruciatingly priceless, this small and simple act of tending to the physical needs of a loved one captures the essence of life itself.  Life is a play, and the show must go on! 

Because to choose is to love, and to love is to live.

This past Fall, I was inspired to walk around the WSU campus and take in the sights around the area known as Midtown in the city of Detroit.  Being new to the place, I was not only eager to learn my way around campus which blended into the city streets, but to also explore the area around, especially since I saw all around me many beautiful old buildings and structures.

A cold wintry day like this is a perfect day to unveil these photos.  They are a reminder of blue skies and fair and mild weather that will surely come again!  Many are campus buildings, others are area buildings, all within a few blocks.

A slideshow of the many pictures, for your viewing pleasure.  Some of them were taken with my trusty Nikon Coolpix camera, but many others were taken with my erstwhile camera-phone.  In the words of Julia Morgan, the pioneer American architect, “Architechture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves.”

 

This post is in loving memory of my dear friend, Beth Trossen.  I attended her funeral this evening.  It was an occasion to celebrate her life and her legacy.  Beth was beautiful both inside and out.  She was a loving wife, an amazing mother, a wonderful friend, and a most sincere human being.  Quick with a kind word and never too busy to lend an ear, Beth was full of life– busy with her four children and husband, and active in several church, community and school projects, it was incredible that she even found the time to fall sick! 

Beth was taken from us too soon.  But her memory will live on for ever. 

The beautiful funeral service consisted of a reading by her youngest daughter of the following passage, I Corinthians 15.  Beth did not believe in vain.  One of the two hymns that were sung was the old Irish hymn Be Thou My Vision.  It was one of Beth’s favorite old hymns. I have sung the first two verses here in her memory.

We will miss you terribly, Beth.  But we know that the grave does not hold you.  The grave is overwhelmed!

I Corinthians 15

¹ Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ² By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

 ³ For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. ⁶ After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸ and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

 ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. ¹¹ Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

The Resurrection of the Dead

 ¹² But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵ More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹ If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

 ²⁰ But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. ²² For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. ²³ But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. ²⁴ Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. ²⁵ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is death. ²⁷ For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. ²⁸ When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

 ²⁹ Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? ³⁰ And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? ³¹ I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. ³² If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,

   “Let us eat and drink,
   for tomorrow we die.”

 ³³ Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”³⁴ Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.

The Resurrection Body

 ³⁵ But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” ³⁶ How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. ³⁷ When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. ³⁸ But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. ³⁹ Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. ⁴⁰ There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. ⁴¹ The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

 ⁴² So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; ⁴³ it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

   If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹ And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

 ⁵⁰ I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— ⁵² in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

 ⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?
   Where, O death, is your sting?”

 ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 ⁵⁸ Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Be Thou My Vision

Old Irish monastic hymn from the 6th century; translated from Irish into English by Mary E. Byrne in 1905. The English text was first versified by Eleanor H. Hull, in 1912, and is now the most common text used.

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

The marriage of utility and art produces what?  An eating utensil.  Such as a fork and spoon and knife.  Also known as silverware. 

And so keeping true to my cultural tradition of buying something new for the house in the new year, I decided to freshen up my daily set of silverware (which is actually stainless steel). 

Thanks to IKEA, it is easy on the eye and the pocketbook!  And this is a show that must go on!

Thanks to the lovely Voice Memo app on my new iPhone, I have become inspired to use it for a number of things: from recording a note to myself for later reference, to drawing up a shopping list, to singing a few bars of a song to share with a friend– this feature on the phone is a lovely way to capture a voice in time for a purpose.

So today, I wish to use it to offer an audio recording of a movie review that I wrote-up yesterday.  As you might know, this blog was created to be a dedicated repository of all shows, concerts and other live-events that I have the pleasure and privilege of attending and thereafter reflecting upon.  I understand a motion-picture is not exactly a live event, and yet, I think this is a most appropriate place to house this because the audio clip lends an element of a “live” show to it; plus, a movie is a show anyway!  

The other inspiration to this venture is my recent interest in listening to Books-on-CD.  There is something very captivating and even addictive to listening to a story– it is almost twice the pleasure of reading it, and especially, if you know that it has been narrated by the author herself!  And so, in the spirit of old-world storytelling, here’s my reading of my review (a story about a story, if you will!). 

The movie is True Grit. Directed by Ethan and Joel Coen.  2010.  The official website for the movie is here.  That Johnny Cash song is nowhere to be found in the movie, btw!

The transcript of this audio is below, for your ready reference:

“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord”. Mattie Ross knows this truth, but that doesn’t prevent her from pursuing the wicked. Because she also knows that unpursued, they will flee. But beyond that, she knows also that the righteous are like a bold lion– which is the latter part of the verse in Proverbs 28:1 that opens up the story of this young woman who is truly possessed with true grit.

The Coen brothers have done it again– given us a story that is, dare I say it, made better the second time around. In the original movie, the part of Rooster Cogburn may have been made for John Wayne, the consummate and eternal cowboy, but in this new one Jeff Bridges was *made* for this role of U.S. Marshal. Mattie hires him because she is told that he has true grit– the one quality she is seeking in any man she hires to hunt down her father’s killer. But it is really Mattie who has true grit to initiate and execute her mission. She can roll up a cigarette with as much skill and finesse as she can quote scripture or negotiate business matters; and she can tell a Texas Ranger just what she thinks as much as she can tell the outlaw, Tom Cheney, that she has come to take him back to be hanged in the state of Arkansas. And succeed she does. But there is a price to pay for it. This, she acknowledges much later as a grown woman. The opening lines of the movie bear the voice-over of Mattie observing this truth: “You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free with the exception of God’s grace.”

She is right. And this is the beauty and mystery of the grace of God. It is free to one and all: to the repentant evil-doer as well as the thief on the cross. It is not for us to question the reasoning of the divine instrument that allows the rain to fall on both the just and the unjust. For such are the mercies of the Almighty. All our righteous indignation at the injustice of the world may come to naught if it is not the will of God. Call that unfair, but if we were to receive what is truly due to us, in the words of the Bard: who should ‘scape whipping? And that, my friend, is where grace comes in. Grace is unfair, but it is always in our favor. We get what we do not deserve!

On a side note, Matt Damon is brilliant as Mr. LeBeouf. And two things about Mattie that I can’t help but notice as a comparison on a personal note: her severely braided hair is identical to the plaits that I wore when I was fourteen years of age! And an even more minor side note: I have had the pleasure of visiting Petit Jean Mountain in Arkansas– that is the place that Mattie says she has been to in support of her plea to Rooster to allow her to accompany him on the outlaw-hunting expedition.

Cocked and loaded from the opening frame, True Grit does come truly close to offering a spiritual experience, further bolstered by the haunting melody of the old Christian hymn, “Leaning On The Everlasting Arms” throughout the entire movie. My own grandmother, by the way, born in 1903 used to sing that very hymn just as soulfully: “Oh how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way / Leaning on the everlasting arms / Oh how bright the path goes from day to day / Leaning on the everlasting arms / What have I to dread what have I to fear / Leaning on the everlasting arms.”

A big thank-you to my buddy, Melanie Ryan who sent me a full recording of this concert that she attended in NYC’s Madison Square Garden of Roger Waters’ Another Brick In The Wall concert on 10/5/2010.

How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?!

Well, it goes on a tree for starters.  Like a Christmas tree.  But beyond brightening it up, an ornament can be quite a special object if it has some meaning attached to it.  Like the ones above.  These belong to my two daughters presented to them this Christmas.  An annual event in our house where the both of them get one ornament each from their father and myself, this little tradition is so simple and yet so sweet! 

The selection of the ornament of the year is typically one that represents to some degree something about that year.  And this year, I thought these cookie trays with goodies on them truly captured the very frequent activity of baking that the both of them engaged in.  They made every type of cookie, lots of different kind of brownies, and even the occasional cake!  And it wasn’t just on weekends that they baked– they’d bake after-school on weekdays, and sometimes at midnight on the weekends!

So, here’s to the small and simple things like Christmas-tree ornaments that make up the years of our life.  They’re small and inconsequential, but I daresay they hold the power to build memories, and to evoke them in each of us year after year when we take them out and put them up to adorn a tree in the dead of winter. 

 

Merry Christmas, Everyone, and a Happy New Year!  The show must go on!