Merry Christmas!
Category: Art
Christmas Decorations
Since we never got a new set of tiny lights for the bonsai, Laurie made an arrangement with candles and the candy she will be using in cookies for some decoration, lights and color. Tristan thought it looked like an altar to candy. Be that as it may, Laurie has baked some fantastic cookie,s so if her decorations please the gods of confectionary and the spirits of cookies, that makes it all the better.
Kat sang in the choir this morning, and asked me to photograph her in the choir robe. She looked great in the robe and the colors are very appropriate for the season.
Jerri made almost 100 copies of the recording of Handel’s Messiah performed on December 9th by the Chancel Choir with the NM Philharmonic Orchestra. I designed labels for the CDs and inserts for the jewel cases, and spent yesterday afternoon printing labels, stamping them on CDs, cutting inserts and stuffing the whole lot into jewel cases so Jerri could give them to the Chancel Choir before Christmas. Laurie and I listened to the recording this afternoon while cooking and working on photos, and it’s fantastic. The recording is raw, exactly as it was performed with no post-production editing, and it is really well balanced. the choir, soloists and orchestra sound animated and full of life. This was the first time Laurie had heard the choir outside of singing in it, and she was quite surprised, and thought the recording sounded better than the “professional” version we currently have (I had been telling her how good they sounded for weeks before the performance, and she just thought I was being nice. Me be nice? Like right!). After listening to the CDs I was really happy I took the time to put them together yesterday so the choir members could have this wonderful gift of music for Christmas, especially after all the hours and work they put in preparing for the performances. The quality of the performance also speaks for what a great director Jerri is. She takes anyone who wants to sing in the choir and gets amazing results out them.
Stella Nuova
We went to fabulous performance of Stella Nuova by Música Antigua de Albuquerque tonight.
The End of the World and All That
Tristan and David had their annual Solstice party tonight where we all sat around waiting for the end of the world and then reflected on it — it didn’t happen — AGAIN! The end of the world and all that is getting to be a bit of a bore — Firefox, Cat’s yellow kitty, was mad about it, Gia thought she saw it, but was mistaken, and Firefox gave me an appropriate “Blah!” Cat celebrated, Gia consoled the kitty, then she peeked around the corner and gave me a nice smile. After having a lot of fun we all finally had to go on our merry ways until the end of the world comes again.
On Spot
We were working out the lighting for the Christmas Eve services, and while I was practicing following people walking down the aisle, I photographed Jerri with camera in one hand while tracking her and manipulating the spotlight with the other hand. I guess all those “drive-by-photos” have honed my skills at taking photos while doing other things.
On Christmas Eve there will be three services at Central United Methodist Church with music and drama in the 8:00pm and 11:00 pm services — I’ll be manning one of the spotlights at those two service. I’m playing guitar for the first service at 1:00 pm, and the fact that I only have two arms that are each a little less than a yard in length, playing guitar at one end of the sanctuary and operating a spotlight from the balcony at the opposite end of the sanctuary stretches way beyond my ability to multitask, so whoever shows up for the 1:00 pm service with only get the added drama of listening to me improvise while the congregation lights their candles, then I’ll play accompaniment for “Silent Night,” which, by the way, was written for guitar.
A clarinet and xylophone duet played for St. Martin’s Hospitality Center’s Holiday Breakfast as part of the NM Philharmonic Orchestra’s gift of music for the homeless and disadvantaged members of the community. I was invited to drop by photograph them playing for the breakfast. The music was excellent, and the place was packed and swarming with activity. I managed to put together a panorama of the activity, but it was one of the most difficult panoramas I photographed and successfully stitched together because of the constant activity, the room configurations, and the extreme differences in lighting from on side of the building to the other. But I think the resulting photo show the activity and how many people St Martin’s was feeding this morning. St. Martin’s is just one of a handful of shelters and churches that feed and clothe the homeless and other people who need help in the Albuquerque area.
No Molasses? Really?
One my way home tonight, I noticed a car dealer had the emergency flashers blinking on alternating cars on the lot. I suppose it is was supposed to be festive looking, but I was just trying to get by it before it sent other drivers into epileptic seizures. The old uncovered, covered wagon with lights on it is much more creative and festive. The traffic was as thick as molasses tonight, unlike the morning traffic which was surprisingly light when I photographed the hazy mountains. Speaking of molasses, Laurie said she couldn’t find any in Walmart, and when she went to ask the floor clerk, the clerk was deaf, and Laurie didn’t know how to “sign” molasses. I told her I thought that making a rodent face and pointing at her butt might have sufficed to get the idea, but alas, neither mole asses or molasses were to be had. Stretch was in a state of disbelief when he heard they didn’t have mole asses as he thought they would go well in his idea for almond, watermelon cookies — Stretch is quite the gourmet for a cat. While on the subject of cat food, I can understand that flavors like chicken and gourmet beef, seafood, etc. are cat foods that people can stomach buying; but I really think they should make cat food in rodent, bird and reptile flavors, flavors that cats would really go for. The cat food makers could get clever and give the cat food names that people could deal with more easily like Mole Ass Mole, Rotisserie Robin, Mouse Mousse, Rodent Ratatouille, Lizard Linguise and so on. Back to the molasses melodrama, Laurie found some organic molasses on the way home tonight that Stretch is happy with, and the almond, watermelon cookies look cute with the little tails sticking out.
Go Tell it on the Mountain
The Children’s Choir sang “Go Tell it on the Mountain” for the prelude this morning. I’m sitting in the back thinking that we are going to get the usual weak children’s voices, with half the kids off key, while the other half are “out of compás”, but when the kids started singing, belting out out the song in parts, on key and in compás, I remembered I was at Central United Methodist Church, where they get the best music out of everyone, regardless of age. All the kids were great, and the soloists sang like they were pros. It was so refreshing to see kids full of life and spirit, making an effort to deliver their performance. All the music was fantastic today. The old hymns were fun, the Chancel Choir performed “For unto us a Cild is born” from Handel’s Messiah, and the Hand Bell Choir performed a piece that was out of this world. They get sounds and music out of those bells that you wouldn’t think possible.
Stretch was shifting around in his box he was curled up in, basking in the sunlight, when the box slid off the edge and wedged itself against the heater. Like a captain who won’t abandon his ship, Stretch stayed in the box and patiently waited for one of us to come over and put his box and him back in place. Laurie when to his rescue while I photographed him going down with his box. After Laurie got the box back in place, Stretch resumed his position, curled up in the sunshine, as if nothing had happened.
I find coffee sludge dried and cracking like clay on the bottom of a dry riverbed to be quite artful. It also reminds of the time when Laurie was going to pre-op and I unintentionally dribbled thick, black coffee that looked like motor oil with a couple hundred thousand miles on it along the floor from the elevator to the first bed in pre-op. The staff at the desk started swarming like ants that had their hill stepped on, while doctors and nurses tiptoed around the line of coffee like it was some type of infectious, black ooze. I really wanted to photograph the whole thing, but I felt I would have been pushing it to get out there and start clicking away — instead I cowered in the corner and tried to look like I was sorry for dribbling sludge on the floor (actually I was really sorry, not for their sakes, but because I didn’t get to drink the coffee). Even though I didn’t get photos, it was really great performance art. Luckily, all that came of it was mad dogs from the Hazmat crew who were brought in to clean up my offensive sludge — I’m not so sure I’ll get off so easily next time.
Saturday Shopping
We went “upscale” today and ventured into to Target to do some shopping for few Christmassy things. On our way home the clouds broke at the horizon and the sun streamed a thin layer of light across the southern end of the Sandias. I got out out set of tiny lights to put on the bonsai, but they wouldn’t light. I think it’s one of the fuses in the plug, but now I can’t find the extra fuses I thought I had for light strings. Oh well. I’ll mess with lights mañana.
Da Bruski Stare
The rain and cool whether made Da Bruski frisky this afternoon. After taking WCW’s cigarette and arguing with him about it, he gave the photographer Da Bruski “stare challenge” better know as “mad dogs”. Before leaving Lindy’s, Da Bruski challenged poor Santa, who, in his good natured way, ignored Da Bruski and smiled for the camera with his kind, sympathetic eyes. No one was safe after that, and Da Bruski even mad dogged the poor pink Brontosaurus that stands in front of the Gizmo Store greeting people who are walking along Route 66 in downtown Albuquerque. As we made our way back to the office, Da Bruski saw his reflection in the dark glass of the Bank of New Mexico building and challenged himself — for all I know he’s still there seeing if he can get his reflection to back down.
Tiffany
I can’t think of a better way to spend a lunch hour than photographing a beautiful woman. Meet Tiffany Paleo, make-up artist, actress, singer, wife and mother. She’s as sweet as she is beautiful, and delightful to work with. For you women who like to be pampered, Tiffany is available at Katharoz Boutique to help you with all your skin care needs — 505-227-1224.
Laurie and I attended the annual holiday party for the Friends of Medieval Studies at UNM tonight, which featured a concert by Música Antigua de Albuquerque — they were wonderful. Música Antigua de Albuquerque will be performing “Stella Nuova” on Saturday, December 22th at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, 601 Montaño NW in Albuquerque.
Mark April 15-18, 2013 on your calendars. The 2013 Medieval Spring Lecture series is “Medieval Myths and Monsters”. This promises to be a superb lecture series not to be missed.
