The Easter Services at CUMC were beautiful, with the young people acting out the resurrection narrative, a live bunny at the children’s sermon, fantastic music by the Chancel Choir and a wonderful Sermon by Reverend Scott Sharp.
Tag: architecture
Blue Flame and Candy
A couple of Harleys parked downtown and The Fusion Factory.
Holy Moses
I had my day all planned out — go to the second service, get material on the way home to finish the door, do more watering, herd cats — or so I thought. After the service, which had a wonderful liturgical dance to “Moses”, Jerri asked me if I had gone to their concert at Keller Hall last night and photographed it — I hadn’t, so she asked me if I could photograph the concert this afternoon. The concert was great. A mixed Choir, with the Symphony Orchestra of Albuquerque, performed the Easter selections from Handel’s Messiah, then the SOA played Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture” and Camille Saint-Saens’ “Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor,” with Natalia Tikhovidova on piano. Ms Tikhovidova is a phenomenal pianist and the “Piano Concerto…” was very lively and showy. The SOA and choirs will do another performance on March 17, 2013, 2:00 pm at John XXIII Catholic Community, 4831 Tramway Ridge, NE.
I started out the photo session standing with the choir in the beginning of the concert, so I got a super-wide angle photo from the choir’s/orchestra’s point-of-view, with the audience in the pews. The percussionists were fun to watch because they followed their music with such intensity — there were times they played only one or two notes, so they obviously didn’t want to miss them.
Although I had to lay aside my well-laid plans for the day, the concert was well worth it.
The Steven Seagal Look
After doing the terminator yesterday, Bruski went for the Steven Seagal look today. The first photo will be Brucki’s new album cover. Now all we need to do is come up with some music.
666 Route 66
Today is my 666th consecutive post since I moved to Word Press. The number 666 is dear to me because I woman once called me the Antichrist in a public meeting (I really, really made her mad). Later I used the same formula that Boris used in Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” to add up the numbers that corresponded to the letters in his name to see what they added up to, which turned out to be 666, making him think he was the Antichrist. Guess what? The numeric values of my full name also added up to 666. But it’s all for fun, as Nero was thought to be the Antichrist referred to in the Book of Revelations, and apparently, the Mark of the Beast could be 606 or 616, so all the superstition about 666 may all be for naught. The State of NM changed NM Highway 666 between Gallup and Shiprock to US Highway 491 a few years ago so they wouldn’t be mixing church and state.
So when Bruce and I were discussing what I should do for photos for this special post, he gave me the idea to google 666 Route 66. There are were actually four choices between SW, NW, SE and NE depending on which side on Central Avenue your on, east or west of the railroad tracks. East of the tracks was a hotel or the building the Baptist Convention used to be in. West of the tracks is El Rey Theater and a parking lot. If the Baptist Convention was still at 666 Route 66, that building would have been the photo of the day, but it’s a boring building and I have no history with it. So the El Rey got it. I go way back with the El Rey. When I was a kid I went to movies there, and about 20 years ago we went to see a band friend liked — the band sucked but our friend was entertaining. Around the same time, we went to a couple of salsa dances, performed flamenco, and we went to concert by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at the El Rey. Bela Fleck was fantastic and he changed my opinion of the banjo forever. I still get mail from the Flecktones every now and then.
At lunchtime Bruce and I walked over to the El Rey Theater and he posed for me on the spot that would be 666 Route 66 SW. I used a super-wide angle lens, which made Bruce look a little like the Terminator, which was perfect. The we went around behind the building to find the back wall colorfully painted with an outline of the Virgin de Guadalupe on a back door — super! Then we photographed our way back to the office through the well painted and graffitied alleys.
Santa Fe Abajo
The dance was really fun. We’ll have another dance the first Friday in April!
T-House Down
When the old Territorial House burned on July 23, 2012, I was saddened by the damage to the historic landmark I had grown up with, worked on, and even performed in. The demolition started last week and the first two photos show all that was left of it at 8:00 am this morning. I took the last photo of the orange barrels on my way to class this afternoon as I imagined the stormy sky marked the time that the last vestiges of the T-House were dumped in a trucked to be hauled away. The site where the 213 year old hacienda once stood was vacant and scraped clean when I passed by on my way home tonight.
Gathering
I met the artist working on the installation a 2nd and Gold this morning. The installation is Jane Gordon’s MFA Thesis Exhibit called “Gathering.” She describes it as a “Site-based art installation in a public space.” She uses a variety of materials and processes “to explore a personal, historic, and forward-looking narrative of labor, struggle, survival, and hope in a time of ecological and social uncertainty.” The exhibit will be officially open from February 9 — March 30, and there is an opening reception on Saturday, February 9 from 3pm to 6pm.
New Point of View
We lost our parking spots again, so now I’m parking in the block north of Gold and south of Central between 2nd and 3rd Streets. The parking spot gives me a new point of view, and now I am going in and leaving by the front door — an entrance and exit I haven’t made for almost 15 years.
Story of Film
Film crews often block streets and take our parking in downtown Albuquerque. They had 3rd Street blocked off the between Gold and Central the other night while filming “Force of Execution” with Steven Seagal. While I was making my way out of downtown the same night, I noticed the Kimo Theater’s marque read “Story of Film.”
Off Center & Not Even 