[photo? maybe?]
If this has worked properly, there should be a photo of my nephew and my dad behind the cut.
My dad is really serious about the Michigan/Ohio State game, okay. It did not end well for Michigan fans this year.
My nephew is not supposed to be watching TV, as his parents believe that looking at TV/computer screens/etc. before age 2 is bad for a baby's eyes. They may be right, but I think they're fighting a losing battle, because Jonah was enthralled by the lights and motion and all the fun noises. (He is a big fan of noises in general. My brother has a wide repertoire of vocal percussion noises/motor vehicle impersonations/beatbox skills, and as far as Jonah is concerned this makes him the Very Best Uncle In The Whole Wide World.)
Vox Lucens' winter season concert is coming up next weekend and the weekend after (http://www.voxlucens.net/schedule.htm) so I took some of my music to Arizona with me and practiced my singing when everyone else was out of earshot. The music for this concert includes several of my favorite composers in Vox's repertoire, and focusing on it for part of each day has been very helpful in managing my stress levels as the political news just gets weirder and more outrageous.
For lighter musical fare, I hauled out my Yeomen score yesterday and sang my way straight through all of Dame Carruthers' solos and ensemble parts. I am still not a contralto and will never be one, but my middle range is less chirpy than it was. Then, just for fun, I tried out two pieces from way way back in my musical history: "Se tu m'ami", which I studied quite properly with a teacher when I was sixteenish, and the Agnus Dei from the Rossini Mass, which I found in the library when I was in college and developed an inappropriate fondness for. "Se tu m'ami" is a rite of passage for teenaged sopranos--I sing it better now than I did (warmer middle range + improved acting/interpretation skills + more Italian language practice) and if Revels does another Italian show it would be an offbeat but possible audition choice. The Rossini is written for a powerful, mature contralto and I have no more business with it now than I did at twenty. Such is life.
My dad is really serious about the Michigan/Ohio State game, okay. It did not end well for Michigan fans this year.
My nephew is not supposed to be watching TV, as his parents believe that looking at TV/computer screens/etc. before age 2 is bad for a baby's eyes. They may be right, but I think they're fighting a losing battle, because Jonah was enthralled by the lights and motion and all the fun noises. (He is a big fan of noises in general. My brother has a wide repertoire of vocal percussion noises/motor vehicle impersonations/beatbox skills, and as far as Jonah is concerned this makes him the Very Best Uncle In The Whole Wide World.)
Vox Lucens' winter season concert is coming up next weekend and the weekend after (http://www.voxlucens.net/schedule.htm) so I took some of my music to Arizona with me and practiced my singing when everyone else was out of earshot. The music for this concert includes several of my favorite composers in Vox's repertoire, and focusing on it for part of each day has been very helpful in managing my stress levels as the political news just gets weirder and more outrageous.
For lighter musical fare, I hauled out my Yeomen score yesterday and sang my way straight through all of Dame Carruthers' solos and ensemble parts. I am still not a contralto and will never be one, but my middle range is less chirpy than it was. Then, just for fun, I tried out two pieces from way way back in my musical history: "Se tu m'ami", which I studied quite properly with a teacher when I was sixteenish, and the Agnus Dei from the Rossini Mass, which I found in the library when I was in college and developed an inappropriate fondness for. "Se tu m'ami" is a rite of passage for teenaged sopranos--I sing it better now than I did (warmer middle range + improved acting/interpretation skills + more Italian language practice) and if Revels does another Italian show it would be an offbeat but possible audition choice. The Rossini is written for a powerful, mature contralto and I have no more business with it now than I did at twenty. Such is life.