It's been more than 5 1/2 years since my last post to LJ. This is a function of my having switched to FB for most of my social media activity, although even there I mostly follow the postings of others and rarely post anything of my own ( Read more... )

I'm planning to go to the 21st New York State Sacred Harp Singing Convention in Cambridge, NY, this coming weekend. I grew up in Berlin, the 3rd town south of Cambridge along NY Route 22. I'll be staying with my aunt and uncle in Stephentown, the next town south of Berlin ( Read more... )

Last night the BF and I saw David Grimm's new play "The Miracle of Naples", which is Grimm's rendition of commedia dell'arte; a traveling troupe of actors arrives in Naples on the customary day of the miracle of St. Gennaro, except that the miracle doesn't happen properly, and *ALL* public celebrations are stopped until the miracle happens. Mayhem ( Read more... )

My mother called me this morning with the sad news that her friend Amparo Palacios died yesterday after years of declining health ( Read more... )

Nearly 6 years ago I agreed to my father's request to co-sponsor his permanent residency applications for his wife and the youngest of her 3 children, who was the only child who was still younger than 18 years old. Co-sponsorship made me legally liable for their support in case they were no longer able to support themselves, as permanent residents ( Read more... )

I am part of Norumbega Harmony, a community of friends that gathers every Monday evening to sing shape note (or shaped-note) music from The Sacred Harp and related tune-books. This evening we commemorated the first legal same-sex marriages in California by singing "Harmony", a tune attributed to Amariah Hall (Raynham, MA, 1758-1827) and set to ( Read more... )

I'm currently enrolled in the Tech Squares Fall 2007 Mainstream/Plus class at MIT. While web-surfing earlier this evening I stumbled across the LJ blogs of two people who are currently affiliated with that class; one is an MIT student who is taking the class for PE credit, and the other is the class coordinator ( Read more... )

From several people, including poetrytoweasels, jwg, bear4otter, and rsc Rules: bold=read, italic=started but didn't finish, underline=saw the movie.

I marked the titles of translations from Spanish with '*'; these works I have read or started in Spanish. Two are by García Márquez, who is perhaps the most famous contemporary Colombian author: his Cien años de soledad is one of ( Read more... )

This past Saturday was a very long day of celebration and sadness, fellowship, renewing friendships of long standing and meeting new friends, and discovering anew how each person's live touches the lives of so many others. I went to a memorial celebration of the life of Minja Lausevic that the Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Community organized ( Read more... )

Earlier this week poetrytoweasels posted a poll on how his readers planned to spend the 4th. I'm sorry I didn't participate in his poll, but ( Read more... )