Tag: Fun

Asking us singers for our suggestions was a bit unnerving

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 2 Comments

One of the unanticipated developments in my life after I retired from the newsroom was that I became an amateur choral singer, first as a charter member of Revels Singers in Boston and now with the much smaller but no less excellent Quoddy Voices.

In that, I’ve been blessed to work under four incredible music directors and also experience a few other fine conductors, each bringing something unique to the enterprise.

Still, the newest vocal maestro is truly one of a kind, yet still of the highest standards.

When he stepped up to the task in September, he handed out stacks of sheet music from four or five different sources, a very wide range of repertoire, maybe 30 pieces in all.

We set about sight-reading these, and I found myself getting teary as I recalled earlier experiences. Leadbelly’s “Bring Me a Little Water, Sylvie” was a staple of the Boston Revels’ autumn equinox Riversing along the Charles River, and backing up our teens’ choreographed routines was always exciting. “Wild Mountain Thyme” always ended the spring equinox concert, with David Coffin leading the audience gathered into a large circle, holding hands. “All God’s Critters (Place in the Choir)” raised many other memories, especially of Quaker children but also with the composer himself, who lived just outside Dover. And then there was Sweelinck’s joyous “Hodie,” my introduction to polyphony at the opening of the second classical concert I ever attended, the Roger Wagner Chorale around 1960. Never, ever, would I have imagined actually singing that – well, not until the past few years.

~*~

While I’m relatively new to being a member of a musical ensemble, I can say it’s a remarkable identity to assume. We expect to be followers, even with our own grumbling in the back row.

And that’s where Gene threw us a curve ball this fall. He wanted our opinion in what pieces we want to do, including those on our upcoming holidays concerts.

As others said, “The conductor’s always come in with the the pieces and said this is what we’re going to perform. Let’s get started.” To which, in our new situation, they added they were feeling a bit disoriented and perhaps even dismayed.

Well, he did want us to rate the pieces before us, something like a homework assignment, so here’s what I added to my ratings sheet:

“I’m guessing that many of the others will be leaning toward pop/rock songs they’re familiar with and find fun. As you see, I lean the other way, looking for pieces that stretch me to explore and achieve more. Looking at scores from the bass line is a fresh perspective. The tenors and ladies typically get most of the action while we’re stuck in the basement. (No pun intended.) Or even sidelines. I don’t mind holding a drone note in modal music, including Eastern Orthodox services, but what I’ve seen in the pop/rock harmonies seems pretty rote, uninventive, or shallow with little to hold my continued interest, especially if we were to do some deep rehearsal.

“On the other hand, doing one-time run throughs, perhaps with an audience, could be a fun community event, our own version of a pops concert. Summertime, even?

“Or even a hymn sing?

“Still, you asked, and thanks for that. And you’d still get my vote if we were selecting a music director. (My, that was an experience with my previous choir down in Boston.)”

~*~

I am happy to report that the Renaissance and other classical repertoire that I favor came in at the top of the stack, but there’s also a healthy blend outside of my usual comfort zone. The process did cut into our concert preparation time, but I’m confident we’ll catch up.

This really is a fun group to be part of, and that runs top to bottom and back up. I’d say things are percolating.

When it comes to photos for blogging

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever thought about the best shape for a photo in blogging?

So much depends on the device your reader is using. A large PC screen offers many alternatives a cell phone or tablet doesn’t. My own frame of reference is a laptop.

My earlier posts often mixed the sizes of pictures in a post, for variety the way a newspaper photo essay would. But cell phones require a strong image rather than detail.

In general, then, I’ve been settling on full width but shallow – not that the visual content always cooperates.

Alas, those shots do lose some power in fitting into the blog’s formula width, unlike the full screen I use in selecting and editing.

In a grouping, I’ve been keeping them full-width rather than mixing and matching sizes. When our reader scans down, this functions somewhat like a moving camera roll shot. It’s not the way you’d “read” a photo on paper or in an art gallery, admittedly, but it’s an option the technology leads to.

But I’ve also been shooting a lot of square shots, which not too long ago was considered verboten by many observers.

And then, sometimes a deep vertical shot is dramatic, revealing itself portion by portion instead of fully at once.

What’s working best for you?  

 

Our annual salmon festival has me thinking of sardines

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

The American Can Company factory, now a hulk out over the water, had a daily output of more than a half-million cans for sardines. It employed 300 people. It was at the end of the line for the railroad, too.

In the adjacent canneries, sardine-packing women had hands moving so fast in cold water you saw only a blur, according to a friend who was a teen at the time and couldn’t begin to keep pace when he worked there.

I still have no desire to eat a sardine, though. Consider that the statement is coming from someone who’s learned to appreciate anchovies in his old age.

The Salmon Festival always takes place over the Labor Day weekend. 

As I said in a recent letter to the editor …  

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

One of the more baffling things I’m finding in living here is the reluctance of folks in one town to participate in something in a neighboring town, as if they were worlds away.

It’s not just a matter of coming in to the Eastport Arts Center, either, or watching a movie in a little theater in Calais.

Pembroke’s renovated library has been hosting a series of free chantey sings by maritime historian Stephen Sanfilippo, and those would welcome (and do deserve) more participants. His well-researched programs usually include much than work songs, despite the title. A recent one that dug into clams and oysters would be a fine eye-opening example.

The most recent event included an illustrated talk by Susan Sanfilippo, drawing on the town’s historical society’s archives. She discussed ships built along the local tidal banks and then showed images of the resulting vessels as they sat in faraway places like Cuba, China, San Francisco, or Hawaii.

Stephen then used the varied destinations of the Pembroke ships as the basis for songs we all joined in singing later, often including nonsense verses while we looked at slides of the vessels. A calypso, anyone?

I should say it was all delightful and enlightening.

Besides, it was a sampling of what happened all along our Quoddy coast. I could image launchings from Shackford Cove in Eastport that then made similar extraordinary voyages.

Who says there’s nothing to do around here? Please look again and expand your horizon.

Does anything celebrate summer more than a watermelon?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

And here I was about to investigate all kinds of melons, starting with cantaloupe.

That said, just consider:

  1. A watermelon is one of the few foods to be classified as both a fruit and a vegetable. Wish I could count it twice on my daily dietary requirements but guess that would be cheating.
  2. It’s a relative of both pumpkins and cucumbers.
  3. It’s far and away the most popular melon in America.
  4. There are more than 1,200 varieties, but the seedless hybrids are the only ones you’ll likely find nowadays at the market, at least in the USA.
  5. Those seedless versions aren’t genetically modified. Technically, they’re simply sterile with white seeds that are perfectly safe to eat.
  6. Watermelons originate in Africa and have been cultivated in Egypt for 5,000 years. That’s why they really do need a long stretch of summer.
  7. Based on weight, watermelon is the most consumed fruit in America.
  8. It’s 92 percent water yet rich in vitamins and contains only six percent sugar. By the way, there’s no bad fat or cholesterol.
  9. Its flesh isn’t always red – orange, green, yellow, or white are other options.
  10. In Japan they’re grown in glass boxes to maintain the unnatural cubed shape.

 

Oh, those clean starched white dress uniforms

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

The 350 U.S. Navy sailors who descended on Eastport for our extended Independence Day festivities were the first to uphold the longstanding tradition since before the Covid pandemic.

They were a welcome contingent in our small community, often appearing in their pristinely ironed white uniforms, which do look impressive even though, as I was told, they can be a challenge to keep clean. You have to lean way over while eating, for instance, to keep from spilling anything on yours. Not that we noticed any dirt when they marched as a big bloc in the grand parade Tuesday afternoon. At least the sailors and officers who fielded teams in the very messy cod relay contest the previous day were more practical in their dress.

What they got was a six-day taste of small-town America having summer fun.

As the police chief reported, “the Fourth of July was relatively quiet, aside from a couple of fights involving sailors … which were handled by the crew from the Navy ship.”