The Rants of Issachar
Monday, January 31, 2005
Time to post again...
Well I've been back from New York for almost two weeks now, but I've lived been far more offline since I got home. So the blog posting has suffered somewhat. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things. A lot's happened since New York, and I think I'll separate my thoughts into a few different posts so as to keep things somewhat orderly.
New York... I loved it. I could never afford to live there, and it might drive me nuts after a while, but I loved it and if I could afford to I think I'd live in Manhattan. (At least for a little while). On the other hand, I didn't really get a good sense of what real-life in the city was like. New York as a tourist was great. Working there is probably entirely different. The best description I heard of the city was "New York is like America. Only more so". Indeed.
Apparently I'm a complete failure as a photographer, so I've only got one picture worth posting. I'm asking around to see if anyone has got some photos they'll share, so we'll see. This wasn't posed or anything, I'm actually just trying to shade my eyes before getting my picture taken in another shot. (Which looks worse than this one). The view is over central park right near the Great Lawn.
I'm not going to go on and on about all the sights. They were great. You should go.
As for Carnegie Hall... It was excellent. The choir director was really really good, (not a big surprise I guess), and I'm told we were quite good. As for myself, I couldn't hear much beyond the tenors and the altos, so I can't really comment. Laurie said she enjoyed the concert, and she knows her stuff on the subject. One thing I hadn't realized is that we were actually invited (or rather Wes was invited to bring his choirs) while the other choirs that were involved had to try out. That's quite a comment on Wes' results. All told I think we brought about 80 voices to sing including the Pacific Menonite Children's choir which Wes & Kim direct as well.
The whole evening of the concert was amazing. We rehearsed that afternoon and afterwards I went out for dinner with Laurie & Mum. (Mum was visiting Laurie out in Ottawa and they came down for the weekend). We did the first half of the concert and then we got to sit in the audience while another choir did a piece by Mozart which I really enjoyed. I really should go listen to concerts more often. It may not be New York, but Vancouver does have a lot of good concerts. After the concert the whole choir group went out on a cruise around the statue of liberty. (Gorgeous at night). The night was bitterly cold, so we spent most of the cruise inside. I got to dance too. :) Then a late night talking & dancing in a bar in the city with some friends. Fun evening. :)
It's going to be hard to top singing in Carnegie Hall. On the other hand, I probably think I preferred the requim we sang in the Chan Centre just before Christmas. (That is now an annual event). We also just finished a short concert for Missions Fest on Saturday. So we've had three concerts in about a month. The next concert is Hadyn's Creation at the end of April.
Well I've been back from New York for almost two weeks now, but I've lived been far more offline since I got home. So the blog posting has suffered somewhat. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things. A lot's happened since New York, and I think I'll separate my thoughts into a few different posts so as to keep things somewhat orderly.
New York... I loved it. I could never afford to live there, and it might drive me nuts after a while, but I loved it and if I could afford to I think I'd live in Manhattan. (At least for a little while). On the other hand, I didn't really get a good sense of what real-life in the city was like. New York as a tourist was great. Working there is probably entirely different. The best description I heard of the city was "New York is like America. Only more so". Indeed.
Apparently I'm a complete failure as a photographer, so I've only got one picture worth posting. I'm asking around to see if anyone has got some photos they'll share, so we'll see. This wasn't posed or anything, I'm actually just trying to shade my eyes before getting my picture taken in another shot. (Which looks worse than this one). The view is over central park right near the Great Lawn.
I'm not going to go on and on about all the sights. They were great. You should go.
As for Carnegie Hall... It was excellent. The choir director was really really good, (not a big surprise I guess), and I'm told we were quite good. As for myself, I couldn't hear much beyond the tenors and the altos, so I can't really comment. Laurie said she enjoyed the concert, and she knows her stuff on the subject. One thing I hadn't realized is that we were actually invited (or rather Wes was invited to bring his choirs) while the other choirs that were involved had to try out. That's quite a comment on Wes' results. All told I think we brought about 80 voices to sing including the Pacific Menonite Children's choir which Wes & Kim direct as well.
The whole evening of the concert was amazing. We rehearsed that afternoon and afterwards I went out for dinner with Laurie & Mum. (Mum was visiting Laurie out in Ottawa and they came down for the weekend). We did the first half of the concert and then we got to sit in the audience while another choir did a piece by Mozart which I really enjoyed. I really should go listen to concerts more often. It may not be New York, but Vancouver does have a lot of good concerts. After the concert the whole choir group went out on a cruise around the statue of liberty. (Gorgeous at night). The night was bitterly cold, so we spent most of the cruise inside. I got to dance too. :) Then a late night talking & dancing in a bar in the city with some friends. Fun evening. :)
It's going to be hard to top singing in Carnegie Hall. On the other hand, I probably think I preferred the requim we sang in the Chan Centre just before Christmas. (That is now an annual event). We also just finished a short concert for Missions Fest on Saturday. So we've had three concerts in about a month. The next concert is Hadyn's Creation at the end of April.
