guest conducting "Carol of the Bells" this coming weekend, in Portland

Several years ago, when I was living in Portland, I sang in the
Portland Symphonic Choir for a few years. It's an amateur* choir of
about 130 voices which does concerts with the Oregon Symphony, its own
concert series, and tours every couple of years. It's a good choir
and generally does an interesting mix of 'classical' and newer
material.

During that time, they auctioned off an opportunity to conduct the
choir. I lost the auction, but at least I had the satisfaction that
I'd driven the price way up. :)

Earlier this year, shortly before the twins were born, they auctioned
this opportunity off again. This time, my friend Kathy (who was in
the PSC then, and has been ever since, almost) won the auction...and
subsequently ceded the opportunity to me.

The upshot is that I'll be conducting "Carol of the Bells" (aka
"Ukrainian Bell Carol", or, in the original Ukrainian, "Shchedrik")
this coming Saturday (7:30 PM) and Sunday (2:30 PM) in Portland.

It's not a terribly demanding piece, either to sing or to conduct.
But absent a radical shift in my career goals, this may be the only
chance that I get to conduct a semi-pro large choir...and I think that
it could be fun.

OK, fine, I'm not fooling anyone. It'll be a blast. :) :) :)

Most of you are not in any position to attend the concert, and many of
the remainder may not be that interested in choral music. But the
rest of you are encouraged to attend, and watch me get 6 of my 15
minutes of fame. :) Details (including ticketing info) are here:
http://www.pschoir.org/season.html

Anyway, I hope to see at least a few of you there--and please feel free to forward
this around to others who would be interested (and aren't on LJ).


*'Amateur' in the sense that the choir members don't get paid to
participate. A number of them are or have been professional or
semi-pro musicians and/or music educators, though.

all's well that ends well: a ferry tale

Last Thursday was Megan's team's holiday party. It was to be held at a swanky lodge in Poulsbo, which is most readily accessed by taking a ferry from downtown Seattle (it's right across from the bridge from Bainbridge Island, if you know the area).

The previous night, we picked out clothes to wear because we figured we'd make the most of it. Funky tuxedo, dress, etc.

That morning, we put the clothes in the minivan. Then we dropped the twins off, and took Corwin to his dental appointment. While we were there, Megan took the minivan back to the house (so that our neighbors could use it to pick up our kids that evening). Traffic was terrible, so we were actually done with Corwin's appointment about half an hour before her return in the sedan.

Which did not contain the clothes...which we didn't realize until we were at work, > 45 minutes away.

Later that day, Megan drove the sedan down to get the clothes. Once she arrived, she remembered that she'd already given the minivan key to our neighbor, who was at work, thus making the hour-plus-long trip moot.

Megan, being both practical and frustrated, was all set to ditch the clothes; we certainly could have attended in our work clothes. I, however, being a foolish optimist, thought we had enough time to stop by home--again!--before driving out to Seattle to catch the special ferries that MS had arranged for the event (with food, karaoke, etc.).

I was almost right...but the directions that we were given to get to the wharf would have had us driving _down the Harbor Steps_. By the time we sorted this out (in rush hour traffic) the special ferries had gone. (To be fair, it would have been touch and go at best, but the directions made _sure_ that we were thoroughly screwed.)

So we wandered down the street, established that it would be possible for us to take a regularly scheduled ferry to Bainbridge Island and then take a taxi to Poulsbo, and did so.

As it turns out, the special ferries were slow enough (by design) that we actually arrived at the lodge before the second ferry had arrived.

Fortunately, the rest of the evening went well enough (although I am bitter that I missed my chance at karaoke...twice...) to make it a testament to the value of Not Giving Up The Ship (so to speak).