Mike and I had about a dozen folks crammed into our apartment last Saturday night for food and board games, starting out with A Touch of Evil and Puerto Rico (which I only lost by 1 point!). Our stash of games has been steadily building, especially since last Christmas. However, we quickly realized that only a handful of the titles we've accumulated can be played with two people (Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride are my current favorites)... and even those play with an entirely different dynamic and new strategies when more people are added to the mix. Thus, we've started hosting a monthly game night with friends in Chicago.
The menu included prosciutto panini sandwiches (Mike's culinary contribution), winter pear salad and a gruyere/swiss fondue (mine), as well as bread, veggies, and fruit to dip, plus fancy cheeses, beverages, and dessert brought by friends. Hopefully we'll be able to keep up the interest (we had grad school folks, a friend from Kenyon, and various roommates and significant others) and do it again soon, especially as winter finally leaves!
Today, I stumbled across an article online about the genesis of another of our favorite games, Settlers of Catan. I didn't see the byline until the very end, but the author is Andrew, a friend and fellow fulbrighter who lives in Berlin. Board games... bringing friends together!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
I'm ready to be done with this class...
I'm taking a course for my training grant, and as useful as it's been to hear so many experts weigh in on the salient features and our scientific ambitions regarding Alzheimer's disease, I'm ready to have my time back for work in the lab! I'll present my final paper on Monday, but there's lots to be done to polish it up so I can submit it by tomorrow night... and I've been working on it for what feels like ages already.
I need a break... so it's back to blogging! Here are adorable pictures of my cousin Lauren and her husband Neal's little (so big!) boy, Brian, from our visit to Michigan on Valentine's day weekend:
There's another one with more of my Grandma in it two posts down, from when I originally wrote about the trip.
I need a break... so it's back to blogging! Here are adorable pictures of my cousin Lauren and her husband Neal's little (so big!) boy, Brian, from our visit to Michigan on Valentine's day weekend:
There's another one with more of my Grandma in it two posts down, from when I originally wrote about the trip.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Chamber Singers in Chicago!
The Kenyon College Chamber Singers stopped in Chicago on their tour this year! Well, technically Oak Park, but that's close enough that Mike and I were able to catch them on this past Wednesday night. It was fantastic! I couldn't stop grinning the entire time, and I was amazed to see that I've sung about half the current program. I guess I'm far enough out from graduation that Doc has cycled some pieces back into rotation... although the madrigal that started the concert, Bennet's All Creatures Now, is actually in the current repertoire of the Catatonics (the grad a cappella group I sing with these days). The whole program for those who are interested:
I. All Creatures Now - John Bennet
II. Yihyu leratzon imrei fi - Ernest Bloch
Jubilate Deo - Orlando di Lasso
Faire is the Heaven - William H. Harris
At the round earth's imagined corners - Williametta Spencer
III. Tebye poyem - Sergei Rachmaninoff
Ñe ímamï inya pómoshchi, op. 25 - Pavel Chesnokov
IV. Four Shakespeare Songs - Juhani Komulainen
1. To be, or not to be
2. O weary night
3. Three words
4. Tomorrow and tomorrow
V. Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz, op.29, no.2 - Johannes Brahms
(intermission)
VI. Trois Chansons - Claude Debussy
Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder!
Quant j'ai ouy le tabourin
Yver, vous n'estes qu'un villain
VII. Signposts - Eskil Hemberg
Signpost I
Signpost II
VIII. Un jour vis un foulon qui foulait - Orlando di Lasso
Ich stund an einem Morgen - Ludwig Senfl
The Turtle Dove - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Do not pick my rosemary - Allen Hoffman
IX. Sizongena laph'emzini (two Zulu wedding songs) - arr. Mzilikazi Khumalo
X. My Lord, what a moanin' - arr. Adolphus Hailstork
Ride on, King Jesus - arr. Edward Boatner
It was especially nice to hear again some pieces that aren't on the CS CD's I have, since those are foggier in my memory than the ones I can listen to at will. I have recordings from my own time in the group of the both di Lasso pieces, the Chesnokov, all three from Debussy, and the Vaughan Williams. The Bloch was recorded on As Torrents in Summer (96-97... as well as the Bach's huge Singet dem Herrn ein Neues Lied which we sang my senior year that didn't make it onto In Concert). However, the Khumalo isn't on any of the recordings I own, including the recording of the live concert in Rosse Hall from senior year when Dr. Khumalo came to visit the choir. I believe we sang it on tour Sophomore year (I can't find the program to check that) but it didn't make it onto Luna so I hadn't heard it since then. The South African music in a CS concert is always a fun time, since there's often a bit of dancing involved. It was great to see how much fun the choir was having... for the first time from the audience's perspective!
I also got to talk to Doc and Kay again, and a few other young alums in the audience. I'm old now, though. I only knew one of the current singers, and she's a professor's kid I knew from church who was in high school while I was at Kenyon.
And of course the final piece was Doc's arrangement of Kokosing Farewell. There was a special treat to be had there, though. Apparently last year Doc began a new tradition of inviting alums to join the singers on the risers for Kokosing. I had no idea this was coming, and almost fell over Mike in my rush to get up there and join the group! I only wish I hadn't been fighting a cold at the time, since I felt obligated to sing as quietly as possible so my croaking wouldn't take away from the piece. What a grand feeling, though, to be on those risers again in a lovely church with Doc conducting in his carefully crafted fashion, coaxing every familiar ebb and swell into place.
I. All Creatures Now - John Bennet
II. Yihyu leratzon imrei fi - Ernest Bloch
Jubilate Deo - Orlando di Lasso
Faire is the Heaven - William H. Harris
At the round earth's imagined corners - Williametta Spencer
III. Tebye poyem - Sergei Rachmaninoff
Ñe ímamï inya pómoshchi, op. 25 - Pavel Chesnokov
IV. Four Shakespeare Songs - Juhani Komulainen
1. To be, or not to be
2. O weary night
3. Three words
4. Tomorrow and tomorrow
V. Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz, op.29, no.2 - Johannes Brahms
(intermission)
VI. Trois Chansons - Claude Debussy
Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder!
Quant j'ai ouy le tabourin
Yver, vous n'estes qu'un villain
VII. Signposts - Eskil Hemberg
Signpost I
Signpost II
VIII. Un jour vis un foulon qui foulait - Orlando di Lasso
Ich stund an einem Morgen - Ludwig Senfl
The Turtle Dove - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Do not pick my rosemary - Allen Hoffman
IX. Sizongena laph'emzini (two Zulu wedding songs) - arr. Mzilikazi Khumalo
X. My Lord, what a moanin' - arr. Adolphus Hailstork
Ride on, King Jesus - arr. Edward Boatner
It was especially nice to hear again some pieces that aren't on the CS CD's I have, since those are foggier in my memory than the ones I can listen to at will. I have recordings from my own time in the group of the both di Lasso pieces, the Chesnokov, all three from Debussy, and the Vaughan Williams. The Bloch was recorded on As Torrents in Summer (96-97... as well as the Bach's huge Singet dem Herrn ein Neues Lied which we sang my senior year that didn't make it onto In Concert). However, the Khumalo isn't on any of the recordings I own, including the recording of the live concert in Rosse Hall from senior year when Dr. Khumalo came to visit the choir. I believe we sang it on tour Sophomore year (I can't find the program to check that) but it didn't make it onto Luna so I hadn't heard it since then. The South African music in a CS concert is always a fun time, since there's often a bit of dancing involved. It was great to see how much fun the choir was having... for the first time from the audience's perspective!
I also got to talk to Doc and Kay again, and a few other young alums in the audience. I'm old now, though. I only knew one of the current singers, and she's a professor's kid I knew from church who was in high school while I was at Kenyon.
And of course the final piece was Doc's arrangement of Kokosing Farewell. There was a special treat to be had there, though. Apparently last year Doc began a new tradition of inviting alums to join the singers on the risers for Kokosing. I had no idea this was coming, and almost fell over Mike in my rush to get up there and join the group! I only wish I hadn't been fighting a cold at the time, since I felt obligated to sing as quietly as possible so my croaking wouldn't take away from the piece. What a grand feeling, though, to be on those risers again in a lovely church with Doc conducting in his carefully crafted fashion, coaxing every familiar ebb and swell into place.
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