The Carthage Choir has a new director, and judging from what he accomplished in last night’s rehearsal and today’s performance, there are some exciting things ahead. His name is Eduardo Garcia-Novelli, and he was far and away my top choice of the five finalists from last year’s search. ( I was not an official part
For most of this past week I thought of very little besides Friday night’s Racine Symphony concert and how anxious I was to sing at the top of my game if at all possible. But that meant staying healthy, which in turn meant that I was hyper aware of every little sniffle. Then as concert
I saw both ends of the world of education today. I spent most of the day at Carthage for our first faculty meeting of the year, and it was of course great fun to see so many colleagues for the first time since commencement. (And it had been even longer than that for certain faculty
This photo captures me in the midst of rehearsal with the Racine Symphony Orchestra, in preparation for tomorrow night’s Lakeside Pops concert, for which I am baritone soloist. Boy, it feels good to type those words. I have not done any official solo singing with the RSO for almost three years, by far the longest
Dave Krueger and I headed for our favorite tennis courts (in Racine’s Island Park) only to find that they were all occupied by one of the high school teams in town. (The Nerve!) So we headed to our second favorite courts, and they were being painted. (They will be a bright, beautiful blue once they’re
This rather goofy-looking photo was taken yesterday afternoon as my wife and I enjoyed a neat exhibit at Chicago’s sprawling Museum of Science and Industry. Although the main attraction which drew us was a temporary exhibit about glass (which closes this weekend) the first thing we saw was just as interesting.... a permanent exhibit on
Something special happened during church yesterday morning. For the first time ever, we had a brief service of Backpack Blessing. Anybody of any age who was about to begin a new year of school was invited to come up front - and people had been encouraged to bring their backpacks with them to church that
I’m not sure I’ve blogged about the obesity of our two golden retrievers- but on their last visit to the vet, the scale went SPROING! when they climbed aboard it. To my admittedly biased and amateur eye they look absolutely beautiful as they are, but the vet insists that Ellie is about 8 pounds overweight
In the course of a typical year, I am responsible for 260 morning shows - and over the course of well more than a decade of doing the program, that translates into nearly three thousand interviews I’ve conducted over the years- ranging from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter all the way to the most ordinary
Today was the birthday of our dear friend Val Conner, and two days ago her daughter Katie got the somewhat crazy idea of planning a surprise birthday party for her mom to celebrate. That’s less than two days to issue invitations, plan logistics, prepare food, etc. - but Katie is nothing if not determined, and
