You’ve perhaps heard the news that the Blockbuster chain is in major trouble and closing stores all across the country- including a couple of locations in Kenosha and Racine. Hearing the news and seeing the signs got me thinking back to the first time I ever walked into a video store. It was the early
The Carthage Choir was back on its friendly, familiar home turf last night as it performed its homecoming concert- but I found myself in a strange position- not on the piano bench, accompanying them, but out in the audience as an interested observer and listener. The reason was that I was not able to accompany
Who knew that the installation of a bishop could be such a blast?!? All two hours and twenty minutes of it ?!? (Believe it or not, a lot of people told me afterwards that the time flew by. And Jeff quipped in his final remarks that as far as he knew, it was still Lent!)
Today was Racine’s Solo & Ensemble competition, and although I had great fun playing for ten different entries (eight of whom made it to the state) my important deed of the day did not happen on the piano bench. The story began just after 9 when I played the accompaniment for a talented young man
Last night, Kathy and I attended Union Grove High School’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a hilarious and imaginative musical that Kathy saw on Broadway - but which I did not. (I went and saw the powerful drama Doubt instead.) She liked it enough that she saw it a second time
My trip to Chicago Tuesday yielded not only a wonderful performance at the Lyric Opera and a delicious meal with Marshall, but it was also the day when I discovered a store to which I will be returning again and again and again, master card in hand. It’s located in a wonderful old structure on
I have spent the last several weeks dipping my technological toe rather tentatively into the 21st century, as the proud yet bewildered possessor of a Blackberry. This phone came to me via a former student/ now friend of mine named Nic Sluss- Rodionov, who had upgraded his own phone to something straight out of Battlestar
In the midst of this unbelievably busy spring break (which at least is filled to the brim with cool and interesting things- just way too many of them piled on top of each other) the closest thing to R&R was yesterday when I headed down to Chicago with Marshall for our last opera of this
This past Saturday was Kenosha’s solo & ensemble contest, which for me is part music contest/ part track meet. This year was no exception because I was playing piano accompaniments for (I believe) 21 different contestants. Most were singers for my sister-in-law, Polly Amborn, who’s the choir director at Tremper High School- and I played
One of these days I may write something about Saturday’s big solo & ensemble competition and the non-stop running I did from 8 until 1:30 . . . or the dizzying array of auditions I heard at the Racine Theater Guild Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening for “The Producers” . . . but for some
