Gomorrah

Last night's memorial concert for Erich Kunzel (you can read my review here) was an uplifting experience.  There were a couple of teary moments, but it was primarily a celebration of Erich's life.

One wonderful story stands out, told to the chorus prior to going onstage.

Erich ad libbed all of his remarks to the audience in his concerts, and as someone said, "you held your breath, because you never knew what was going to come out of his mouth."

His Christmas concerts were inclusive, giving a mention to just about every possible holiday that might occur at that time of year.  At one of these, perhaps 25 or 30 years ago, he talked to the audience about the Jewish Chanukah tradition of "lighting the gomorrah."

Kindly, one of the musicians, who was Jewish, sent him a note after the concert, and mentioned in the note that the correct word was "menorah."  Erich corrected the comment for the next performance.

This past August, a week or so before he died, that same musician sent Erich a note thanking him for all the years that they had made music together.  Erich responded, "and thank you for saving my ass on that gomorrah thing."

Haircut, Jiffy Lube, Dutch Air Force, and more

I was so tired at the end of yesterday that I collapsed into bed when I finally got home. It was a busy day.

I was up early in order to get to my haircut appointment on time -- 8:15. Next stop was breakfast at MacDonald's, followed by getting the car's oil changed. I made a couple of quick stops on the way home, picking up my favorite nail files (DiamonDeb) at a beauty supply store (I have been buying them online and paying exorbitant shipping costs), a fabric store to look for a sewing box (no luck, but I came out with a great sewing reference book and some cotton yarn). On the way back to the car, I spotted a Tuesday Morning store that I hadn't realized existed. I stopped in there, thinking that perhaps I could find a box of the sort that I got for Alex at the Tuesday Morning on the other side of town, and I found something nice that should work.

By then it was almost eleven, and I still had to change clothes for the trip north to Yellow Springs. I managed to get on the road by 11:20, having redone my hair and cleaned out the car and I was off.

I got to Cheryl's about 12:45 -- the traffic on the country roads leading to the village were packed with bumper-to-bumper traffic.. It seemed as if all of southwest Ohio was heading to the Street Fair. I was lucky to be able to park in Cheryl's driveway. We walked the mile into the village to see even worse crowds on the sidewalks. Other than lunch (a bowl of jambalaya), I didn't spend any money, other than the check I dropped off at the Antioch College booth. One of the staff members (he graduated in the 70's and never left, working in the library ever since) was there at the booth and I gave him the check and the hug I didn't get to give him last weekend at the reunion. He's become a friend throughout all of the Antioch upheaval, and is one of Alex's biggest fans. He's a walking Antioch billboard, and I'm convinced that his entire wardrobe is made up of nothing but tie-dyed shirts -- at least I've never seen him in anything else, and neither has anyone I know). When he introduced me to the woman who was working the booth with him, Cheryl piped up with, "she's the most active Antioch alumni parent there is." He followed up with, "I wish we could pack up your energy and enthusiam for Antioch." They made my day.

Other than looking at a lot of stuff, we didn't do much more than burrow through the crowds. At one point, we connected with Harvey, who was in my Islam class last fall, and who is also an acquaintance of Cheryl and Jim. That was a lot of fun. He went to a college that offered me scholarships way back when, and later taught chemistry there. He grew up not far away from my upstate New York home, also, so we have always found a lot to talk about.

Right now he's in a snit over the Royal Netherlands Air Force. It seems they are forbidden to fly in the Netherlands, except under very strict circumstances (such as one at a time, and at specified hours), and in places out over an uninhabited island in the North Sea. Now they're pulling out of Afghanistan, and will not longer be of help to the allied forces there.

However -- they are now flying out of Springfield Air Base, and bothering the daylights out of the local inhabitants. Cheryl, who works from home, says that she cannot carry on a phone conversation when they fly over, which they do at all hours of the day and night. I couldn't imagine that it was that bad, until Saturday, when I heard them for myself. It's appalling.

Harvey has complained vigorously to the powers that be at the base, to no avail. I understand that there are many jobs created because of their presence, but the Dutch are here because they are restricted at home -- and they are severely impacting the quality of life of their American hosts. It's unfair, don't you think?

Here's what the Yellow Springs manager's report had to say about it just before it all started:


"The Ohio National Guard announced a new mission at the Springfield Air Base. Beginning in 2007, the Royal Netherlands Air Force will begin training at the base for a four-year period. The new mission will result in an estimated 33% more flights from the base, which will result in more noise in the Village. It should be noted that the Village has no ability to regulate noise resulting from aircraft, as we are completely pre-empted by federal law. "


The noise-abatement discussed here doesn't seem to have much of an effect.

I've been doing a little research, and it looks as if things are going to get worse. The Dutch will be there (at a base that has had a lot of new buildings constructed there of late) for another two years, and then I found this in the Springfield News-Sun edition of 26 September:


"The Republic of Singapore is considering training F-16 pilots at the Springfield Air National Guard Base. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress on Sept. 9 of a possible foreign military sale to Singapore estimated at $75 million, according to a news release."

Harvey has been blogging about it and is royally P.O.'d by the whole thing. I can't say that I blame him. Here's an article about his anti-Dutch activism and here is his blog.

On to the rest of day.

By three, we'd had enough of the Street Fair, and it was time for Cheryl's madrigal group's rehearsal. I joined the group for the afternoon. It was fun to sing three-part a cappella pieces, and my sight-reading was adequate. However, as Alex warned me, they're weren't quite up to the standard I'm used to. Two of the members are in their eighties. We still had a good time.

The resident cat at the home in which we rehearsed was delightful. He greeted us when we came in, and I walked over and petted him, then picked him up and sat down. He settled in on my lap and stayed there until the singing started. He and I continued to interact as I picked him up from time to time and petted him and he was a sweet cat. Apparently this astonished those present, as they said, "Watch out for him. He bites." His owner indicated he's never reacted to anyone else in the sweet way he reacted to me. I told them that "cats know a sucker when they see one." She half-kiddingly told me I could take him home. I'm just the cat whisperer, I guess.

So after the out of town singing, it was time to head south to Cincinnati. We arrived at Lavomatic at six, where we met Justin, who was waiting with Cheryl's friends Ed and Joann. They're former Antioch faculty who were visiting in town. We had a great dinner - the food, the wine, and the conversation were all excellent. Later on I discovered that Ed and Joann both attended Syracuse U. when I was there -- they graduated at the end of my freshman year. They both grew up in upstate New York, too. Small world.

After dinner we headed to the theatre to see the opening night of "Boom." It was wonderful, probably the best thing I've seen at the Know ever. The acting was terrific, and the guest director created a well-paced and fascinating evening. The play moved along beautifully, the comic timing of the three actors was dead on, and the play was incredibly witty.

Since it was opening night, there was food all over the place. There were two caterers - one before the show and one afterward, and the Christian Moerlein brewery had a beer tasting going on both before and after the play. A third patron supplied great gelato after the play -- bourbon , and vanilla with black pepper (sounds weird, I know, but it was very well received).

One very nice thing about the Know is that it has "The Underground," a bar. There is a small stage there, as well, and a number of cocktail-loungy tables, plus leather sofas scattered about. They serve drinks before and after the show (and encourage patrons to bring them upstairs to the theatre during the show). Last night, people started to gather an hour before the performance, and they remained for quite a while afterward.

The Underground has also served to be an additional source of revenue for the theatre. Their liquor license permits them to serve drinks only at "events," so the bar is only open when there is a show. There have been other opportunities for "events" as well, such as renting the space out to businesses for conferences (and the bar is open). The theatre was also a venue for the Mid-Point Music Festival, so there was more income then, as well. Alex has become a competent bartender, and donates her tips back to the theatre.

Today I did my bi-weekly grocery shopping and have worked on music and watched movies all day. I just finished watching Bette Davis and Leslie Howard in "Of Human Bondage" from 1936. Great acting, horrid story. Tomorrow I'll spend most of the day with David, and Monday it's back to work.

Everybody Celebrated

Last night I drove up to Yellow Springs after work, and arrived at The Winds Café just before six. Alex and Justin and his parents, Jim and Cheryl, arrived a few minutes later.  Alex opened the gifts I had brought her, and then we settled in to the meal.

Dinner was a table filled with plates of grilled duck with cider sauce, Alsatian chicken, roasted (“naked”) garlic, squash and pumpkin lasagna, beet terrine, Catalan fish and Sicilian lamb meatballs. It was wonderful.

Yellow Springs is such an incredible village. There are wine shops, restaurants, beds and breakfasts and guesthouses, art galleries, bookshops, craft shops – you name it. It’s little place of only about 4,000 people, but it is incredibly cosmopolitan. After dinner, we walked up the street to The Emporium, a wine store with sandwiches, where the band was just tuning up and things were starting to hum. There were street musicians playing on the sidewalk as the skies darkened, and the streets were crowded with strollers.

We then drove back to Jim and Cheryl’s house. Jim had gone home earlier, because he had to pack for the next morning’s trip to Amsterdam, where he’ll be for the next month. (Cheryl will join him in two weeks) At the house I was introduced to more people than I can remember – there are always a group of people living there and the place had a lot of guests because it was Antioch reunion weekend.

On the way to house, Cheryl rode with me and told me about Justin’s efforts to wrap Alex’s birthday presents. “He’s so in love,” she said. “He’s spent 25 years never wrapping anything, but now he’s taken great pains to wrap everything just so.”

The gifts were piled up on the dining room table when we arrived. Each was wrapped in a different blue and white paper, and there was a single word written in beautiful calligraphy somewhere on each package: “Celebrate”, “Style,” etc. Those words represented the contents of the package. Justin also made a brownie cake with nutella frosting.

Then it was time to head to Antioch College, where the reunion was going on in full swing. There were two huge white tents on the lawn in front of Antioch Hall, the first campus building, erected in 1852. As we arrived, the dinner was over, and the auction was wrapping up – it raised $30,000.

The Antioch Logo was projected on the front of Antioch Hall projected on it. Over the logo a graph of a  heartbeat moved across the face of the logo, and we could hear that heartbeat’s rhythm. People began to exit the tent and gather around the building’s front steps, as a group of people entered the darkened building.

Suddenly lights glowed as the building was illuminated and the bell in the tower, long silent, rang out with peals that expressed the joy of all those present. There was applause, and a few misty eyes in the crowd.

It is a great feeling to know that Antioch College is back in the hands of people that love and value it. I told Alex and Justin that my grandchildren have to attend Antioch when their time comes.

I’ll be back in Yellow Springs next weekend for its semi-annual street fair. I will drive up on Saturday morning to go to the fair with Cheryl, and then I’ll bring her back with me to attend opening night of Boom, the first show of Know Theatre’s 2009-2010 season. She’ll spend the night with Alex and Justin and then Justin will drive her back on Sunday when he goes back, ready to start the new week at grad school.

Celebrate!

Twenty-four years ago today, I was miserable from lack of sleep because I'd been having labor pains for three nights. Every time I would try to lie down and get some rest, the pains would start. When I got up, they would stop. I was exhausted.

Finally, at about 1:30 the morning of the 2nd, the pains came on in earnest, not stopping for anything. Twelve hours later, in the afternoon of October 2, 1985, Alex was delivered and my stint in the world of motherhood began.

It doesn't seem like 24 years. That geeky little kid in pink with thick-lensed glasses was just here a minute ago, as was the young woman who came back from Cotillion disgusted with the behavior of the wealthiest kids in town at the fanciest event in town. The angry adolescent who just screamed at me that I don't understand her just stomped up the stairs a few minutes ago, on the heels of the kindergartener who impressed a classmate enough for him to say, "Alex can do anything!"

It's been an amazing ride. All of those daughters of mine have merged into a hardworking and dedicated young woman whose enthusiasm for her passion, the theatre, knows no bounds. She's become thoughtful and mature. She can cook like my mother. She's found love in a quiet and extremely intelligent young man who loves her right back. She's expanded our family to include his family, too -- and they've opened their arms to include us in theirs.

I could not be prouder of her.

Tomorrow night we'll celebrate, along with Justin and his parents in Yellow Springs, along with Antioch alumni from all over the world who are congregating on campus to celebrate the rebirth of Antioch College. They'll ring the bells, light up the campus, have dinner under a tent (we're having dinner in a restaurant) and generally whoop it up, when they're not painting the library.

A new stamp honoring alumnus Rod Serling will be revealed there tomorrow by the U.S. Postal Service. They say that the campus is entering the "Twilight Zone," on its way to its new reality.

A good time will be had by all.

The AP released this story this afternoon:



http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jsYzqgNohSwzZzona8nUCgvdtW8wD9B2I7D80

Hips and naps and stuff

I took David to the local orthopedic surgical center today to have a cortisone shot in his hip. He's taking some heavy duty NSAIDs, but he's still in pain. He's not quite ready for a hip replacement, so we're hoping that this will help him in the meantime.

The only pain-free exercise he can do is bike riding, which he enjoys. Golf (he lives for golf) is painful and his game isn't what it used to be, He's a scratch golfer with three holes in one to his credit, but this season hasn't been fun for him, with every drive causing intense pain. He told me that on Monday the pain was so great that he fell down on the fairway, unable to stand.

I think that all the weight - (perhaps 35-40 pounds) he carries on his belt hasn't helped any -- and then he sits in a car with all of that stuff in the way of having good posture. I also think that years of running and softball, as well as golf, have all contributed to the problem. He's a big guy and he's very strong, perhaps too strong. I'm sure that every powerful golf swing has contributed to the wearing away of his hip joint.

I logged on from his house after we got back and worked from his office for the rest of the day while he slept. I think that he was a bit anxious about getting the injection, not really knowing what to expect, and he was definitely ready to sleep when it was over. After I was through with work, we watched a silly special on the Roman port of Ostia on the History Channel and I fell asleep myself in front of the television. God, we're getting old, dozing in front of the TV.

Later we drove to Lawrenceburg, Indiana for dinner and had a nice meal at a Chinese buffet.

Now I'm home and I'm going to curl up with a good book and get some rest. I have meetings all day tomorrow, and about two and a half hours of them are mine to facilitate, so I need to have a good night's sleep.



G'night.