Wafna

Twenty-plus years ago in my first year of marching band our field show was selections of powerful classical pieces, which included two from Carmina Burana, which everyone has heard even if they aren't sure they have.  A few months ago the opportunity to join a local choir performing the work in its entirety came up, sort of bringing my musical relationship with Carl Orff full circle.  Cantorum was joined by about as many local contracted singers and a full orchestra, on stage above the dancers of Ballet West at Capitol Theater... and I realized I was fulfilling a life goal I never knew I had.  I've been to many a show at this venue but until now I'd never seen it from the other side.  It was a thrilling and exhausting and unforgettable experience.  It wasn't easy to learn the challenging score (luckily unmemorized, though by the end...), and it was a long two weeks of driving up to Salt Lake City almost every night (thaaaaanks, Wiiiiiife), but the orchestra and conductor were wonderful, the soloists were amazing and the dancers were exquisite, especially from such a unique vantage point.  I felt so deluxe using the side stage door and getting a firsthand look at the labyrinthine behind-the-scenes/backstage world of CT and walking up and down the many dozens of stairs in an acolyte robe, and of course you can't have an experience like this without getting close with your comrades, the dancers, musicians, costumers and crew, but especially the singers.  The carpool game was strong, and it was fun to spend more time with and get to know more of them better, eat food together, learning the meaning of merde, even go see a movie in between Saturday shows (Hercule Poirot, you clever man).

I'm in the show on the marquee!  Amazing!!!

They were pretty serious about not posting anything before the show actually started so we were pretty excited when they released this official shot of Chase and Beckanne with yours trulys in place.  I'm dead center in the middle row.

I was glad that Mom and Dad and Grandma and Van and Matt and Cortnie (not pictured, but for their 20th anniversary!) could all come and see it!  It's always fun when you know someone in the audience.  Thanks to BW for the comps/discounts!  Sorry for the blurry picture. :/

Panorama monks!  We took some pictures at call time one night, and first they said to look imposing and then they said to look pious and then they said to smile, so... that's what I did.

Getting pumped for the final sprint (marathon??) of Saturday matinee/closing night.

In the immortal words of Titus Andromedon, "I am keeping this robe." (But not really.)  We loved our diligent costume ladies.

I might have sneaked one picture just after the final curtain.

And then they took one and sent it out to everyone.  The dancers looked kind of naked for a good part of the production.

And one more guerrilla style, a similar shot from the 'bove.  Those wires were designed to keep us from falling to our doom.

(I feel like I started to annoy people by overposting but it was a big part of my life for a solid few weeks so there you go.)

I think the feeling most of us had at the end was a strange mixture of elation and relief and melancholy, and more than one of us probably listened to the recording within 24 hours of final curtain, but it had a really great run.

It's amazing how music can get stuck in your head after a big show like this, even for weeks and (so far) months after.  It was just a cool production and a cool experience, and as much as we would have liked to see Serenade (the first, choir-less half of the ballet), a good time was had by all.  Thanks to Ballet West and Cantorum for helping me check something off before I even knew I wanted to or ever could!

ADDENDUM: I would also like to make known that I was not only present, but ON TIME for every rehearsal and performance in SLC*, which, for those who know me, is QUITE an accomplishment.  (The carpool helped.)

ADDENDUM 2 (4 December): Did I mention this was also a paid gig?  I guess that makes me a professional musician. XD

ADDENDUM 3 (21 December): Did I also mention thanks, wife?  Because yes, she is so supportive of my love of music and desperate craving need for the spotlight!  Ha ha, but seriously, I had a good time thinking of new treats and new places to hide them to surprise her with every night before heading to the stage.  New concert tradition??

* including HALLOWEEN, where I learned I can get from my garage to my seat on stage in ~37 minutes...

England, Or Something Like It

Now that that nasty business is out of the way, how about we bump it down with the much more pleasant news I had been writing before being interrupted?  All righty then:

Last weekend we finally had our official two-year anniversary weekend celebration.  It was just splendid and so nice to get away from everything for a couple of days.  I tried to keep as much of it as possible a surprise from Julie, and it was a real delight to see her reactions to all the unexpected elements as the weekend went by.

We started on Friday night by recreating as best we could our one-year anniversary excursion to the Lake District in England.  The Great Salt Lake is hardly Lake Windermere, but we worked with what we had!  (In fact, there were several lesser substitutions throughout the weekend, but it was fun to see how we could replicate our favorite London activities somehow at least.)  This started with, after a quick stop at IKEA (which is rather European, right?), grabbing some Indian take-away and taking it to The Anniversary Inn.  We've been wanting to visit this lovely location for a while now, and when I saw the rooms they had available, I knew exactly which one we needed:

Roses on the bed and rose petals scattered all over the room!

A delightful dining nook on the other side of the fireplace.

Imagine her surpreeze!  We stayed up late watching About a Boy and eating the nice treats the hotel provided, as well as a couple of really big surprises for The Wife (acquired by me):

Pumpkin Juice!  Straight from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!  She was just amazed to see it appear in the ice bucket!  Thank you, online Universal Store!

The next morning we slept in and had our delightful breakfast in bed, provided by the hotel as well (I don't know why I didn't expect a fairly fancy Bed & Breakfast to actually include breakfast in the deal, but anyway, that was a great surprise).

Ham and cheese croissant and bagel with cream cheese! 'Twere delish.

Um, good morning, bed head.  It was such a wonderful arrangement that we felt it just had to be documented.

After we checked out we took a nice long while touring the other rooms in the place during their open house hours, and it's just amazing. I had to dub it the Disneyland of hotels (not to be confused with The Disneyland Hotel, though The Anniversary Inn actually had some cooler theming in some of its rooms than I've seen in certain Disney resorts).  We even took advantage of their great bounce-back deal, good for any room, any night, and it never expires.  Maybe we'll use it for our 20th anniversary.  Or maybe we'll use it like in January or something.

I think it's so interesting that this great old building used to be a jail.

For the rest of the day we did our best to do as close to London-ish things we could find in Utah.  We went to the British shop and bought some English chocolates and souvenirs, we shared a pasty and strawberry tart for lunch, we spent a few minutes in the Cathedral of the Madeleine (it's not St. Paul's or Westminster, but hey), and we went to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (neither is this the National Gallery, but again, hey).  We had a really nice, relaxing day, and even found our beloved Chow Truck outside the museum for a snack--if you haven't found the Chow Truck yet, FIND IT.

They're moving soon!  It's a shame, this is just the perfect little shop, and such a great location.

Almost as good as the ones you buy in the Tube stations.

... Almost.

There was a Quinceañera going on there.  It was a very fancy affair.

Their foods are little, but they are delicious.

We mostly go for the root chips, though their main features really good too.

And they did have nice big bottles of clear, cool water, shown here by Beautiful Wife.

We made short work of those foods.

We sat in the shade reading and writing a little until it was time for our delicious tapas dinner at Meditrina (a place we visited when we went to see The Lion King last year, again thanks to LivingSocial), and ended up the evening by seeing Mary Poppins at Capitol Theatre.  Review in brief:  It was a really fun show, a little closer to the book, somewhat different from the movie (but with a lot of the same songs).  The cast was really good, and the spectacle was fantastic, and all in all I'm glad we caught it as it was touring here.  One more checked off on my list of Disney stage musicals!  Will I ever see Tarzan or The Little Mermaid?...  Erm, probably not.

Practically perfect in every way.  The lady in the back is probably pretty neat too.

We were really sad to have to come home that very night, but ward choir obligations loomed (though the traffic home loomed even higher--grrrr).  Hopefully, SUREly, we'll be able to visit our beloved London again, but in the meantime, it's nice to know we can relive some of the memories wherever we are, especially since the best part of being in London was being in London together.  Toodle pip!

Ride the Lightning

Last week we heard that Harry and the Potters would be stopping in Salt Lake City during their almost-60-city "Ride the Lightning" summer tour.  The Wife has seen them in concert three times already, but I never have, and we thought it would be fun (not to mention that there's always the possibility that they might not be touring anywhere nearby again).

For those who aren't familiar with them, they're a punk rock band created by two brothers (who both dress as and go by the stage name of Harry Potter, one of them Harry Potter Year 4 and the other Harry Potter Year 7) and a drummer who play and sing songs based on the Harry Potter stories.  The band has been together for 9 years (though they've been through about as many drummers) and played over 500 shows, have released several albums, and they apparently have quite a cult following.  You can find out more about them at the website linked above.

Rocking in a library because, well, where else?

Anyway, we almost decided not to go all the way up there, but last night at the last minute we changed our mind and headed up to catch most of their hour-long outdoor show.  Their kind of music isn't normally my thing exactly, but it was really fun!  The crowd wasn't huge, but it was very appreciative, and the weather and venue were perfect for this kind of event.

Harry Potter Year 4

Now that is one killer Gryffindor sax.

Harry Potter Year 7

Drummer du jour, Sirius Black!

Some of their songs are pretty simple or based on a single phrase of text or a random character, but they're amusing and catchy, and a lot of people were dancing and singing along.  They're a novelty band, but they are pretty talented.  Here are a few choice samples:






They were really funny and totally involved with the audience, I just kind of grinned the whole time.  There were people of all ages, including people with their small kids and people in costume, and some people who just happened to be walking or biking by and stopped to listen.   And it was free!  But we enjoyed it so much we bought a couple of t-shirts.  (I am just amazed that iPhones can take credit cards these days.  Wow.)

Most of their shows are at libraries because, again, well, where else?

This line took forever to get through.  Someone there had my same awesome shirt too.

It was just what I needed after a long day at work, and the perfect way to get even more in the spirit of things for the movie in two weeks.  (TWO WEEKS!!!)  And, if we learned anything from the concert, it is, as The Wife said, that Harry Potter love is alive and well.