And finally, I had all the paperwork together and $40.00 bucks to get a Delaware license. The last time I'd gone I'd forgotten two pieces of mail with my home address but this time I remembered and handed to a former police officer, 6' 5", who played basketball and football in HS, but blew out his knee on the job and has had several surgeries. I think he got this desk job as a replacement but he goes 250. I'd mentioned that at 6' 0" and 200 I felt like a tiny fellow compared to some. There was employee walking in back of the worker who looked like a former NFL lineman. Just a big guy.
The Flyers win tonight in Calgary, 4-1, and I think I'm going to bed before the ball drops on 2013 and signals the beginning of 2014. I'll touch up on this blog in the morning, 1/1/14.
Earlier, prior to the Flyers' game, which started at 9 p.m., and after the NewsHour broadcast with Hari Sreenivasan, substituting for Gwenn Ifill and Judy Woodruff, I listened to an extraordinary piece composed for Yo-Yo Ma and conducted by Alan Gilbert. I wrote and posted this on FB thanks to a page from David Bianculli's TV Worth Watching web site, something I have mistakenly poo-pooed in the past when he's been on Terri Gross' Fresh Air:
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and New York Philharmonic Director Alan Gilbert work well together ... this new piece was extraordinary, "Azul" by Osvaldo Golijov. Don't know if any other string player could pull it off with his genuine and heartfelt pizzazz. And with all its enthusiastic froth, there's no falsity in his playing. There were other players, two who handled, literally, various percussion instruments and a third who played the accordion, that made the work strange but engaging. All the musicians, played unbelievably, thanks in large part to Gilbert's conducting (he knew the difficult work cold) and of course, the faultless execution of Ma.
“Azul,” a cello concerto that Osvaldo Golijov wrote for Ma and the Boston Symphony two years ago. The score did not find its true form until Golijov rewrote it a year later for another cellist, Alicia Weilerstein, inspired by her youthful passion. ... Ma and Golijov are artists made for each other. A composer of multiple personalities, Golijov has drawn his voice from the Argentina of his birth, his Eastern European roots, his Israeli education, and America, where he has chosen to live. Golijov thinks in grand terms and then chaotically brings everything he knows to a project. “Azul” (blue in Spanish) is in four connected movements: “Paz Sulfurica” (“Sulfuric Peace”), “Silencio,” “Transit” and “Yrushalem” (Jerusalem). Some of the imagery comes from Pablo Neruda’s poem "The Heights of Macchu Picchu."http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/01/review-yo-yo-ma.html
“Azul,” a cello concerto that Osvaldo Golijov wrote for Ma and the Boston Symphony two years ago. The score did not find its true form until Golijov rewrote it a year later for another cellist, Alicia Weilerstein, inspired by her youthful passion. ... Ma and Golijov are artists made for each other. A composer of multiple personalities, Golijov has drawn his voice from the Argentina of his birth, his Eastern European roots, his Israeli education, and America, where he has chosen to live. Golijov thinks in grand terms and then chaotically brings everything he knows to a project. “Azul” (blue in Spanish) is in four connected movements: “Paz Sulfurica” (“Sulfuric Peace”), “Silencio,” “Transit” and “Yrushalem” (Jerusalem). Some of the imagery comes from Pablo Neruda’s poem "The Heights of Macchu Picchu."http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/01/review-yo-yo-ma.html
I have washed, for the sake of mom, the blanket that dad had on him when he died over 3 weeks ago and removing it from the dryer it smelled particularly fresh and lovely. It keeps mom warm and though his smell may be gone, I can go around the corner, into the records room in dad's old office and inhale the clothing that hung in the living room closet for years. There he still exists and there are no plans to take those jackets and shirts to the cleaners.
He would always align the pillows just so. Dad was a stickler in some respects.
He wanted it done right. The blanket stuck with him until the end and I just
washed it this evening and wrapped mom up in it to keep her warm.
He would always align the pillows just so. Dad was a stickler in some respects.
He wanted it done right. The blanket stuck with him until the end and I just
washed it this evening and wrapped mom up in it to keep her warm.
