Tue Mar 11, 2008
WMSHC Photos
Hmmm, I've noticed a little bump in traffic yesterday. I can't imagine why. Maybe people are suddenly interested in my techno-babble rants. Yeah, that's probably it!
Well, I'm a bit pressed for time this week. So you ain't getting all the photos just yet! But to appease the masses, here's a sampling. Hopefully I'll have the time to put the whole lot of them up before next Tuesday.
Click images to view larger versions.
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Mar 11, 08 | 12:10 pm | 
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Thu Jul 05, 2007
Pioneer Valley All Day Sing Photos!
Amy put the pressure on me to get these photos done sooner rather than later. So, without further ado, here they are:
Pioneer Valley All Day Sing Photos
Enjoy!
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Fri Apr 20, 2007
New York Times Article
My contact at the New York Times emailed me this morning reminding me that the Sacred Harp article went live. I might have forgot, given how busy things are around here. The article is well written and it looks like they talked to a few of the right people. I was sort of nervous handing over my photos with the article sight unseen. The photo editor said they used two of my photos, but I only see one online. Maybe the other is in the print edition.
Link Here
Postscript: I guess the print edition has two images. I'll have to pick up a copy when I go out today. Not sure which image they used for the second one.
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Wed Apr 11, 2007
As Seen in the New York Times
So I guess the New York Times is doing a piece on Sacred Harp conventions in their Escapes section. I was contacted this week by their photo editor who wished to use five of my WMSHC 2007 images to run along side the story. The article is to be published on April 20th and should appear both in print and on their web site. So keep an eye out for it. If I can link directly to their online edition I will do so here. •
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Tue Mar 13, 2007
WMSHC 2007 Photos
Good Lord! Look at the dust and cob webs in this place. Is that a rat in the corner? Oh no, it's just a blog spammer. Oh well.
Anyhow, here are the 2007 WMSHC photos. Enjoy!
The new gallery has the ability to post comments. I would be thrilled if people commented on their favorite photos.
And since I am on a roll, I might start working on the WMSHC 2006 photos too! And now that I remember how to log into my own blog (took a good 10 minutes to figure it out!) I might even make some updates from time to time.
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Tue Mar 14, 2006
Convention photos sneak peek
I am sure that anyone present this weekend would back me up in saying that the 2006 Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Convention was freaking awesome. The singing, the food, the friends; it was all perfect. But alas it is past and I am left with ever so slight postpartum depression. Why do those two days go by so quickly?
I know people will be hounding me for photos and I am afraid with my pending house closing this Friday and subsequent move, it could be a couple weeks before I process all the photos (I shoot in manual mode using RAW so I basically have to develop each photo individually using PhotoShop. What fun!). So to appease the masses here's a small sampling of 375 photos I took this past weekend.
Image 1
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Image 10
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Mon Jan 30, 2006
Alabama By the Numbers
The primary purpose of my blog is to share my experiences and thoughts with others. A secondary purpose is to archive information which I might want to recall someday (writing stuff down on paper never works for me). So this post is a tally of the expenses from our First Fifth Sunday of the Year Sing in Henagar, Alabama. Perhaps this will help others estimate the cost of a similar trip. Remember, these costs reflect a trip for two.
Oh yes, we're back from our trip and resting up. I am too busy finishing my 4th quarter 2005 payroll taxes (**grumble** I should have done this before I left on Friday!) to post an extensive review of our trip. It was fantastic! That's all you're getting for now. To be continued...
Two Plane Tickets: $421.38
(We could have flown for $312 but the departure times from AL were not ideal)
Two Nights in Hotel: $166.40
(It is possible to get discounts on hotels through groups such as AAA. We did not)
Rental Car: $68.27
(I was shocked at how cheap the rental car was. Roughly $20 a day, unlimited mileage)
Tank of Gas: $31.66
(This covered about 340 miles of driving)
Airport Parking: $48.00
Cash Spent: $120
(Estimated: includes meals and other cash expenses)
Grand Total: $855.71
Had we found an ideal departure time from Southwest Airlines, we could have saved about $110. But, there's no sense in spending all this money to have to leave the sing early to make your flight.
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Sat Jan 28, 2006
The Liberty Singing School
We arrived a half hour early to Liberty Church (future note: exit 231, back over 59 and into Henagar crossing, right on Greenbriar, left on Liberty). We exchanged some casual greetings and smiles and waves and soon it was time to settle in for David Ivey's sing school.
The sing school was geared towards the complete beginner, but even so there is always something new to learn or a different perspective to pick up (I did learn that the entire tenor section sings 31t incorrectly). David pretty much went over the complete "rudiments of music" during the morning session, include scales, timing, repeats, accent, you name it. He had a large easel with diagrams to illustrate each section.
We broke around noon for what was advertised as "some snacks for you folks", which turned out to be a 30 foot long table full of food. I love southern snacks. After stuffing our faces on said snacks for 30 - 45 minutes and shaking hands or hugging folks we befriended on our last visit we joined again for the second half of the singing school which consisted pretty much of of a round robin leading and David occasionally calling attention to certain aspects of songs and reiterating what we he had taught us.
After we broke for the day we hung around for a bit trying to connect with some of the people we couldn't find earlier. Amy also met up with a knitting friend from Alabama who as it turns out lives in the same town as David Ivey.
When we got back Amy, Karen, Lynne, Greta, Amy's friend Angelia (and her husband Rob), John and I hung out on the couches in the lobby of the Holiday in and participated in various handic-crafts. Well, not all of us. Soon the snacks had started to wear off and we headed out to Mi Casita, the charming mexican food place we found yesterday. The waiter was a riot and when he heard they we were singers and most of us not from Alabama, he wanted us to sing him a song. And he stood there, never squirming as the six of us sung Liverpool.
Well off to bed now.
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Fri Jan 27, 2006
Our Travels So Far
We said good-bye to our fearless cat this morning around 7:45 and headed off to Bradley Airport (don't worry, we have a cat sitter!). Parking, checking our luggage and boarding was a cinch. Flying out of Bradley is so easy compared to most airports. Our 10:00 flight from Hartford to Atlanta was uneventful, which is how I like my flights to be. After cruising at 36,000 feet for an hour or so were back on the ground at Atlanta around 12:15 and waited to board our departing flight to Birmingham.
Our MD-80 departing Altanta experienced some minor technical difficulties. According to the pilot the thingy-ma-jiggy which starts the engine was not working. So we had to wait until they rolled up some machine or another and resurrected the inanimate engines. Apparently this technical problem was also related to the ventilation system, as we had no circulating air on the plane as we boarded.Tthings were starting to get hot and stuffy quick. Fortunately the engines eventually roared to life and the vents kick in and we were on our way to Birmingham with minimal delay.
Once in the air we arrived in Birmingham 30 minutes later. We claimed out baggage and went off to find our rental car. The first thing I noticed was green trees and shrubs. No snow! No dismally salted roads. The weather was around 60F and some people had taken to wearing shortsleeves, although not to many.
We rented whatever low-budget economy car Budget was offering. I was expecting to get a cheap-ass Hyundai which is what I drive anyhow. So I was quite surprised when I was handed a key for a PT Cruiser Touring Edition. This thing is pretty sweet and a great highway car thing (umm, what is a PT Cruiser anyway? A pimped out mini-van?). Heck, it even sports cruise control. You can probably tell that I am easily pleased when it comes to cars. I was dumbfounded by the alarm and at one point managed to set it off. It took a good 15 seconds of panicking to figure out how to disarm the stupid thing (note to self: do not unlock doors with key, use the keyless entry. My car has none of these techno-gadgets. My car doesn't even have power options).
So we left in our sporty white PT Cruiser and headed north on Rt. 59 en route to Fort Payne. It took an hour and half to reach the Holiday Inn Express from the airport in Birmingham. The guy working the counter was the same nice man who checked us in before. He's way too nice to be human. And he looks exactly the same as he did when we were here 6 months ago. He must be a Holiday Inn robot or something.
We dropped a few things into the room and headed in search of food. At this point I was quite famished and was getting a headache from lacking of blood sugar. My body was also protesting the prospect of eating at the Western Sizzlin. There had to be something better for us vegetarians. And there was! We ended up finding a very nice Mexican food restaurant about 3 miles past the WS (note for future visits: bear right at the FoodMart intersection). The restaurant was great: authentic Mexican colors and decor. The wait staff was all mexican speaking and in the background latin music softly played. They even had a upright piano painted in brilliant blues, oranges and yellows. Quite tacky! This place was top notch in my book. I was in culinary heaven after having fasted since 10AM. The food was delicious and the service was surprising accomodating. Amy and I both ordered vegetarian meals and Amy asked for extra sauted onions and mushrooms and veggies. They went above the call of duty and brought us a whole plate of steam carrots, squash, cauliflower and brocolli drizzled with butter, all cooked to perfection (you hear that Western Sizzlin? Ain't no mush veggies at Mi Casita!). I don't think they even charged us extra (so we tipped quite generously). We snarfed down our food and packaged the rest for a second meal.
After, we headed around town looking for a yarn store and a Curves for Amy. We found both, all within a mile of the Holiday Inn. Now we are just kicking back in our room whittling the night away. We hoped to hang out down in the lobby on the plush couches and see if we recognized anyone coming in the door. But this gigantic family of 20+ members has taken up the lobby and the breakfast tables (kids, parents, grandparents, trucker hats). They must be having a flippin' family reunion down there. Gosh! They've been down there since 5:30 or so (it being 9:00 here now). I think they know we depise them. I swear they give me the evil eye every time I head out to the landing to see if they are still there.
Anyhow, that's the trip so far. Flying down is definitely easier than driving and if you get a good rate you can pretty much make the trip for the same cost (especially if you cut out a hotel stay or two by compressing the trip into just a weekend trip). I think we'll be making the trip this was from now on and will probably attend more sings now that we know how easy it is. Highly Recommended.
Tomorrow morning we are off to Liberty Church in Henagar for David Ivey's all day singing school. Should be a great day.
Over and out for now...
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Mon Jan 23, 2006
Going Back to Alabama
I have been quite neglectful of this blog for the last couple months. Between work and the holidays I just couldn't find the impetus to make a post. That and the fact that my life seems to stuck in a never ending loop: wake up, eat, work, eat, workout, eat, work, eat, sleep, rinse, repeat!
As my dear readers might recall, Amy and I headed South to Alabama in July and had a wonderful experience singing and making acquaintances. We've been counting the days until this coming summer when we could make the trip again. It didn't really dawn on us that we could pretty much head down to Alabama at anytime during the year. Why wait for summer? In fact, it makes a sense to head south during the colder winter weather. Haven't birds been making the trip age eternal? And hey, birds sing too. It was just too logical an idea to pass-up.
So, after checking flight times and hotel bookings and deciding that I could only afford to take time off from work if we came home on a Sunday night rather than a Monday we decided to take the plunge. We'll be flying into Birmingham, AL and renting a car to take to the Holiday Inn in Express Fort Payne and staying until Sunday. Saturday is an all-day singing school led by David Ivey. I am extremely excited to attend the singing school. I can not afford to take the time off required to attend Camp FaSoLa, so this is the next best thing. The following day is the First Fifth Sunday of the Year sing. Both events take place at Liberty Church in Henagar, AL.
Of course, Amy has managed to wrangle up one of her KnittingHelp.com meet-ups. I can't help but think of Tyler Durden flying around the country starting fight clubs. "The first rule of KnittingHelp.com is you do NOT talk about KnittingHelp.com". Okay, maybe it doesn't work.
Updates, pictures and more to follow...
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