Some Backtracking–Ann Arbor, Detroit and Motown
(Blogger’s note: the trip mentioned below occurred several months before I finally got around to posting about it. Sorry about that.) In October 2019, I published my first book, So You Want to Sing Spirituals. Just the month before the book was set to be released, I was invited to the University of Michigan to be a panelist during their African American Classical Music History conference in Ann Arbor. The theme was, “Reflecting on the past…Reaching toward the future, II” The four-day conference was a wonderful opportunity to touch bases with colleagues, both those I’d worked with previously and a host of folks who I’d “met” on social media, in the small world of classical music. And the program, led by host Dr. Louise Toppin and Videmus, was jammed-packed with events throughout. This was also close to my XXth birthday, so one of my nieces invited me to stay with…
Bidding a Fond Farewell (Pt. 2)
RB and I have visited all 48 of the contiguous United States. I even took her to the Atlantic Ocean’s Newfoundland, the easternmost point of North America. We’ve been to Key West, Florida, seen the Pacific Ocean in Washington State, the Golden Gate Bridge shrouded in fog. My mother even dared to boldly go with me on one of my adventures. I’ve posted most of the stories here, but there are some that I’ve chosen to keep to myself. One particular story would have distressed my family–especially my mother–but I’m going to share it now because after six years, it’s finally funny and a great example of how things happened with RB and me. As posted at the time, I was on Day 15 of a 16-day marathon from Iowa to Fargo (North Dakota) to Seattle (Washington State), down to San Francisco (California) and back to Grinnell. Since I was…
Bidding a Fond Farewell (Pt. 1)
My 2006 Food 500, which I’ve dubbed the Red Barron (or RB for short) because of the way she handled herself on the road and anywhere I deigned to take her, and I have been through a lot since I bought her in 2009. I’ve noted many of our road adventures on this site and its predecessor at https://singin1.wordpress.com. I’d hoped we would have many more road trips still to experience, but then it turned that RB was in the wrong place at the wrong time during a drecho that hit Iowa on Monday morning, August 10. This New York Times article described the extensive damage throughout the area. I was blessed to be at home inside a structure that provided plenty of protection from the storm’s destructive forces. Other than the experience of being without power for four days, I was just fine. RB was not so fortunate.…