“Romeo and Juliet” Comes to Staunton, Virginia, and Musical Moments
From living in Iowa, I’d become quite familiar with driving distances (Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City, etc.) to attend events. So, it was not at all unusual for me to use the planned drive to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to divert somewhat and attend a performance of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. My original plan was to attend the Music Library Association (MLA) chapter conference jointly organized by the Atlantic and the Southeastern chapters and use the opportunity to visit my aunt in Greensboro, then drive back to DC via the Blue Ridge Parkway. This post will cover through the conference, with other posts addressing the rest of the trip. As it worked out, I had added the conference to my calendar a week too early. Fortunately, I learned of the error before I made the drive. However, I did need to adjust my trip so that I would instead make the…
You Study Long,…
Monday, March 7 I woke up in a hotel bed in Bloomington, Indiana. I had one purpose for my stop-through there: to begin filling the holes in the information I had gathered on recordings of Negro Spirituals. At this point, I’ve identified more than 4,000 entries that met my criteria for the project, but quite a few are missing data that I believe are critical to making the results useful to the singers and voice teachers I hope to inform. Although a very early start would have given me more time to study, I decided not to push it since I was still tired from the MLA conference I’d just attended. Still, I was pulling into the parking lot a block away from the School of Music at the Indiana University at around 11:15. (Two things here: one, the students seem unconcerned about the potential of being run over by…
Look Out, Cincinnati… The Music Librarians Are Here! (Part 2)
Saturday, March 5 Over the many years that I have either presented or attended a lecture, I have learned that you have to allow time for setup, especially if you are depending upon the available technology to work properly. Well, for this lecture, I was heavily depending upon not only whatever equipment was available in the room, but my own computer–a two-in-one I had fairly recently purchased for occasions just like that. Let’s just say I was unnerved and not a little pissed that my computer decided to do a 20-minute-long update only 25 minutes before my presentation was scheduled to start without asking me if that was okay. IT WASN’T!!!! The MLA American Music Roundtable had invited me to give a demonstration of my nearly one-year-old online resource, The Spirituals Database. I talked about how the site was organized and who the primary audience was–voice teachers and singers–plus how…
Look Out, Cincinnati… The Music Librarians Are Here! (Part 1)
So, let me start by saying “I missed RB!” Since the trip for the Music Library Association conference was work-related, I decided to get a rental. They gave me this monstrous six-passenger mini-van that I had to get used to driving. Discovered halfway there that I had put the van into S4, which is better suited for mountain driving and burns gas like crazy. The vehicle was okay, but I just didn’t have fun driving it like I normally do with RB. This is, basically, the trip route: Anyway, the conference was headquartered at the Hilton Netherland Plaza in the middle of Cincinnati. Arrived much later than I’d planned–partially due to missing my I-74 exit in Indianapolis and taking a much longer trip around their beltway than expected, so I missed visiting the Underground Railroad museum (will have to make a later trip to get it done). Thursday, March 3…
2016-On the Road Again,… I hope
My travel plans for 2015 kept changing, which forced me to postpone adding my last three of the contiguous 48 states to this year. Had my 35th college class reunion–the official photo to the left, traveled to visit family, and I saw some sites around Iowa (covered on my Iowa?!? blog). Otherwise, a pretty quiet travel year. Hopefully, that will change in 2016. First driving trip on the agenda is for the annual Music Library Association conference. This year’s conference is in Cincinnati. Northern climes in early March, oh joy!! Forecast is for rain and highs in the 40’s. Not great when I’d love to go somewhere warmer this time of year, but it could’ve been colder and snow. This looks like a busy conference for me. I’m scheduled to perform Margaret Bonds’ Five Creek-Freedmen Spirituals on Thursday, coordinate the Paraprofessional Interest Round table and host a dinner at a…
Texas, Texas, Here I Come!
Left a couple of hours later than I’d planned, but made very good time driving my rented ride to Dallas. My roomie is Sarah, a former colleague from my days cataloging music at Florida State University. Not much going on since the conference doesn’t begin until Thursday morning. Going to see if I can get some sleep. More tomorrow.
A Day of “Rest”
So, I’ve got today to get caught up with the work left on my desk in my absence, pick up the car I’m renting for the trip (RB really doesn’t need the added wear and tear), update my GPS, re-edit my music playlists, do laundry and pack for the trip. This is how I’m defining my “rest day.” Mapquest routing of the drive to Dallas: http://www.mapquest.com/embed?hk=yZ0Dem Why drive rather than fly? I’ve never visited that part of the country except as layovers to somewhere else and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. Plus, I do enjoy driving while playing my music at an appreciable level. Gotta get at it. Happy Valentine’s Day!!