next year is the 500th birthday anniversary of thomas tallis and to commemorate, the PACEM choir here is doing a special performance of tallis' "Spem in alium" in april of next year.
you might remember me writing about this some time ago:
oct 16, 2000
oct 22, 2000
jan 20, 2003
it's a piece I've always wanted to learn...and it has special meaning for me as it's the piece that i turned on when i got home from work on sep 11. (the last space shuttle disaster had me listening to durufle's requiem - seems i turn to music when i'm upset.)
I found a bit of it online -- different words, but it's the same music.
this is probably the first thing that has made me willing to give up a night of dancing. but when i clicked on the link above and the opening notes started, i got shivers all over again...
i haven't worked in an environment that takes halloween so seriously before. here, you either dress up or they take to you with a bag of face makeup!
last night was the lindygroove halloween party. tango heels, a deep-vee'd dress, black shawl and a flower in my hair. spanish lady.
today for work i pulled my pink sequined dress and ballet slippers from the closet, found a wreath of flowers for my hair, and added a pair of butterfly wings. fairy. (i think this costume will make a reappearance on halloween as well...)
hehe. i don't think i've dressed up for halloween in *years*. :)
while i was out looking for wings yesterday, i found my dress for the apartment association's mark of excellence awards. a quick background: in high school i found a dress that i fell in love with. it was red, satin, long, and close fitting. too long, unfortunately, and not really able to be shortened because of the pattern around the hem. flash forward to yesterday when a red, satin, close-fitting, long dress caught my eye. this time, not too long and for what little length i really should have taken in, i can shorten it at the shoulders. can you love a dress? i do.
with all the rain lately, i've seen something i haven't seen in ages - rainbows. last week on the way into work, i saw two full rainbows stretching across the sky - a full double rainbow. people in the cars around me even slowed down to look.
this morning the tail of a rainbow from a rainstorm over the ocean followed me to work. no, really. it was there with me from the freeway interchange all the way into the office.
i can't help but think that days that start out with rainbows are going to be good...
...and the peace replaced her pain
and on her face and in her soul
she felt the drops of that sweet, sweet rain...
-Dana Glover "Rain"
well, i can't believe i lasted 10 months, but i finally broke down and got a betta this afternoon. i miss the little guys. it's my mom's fault, really. when i was trying to cure her betta i remembered how much i liked having them around. :)
so now i have a little company up here in my office...cute li'l guy. now i just have to come up with a name. question is, do i continue with my music theme that i had before...?
i never realized how much i missed rain until it started raining here yesterday. i think we actually hit a record number of days without rain - by one day. this is when i love my office. being upstairs, it's so soothing to listen to the rain hitting the roof and skylight. i usually have my overhead lights off and just use my desk lamps, so i sit here in semi-darkness surrounded by two pools of light. in this land of no seasons, it actually feels a bit like fall...
back from new york. the trip was fabulous and basically only made me want to go back again. i had to keep remind myself that i was there on a dancing trip so i wouldn't be disappointed that i didn't get to see as much as i wanted. i did find time to visit ground zero, take a boat tour around mannhattan island, stick my head in the metropolitan museum of art (though the exhibit i really wanted to see - the costume exhibit - was closed, i did get to wander through the instrument exhibit and see benny goodman's clarinet and point out what a hammered dulcimer was to andrew), and wander a bit through central park. we had dinner at an excellent french restaurant our last night there - wish i could remember the name of it...or where it was!
and dancing. wow. there were about 1200 at the basie ball - very little room to dance! i ran into a lot of people i knew from texas when i started dancing, and a few people i knew from other places and dance events. all the dances were crowded, so the after hours tended to be my favorite venues. and then there was the group photos. definitely an interesting study in racial mixes between the different generations of dancers. but i was there and have proof floating around in several hundred cameras as well as the official pictures!
i was so sick the day before i left i didn't know if i'd be able to go...i'm glad i started to feel better. now i want to go back!
hard to believe this year is almost over. even harder to believe that in just 5 days i'm going to be in new york! it just hit me that i still have to do laundry, pack, find shoes that are dressy but still danceable, re-find my travel info for the bus and train that i have to take from long island, find my ticketless travel info...!
aie. about the only thing i have lined up is a ride to the airport. and that's a feat 'cause my plane leaves at 6:55ish.
guess i know what i'll be doing on sunday!