MikeyandNate.com

So this is Christmas, and what have we done?

2009-12-20T15:59:00.006-05:00

Another year over, and a new one just begun.

Let's talk gratitude, y'all. It has been a very full year for us, and there are many things to be grateful for. Perhaps you have no interest in reading on (let's be honest, year-end letters tend to be snoozes), but you are one of those for which we are grateful. We are lucky to have so many friends and family that care for us, and I doubt we tell you often enough.

So, thanks. You rock.

And that's why we've sent you this rock art-inspired holiday greeting.

Now to that part wherein we share with you some what's been up with us this year. We'll try to keep it brief.

Last winter, Nate came back from stage managing a show in Beijing, China to begin work on the Broadway show, God of Carnage. In fact, his first production meeting for that show was held on the day of President Obama's Inauguration, and spirits were soaring high in New York, across the country, and around the world, as W had finally left the Oval Office for good and we were looking forward to much-needed improvements in national policy.

Sigh. Remember that?

As Nate began rehearsals for that show, his health took an unpleasant turn, and after a couple of months of testing, he was diagnosed with benign cysts that just needed some quick meds and a closer eye in the future, so that was a relief.

Mikey began to seek out new opportunities for performance, and found a great one in the Dessoff Choirs. His first concert in March was recorded for commercial release. The CD, Glories on Glories, is available for download now on DigStation, and is coming soon to iTunes, Amazon.com, Emusic, and a whole host of other music sites around the interwebs.

Immediately after God of Carnage opened, Nate slid on over to another Broadway show, The Norman Conquests, a zany trilogy of comedies played in repertory.

Come the Tony Awards, there was plenty of good news. God of Carnage took home 3 Tonys: Best New Play, Best Direction (Matthew Warchus), and Best Lead Actress (Marcia Gay Harden), and The Norman Conquests won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play. A very exciting night.

In June, Nate ASMed the debut of three new works by Jennifer Muller/ The Works (the same modern dance company that performed in China) at The Joyce Theatre, a beautiful dance space in Chelsea.

At the same time, Mikey was living every singer's dream: singing at Lincoln Center. The Dessoff Choirs were invited to perform both the Britten War Requiem and Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the NY Philharmonic as a part of maestro Lorin Maazel's farewell concert series. Both concerts were broadcast on the radio as a part of the "Live from Lincoln Center" program on NPR. The Mahler concert was also released on MP3 as a part of the Philharmonic's The Complete Mahler Symphonies collection, making this Mikey's second commercial recording in the space of a few months.

October brought hundreds of thousands of marchers to Washington, DC, to rally in favour of Equal Rights for the LGBT community. As part of Broadway Impact (a Civil Rights advocacy group started by Gavin Creel, an actor Nate worked with a few years ago), Nate and Mikey proudly marched alongside Cynthia Nixon, Judy Gold, Stephen Schwartz, and many of our Broadway colleagues, including a couple of friends from God of Carnage.

Sadly, the New York State Senate failed to pass a bill in December that would have provided for Marriage Equality in New York, but an executive order from the governor dictates that our Canadian marriage be recognised in any state agency. It's progress, but we're still fighting for full equality here, and we hope you are, too, in your home states.

As the year comes to a close, Nate continues to substitute stage manage at God of Carnage and for the monthly Project Shaw reading series, and Mikey continues to sing with the Dessoff Choirs and Christ Church Rye. We hope this find you well, and that you'll reciprocate with every exciting thing you've been up to this year.

Don't forget: War is Over, if you want it.

Much Love,

Mikey & Nate

Me on the radio

2009-06-12T14:31:00.002-04:00

As you may know, I'm mid-way through performances with my choir and the NY Philharmonic (another post about that will come another time). I just got this note from the powers that be about broadcasts of the two concerts! I didn't see any St. Louis radio stations on the list, but once I can find the audio streams online, I'll post the links:

Next Thursday, June 18, at 9pm, the War Requiem will air on WQXR. The following Thursday, Mahler 8 will be broadcast live on WQXR, starting at 7pm. The broadcasts are part of "The New York Philharmonic This Week," originating from Chicago station WFMT, and audio streams are available for two weeks following the broadcast. The Mahler performance is expected to be available for download on iTunes at some later date.

http://nyphil.org/attend/broadcasts/index.cfm?page=broadcastDetail&broadcastKey=227

http://nyphil.org/attend/broadcasts/index.cfm?page=broadcastDetail&broadcastKey=228

Obamaland, Part 2

2009-06-09T21:13:00.002-04:00

Ah, D.C.... You are such a delight.

So I went back, this time with husband in tow, and had a lovely mini-vacation. It was so nice to be back and have time to do whatever we wanted - no awful tour buses or children around (at least, that we were associated with). The condo rental turned out to be quite nice, actually. Pretty simple studio situation in the basement of one of the less-well preserved rowhouses in the U Street cooridor - nothing fancy, but totally nice and worth the price (there was a vague smell like old cheese, but that dissipated once you were in the room a few minutes). The bathroom was by far the best part, all marble and new and spacious with a big jacuzzi tub. Being accustomed to NYC bathrooms which put the closet back into watercloset, it was quite luxurious to be able to BOTH be in the bathroom at the same time without one of us standing in the tub.

It turned out we were walking distance from Dupont Circle, the "gayborhood" of D.C., as evidenced by the many rainbow flags along the route to Whole Foods on our first night (turned out we couldn't get on the wireless there, so we had to do largely without the whole weekend *gasp!*). This meant there were a bevvy of nice restaurants and bars within easy reach, which we managed to take part of despite trying to do this on the cheap. The best food we had by far was at the local Ethiopian restaurant (who knew?). I had had Ethiopian before, but it had been awhile, I'd forgotten how good it is (and cheap). We ordered a vegetarian sampler platter to share and left totally satisfied for I think like $10 or $12. Too bad we had wasted almost $100 at a crappy upscale bistro the night before. Why is it that something as exotic to us as Ethiopian food should be so cheap, but a burger costs like $20?

We did the whole Smithsonian thing mostly (again, cuz it's free, sensing a theme?), stopping by several of the museums we hadn't seen before on our last trip together in 2002. There's a new Museum of the American Indian that they were just starting to construct in '02 that was pretty neat, and had an amazing cafe featuring traditional foods from every type of indigenous culture in North America (and chicken fingers for the less adventurous), which was awesome, I higly recommend if you're ever in town. We did the memorial walk, along the basin from the Jefferson to FDR (awesome) to Lincoln, and we didn't get to go in the White House, but we spent an hour or so in the Vistor's Center. The Capital is still closed to tourists, sadly, but we were able to get right up clost and personal, which was not the case in '02 for obvious reasons. I thoroughly enjoyed the National Archives, not really for the Declaration Indepence & Constitution (which are faded almost to the point of being completely blank), but for their permanent collection full of interactive video and computer exhibits about documents that shaped history - telegrams from WWI, radio addresses from various presidents, all kinds of declassified military stuff. All very nifty, if you like that sort of thing.

The best was the International Spy Museum, though, I have to say. The permanent collection was pretty cool, and we didn't get to spend enough time in there, actually, but they have all kinds of exhibits with James Bond-esque secret weapons and stuff like that. We did the "Spy at Night" thing, which is this murder mystery-type game where you and a bunch of other people use spy techniques to work together to solve this case. It was only slightly cheesy, as those types of things tend to be, but it was totally up our alley. We also played some spy-themed trivia games in the cafe afterwards and I won some free pigs in a blanket (or as they call them, Pigs Undercover). There was a real former spy there fielding questions from people as well. We didn't really know what to ask her, but we eavesdropped on her conversations with some other guests (guess the spy didn't see that coming).

And then there was the actual thing we went down there for, the wedding! Oh yeah, that! It was really beautiful: simple, elegant, tasteful, very Shannon. A couple of my friends whom I hadn't seen since I left St. Louis were there, and we had such a blast catching up, including Jeannie who has to come to New York and stay with us now (right?)!!! Shannon is singing all over the country, Rachel almost has her doctorate in choral conducting, James is managing a bar, Jean's photography is getting shown all over St. Louis, and Carole is still Carole. It was great to reminisce and to hear about all the ways Webster has changed since I graduated (can't help but feel like it became a real university right after I left, I was a little jealous). I do miss my Webster friends. Le sigh...

I sent out an evite for my birthday the other day and it made me realize how few friends I really have here in town. It's so hard to hang onto people in this city - people come and go so fast, and the ones that stay are often hard to keep in touch with because everyone's schedules are different, or they live somewhere far-ish and everyone's too broke to go out somewhere in the city. Somehow it always seemed easier to go meet up with people when you could just hop in the car and drive, and while I love the subway and not owning a car, it does seem like much more of a chore to take a train ride to NJ, or Brooklyn, or Staten Island, or blah... We found ourselves thinking "we should move here" while we were in D.C. more than a few times. I have a feeling it was mostly vacation syndrome - ie: we were enjoying ourselves more there because we left our jobs and worries at home - but it was definitely the type of place I could see us living, if there was a way for Nate to make money there (not that he makes much here). When you start thinking about the difference in cost of living, the presence of culture in a smaller atmosphere, attainable real estate, more down to earth people, it starts to look pretty attractive after living in the harsh city for nearly 6 years. Of course as soon as we left New York, we'd start complaining about how small and slow-paced everything is, and how not everything's accessible by train...basically the grass is just always greener.

At any rate, here's some pics from our trip...enjoy!

Shannon's Wedding in D.C.

Obamaland, Part 1

2009-05-04T22:34:00.003-04:00

I recently embarked on a trip to D.C. with my church choir, to sing at the National Cathedral. It went pretty well, overall, despite coming right on the heels of a particularly gruelling Holy Week sing-o-rama. We were a little bit smaller of a group this time around; I guess after 2 weeks in England, a weekend in Washington, D.C. didn't sound quite as thrilling!

We were short 3 kids in particular because of some crazy parents (go fig). There was one 8-year-old who had been singing with us off and on throughout the year...well, perhaps singing isn't the right word. He had been standing with the choir, usually backwards mid-anthemn, and swinging his arms, not singing, not even holding his music, and generally just being a distraction...the kind of stuff you might expect from one who is clearly too young to be there. So our choirmast finally asked his parents to keep him home until he's old enough to behave. Well, you'd think he'd beaten the boy and strung him up from the steeple with the ridiculous response from the kid's parents. They sent this *crazy* email to the entire choir, apparently in an attempt to garner support, but they only ended up exposing their insanity to the whole congregation. They said all kinds of stupid things, among them my favorite thing of all time - accusing us all of being "unchristian" as a means of getting their way. I just LOVE it when people pull that one out of their hats and think they are righteous in doing so. I would love to be that high and mighty, it must feel quite nice up on your lonely cross in Crazytown. At any rate, the end result being that the parents are now refusing to let their other two kids, both of whom are pretty strong choristers, from participating unless all three of them can. Because, you know, all kids are exactly the same and should be treated as such no matter the age difference. *sigh* It is times like these I realize how great my parents really were. If I pulled that kind of crap, they would have blamed me, not the adults. My sincerest apologies to all of you out there who are teachers or otherwise work with small kids and their parents. I would say you should be sainted, but that's probably unchristian of me...

At any rate, it was 4.5 hours on a bus again to D.C. with a group of small children - not too bad, as we kept them entertained with Wall-E (which I hadn't seen, and very much enjoyed) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (which I slept through). We stayed at the National 4-H Youth Conference Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland - a little scary, as our last experience with such a place was the Baden Powell House in London, complete with its 2-inch thick mattresses and airplane-sized bathrooms. This place was rather nice, though, quite like an ordinary hotel. We went straight to the cathedral and did our Evensong, and had a tour of the crypts to visit the mausoleums of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, among others.

After dinner at an enormous (seriously, there were like a dozen dining rooms in that place) Mexican restaurant, it was back to the 4-H center in beautiful Chevy Chase, which is completely suburban and nowhere near anything remotely interesting or a Metro station to get to something that is. Luckily the evening was saved by a hastily purchased bottle of bourbon from the liquor store near the cathedral (booze and Jesus - it's a winning combo), and we had a little hotel party with some of the adults ala our time spent at Sarum College in lovely Salisbury. Although, whereas The Close in England had old world charm and medieval architecture to enjoy, Chevy Chase has...well, at least we had that bottle of bourbon.

The next day we did the whole National Mall thing. The kids were scheduled for a visit to the Air and Space Museum, which I've seen and honestly was seeking a quieter afternoon away from our kids and 8,000 others, so I ventured off on my own. I ended up spending most of the afternoon at the National Gallery with some European Masters (funny that most of the art at the U.S. National Gallery is from Europe) and wandered through the sculpture gardens and around the area a bit. Then we were off to the National Zoo, which was oddly enough, back in Chevy Chase, MD. That was fun, as I hadn't been to a zoo in awhile (Nate doesn't like them), and I managed to find myself in the company of adults away from the kids once again, except that we had like 3 hours to kill there, which is just too much zoo for one day. It didn't take long before the two other gay gents in my group started watching for animals of another sort basking in the sun of the first warm day of spring, which was probably more entertaining than the ones behind bars.

Having fulfilled our 3 hour safari, we we off to Baltimore, where we would sing the Sunday services the next day at a lovely old church downtown. Not much to see in Baltimore - a somewhat depressing trip to an Indian restaurant where I got trapped sitting at the "old people" end of the table had me calling for an early night. We did have an amazing hotel room there, though, in a suite on the 34th floor. The only weird thing was there was only one bed instead of a double, so the guy I was rooming with offered to sleep on the couch, which was fine with me as he snored like a rusty chainsaw, and I felt that made up for the resulting lack of sleep the previous evening. Sunday morning went great - better than at the Cathedral, actually, the acoustic was very live and warm, whereas the sound tended to get lost in the enormous space of the cathedral. Afterwards, we were back on the bus for the journey home - unfortunately for us, so were like 2 million other people and we did a lot of sitting in traffic. It being the Sunday after Easter, most likely a lot of families were on vacation that week, and everyone was on the NJ Turnpike, joy. We ended up having to go a different route which meant the NYCers couldn't get dropped off in the city and had to go all the way to Rye, then take the train back to the City. Kind of a bummer, but I'd take the Metro-North over a bus any day. Not necessarily quite the exciting trip that England was, but it was an experience, I will say that! It was so much fun that our choirmaster promised that we're not going to do any more overnight trips for at least 2 years (none of us objected).

It was so much fun, in fact, that I'm going back to D.C. next week. A friend of ours is getting married, so Nate and I are going down a few days early for a little getaway after 4 months of him being in perma-rehearsal. We unfortunately waited a little long to book a hotel, and as luck would have it, it happens to be the same weekend as Georgetown's commencement, so hotels were booked and pricey. I spent a full day searching for something we could afford that was remotely near a Metro station, and ultimately came up with 1 option at the end of one of the train lines that was still more than we wanted to spend (where was it? You guessed it - Chevy Chase, MD). I was about to book it when Nate had the idea to check for bed and breakfasts. I was skeptical that we'd find anything, but the first thing that popped up actually turned out to be a cute little condo rental right in the heart of D.C. for the same price we would have paid to stay in a crappy 1-star hotel. It's walking distance from a Whole Foods, supposedly in the heart of a hip area, and did I mention that it looks really cute in the pictures? Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't turn out to be a crackhouse or a vacant lot or something... If you don't hear from me again, you'll have your answer, stay tuned!

Trip to D.C. with the Christ's Church Choir

Back on Track!

2009-04-13T21:25:00.026-04:00

Whoa.

It's been a busy couple of months. It always seems like February, March & April are the busiest time for me, which seems sort of odd. But then again, I think it's always been like that since I was a kid - Spring was always full of shows and projects and the last minute push by teachers to cram a year's worth of knowledge into a few short months. So I guess it only makes sense that the tradition continue into adulthood. It sure is exhausting sometimes, though! Gives me a reason to appreciate summer, I guess: no lessons, no church, no need to set an alarm on the weekends (ah, what I wouldn't give to have one day where I'm up later than 6am for awhile!).

The most recent news is that I've gotten back on the bike! Finally all healed and warm enough to give it another go. My office recently moved up the road to the other side of the George Washington Bridge, so I no longer have to trek up and down that treacherous hill to Edgewater. It's actually kind of perfect that our new office opened right about the same time the cold finally broke, as the bus options that go there are a big sack of ass, and it's actually faster to bike there (ridiculous, ain't it? Although, if you can see the traffic on the bridge in the pic to the left, you might understand why). I'm easing my way into the new commute, but so far it's been a nice ride. It's mostly uphill on the way to work (a series of long, manageable hills instead of one big Oh-my-fucking-god hill) and a nice downhill coast home. This is the opposite of what my commute used to be, and MUCH easier to cope with that way. Often times I was too tired at the end of the day to climb that damn hill and would end up just taking the ferry, which was the more expensive leg of the trip to begin with. Oh well. It's a new year, a new commute, and I have no ferry to wuss out on, so I'm hoping I will be able to stick with it more this time around! That and I really need to lose a good 20-30 pounds which this and the lack of food options anywhere close to our new office should hopefully take care of. Check out the pic of the Manhattan from the GW bridge at the bottom - amazing that there is actually greenery on the coast of Manahattan, isn't it?

I did lots o' singing this winter. My church choir sang at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, Long Island in February, then at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (the massive Episcopal cathedral in Upper Manhattan) in March, and we are about to embark on a trip next weekend to sing at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. In addition, I sang the part of Obadiah in the oratorio Elijah with my church and the Rye Presbyterian church in March, had my first concert with the semi-professional chorus I'm singing with in March, just finished up Holy Week sing-o-rama yesterday at my church and another church in Bronxville, and I'm currently rehearsing the choruses for both the Britten War Requiem & Mahler's 8th for a series of concerts I'm involved in at Lincoln Center in June. Whew! I'm king of exhausted just listing all of that, frankly. I got through it all unscathed and even managed to sound pretty good most of the time (I think). Now just another month and and half and I'll be done with lessons and church for the summer. Not that I don't love what I'm doing, but I'm ready for a break!

I'm really finding myself loving choral singing more and more. As a vocal student, the emphasis is always on opera, which I enjoyed, but never really saw myself doing. It's much, much harder to make a living at choral singing, of course, which is why I guess why most classical vocalists become opera singers, but I'm really happy just getting to sing in lots of different venues, with the occasional solos (although they can really never be frequent enough for my liking), and having my day job to keep me grounded and pay the bills. As much as I hate my day job some (most) days, it gives me the security and freedom, oddly enough, to do what I really enjoy doing without having to worry about paying the bills. I think I've found a good balance!

Nate is doing well for himself, too, so much so that I haven't had more than a few hours here and there to see him since, well....really January. Which is great, I'm glad that he's finding a lot of work, and both of them Broadway shows, especially in this economy, but it would be nice to remember what he looks like occasionally. He was the Production Assistant on the play God of Carnage through mid-March, and then as soon as that one opened (literally the next day) he started The Norman Conquests. Carnage was hilarious - it's all about these 2 couples (played by Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini & Marcia Gay Harden) who get together to discuss a schoolyard fight between their two boys and devolves into basically a 90-minute tantrum between the 4 of them. It was a hoot, and got rave reviews, not to mention that Nate really had a blast working on it.

Norman Conquests I haven't seen yet (seeing it this week), but it's actually 3 plays that run in repertory (meaning, a different one plays each night), and then there are 3-show days where the whole trilogy shows. Apparently, each show stands on its own, or if you see them all together they interlink - like an exit from one show is an entrance in another. Sounds like an interesting concept, so I'm getting ready to see all three this week. The show opens Thursday and then he will essentially be done, except for training as a sub for the stage management team, and then I get him back, for a little while I hope.

It's tough being the husband of a theater person. On the one hand, you really want him to be working as much as possible, because it's good for his career and for our pocketbooks, but on the other hand, the hours are long and hard on a relationship. Luckily ours is strong enough that we always manage to make it through. That, and I'm enough of a hermit that a little time alone doesn't bother me too much, as long as I know it's not a permanent arrangement.

The kitties don't always cope as well with an empty house, and get very upset when we're not home much. Titi for example, is meowling desperately in the other room trying to get me to come pay attention to her. So I guess I best get to it, if I know what's good for me (ie: If I don't want the 3rd pile of vomit on my bed in the course of a month). Ah the joys of pet ownership...

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-26T00:05:00.002-05:00

Ho, Ho, Whoa!

2008-12-13T21:32:00.007-05:00

The Griswolds have met their match... Yeesh!

Today, my friend Sarah introduced me to the neighborhood of Dyker Heights in Brooklyn (it's waaaaaay the fuck out there, past Bay Ridge), which is known for it's um..."fantastic" X-mas light displays. The neighborhood was first developed in the 1890s as a WASP-y suburban enclave, full of beautiful and tastefully appointed Queen Anne estates like this one, and once dubbed "the handsomest suburb in Greater New York." And then, sometime around the 40's, the Italians moved in and changed all that. *cough cough* Not to sound too racist against Italian-Americans here - I do so love my Italian-American friends - but I often find their taste rather...questionable. There seems to be a "bigger is better" mentality, and a constant competitive streak that pervades their culture (at least here in the Northeast), resulting in a need to constantly outdo one's neighbor in tacky displays of wealth. It becomes immediately evident in the modern homes that have replaced the 19th century originals in Dyker Heights: horrible stone and concrete monstrocities, each bigger and more ridiculous than the last, and with yards full of fountains, statues, and gigantic stone lawn ornaments.

So, it's no surprise, then, that the X-mas displays are a tad...over the top. I think within a half-mile radius, there is probably enough electricity being wasted on X-mas displays to power the entire borough of Queens. It's pretty amazing, and by amazing, I mean terrible, and by terrible, I mean AMAZINGLY terrible! It was really extremely odd in a wonderful way to wander from house to house looking at these ridiculous displays and marvelling at the fact that we are, in fact, still in New York City. It definitely felt like we'd stepped into "Christmas Vacation" on crack. We just laughed and laughed, and froze our butts off. It was delightful. I hope to make it an annual holiday tradition to make a pilgrimmage to see the lights, and next year, I'll bring my nice camera (currently with Nate in China) and a wide angle lens to get some better shots. Here's a nice sampling below. Enjoy!

Tacky Xmas Lights in Dyker Heights

Weddings and national holidays and choirs, oh my!

2008-12-06T17:27:00.007-05:00

In the past few weeks, several of my fondest wishes have come true (although that whole "financial independence" thing hasn't quite panned out just yet). First, we finally married off the Old Maid Jessica (thank god)! It was a lovely ceremony, and not terribly stressful (at least, it felt more relaxed for me, but then, it's slightly less stressful when it's not your wedding, I guess), and we got a little bit of time to visit with friends and family when we weren't running errands, attending official wedding functions, carving pumpkins, running around town taking photos....ok, so maybe it was a *little* stressful, but we had fun anyway! I sang Panis Angelicus: a huge step up from the Celine Dion/Andrea Bocelli duet "The Prayer" that I sang at Jessi Poepping's wedding (sorry, dear), and had to give the best man speech at the reception. Guess which one I was more nervous about??? The speech went over well, if a tad lengthy, and in fact I had several people tell me it was one of the best they'd heard in awhile (who knew I could be so witty and verbose?). The best part was when the priest went home with my Jewish voice teacher at the end of the night... Er, rather, he drove her home, so we wouldn't have to leave the reception early to do so. But still, what I wouldn't have given to have heard what that ride home conversation was like...

After we got back, we fulfilled another dream of mine by finally painting the living room. Woo! (My dreams are somewhat small and sad, aren't they?) We had been holding off on it, because we wanted to make sure we were going to be able to stay here before we did a huge project that will need to be undone when we move out. Since we got the renewal lease, and they didn't jack up the rent TOO much, that gave us the green light. We chose a reddish-orangish brown, called "Toasted Chestnut". There's some pics below, although it looks decidedly more orange in the pics than it does in real life. It's funny how little things like a coat of paint can make a place feel more like home. It turns out, we got it done just in time, as we had a house guest the next weekend... Jessica was three weeks into her marriage and feeling the need to get away (I so understand), so she came up for a short visit to NYC. It was fun; we got to have our traditional un-turkey thanksgiving since she couldn't be there for the actual day, and we terrorized some children at MoMA by teaching them that breasts are not volcanoes (it was just like old times)... Actual Thanksgiving Day was nice too. I made the whole thing myself, including handmade pumpkin ravioli which turned out remarkably well with a friend's borrowed pasta maker. I don't think I'll be running out and buying one anytime soon, but it was yummy for a special occasion!

My last bit of exciting news is that I joined a new choir that will be performing at Lincoln Center this June! That is definitely a dream of mine, and while I won't be a soloist or anything like that (the soloists are all major professionals from the Met, including Chris Brewer, who's affiliated with Webster and singing part of the Ring Cycle at the Met this season), it's still pretty awesome to be singing at THE performing arts center of the country, and with the NY Philharmonic, no less. The group is called The Dessoff Choirs, a semi-professional group that's been around since the 20's and has gained an excellent reputation - thus, they are often called to do big symphonic works around town like these two concerts in June. The first concert will be Britten's War Requiem, a stunningly powerful modern setting of the Latin mass for the dead, and the second, Mahler's 8th, also known as the "Symphony of a Thousand" because of the massive number of musicians needed to perform it. While I'm excited about the Mahler because I've always loved his music, and I'm not terribly familiar with this one so it will be a good chance to delve into another of his greats, I'm elated about singing the War Requiem. I discovered this piece only a few years ago, and was just blown away by it. It was written for the re-dedication of Coventry Cathedral, a 14th-century church which was completely destroyed by bombing during WWII, and replaced by a modern structure in 1962. Britten used this juxtaposition of old and new by taking the traditional Latin requiem that composers have set to music since the dawn of time, and interjecting it with poems written by a British soldier in the trenches of WWI. The whole piece is basically conceived as an anti-war protest, giving it both a historical context and a modern poignancy that those who have opposed this war we're in now can related directly to. That, and it's just a fucking beautiful, lush piece, written for choir, boy choir, and two orchestras. We're working on a concert for March, too, that is all American choral music, which will be pretty cool, lots of Ives, but nothing compared to the two NY Phil concerts. The group seems pretty cool, too, meaning, they do interesting, complex music, the rehearsals are intense and productive, and it's not one of those groups where I feel like I have to be terribly social if I don't want to (you know me, I don't like to talk to people).

The only other thing going on currently is Nate busily preparing to head to China. He has some mixed feelings, I think, being that it's only for a week and he won't have much of a chance to see anything, but it will be a great experience for sure. The girls and I will be lonely next week, but we'll do our best to make up for it by eating meat everyday. I'm sure I will make him write a post all about his experiences when he gets back, so stay tuned!


Jessica's Wedding	Unthanksgiving Day

Green and Black and Blue: How Going Green Kicked My Ass (Literally)

2008-10-12T18:45:00.001-04:00

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, leaving me feeling at times stressed, exhausted, and even bloody, but it wasn't all bad. Starting with the best and working backwards, this weekend Nate and I took a little trip to celebrate our first anniversary! We were both too busy on Tuesday and didn't even actually see each other on the day of our real anniversary. Luckily, thanks to certain laws and such, we have two anniversaries to celebrate - an American one, and a Canadian one (much like Thanksgiving, only with less dead animals being consumed) - so our Canadiaversary happened to coincide with an unprecedented weekend off for Nate. I decided to take advantage of this by planning a little getaway for us. I booked a hotel in the Poconos, not far from where we camped on our honeymoon, and we spent Saturday hiking at Bushkill Falls, and then headed to 6 Flags for Fright Fest (where Nate's two favorite things, amusement parks and Halloween, collide). We had an amazing weekend, and I think (annoying children and suburban parents aside) it was the perfect getaway. I think my favorite moment of the whole trip was during our visit to the Olive Garden, where we always manage to end up on any road trip. The dining room was packed with families, and there was this little girl, couldn't be more than 2 or 3, in the booth next to us that kept climbing over the diving wall between booths and sticking her face right in Nate's. About the 10th time this happened, when the parents chose not to do anything about it, Nate took matters into his own hands by yelling "FUCK OFF!" in her face. The girl didn't cry or seem upset by this, but rather promptly sat down. Needless to say, she didn't bother us much after that; however I would like to give kudos to the parents for not being conscious enough of their child to witness any of this transpiring. So, if you've ever wondered where your kids learn these 4-letter words, perhaps we've solved the mystery for you!

It was a great trip, but a little exhausting, coming off of 2 weeks of singing, singing, and more singing. I just finished my second year of singing at a temple in New Jersey for the Jewish high holidays, so most of the last two weeks was spent either working, commuting to work, singing at the temple, rehearsing at the temple, commuting to the temple, singing at my church, rehearsing at the church, commuting to the church, or sometimes all of the above all in the same day. All of this would be fine, except for the fact that my church is in Westchester, the temple in northern New Jersey, and my work in another part of NJ, and of course, all public transit in the metro area is designed to go to and from NYC, not between cities outside NYC, so sometimes a trip that would take 20 mins in a car would take 2 hours or 3 bus transfers to do. Luckily I have a friend who loans me her car sometimes, so that made things a bit easier, at least this last week when my arm was well enough to drive again. Not very Green, and really, almost more stressful than taking 3 buses, as street signs are not really New Jersey's forte (at one point, I came to a fork in the road, and my destination was printed on a sign in the middle of the fork with an arrow pointing straight ahead, as in, exactly in between the two forks. WTF, New Jersey??), but it did save me a lot of time.

Which brings me to my last topic: my recent interaction with the pavement on River Road. As you know, I've been being a good little boy and going Green with my new folding bike, biking across the bridge to work a few days a week. About three weeks ago, I biking to work on a normal sunny morning, and as I got almost to the bottom of the gigantoid hill that is the first mile of River Road after the GW bridge when I skidded on a gravelly patch and wiped out. It was partially due to the steep incline, which meant I was going a little faster than I normally would have, the shitty, shitty condition of the roads, and the fact that my tires were just a tiny bit under-inflated that morning, something I was kicking myself for afterwards, because I had noticed this and thought I could make it without stopping to inflate and making myself late to work. Luckily, there were no cars around when I fell, and I had time to get up and move the bike before any traffic passed. My bike basically dropped where it was, but I unfortunately skidded a few more feet before I came to a stop, leaving me pretty banged up. My friend Angela whom I work with was kind enough to come get me and take me to a nearby emergency clinic, and she didn't even laugh or anything. Despite it being the most inefficient clinic in the entire western hemisphere, I got my X-rays which confirmed that I had broken no bones. They did manage to put me through a great deal of blinding pain while they scrubbed all the dirt and gravel out of my wounds with a scrub brush without anything to numb it, though, so that was nice. I also sat there for two hours before anyone bothered to bandage up my wounds, so I had to sort of sit at a weird angle in a patient room such that I would not bleed on anything, but accomodate the fact that I couldn't really move my shoulder much. In fact, some chick tried to hand me a sling and dismiss me after my X-rays were done despite the fact that a large amount of the skin on my elbow was missing, covered with dirt, and open to the air, until I mentioned that the doctor hasn't actually come to see me yet and it might be a good idea to have someone look at this - truly a great group of professionals.

I had to go back the next day for a follow-up, which meant somehow getting to that clinic again, but this time by myself on the bus, immediately after which I had to get to a rehearsal at the temple. I got there fine, but of course then getting from one New Jersey neighborhood to another for my rehearsal meant taking 2 different buses, and when i got to the place where I was supposed to catch the first bus I discovered that that bus didn't actually, um...stop there. I tried to walk around looking for another bus stop with the right bus number on it, and even called Nate to see if I could just walk, since it was only 3 miles to the temple and I had 2 hours to kill, but all Google maps could give me were directions that involved me walking on the NJ Turnpike. So to recap, New Jersey is not so good at: Providing adequate medical attention, maintaining safe road conditions, providing useful public transportation, providing accurate bus maps for pedestrians, providing accurate directions for drivers, parenting children, and basically, not sucking in general. Do you all understand even a little bit now why I fucking hate the entire state?

Anyway, I'm mostly healed now. I just have a little bit of scab left on the elbow, and my shoulder is vastly better after not being able to move it at all for about a week, and having very limited movement for another. I can almost, but not quite, raise my arm over my head again...progress! I still have some remnants of the larger bruises, and just a little bit of achiness in the ribs when getting in and out of bed, whereas at first I had to have Nate literally pull me out of bed in the morning. My bike survived mostly intact; the seat is a little torn, there's a few scratches, and one of the quick-release clamps for the folding mechanisms is completely bent and will have to be replaced. All very minor things, I should be able to get back on (yes, I will) very soon. Also, for those of you who were wondering, I was wearing my helmet, and it survived without a scratch on it (thanks, Ann! I told you it would make the blog)! I've included some pics of my injuries - warning: these are not for those with weak constitutions. Enjoy!

Ow.

Technical Difficulties

2008-09-10T17:02:00.002-04:00

The audio files in the last post are now working properly (I think?!). Have a listen if you couldn't get into 'em before!

A Taste of the UK

2008-09-02T21:48:00.011-04:00

Turn the speakers on for this one!

I finally got all the recordings I made of the services in England transferred off the high-quality, but computer-unfriendly MiniDisc recorder and onto the web! Here's some highlights from our trip, enjoy!

Salisbury Cathedral: David Hogan's Magnificat

Salisbury Cathedral: Howell's Nunc Dimitis (my big solo!)

Wells Cathedral: Tompkins Responses (kinda boring, but I got to pretend to be a priest by leading the choir in the responses and chanting the prayers)

Wells Cathedral: Stainer I Saw the Lord (I'm featured in a quartet of soloists starting at minute 4:00)

Chichester Cathedral: Traditional Carol The Joys Seven, in honor of the feast of St. Mary the Virgin. Listen to those kids! If you didn't know them, you'd think they were angels...

St. Mary's Church, Rye: Gabrieli Angeli, Archangeli

These are for you, dad. Can't believe it's been 10 years...

UK photos!

2008-08-19T23:37:00.003-04:00

The photos are now up! I managed to edit my 560+ photos down to a lean 300. :) Had my first day back to work today, and I'm already looking forward to my next vacation in October... Still not back on the right sleeping schedule, either. I woke up at like 5am this morning, and am trying to force myself to stay up past midnight to even myself out. Stupid Greenwich Mean Time...

Mikey's UK Choir Tour

Chichester, Arundel, Rye: There and back again

2008-08-18T18:58:00.004-04:00

So Chichester was our last cathedral engagement of the trip. We did an actual mass there instead of just Evensong like we'd done all the other places, so there was a bit more music and a bit more rehearsing to be done. It was actually a little luxurious at Chichester to just spend more than 24 hours in one place and not have any sightseeing to do that day, and to have more than just one hurried rehearsal before the performance. We were also staying in an actual HOTEL, with real amenties, even though I ended up rooming with a woman who made it clear she was not too pleased at being paired up with a dude. The performance came off rather well, as the recordings will attest. It's a little bit of a shame that the town of Chichester didn't have much to offer, since we actually had time to relax and see it at a leisurely pace, but I think we were all over the charm of cathedral towns by that point anyway. There was an amazing Indian place that I missed, apparently, as everyone went there the first night while I was enjoying some time away from the group, although I did meet up for drinks later at this weird bar that was built in what appeared to be a small church bulit in the same style as the cathedral (all stone and gothic-y). The last night we were there, we went to this bar for dinner that turned out to be the place all the 20-year-olds in town come to party, and we saw a guy get literally dragged out of the place by security at one point. Lovely. Anyway, evening came, and morning followed: the ninth day.

At last we were on our way to Rye, but first, a stop off in the castle town of Arundel. Arundel castle has been the home of the Dukes of Norfolk for the last several centuries, and is still home to the current duke today (unbelievably!). The medieval castle keep was fascinating, offering some dramatic views of the grounds and some insight on the early days of the norman part of the castle. The main part was a lot like Windsor - full of gaudy priceless antiques that didn't really interest me much, but there was an astounding library that contained orignal copies of Shakespeare and the like. I hurried through the castle and spent most of my time just enjoying the grounds. They have a large expanse of gardens that were quite peaceful and needed by this point in a long group trip. We also saw the duke's private chapel inside the town's Anglican cathedral, which is behind a screen and sectioned off, where Roman Catholic services are held for the duke's family (apparently the dukes of Norfolk have always been the catholic holdouts, whereas all the others belong to the Church of England). It was kind of odd - you could see the chapel from the Anglican side of the church, but you could only enter it through the grounds of the castle. It was kind of like they were trying to do some sort of "you don't see this chapel here" Jedi mind trick.

Finally we arrived in Rye, home of our sister church in England. We were greeted by a throng of host families, which we would be staying with, along with the town crier, in period costume, the mayor, rector of the church, and the photographer from the local paper. Apparently in a town of 4,000, we were a big deal! After the town crier made a proclamation in our honor (complete with Oye! Oye! Oye!s), we were whisked away to our home stays. Me and the two bass section leaders (whom I stayed with in London) were assigned to this really cool single guy who owned a duplex about a 5 minutes' walk from the station (to be fair, everything was really a 5 minutes' walk from the station, the whole town is only about 10 minutes' walk end to end). He was really worldly, having lived in Africa & Indonesia, and had lots of stories to tell. I think we had the best host our of the group, by far (and the youngest. I would have said he's probably in his 50s, whereas the average age of the other parishoners was approximately 107). He fixed us a great dinner, and then took us out to a local pub, whereas most of the other people in our group were in bed by 9:30. Not bad!

The next day, we did our Sunday morning service at the Church of St. Mary's, Rye, England. This was definitely a little closer to our usual Sunday services, in terms of the music, size of the congregation, and acoustically as well. The only difference was that we were singing in a 905-year-old church instead of a 100-year-old one. After church we got a tour of the old town hall and learned a little of the history of Rye, and then we were treated to a church lunch in the garden of one of the parishioners, a beautiful, huge bit of lush green garden you would have never known was there behind the houses and storefronts on the cramped cobblestone streets. After lunch, our host took us up into the church tower, which was fascinating and full of tight spaces to squeeze through. We saw the 8 massive bells and even were standing there when they struck the hour (which nearly caused me to crap my pants). The view from the top was just gorgeous - row after row of preserved houses, surrounded by green pastures as far as the eye could see. You just don't ever see anything like that on this continent, I tells ya.

Sunday evening was our final Evensong, again at St. Mary's. A last minute change in repetoire meant I got to do the solo from Salisbury again, and we really packed the place. The choirmaster told us afterwards that someone came up to him afterwards and said that they had relatives who heard us in Salisbury, and urged her to come here us in Rye because we were so good! Quite a compliment, considering the vast number of really amazing choirs from all over the world that pass through Salisbury and the other renowned cathedrals we sang at. We had a big, final dinner at a nearby inn to close the trip, where many toasts and awards for the kiddies were given out, and then we were off the next morning at 6am for home!

And here I am, back in Queens, hating the weather (from a cool, overcast 65, to a sticky 86 in one day), but glad to be back. And I think Nate and Ani and Titi (who is licking my hand right now, which is rough and unpleasant, but cute) are glad to have me back. Overall, I think the trip went spectacularly, and there's even talk of doing another one in three years (I think I might be ready again by then). I'm glad that I got a chance to go, not only to sing in some of the most amazing spaces in the world, but to get to know some of these people that I work with every week a little better. I think I truly feel like part of the group now, not just the hired help, and it was a good affirmation that singing is something I need to keep in my life, even if it's not my main focus. I hope you all get a chance to visit England someday, and if you do, don't spend it all in London. London is great, but to really experience the color of the country, you have to get out to some of these little daytrip locations, where the pace is slower and things are still done the way they've been done for the last thousand years or so. I think that's the thing I take away more than anything when I go overseas - the layers upond layers upon layers of history that have passed on the European continent that we just don't have here. Here, something that's 100 year old is ancient; over there, it's not really old until it's at least 500 or so. I can't tell you how many times a guide would point out "modern" features added in the 19th century to an 11th century building and just be astounded by that fact.

Thus end my story. Go in peace.

Glastonbury, Wells, Winchester & Stonehenge: The journey gets old and mystical

2008-08-14T13:24:00.005-04:00

We left early Wednesday to head to Glastonbury, the site of the ruins of an ancient Abbey. There's a lot of legend surrounding the site. It's more or less fact that Joseph of Arimathea fled to England following Christ's death and established an Abbey on that site, which was once an island. The original was wooden, but two successive stone abbeys rose over the centuries on that same site, until the dissolution of the abbeys under Henry VIII, which saw it destroyed and much of the stone repurposed elsewhere.

This site was sooooo cool. I don't know what it is about ruins that intrigues us humans so much, but it really was amazing. To stand and think about there being 2,000 years of history there was just kind of mind boggling. There are a lot of legends about Glastonbury having been Joseph of Arimathea's home, and how he might have been a relative of Jesus, thus people think Jesus may have actually been to England in his lifetime. Apparently, people also believe there are these bands of energy that circle the earth, and that several of them intersect right at Glastonbury. So it's a pretty important mystical place, although I can't really say I felt anything out of the ordinary. There also is a crypt claiming to contain final resting place of King Arthur and Guinevere, although, apparently, there are many such spots marked all over England, and no one really knows for sure. It did make me want to read "The Once and Future King" though.

After Glastonbury, we headed to Wells for lunch and our next engagement. It was pretty much the most stressful time here so far. First off, my watch stopped, and I had to get the battery replaced or I would never know when it was time to be at the next rendevous point for the bus. That ended up taking longer than expected, so I didn't go up to the cathedral with the group, which would have been fine, except that our stupid tour guide sent me a bass-akwards way through a construction zone to the choir room, and when I got there, I could see it, but there was no entrance that was unlocked. After running around for about 10-15 minutes trying to get in, finally got someone to tell me through the window how to get in - guess what? Through the frigging front door! I was so pissed at our tour guide for that; it wasn't the first time he'd been less than helpful, and it just made me even more frantic than I was about to be in the service.

So after all of that, we had a pretty stressful & ragged rehearsal, due to the fact that we were doing some pretty big 8-part stuff and hadn't looked at it in a few months. On top of that, I was responsible for chanting all the sung prayers instead of the priest, something that had been mentioned months ago but never rehearsed. Sheesh! Talk about a nail-biter of a service. It ended up fine, but we were all really stressed out the whole time, and we sort of got rushed out the door after our service ended, so we never really got any time to see the Wells cathedral for more than a few minutes (and what little we could see from the enclosed choir area during the service). We also had one of the worst dinners yet; some kind of gross, overcooked chicken thing with sauce at a hotel across the street - only the second of our dinners with the whole group at once, but neither has been edible. Another gathering in the suites on our last night staying in Salisbury, along with some booze made it all forgotten.

This morning I said a fond farewell to my private room in Salisury, and we moved on to Stonehenge. So. Freaking. Awesome. It really is something that everyone needs to see once in their lives. It's surround by this enormous field of gentle rolling hills that goes on for miles in every direction, with nothing around except a few flocks of sheep and cows in the distance. That more than anything makes you wonder how the hell people 5,000 years ago dragged these stones 30 miles over the land into position. This afternoon we saw Winchester cathedral, which was the best by far, in terms of the architecture and the history in it. It began as a Norman cathedral right after William the Conqueror came to power, and was modified on the inside to reflect more gothic style later on. It helped that we had a real, live tour guide taking us around and telling us stories. She was an adorable old English woman who told us funny stories about stuff like how Jane Austen was buried there, and they had to ask the old girl to shove over a few feet so they could run a steam pipe through her crypt when they installed radiators in the early 1900s. I also had lunch at the supposed oldest bar in England, where I had fish and chips, and tried Shandy - a mixture of beer and lemonade. It sounds so awful, but it was sooooo good, I'm a little ashamed to admit.

And here I am now, in an actual hotel in a weirdly suburban little part of Chichester, a town on the southern coast of England. I haven't ventured out yet to explore, as I wanted to take advantage of having early evevning free time to chat with Nate, but it was very, very weird to turn into a 21-century parking lot with a Mc Donalds and an awful looking chain restaurant selling "New York style italian food" after spending all this time staying in ancient cities. Supposedly the area right around the cathedral is a little more old-timey and quaint, so I'll have to go out and grab some dinner by myself later, as I skipped out on the group dinner outing. I'm a little over the group togetherness by now, if you couldn't tell. It's fine and all, and it's a good group, but I never really truly feel at home here, especially without my Nate-y. Who is great-y. Ah well, only 3 real days left, and then a half day of travel and I'm home!

390 pics so far!

Salisbury & Bath: The journey continues...

2008-08-12T17:09:00.007-04:00

Monday we moved to Salisbury, a Medieval walled city about a hundred miles west of London. Uh, yeah. It's just as awesome as that sounds, it really is. "Quaint" is really the only word that can be used to described the town, and I'm not talking lame "Ste. Genevieve, MO" quaint, this is the good quaint. The kind of good quaint that you don't want to leave for a really, really long time. Not saying I'd want to live here, I thrive in a city, but if I ever had a country home, this would be the place.

The town itself is very small, and it really is walled by a big stone wall with iron gates. You literally have to be home by a certain time or you'll get locked out for the night. We're staying in the dorms at Sarum College, which is just across the lawn from the enormous Early English Gothic cathedral, which is celebrating it's 750th birthday this year (and this is partially under a ton of scaffolding and being cleaned up). The pictures don't really give you a good indication of the size of the thing, except for the fact that I literally can't fit the whole thing in one shot with my camera without a wide angle lens, even standing in front of the college (and it takes a good 5-minute walk from the cathedral doorsteps to the college doorsteps). Say what you will about the Anglicans, but they kick the Catholic's asses in art and music every time.

Speaking of music, we had our first performance that night, an evensong service, which is the type of service we'll be doing for the bulk of the trip. Evensong is basically the Episcopal equivalent of Evening Vespers; that is, an evening prayer service that occurs each night at most cathedrals, and usually once a month or so at most parishes, and can be spoken or sung. When it's sung, it's suuuuuuuuung. They sing everything. And like Vespers, it's very old-timey and typically full of lots of archaic language and high-church music. Think Benedictine monks, but Anglican chanting is in 4-parts.

At any rate, we kicked some major ass. As you can imagine, the singing in an enormous space like that echoes for days, and we brought lots of huge, screaming choral music to do in that space. Totally awesome. That night, we went for dinner outside the walls - there's nothing really inside the walls except for the church and school and some residences - then back to one of the suites for some drinks and merriment since we had to get home before we were locked out. The rooms are such a vast improvement from the scout lodge - very modern, brand new bathrooms, real beds with TWO pillows! My favorite part actually are the keys to the rooms, which are old-timey skeleton keys - awesome (see left). I'm in my own little single room, which is such a nice little reprieve, and I'm enjoying it now while I can. I needs my space, I does. The party was down the hall in a suite two people were sharing that had a kitchen and a separate sitting room. We had a great time, laughing and shouting way too loud for the amount of singing we'd have to do the next day. We also listened to a bit of the recording from that evening (I brought my mini disc and plan on recording every service - clips to follow when I get home), and generally imbibed too much (got rid of quite a bit of the Maker's Mark from JFK), but had a good time. I also went out and took some shots of the cathedral lit up all dramatical-like at night, which was pretty sweet. I was asTOUNded by the silence out in the courtyard that night. I don't think I've been somewhere so peaceful and serene...well, ever.

I paid dearly for my merriment on the bus this morning, though. We took a daytrip to Bath, an ancient Roman settlement about an hour and change northwest of Salisbury, and you can imagine the combo of whisky and long bus rides was not good. It was pretty sweet though, and well worth the pain. It's the site of naturally-occuring hot springs, over which a Roman bath and temples were built. At first, I was not really into, especially since I was queasy and moving slower than the hordes of little old ladies present, but my architecture/history/musuem nerdery finally kicked in and I enjoyed it muchly. I especially enjoyed the room in which they had done a very 21st-century-museum-style video projection on the walls to simulate men coming in and out of the baths in various states of dress. The europeans sure love their naked men!

Tonight was the night of my big solo in one of the settings of the Magnificat & Nunc Dimitis we'd brought, also at Salisbury cathedral (the Mag & Nunc are standard at choral evensong - there are thousands of settings by famous composers). I was somewhat nervous, just because, well, we hadn't rehearsed it since June, if not earlier, actually. That and the organ console is above us, so I had no eye contact with the organist, and just singing a solo in a freaking grand 750-year-old space like that is humbling. And slightly terrifying. It went well, though, I think I nailed it from what I can tell from the recording. It was good to get that one out of the way earlyish; I have two more solos, but they're solo trios so it's not the same when you're singing with two other people. There's always that thought in the back of your head that if you fuck up, maybe the audience was listening to one of the other people at that moment. Afterwards we did the whole photo shoot thing here, which was a nightmare as the kids were REALLY wound up after the service and really could not stand still long enough for photos. Honestly, though, that was the first time that the kids were really obnoxious; it's been pretty smooth so far. This might be because they're usually off in their little chaperone groups, so the only times we're really all together at once is when we're singing. Lord knows I don't envy those chaperones.

Tomorrow we're off to Wells, but we're coming back and staying here in the Salisbury dorms one more night. I'm taking it easy and staying in tonight - I'm having no repeats of this morning's hangoverosity. Plus, this bed is so friggin comfy I just don't want to get up. I'm sure the others will get along smashingly without me!

222 photos so far!

London: The trip so far

2008-08-09T18:59:00.007-04:00

Our story begins at JFK, and our departure from New York. I was peer-pressured by people who were, ironically, much older than me, into buying some duty-free hooch to take with me on the trip. To be fair, everyone WAS doing it! :) I assumed there would be plenty of time to enjoy and share on the plane, but the guy I ended up sitting with also bought a bottle of whisky and kept refilling my glass from his bottle, so I never really got the chance to break into mine. So now I have this bottle of Maker's Mark and I don't really know what to do with it. Oh well, I guess either the opportunity will present itself, or I'll take it home with me (if I can even do that).

At any rate, the flight was rather uneventful, and far less painful than I thought it would be, for a 7-hour flight (perhaps the booze helped). All of the seats had their own little TV with a menu of movies, TV shows and games that helped pass the time. I had expected to sleep most of the time, but I think I only got maybe 2 or 3 hours at most. Not actually a good thing, since we left at 6:30pm, and would be arriving at 6:30am local time, with a full day ahead of us. Likewise, getting through Customs was quick and uneventful, aided by the fact that we were able to use the group travel line and get through all at once. Then it was onto the bus and off to our first destination...

...Which was Windsor Castle. We actually got done so fast at the airport that when we arrived, the castle wasn't even open yet. It was pretty nifty, and hard to imagine that people still actually live in this building furnished with 900 years worth of furnings in it. After the castle, we had tons of time to explore the town surrounding the castle a bit, and then we were off to our lodgings. There wasn't enough money to get a group our size into a hotel, so we're staying in a hostel that's mainly used for Scout troops. Basically, the rooms are like dorm rooms, only possibly smaller, with a bathroom the size of an airplane bathroom that somehow has a shower crammed into it. We had an awful dinner at the hostel (if you didn't know already, British food is shit), and then I ventured off to explore the neighborhood we're staying in.

First of all, the weather is beautiful. It was high 80s in New York when I left, and it's upper 60s in London, so it's like I just got off a plane that landed in Fall. I wandered past Hyde Park and happened upon our Kensington store, so I popped in to have a look. It was funny to see that all the new venues that have been popping up in the new stores we're opened stateside were all clearly copied exactly from this store. I wandered about some more and passed by the V & A museum right next to the hostel, which was open late, so I spent a little time there. It was a pretty cool museum, and at least it kept me awake a bit longer. By that point I was pretty exhausted, having been up for more than 24 hours, but not wanting to sleep until at least 9 or 10 to beat the jetlag. I wish that I could say I had an amazing, well-deserved sleep, but the 10-year-old girls running around screaming in the hallway, and the horrible springy mattress with only about an inch of padding proved otherwise. But it was enough.

Saturday we were up bright and early to do all the typical touristy London things - a walking tour for photo ops at Westminster Abbey, Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament, the changing of the guard, and the Tower of London. It really is spectacular seeing the crown jewels, and yet also a little frightening when you think about how much they're really worth and how all that money could've been better spent over the enturies. That night a group of us decided to see a show on the West End. We sent one person to go get tickets to Joseph from TKTS, but when he got there, the only available options were Zorro, and Buddy: The Musical. Buddy it was. Oh dear. It was possibly the worst thing I've ever seen, even worse than you might think a jukebox musical about the life of Buddy Holly might be. It was so bad that it actually became rather entertaining, especially with the group of queens from the choir I was with. Let's just say there was a lot of clutching of pearls when the actor playing Richie Valens came out in his stretch pants and started shaking his hips (and other such things)...

Sunday, our last day in London, was church and more church (exciting, huh?). We went to Westminster Abbey for Sunday eucharist, and watched a choir from New Zealand in the shoes we're about to fill at Salisbury cathedral tomorrow. They were pretty good, but didn't blow us away for sure. It was a choir of men and boy sopranos, so I did get a kick out of the old-timey frilly high collars the boys wore. Later that afternoon, we headed to Southwark cathedral for evensong, which is where we really got our confidence back, meaning the choir there suuuuuucked. They even did one of the pieces we're going to be doing, and we know we can do better. One of our choir members even fell asleep on her feet at the service, and had to literally be caught from falling down!

Tonight was probably the best night thus far. A group of us went for Indian at a nearby restaurant and really bonded. I felt like I really connected with some of these folks for the first time, and it made me really glad to be here with this particular group of people, and not a bunch of assholes like so many other choirs. At one point in the evening, someone asked me if I could do anything in the world, would I want to sing full-time, and my answer was unequivocably, "no." I wasn't a surprise to me, but it was sort of good to say it out loud and to talk to some people who understand where I'm coming from and feel the same way as I do - that singing is something I do for me; that it's an avocation and not a career. I need the stability of a fulltime job, and something that I do just for me that is a creative outlet that in unmarred by the stress that comes from a job. I had a similar talk with my friend Jean in the summer, and I know that my life is as it should be in that matter. It's sometimes hard to reconcile those two worlds, though, and it's something I've been struggling with a bit lately, so it was nice to hear that I have peers who feel the same way, and that it's ok to not want to have a fulltime music career. This doesn't mean I'm going to stop singing, or that the singing I do is never going to be anything more than what I'm doing now, it just means I need to do what I want to do and not worry about it.

Right, anyway, tomorrow we head off to Salisbury and our first gig. Wish me luck!

Pip pip! Cheerio! And all that rot...

2008-08-05T23:44:00.002-04:00

Well, my time has finally come. I'm leaving for England in two days! For those of you not in the know, I'm the tenor section leader at an Anglican church in Rye, New York, and our choir is doing a tour of the U.K. for the next ten days. We're starting out in London for a few days of sightseeing and then we're off to sing at 3 cathedrals and our sister church in Rye, England, with a few stopovers to see some castles and Stonehenge on our way. It should be awesome!

I'm a little bit terrified, and not only because I haven't even begun thinking about what I'm taking with me yet... I'm not really worried about the music (although it is unsettling that we haven't looked at any of it in two months, especially after the touch-up rehearsal this evening), more about being in a foreign country for ten days with a group of people I've never spent more than a few hours on Sundays with. The last time I was in Europe was likewise with a group of folks I didn't know really well - I did London, Paris and Madrid in highschool - and I actually ended up having a fantastic time and making a lot of new friends. I'd like to think that'll be the case this time around, but I'm of course worrying about it anyway.

At any rate, I will have my computer with me, so I'm hoping I'll have some time and internet connectivity to send updates your way while I'm on the road. Stay tuned!

Where the heck do you live anyway?

2008-07-09T20:58:00.007-04:00

Some of you have been asking for pics of our apartment. I'm not gonna lie to you - up until now, it's been too dirty to photograph. But, good news, everybody! We recently had some people over for game night, so we took the opportunity of a clean house to take pics of our new(ish) digs! So now you can see where we've been living...er, for the last 6 months or so... Also, I included some pics from our game night, if you're interested.

Not too much new around these parts. I helped open the new TriBeCa store today, so that's been keeping me busy recently. I've been keeping up with the biking - not doing it everyday (the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak), but at least 3 days a week so far, which ain't bad. My thighs are in a lot of pain, but you know, it's a good kinda hurt I guess. Just gotta keep biking through it until they acclimate, or my bones change shape or whatever. Haven't lost any weight yet, but that's kinda because my body is compensating for all the sudden exercise by craving three times as much food as I usually eat. Lousy body...

I'm off to go ice my legs for tomorrow's trek!

Pics of Our New(ish) Apartment

Game Night: 4th of July Weekend Edition

Back from the Lou!

2008-06-26T20:07:00.003-04:00

I'm back! And I have photographic proof of my travels... Enjoy!


Jessica's Mystery Dinner	Mom's Retirement Party

Back to the Bike....... or Not.

2008-06-16T21:50:00.005-04:00

Holy Crap. I rode Mikey's new bike today for the first time, and it was awesome. Maybe it's just that it's so lightweight, but I felt like it was so much easier than riding my old Target bike. I can't wait for him to go to St. Louis this week so that I can take it out for a spin.

I admire his gung ho bike-riding routine. I don't think that I could do it. Then again, he has to take up to 4 forms of transit in one day, and my ass just rides the subway and walks, so I guess it's a different set of circumstances.

Besides, I can be more of a priss than him. I don't think I could deal with the elements and risk showing up to work looking less than fabulous.

I've noticed that there's a palpable difference in the amount of respect I get from a company based on my initial attire. That's why I always try to look extra-sharp at first rehearsals. I've certainly noticed that it's a bit harder to command a room in shorts and a T-shirt than it is in a jacket and my nicer jeans.

Bullshit? Give it a try. Granted, if you don't, like me, have the opportunity to work with entirely new groups of people all of the time, you probably will get more responses of the "What are you all dressed up for?" vibe, but I'm a fan.

My friend, Josh, went through a period when he started a new position recently. He said that he wanted to find what worked for someone at his level, so that he was neither over- nor under-dressed, and so that he was dressed in attire that suited his role. He wanted to dress "like management, not like an engineer."

So cultivating a specific look can also be a good thing. I've been rocking the T-shirt/ tie thing for a while now, although I've found it's harder to pull it off when I do it less frequently. Going for a distinctive signature look is certainly good branding, but it only works when you're consistent. I need to work on that.

I think it might be time hit the thrift stores. Anyone want to join me?

What's up with Nate??

2008-06-15T13:35:00.002-04:00

Hmmmmmmm....... I'm not sure where to start. Here's a brief recap of things that have been going on with me.

It's been 7 months since the wedding, and my lazy ass has still not finished the thank-you cards. I PROMISE-- they're coming!!

I'm working on 4 shows right now-- NOVEMBER, a new play by David Mamet (my first Broadway show). The blog for the show is pretty amusing, so it's worth checking out (you can get to it in the Links section). It was an AMAZING feeling to get to call on Broadway. TRULY AWESOME.

I just finished up the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, where I had the incredible opportunity to stage manage with directors from all over the world. Now THIS was an excellent experience. It was like camp, but with adult theatre professionals. It rocked! I made a bunch of new friends whom I love and respect.

I'm also the resident SM for a monthly reading series called Project Shaw (which is pretty cool/ political). Our next reading in June 23rd, with Tyne Daly, then there's one in July with Megan Mullally. It's every George Bernard Shaw play ever written (projectshaw.com).

I just did a reading for a new musical called Boynton Beach Club by the woman who wrote/ directed Desperately Seeking Susan. There were some great actors in the reading (Donna McKechnie, Karen Ziemba, Susie Bigelow, Sammi Meckes, so many others), but the experience was less than stellar.

Tuesday, I came in to ASM the Spring Gall for Jennifer Muller/ The Works, a dance company I work for off and on. It was the premiere of a dance piece I was working on with them during its conception last summer. It was hugely personally enriching after the commercial soul-suck that was BBC.

I'm pretty excited to have a couple of weeks off to relax (and maybe get to those Thank You cards) before starting The First Breeze of Summer, a revival of a Negro Ensemble Company show at the Signature Theatre with my friend, Winnie (and a handful of folks from the Lab). I celebrated some of this new found freedom on Friday the 13th with a picnic in the park and an (unfortunately disappointing) viewing of The Happening. I'm looking forward to another game-y good time with friends (and maybe this time, we'll actually get to play some sort of Tag).

I'll try to blog more.
Live, from New York,
it's
Nate.

I conquered the bridge!

2008-06-12T19:35:00.002-04:00

I made the first attempt today with the bike, and I survived! Wooooo!

I was a little anxious about it, but it actually went really well. The view of the Hudson River and the Manhattan skyline is frickin' AMAZING while you're biking along the scenic bike path on the southern edge of the bridge! The only truly terrifying part was getting down the giant hill that is River Road to my office. It's basically one lane each way, and very narrow until you get close to my office, AND at a steep incline, AND the road's not in the best condition. There was one moment where I hit a particulary hard bump and the handlebars shifted (need to be more careful about locking those tighter) when I thought I was going to go over the front, but I managed to stay on. Hmm...may need to look into buying a helmet, dorky as they may be.

At any rate, I arrived at work only a little bit sweaty (luckily I've stashed a stick of Old Spice High Endurance in my desk), and totally exhilarated! It was admittedly kind of a pain in the ass making the subway transfer while carrying the 20 lb bike, and also carrying it to the ferry this afternoon - I think I'm getting more of an upper-body workout than lower, surprisingly, from carrying the damn thing - but it was totally worth it for that ride. I think I may have to work my way up to the reverse commute, though - I'm am in no shape to go back up that ginormous hill just yet!

One day down, let's see if I can do it again tomorrow morning!

My own personal Green mission

2008-06-09T22:14:00.005-04:00

Well, I've conquered recycling, given up my car in favor of daily mass-transit trekking, moved to the greenest city in the country, got a job at a socially responsible company...basically, I would make Al Gore proud. What the hell is left? How can I possible get any greener without biking to work everyday like a big, crunchy-granola-eating hippie?

Well, uh...by doing just that... A couple weeks ago I was waiting for the ferry home from work in New Jersey (again, a terrible state - I highly recommend not going there ever) when I saw a gentleman getting off the ferry with one of these (pictured, right). Not all that impressive when it was folded up, but he stepped off to the side, and within about 15 seconds, he's unfolded the pile of wheels and gears into a nice little bike. It got me thinking about how much I spend on taking that damn ferry everyday, and how the only other option is the horrible, horrible bus that never shows up and sits in traffic forever, and how my company is about to move to a new office where there is no ferry and the bus only runs once an hour, and how both the current office and the new office are only a couple miles from the perfectly flat bike-friendly George Washington bridge, and how easy it would be to bike across if only I could get my clunky old bike uptown on the subway during rush hour traffic, and, well...you can see where I'm going here. I bought the damn bike.

It was kind of a no-brainer, really. It's a cute bike, it costs slightly less than two months worth of tickets for the ferry and the bus to work, and I'm a giant fatass...all signs point to me buying a bike. I of course live too far away to bike from Queens to New Jersey everyday, but therein lies the beauty of the folding bike - I can fold it up and take it on the subway with me to the point where I have to transfer to some kind of NJ transit that is not covered by my NYC metrocard, and then just bike across the bridge. Thus, I launched my new green mission: to stop giving hundreds of dollars each month to the state of New Jersey and end up with a little more green in my pocket, and (hopefully) a few pounds lighter.

So, we'll see how this goes. The bike arrived yesterday (it's adorable, and everyone at work was incredibly jealous), just in time for 100 degree weather in NYC. Woo hoo! Needless to say, I haven't braved the bridge just yet. Actually, I brought it home today, and just the strain of carrying it down the subway stairs had me literally dripping wet. I'd like to think that that had more to do with the unseasonable warmth than me being so horribly out of shape, but...I know better. Clearly, I will not be able to go from zero to biking back and forth to work in one day, but this is all the more reason why I need to do this, it'll just take a little ramping up to get there. I'm going to try doing the bridge later this week (if I can convince myself to do it), so if I live to tell the tale, I'll have more to say...stay tuned!

Homos don't bite...hard...

2008-05-31T22:17:00.005-04:00

So, I had an unpleasant experience tonight on Facebook (yes, I admit it, I'm a Facebooker... Although, to my credit, I joined a long time ago, before it was full of 16-year-olds and stalkers, and really, I'm just in it for the Scrabulous). Anyway, on Facebook, you have this news feed on the main page which tells you what your friends have been up to. Tonight, way down at the bottom, I got an update that informed me that this guy I sort of knew in high school had just posted a new blog entry entitled "An Exposé on Homosexuality". Since this is the same guy whose updates on the feed are normally 700 new pictures of his ugly swedish girlfriend, or status updates that say things like "Raymond (name changed to protect the ignorant) sure loves his girlfriend", I kind of figured this wasn't going to be a good exposé.

So, I clicked the link, and tried to read it. Except that I couldn't - it wasn't there, which means one of two things: 1) It was so offensive, that Facebook deleted it, or 2) He actually went out of his way to block me from viewing it, and therefore commenting on it (which one can do on Facebook - you now get to choose who can see what on your page, so if you're friends with your grandma, say, she doesn't necessarily have access to those pictures of you smoking crack from last Spring Break in Tijuana while she thought you were at bible camp). The only blog post of his that I could read was one about how everyone should vote for McCain, because he doesn't support gay marriage (which none of the candidates do, but whatever), and will protect us from something that is so fundamentally wrong (gays getting married) that it's ruining the country and, nay, the world, for all the other red-blooded vagina-loving Americans.

Needless to say, I deleted him from my friend list, so I wouldn't have to read anymore of that bullshit. I had to think about it for awhile, actually. I would just LOVE to know what could possibly be in that exposé - undoubtedly a bunch of crap about how gays are promiscuous and how they created AIDS, and how they're all drug addicts - you know, all that stuff you think if you've never actually known a real, live gay person and don't get that there is no difference to get. I really wanted to launch into a debate with this guy, and attempt to enlighten him, but it looked like some other people had already attempted to do that - one guy who was clearly from another country (possibly friends of the ugly swedish girlfriend) and therefore an outside observer to the American Right movement, had posted a lengthy comment deriding how all of Raymond's reasons for wanting McCain in office were so that he could continue to restrict the rights of some people over others (which was BRILLIANTLY written, and I actually wish I'dve copied it down somewhere), which was basically roundly dismissed. In the end I realized that really probably nothing I could say would change anything, knowing that this is not some simple minded hick who is just acting out of pure, blissful ignorance (he's actually a scientist, and works for NASA, which is mind-boggling...for someone that learned to be so ignorant is quite a trick), and because, well, what is most likely in this case from knowing him, and from my experience with the world in general, the one who puts up the most fuss is usually the one with the most to hide (right, Senator Craig???). The fact that every single status update I ever got from him was about how awesome his girlfriend is throws up that "thou dost protest too much" flag - dude was seriously trying hard to prove something. I should also note that on the same page where he was blasting gays, defending Bush and the Iraq war, and other such retarded nonsense, there was a pro-life icon he'd put there stating "Respect ALL human life." So apparently, unborn babies are worth fighting for, but once you're out of the womb, you're kind of screwed if you don't believe what I believe. Sheesh...

At any rate, the point of all this is... why are we still even debating this issue in fucking 2008, for the love of criminy? It always throws me for a loop when I encounter situations like this. Living in a place like NYC, I'm pretty well insulated from homophobia, so I can almost forget that it exists in my daily existence (which is not to say that there is no predjudice in New York, it's just that most people either don't even notice my gayosity, or they do and they accept it, or they don't care one way or another). In the end, people are people, and really no one should give a crap about what anyone else does as long as it doesn't affect you - just live your fucking life, and stay out of other peoples business! 'Cuz guess what? I don't care who you're married to, and my opinion on whom you should marry doesn't mean jack squat when it's your turn to walk down the aisle (and seriously, if it does, then you are a sad, sad person).

I'm not the kind of fella who's really all about the gay pride. I mean, I am gay, and yes, I feel no shame, and I love the person I am and all that crap... What I mean is, me gayness is pretty low on my radar - it's just not something that I think about often, until something like this happens that reminds me that I'm different. Frankly, I'm tired of being reminded. I'm tired of the gay debate in this country. If you're not gay, none of our affairs are any of your business, and we're not hurting you in the least. The end. Bigotry is bigotry, no matter how you justify it or sugar coat it. Can we learn from history already, and just stop now? Please? I'll be your best friend on Facebook...

WORD!!!

2008-05-29T13:10:00.001-04:00

Check that out:

New York to Back Same-Sex Unions From Elsewhere

Paterson, you are the MAN!