Coop's Corner: Musical Weekend

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Musical Weekend

Last night Peg and I finally were able to attend one of the area's concerts that our daughter is performing with. The always pleasant drive down the river was as enjoyable as always, the low sun angle highlighting the shore across the river over in Wisconsin a unique look at the bluffs and shoreline in nature's spotlight. After so many of our past days under dark and gloomy clouds, rain and mist, the sun was especially appreciated.

After dinner we dropped Lauren off at the LaCrosse Symphony's concert hall on the campus of Viterbo University and waited in the lounge area with some very heavy duty people watching for the 7:30 concert to begin.

Home For The Holidays was the theme, the first half of the concert highlighted Christmas and Hanukkah favorites and then after Intermission, Prokofiev's Prelude and Ball Scene from CINDERELLA (1944). There were some pretty darn good young dancers that then remained on stage to help the entire audience sing a verse or two of 10 favorite holiday tunes. A wonderful, festive, put us in the holiday spirit evening.

I knew it would be an especially good evening when I saw this ad in the Program Notes, sharing a certain hobby of Maestro Alexander Platt, here promoting one of the area's major LaCrosse Symphony Sponsors......

Before we leave the subject of music, the other weekend Peg and I watched (it wasn't very easy) Bill Murray's Netflix Christmas Special. I'd heard a couple of reviews that mostly panned the production but we were willing to give it a go, hoping for some of the holiday warmth and joy present in the old Bing Crosby styled shows of old. Threatening at any moment to Roku a different selection, I'm glad that we stuck with it at least long enough to hear our Little Troublemaker Miley Cyrus sing "Silent Night". It's just possible that even though angels are known to have wings, they may not always wear them 24/7. If you've not heard, look for it.

The TW200 is out of the shop and ready for Big 2016 Adventure.

December 20th and I was out riding through the pasture without a hat, without gloves.

The Sport Touring Honda CT90 quickly had an oil change and a valve check, spending so little time in the shop that it didn't really have a chance to warm to workshop temperature.

Next is the big black one......

14 comments:

motormikeDecember 20, 2015 at 7:02 PM
Actung.. Vot ga do'n to der Swartz ?
ReplyDelete
Replies
Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayDecember 20, 2015 at 7:24 PM
S&S pistons, cams and a new 3rd gear :)

All that after an oil change and new rear tire.
ReplyDelete
Replies
redlegsridesDecember 20, 2015 at 8:22 PM
Hopefully, the Maestro was just posing thus to humor the sponsor....not quite ATGATT....kind of looks like a hurried photoshopped pic actually.
ReplyDelete
Replies
TrobairitzDecember 21, 2015 at 3:17 PM
Interesting ad from the maestro. I do agree with Dom, it looks a little photo shopped, all in good fun I am sure.

I am glad your rains have let up. We are still waiting for ours to cease.

We've seen Very Murray Christmas come up on our streaming Netflix suggestions, but were a little scared to watch it. We might just have to give it a try now.
ReplyDelete
Replies
SonjaMDecember 22, 2015 at 12:58 PM
Looks like you won't get bored over the holidays, Coop. Wishing you all the best for 2016.
ReplyDelete
Replies
LeviDecember 22, 2015 at 4:18 PM
Cool pictures of the bike! Looks like you had a great trip. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDelete
Replies
VStar LadyDecember 23, 2015 at 8:21 PM
What a lovely theme for a concert ... I'm sure it was wonderful. Thank you El Nino for the extended riding season even if home doesn't feel like Christmas this year. (And since I'm not riding, thank you El Nino for not having to shovel this!)
ReplyDelete
Replies
Martha December 26, 2015 at 9:06 AM
Hope you enjoy your holiday season. A little sun or a little more than a little would be nice here, but looks like ice and sleet and wind on the way. I think you are in line for some heavy snow...take care.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)