Split personality. Liking the arts, especially opera, and hockey and Los Toros. I know, I know THAT one is non pc currently. But I can't help it saw some in Spain and got hooked, but good.
But on the other hand right now opera and hockey are in the forefront!
It's THAT close to Halloween
and the costumes were out at the game next to Jerseys of all sorts.
Kuemper's shut out win against the Admirals was a treat for sure.
Break it up, guys, the game's been won already
Of course the 4 goals by Coyle, Connelly, Coyle and Larsson helped.
And the penalty kill was all there during the two lonely penalties on Admirals' Bartley and Ekholm.
But so was the Admirals' through the 6 incurred by the Aeros.
Period one 2 goals, period two 0 goals, period three 2 goals.
The passing was more than passable most times, the speed was there, coordination was there.
Likes tonight other than scorers :-) ha ha ha!:
Phillips (fast, agile),
Rau, Kaempfer and Bagnall on defense;
Scandella making huge save:
Saved by Scandella
And if the scarcity of fights did not suit some fans...
fight broken up quickly
well, there was a brief one, and here are some happy fans.
Happy Fight lovers
What more can a fan ask?
Of course, that THIS goal had been granted ..below
The goal that was NOT, after all
Many have same sentiments :-)
Well perhaps he/she would like to bid on this from the Historic Maple
Leafs Garden auction,
listed for $ 250, and already bid up to $ 2550.00.
Someones sure want this
added to their hockey collection.
Leafs
dressing room toilet...what a rare bargain :-) ???!!.
For more information on the
historic auction
visit www.frozenpond.com.. this item 103 above one finds on
page 13 of the insert.
HGO has out done itself with the production of Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers (L'Italiana en Algieri for you opera snobs out there). While, admittedly, the plot is absurd, even shallow, this comedy is made utterly palpable by Rossini's light and frothy music, further enhanced by the frenetic but oh, so funny, direction, staging and costumes, and choreography by the inimitable quartet of Font/Guillen/Faur/Dorca.
The singers are young, seemed to love their parts and this came across the footlights to the audience's delight who chuckled, even roared, their approval of the absurdity and froth perpetrated under the energetic baton of Maestro Carlo Rizzi. Acrobatics on and off stage... may have been the watchword for this lighthearted piece of opera gone wild.
Current opera studio members Lauren Snouffer-Elvira (light clear soprano) and Carolyn Sproule-Zulma (mezzo with dark and light hues) were joined by former HGOStudio alumnus Daniel Belcher-Taddeo (bass with great sense of comic timing), newcomer Daniela Barcellona as Isabella (rich mezzo), and Lawrence Brownley-Lindoro (High flying tenor), Patrick Carfizzi (whose rich deep voice was ideally suited to the absurdity of Mustafa, and Robert Pomakov as onehanded Haly.
From beginning to end this piece of comic opera will surely turn into a sure fire success.
The pastel colors of sets and absurd costumes revealed on curtain raising sent the audience at this final dress rehearsal (by invitation only) into spasms of clapping. This reaction continued throughout the opera with gales of bravis and storms of applause for arias by duos, terzets, quartets, quintets, sextets and septets (all are Rossini special effects ;-) which for brief moments allowed the singers to 'stand and deliver' the fiendish patter arias, and more, before breaking out again in frantic activity.
Houston Aeros show their mettle. After 2:2 and 2:1 losses they come back with two wins 5:3 and 5:2. Which is, all considered, not bad at all. Most goals were slapped in by the new Boyz with some help from a seasoned veteran or two (IF one can call a 23 -24 year old a veteran :-) ). And another game was on tonight! Which, I just heard, was lost on a PP in overtime 4-5 to the Milwaukee Admirals. Well, two out of 3 is not bad, isn't it?
A game, we have missed again since we were in a garret in Paris :-), with starving Bohemians and a sick milliner in LA BOHEME at HGO!
Ambling through the MFAH's extensive 'Henry Ossawa Tanner' exhibit and then the 'American Made' exhibit (of Museum own oeuvres) of photos, sculptures, paintings, vases, lamps, furniture and much more, we were overwhelmed by the abundance of beautiful and exciting, but also mysterious art.
Cairo
Notrte Dame
Especially some of Tanners' religious paintings seemed shrouded in the mists of mystery! Here Mary's Annunciation of the birth by the Angel represented by the luminous column of light to the left!
La Boheme needs little introduction:
Katie Van Kooten=Mimi
The main characters are sung by a steely voiced Katie Van
Kooten-Mimi, Dimitri Pittas, a powerhouse tenor, is her Rodolfo, with warm baritone Joshua Hopkins as
Marcello, rich Bass-Baritone Michael Sumuel as Chaunard and South African deep bass Vulani Mlindi as Colline. Others in the cast: veteran Baritone Hector Vazques as Benoit and Alcindoro, as today's Einspringer for an ailing Robert Pomakov (Benoit). Evan Rogister conducted, John Caird directed. Houston Grand Opera Chorus and children chorus did their usual great job. There was a chemistry on stage which translated well into the audience who seemed spell bound.. and at the end tears were observed rolling down some cheeks. Such is the power of Puccini's music sung deeply felt. The set was - shall we say - more or less traditional, the costumes were very turn of century; bustles and ruffles for the ladies, Stovepipe hats for gentlemen. And not too raggedy clothes for the bohemians ;-)! What more can I say, Puccini's music interpreted as beautifully as was done by these young singers seemed utterly realistic.
Hear this and sorrow. It will only be a little while before all sports go this route.
Like in Europe.
Jerseys will be so patched up with company logos players names, team name and players numbers will undecipherable... and referees will have great excuses to not to call penalties because they won't be able to decipher number or name.
Too droll wouldn't it be?
But on the other hand, let me posit this:
if owners and players share in advertising revenues why not fans who buy such jerseys?
Just think: you buy a jersey which carries ads for, say. XX companies.
Companies which pay royalties to teams, owners and players for the privilege to spout their name as walking, skating, running, biking etc. ads.
Well, isn't it all about revenue sharing the NHL players are striking right now... to get a bigger slice of the $$$$$ pie? Isn't it?
Then, you buy one with the number of your favorite player, you fill out proper ownership papers, then you hope that the team forwards this information to the companies; and the companies - in honoring their commitment to pay for these ads will send you a royalty check for every time you wear that jersey and thus advertise that company.
Sounds a winner, eh? Dream on!
But really you, the new wearer and walking advertiser for company X, ought to be entitled to get your $$ slice of that $$$$$ pie?
According to this Opera is alive and well again in San Antonio...in a small way.
And another items will fill space in our purses.
Well, I guess a microscope may be necessary to read the small prints, but since that is too unwieldy a jeweller's loupe will do and it Will fit into my purse. I do thank designers who are making bigger purses the new fashion trend.
To hold all those electronics which one simply MUST have!
I can't imagine going about with those tiny little bags of several years ago! Pre-electronics? ;-)
You could say so, this afternoon in San Antonio, the team only lost by 1.
And both Aeros goals were scored by the new boyz on the ice.
Per Voice of the Aeros (to whom we listen faithfully when the team plays away) the first goal was by Coyle with assists by Granlund and Zucker.
Now then the second goal was by Zucker with assists by Connelly and Coyle!
Now how sweet is that! A double dose of Zucker surely qualifies for sweet!
Which just shows the new boys have the talent, despite grumblings from fans that the OLD guard should play and the NEW boyz should sit and take notes ;-).
Matt Hackett was in goal versus Markstrom for the Rampage.
BTW... former Aeros Casey Wellman, in case you are interested, got a assist.
Is the 'system' working?
Are the new boyz stepping up?
Are the old guard on guard to guide the newbies?
Only time will tell.
Meanwhile my suggestion is:
sit back, enjoy a game of hockey, watch the new boyz fly across the ice, and keep wishing.
At least, WE have AHL to watch and entertain us.
with hopefully better results than the loss 3-1 to the Charlotte Checkers tonight in front of a respectable crowd of say 8,000 plus.. and a loudly supportive one it was, too!
Given that the Checkers are almost the same, I believe there are only 4 new guys on their roster, they played exceedingly well, aggressively, and seemingly with no-holds-barred, as the 11 penalties showed quiet well.
Although the Aeros checked in with 8 themselves. One of which
Only the visitor team managed a power play goal their first in the Third, during the Palmieri penalty.
As a matter of fact, two periods passed entertainingly enough without a single goal.
All three goals for the Visitors came in the 3. as did the sole goal (by pure luck) by new boy Brodin with Scandella and MacMillan. Which earned Brodin his first 2. Star. Hackett managed 3. Star and goalie Peters of the Visitors was named the Nr. Star.
Granlund (Nr. 64) seemed almost everywhere, but did not get a goal.
And Larsson (Nr 22) too seemed omnipresent and got bumped into rather heavily-he skated off a bit lopsidedly, but was soon back in the fray.
A sign of what maybe coming down with this new, young and talented new Aeros Team.
Hackett did well, facing 38 SOGs. Peters (Nr.1 Star) only faced 28 but often there was huge crowds around his net!
All in all I felt it was a good game. And interspersed were video clips from the Anniversary DVD-40 Years Hockey in Houston... and to commemorate the boys-on-ice wore retro Blue and White Jerseys...VERY nice!
Mr Hockey way back when he became an Aeros
Flags of pride
Wallace (31) gets the 1. Goal during a PP on Hackett
If Palmieri had been a puck... it would've been goal Nr. 2 .. sadly he was Palmieri!
The logo beneath its fresh icy sheath
Blue and White Retro Jerseys
A lonely glove rests
Nothing like a melee to end the night-AFTER the buzzer!
We are glad she survived.
She just wanted to learn, to study. Wanted to be more than chattel and a birth machine.
So those fanatics shot her.
When will her co-religionists wake up and take a stand.
A peacefull (???)religion?
And in that vein: some relevant quotes/comments I came across some time ago.
'Pardon them and overlook [their misdeeds]. Indeed, Allah loves the doers of good}Verse(5:13) Keep to forgiveness (O Muhammad), and enjoin kindness, and turn away from the ignorant}Verse (7:199) And the retribution for an evil act is an evil one like it, but whoever pardons and makes reconciliation – his reward is [due] from Allah. Indeed, He does not like wrongdoers.Verse (42:40) No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another Verse (39:7)' Which means I can’t punish someone for a mistake that he didn’t commit because one of the people that he belong to have committed this mistake & punishment is with the same kind of the mistake they didn’t burn or destroy any thing for the Muslims in order to justify those actions Please don’t blame Islam b/c of what those ignorants are doing
And here is a rebutal by another commenter: 'Qur’an:9:5 “Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.” Qur’an:9:29 “Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the protective tax in submission.” Qur’an:8:39 “Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah.” Qur’an:8:39 “So fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief [non-Muslims]) and all submit to the religion of Allah alone (in the whole world).” Ishaq:324 “He said, ‘Fight them so that there is no more rebellion, and religion, all of it, is for Allah only. Allah must have no rivals.’” Qur’an:8:65 “O Prophet, urge the faithful to fight. If there are twenty among you with determination they will vanquish two hundred; if there are a hundred then they will slaughter a thousand unbelievers, for the infidels are a people devoid of understanding.” And that is what bugs me lately!
Having had weird dreams.
Most remembered only in fragments.
This morning woke drenched in sweat!
And the whole came clear!
And it was not a pretty thing!
Someone, an amorphous, misty someone, keeps threatening horrible punishments IF the blogger (me? others? that was not clear) would express honest opinions. Especially those that seem to run counter to the amorphous blob's thinking.
And so the uglies are coming our of the woodwork to haunt, threaten, scream, to bully!
Big Eyes are ever watching,
Big Ears are ever listening.
Thanks to science ;-) - it will not help to retreat within castles!
Then, volunteer watchers built pyres on hilltops, and set them alight to warn others, within sight, of incoming perils. And give people time to retreat behind fortified walls of their lieges' castles to wait out alien hordes.
Lower the portcullis! Up barricades! Fill the moat with monsters! Ready tar and pitch!
Circle the wagons! Load the ammo!
Today, must one stay silent within the walls of one's mind?
So you thought you knew your Shakespeare?
Knew your Verdi?
Possibly so, but here comes Opera in the Heights' Rossinian Otello.
And it is different. Violently different.
Physically violent. Vocally violent.
Powerful music played superbly under Maestro Carreon-Robledo who enthusiastically sang along most of the time (inaudibly sure - over the power of the orchestra - but you could see his lips move, and his arms, too, of course ;-)!.
And then there were the principal singers.
Each and every one managing the incredible and rather demanding sounds that Rossini composed.
Soprano Jessica E. Jones (familiar to us from Moores School of Music's Il Postino, and earlier, Elmer Gantry) a very persuasive Desdemona singing with feeling and beauty.
Below Caballe with the Willow song
Mezzo Ann Sauder was her servant Emilia, with a burnished rich and yet clear sound.
BUT the tenors surely had "Vorrang" in this Bel Canto Opera.
Eric Barry as Otello was very credible and seemed at ease with the 2 1/2 octaves the role requires.
While Luke Grooms as Rodrigo (a much enlarged role here), also a Tenor, managed the fiendishly high tessitura without too much trouble. And sounded stunning, once one adjusted to this high sound.
The third Tenor (no not Carreras) was Brent Reilly Turner as Iago.
Which one, too, had to get used to, since Verdi's Iago is a baritone!
And the fourth tenor, the small role of the Doge, was adequately presented by Felipe Gonzalez.
The deepest role, written for a bass, was Desdemona's father Elmiro, sung with stentorian authority by Joseph Rawley, a bass-baritone.
Sure there were other deep voices in the chorus: to count 4 basses, 1 baritone, 3 Mezzo sopranos, but also 4 tenors, 5 sopranos, including the versatile Traci Davis, a long time chorus member.
Anyway, IMO, the update to more modern times felt right as Erica Miller, who previously sang the soprano role of Marie (La Fille Du Regiment), and thus quite at home with high C's by tenors, at OH! spread her wings as Director here. After all we daily read about the abuse of women by husbands and fathers, men stabbing men, men killing women, and so on! We do live in a ever more violent world! So an Otello by Rossini directed in this way by Erica Miller felt almost - almost - normal!
There was a moment which tickled my funny bone:
THE (verbal ;-) fight on stage between Rodrigo and Otello - both enamored of Desdemona!
The image created in my mind resembled nothing less than a crowing and clawing cockfight, or harts matching rack against rack like proverbial stags in heat -
ahem- just kidding of course, but...
Anyway, here is Juan Diego Florez as Rodrigo..
and if you don't agree that this is treacherous high note singing.... you may need to have a hearing test!
Giorgione The Tempest.
And before all that we heard David Brauer, one of our favorite lecturer at MFAH who spoke on what I call 'painted storytelling ;-)' with his usual wit and humorous interpretations of old masters' paintings, and made us laugh out loud often!
And he will have a second lecture in that vein Oct 26/27!
Now that one debate is securely (or maybe not?) behind us, teleprompters or not, I can concentrate all efforts on what really counts:
Hockey and Opera!
So, the home team of AEROS did not quite made as good an impression as widely touted, but hey, they played away from the majority of adoring home ice fans. Can we point to all those super talents now vegetating in the AHL? Which is thanks to the infighting at the NHL level, which 'forced' many NHL'ers to sign abroad, because "I just want to play my game".
Of course we must be a bit forgiving. After all, all these supertalents expected to skate at much more exalted heights, and need some downwards adjustment to AHL.
Perhaps.
But then some of the new crop will be reassigned to even lower levels!
Or to Florida, to the resurrected Orlando Solar Bears.
Game one on home ice Saturday October 13.
Report to follow ;-)!
And our first Opera will be on Saturday October 5th at Opera in the Heights.
Now I know this opera has had almost its full run and been critiqued.
BUT I have not read anything - on purpose. Because, you see, I do like to make up my own mind. And will write it up, too....
Read both at your own peril ;-)!
I have been reading comments after several articles,
not having much else to do...;-)!
Those of the political, and those of the non-political sort.
And guess what? :-)!
Anyone who writes a satirical response is being hounded...
because, so it appears, readers have lost the ability to see and accept satire.
Dear readers do not, repeat, do not take it for gospel!
Expecting wholesome satire on what's happening out there in the world?
You've got to look!
Keep looking!
And looking!
Because, it seems, satire is unwanted -
it's just so NON PC.
Oh, for the days of yore:
For people like
Qualtinger
(Historians would rise up in arms)
Bronner
(his version of PC?)
Kreisler-
that song would surely rile up caring PETAs :-)!
Berman
(this probably is unacceptionable :-) by bleeding hearts)
and others of their witty ilk.
And then there is - or was - the vaunted black British Humor
as perhaps this
Someone (who was it? - the name escapes me) once said that satire flourishes best underground in time of tyranny.
So I say, let us do satire as it was before PC tyranny!
I really do not like this time of year, very much at all.
Except, of course, for the build-up of anticipation.
Yes, waiting for hockey (at any level) and operas, too, to start is not unlike the feverish anticipation I get when planning a trip.
A Fahrt ins Blaue (no stated goal) or a detailed trip where everything is just SO.
If one likes brawls, that is...
Yes, that is the time, when one cannot really sleep because one's mind is so full of images (:-) like the ones here:
Or full of sounds like Samuel Ramey's version of a song soon to be heard resonantly (we hope) at HGO.
I know, I know some out there would want to have me also throw in the coming elections, but as I posted before that brouhaha is, alas, less filled with anticipation, but more with annihilation. And so I will not give it much more than these few words.
And then there are those travel plans...
details, savoring possible sights along rivers,
in my case, the joys of reunions with friends and kin
OVER there and so much more:
And that brings me to another subject-yes, indeed!
And that is flying!
I agree, it is the quickest way to anywhere.
Even with the numerous delays at airports due to the stripping of all metals (lol) to avoid pings. But, alas, THAT has not precluded my being padded down on every trip, on the back-to-Houston leg, we took in the last few years!
Guess I must I look that dangerous? :-)!
It is, however, most uncomfortable as most joints creak in unison after prolonged periods of inactivity. Sure, one can get up to stretch, or one ought to...
But that does impede the constant stream by others to the WC!
And by the crew to serve more liquids to increase said WC traffic :-)!
2 hours in a sardine tin of a plane is just barely bearable.
When one does not count hours spent in airports which, and that IS a beef- have too few seats- or so it seems to me! There are always so many crouched on the floors!
But those long overseas flights...already my wish dreams are turning to nightmares. This time I will try THE new AUA business class on one journey leg,
Greenhouse Spa - hot, bubbly, relaxing
the other will be taken in luxurious (;-)! style on a ship.
With my luck, I'll have the worst stormy passage. Just kidding! I do hope, NOT!
Listening to some 'experts' on the plight of the world, I cannot believe what I am hearing...or rather what NOT hearing.
Blah Blah, Blah Blah...soothing words purling from rosy lips and ultrawhite teeth!
How wonderful, that the media can find so many real experts to educate us know nothing populi ;-)! I feel truly enlightened by the wisdom spurting from their mouths.
I hang on their very words hoping for something, anything that clarifies the situation.
To paraphrase Kerouac: “They had nothing to offer anybody except their own
confusion”
And at the end I scratch my head because they talked, and talked, and talked
but really said
Yes, I am.
Done with.
Reading and hearing slurs.
Exagerration on both sides.
Media's - oh so - obvious bias.
Mud and worse slinging by died-in-the-wool partisans on both sides.
Perhaps it is the NHL lock out that has hockey fans boiling, because, of course, all those employees in the arena, and around the rinks, and on TV plus Tee shirt printers, jersey embroiderers, stick carvers, and puck molders, and mask painters, now have to go on the dole, just to make ends meet. Naturally owners, players and others (such as lawyers and union reps) need not fear that they, too, will have to visit soup kitchens. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nhl--nhl-lockout-watch--players-united-in-the-face-of-team-owners--clawback-demands.html
And the puck, oops, buck , stops there, we hope. Or Harry S. Truman WILL turn over in his grave.. again!
Then there are such divertissiments as naked duchesses;
and reports on foibles of other celebrities..
But you know that already, since you've been avidly flipping screens of your i-phones to keep abreast of all, duchess's included!
Have you, as you ought to, been studying information - pro and con http://www.politico.com/2012-election/
- available everywhere, on the candidates for the elite life in Washington, DC?
No, really, it is of paramount importance that you do so NOW, so you'll not miss to check the right squares, after all we won't want a repeat of re-counting!
But perhaps, you are applying for a new loan just to buy the latest Apple appliance?
Or maybe you absolutely have to have those iconic sneakers?
And yes, replacing those dingy old shower curtains with an upscale=expensive product for which you will have to increase your debt load, is a real necessity.
And I could go on and on!
I shall not be surprised by any excuse you can serve up for not reading!
Go on, sit back, turn off your i-phone, close the kitchen door, stop the bad and sad news, read blogs and, have at it - comment how you feel.
Want to be placed on a pedestal ?
Go ahead comment and bloggers will do that in a minute!
As would I... Just saying!
Well, sure.
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, 
on one journey leg, 
?