FRIDAY
I have a couple of hours to fill in before the shuttle bus to the airport picks me up. After another strenuous day of sightseeing, I just wanted to come back to the Mayfair Hotel and sit.
I caught a bus out to LACMA and then realised they didn't open until midday. So I walked up to the Farmers Market (about a mile) for breakfast. Like most markets it has stalls selling fresh produce and meat. Pete would have liked the shop that sold nothing but chilli sauce: top rating was 10++. I thought about bringing some home but worried it might spill.
Across the road was Ross, a shop we girls discovered in Honolulu that sells last season fashions at discount prices. I bought 5 outfits for $80, and could have bought more but I'm running out of space in the suitcases.
I caught a bus back to LACMA and walked along the road to the La Brea Tar Pits, which are next to LACMA. There's a separate museum explaining the Tar Pits and exhibiting lots of the bones they've recovered: did you know there were camels in North America about 20,000 years ago? Also wolves, sloths, cougars, mammoths ... very interesting. They have a "fishbowl" where you can watch the scientists and volunteers cleaning and sorting bones.
Back to LACMA, which has several different buildings in the complex. I walked through the contemporary art building where they had some Andy Warhol (which I like) and a lot of other stuff that did nothing for me. On the ground floor thee's a sculpture called Band which is huges sheets of metal, rust coloured, curving around to make shapes you can walk through.
I had lunch (with wine) at one of the cafes there and then caught another bus back to downtown to visit LA Central Library, which is architecturally interesting, with lots of murals painted on the walls and ceilings. Did a walk-through self-guided tour and decided I'd had enough.
Pete suggested buying a Kindle (electronic book reader) but I couldn't find anywhere in downtown LA that sells computers or anything like it, so I've given up. I think we can buy them on line at Amazon.
Okay, now I'm done. See you in Sydney!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Homeward Bound
THURSDAY
I caught another bus out to Century City to track down Pete's MBTs. When I got off the bus there were gum trees growing next to the footpath. I crushed a leaf (it's still in my pocket) and the smell of home brought tears to my eyes. It's definitely time to go home.
I was at the shops bright and early at 9 am, and then discovered that nothing much opens until 10 am and the shoe shop didn't open until 10:30 am. I filled in the time window shopping, found a shop called The Container Company that's a bit like Howard's Storage World, and then bought some books at Borders. The Walking Company had the shoes Pete wanted so that was alll right, and I bought some MBT sandals for myself and wore them (which was a mistake, because I had a blister by the end of another day's hard walking).
I caught another bus back to Downtown LA (I'm getting good at this) and walked down to the FIDM Museum(FIDM is Fashion Industry Design and Marketing) in the fashion district. They had a wonderful exhibit about Betsy Bloomingdale and Haute Couture. Betsy married into the Bloomingdale family (Bloomingdale department stores) and her husband started Diners Club credit cards, so they weren't poor. From the sixties to the nineties Betsy bought haute couture in Paris and she donated a lot of her clothes and accompanying sketches to the Museum. The exhibit included video interviews with Betsy and some of the designers. It was fascinating to see the designs and the detailing of the dresses.
FIDM also has a scholarship shop with discounted clothes but I didn't find anything I wanted to buy. I wandered around the Fashion District for a couple of hours (poor feet) - there are blocks and blocks of clothing shops, mostly cheap imports (I've never seen so many stretch jeans with diamante pockets) but with some designer shops - usuallly just wholesale, not retail - as well. Big bottoms must be fashionable, because all the jeans were displayed on big bottomed dummies and I even saw some panties with foam inserts to make your bottom bigger. Not that I need that!
There's also a Jewellery District, which I skirted yesterday - blocks and blocks of jewellery shops. These districts remind me a bit of the cities Pete and I visited in Vietnam and Thailand, which also have specialised shopping districts.
After all that I needed to sit down and rest, so I ended up at the new cinema complex that has just opened near the Convention Centre. There were lots of people headed for the Nokia Stadium to see a basketball match (I think) but I saw Scrooge in 3D. It was okay, apart from chattering children at the back of the theatre. I notice a lot of movies have sequences in them that seem to have been included so they can become a computer game or a Disneyland adventure ride at some future date. This one certainly did, and the graphics were great (especially in 3D).
I had grilled salmon at the Country Kitchen diner ("continously in operation 24 hours a day since 1926"), sitting up at the counter like they do in diners in the movies - that was fun. And I caught a taxi the rest of the way home, and was asleep by 9 pm.
This morning I'm packed and ready to check out. I'm catching another bus west of Downtown to eat at the Farmers Market and then visit LACMA "one of the finest art museums in the nation" and the La Brea tar pits, and then come back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and catch a shuttle bus to the airport. So this will be my last post until I get home. Pete's picking me up from the airport on Sunday morning.
I caught another bus out to Century City to track down Pete's MBTs. When I got off the bus there were gum trees growing next to the footpath. I crushed a leaf (it's still in my pocket) and the smell of home brought tears to my eyes. It's definitely time to go home.
I was at the shops bright and early at 9 am, and then discovered that nothing much opens until 10 am and the shoe shop didn't open until 10:30 am. I filled in the time window shopping, found a shop called The Container Company that's a bit like Howard's Storage World, and then bought some books at Borders. The Walking Company had the shoes Pete wanted so that was alll right, and I bought some MBT sandals for myself and wore them (which was a mistake, because I had a blister by the end of another day's hard walking).
I caught another bus back to Downtown LA (I'm getting good at this) and walked down to the FIDM Museum(FIDM is Fashion Industry Design and Marketing) in the fashion district. They had a wonderful exhibit about Betsy Bloomingdale and Haute Couture. Betsy married into the Bloomingdale family (Bloomingdale department stores) and her husband started Diners Club credit cards, so they weren't poor. From the sixties to the nineties Betsy bought haute couture in Paris and she donated a lot of her clothes and accompanying sketches to the Museum. The exhibit included video interviews with Betsy and some of the designers. It was fascinating to see the designs and the detailing of the dresses.
FIDM also has a scholarship shop with discounted clothes but I didn't find anything I wanted to buy. I wandered around the Fashion District for a couple of hours (poor feet) - there are blocks and blocks of clothing shops, mostly cheap imports (I've never seen so many stretch jeans with diamante pockets) but with some designer shops - usuallly just wholesale, not retail - as well. Big bottoms must be fashionable, because all the jeans were displayed on big bottomed dummies and I even saw some panties with foam inserts to make your bottom bigger. Not that I need that!
There's also a Jewellery District, which I skirted yesterday - blocks and blocks of jewellery shops. These districts remind me a bit of the cities Pete and I visited in Vietnam and Thailand, which also have specialised shopping districts.
After all that I needed to sit down and rest, so I ended up at the new cinema complex that has just opened near the Convention Centre. There were lots of people headed for the Nokia Stadium to see a basketball match (I think) but I saw Scrooge in 3D. It was okay, apart from chattering children at the back of the theatre. I notice a lot of movies have sequences in them that seem to have been included so they can become a computer game or a Disneyland adventure ride at some future date. This one certainly did, and the graphics were great (especially in 3D).
I had grilled salmon at the Country Kitchen diner ("continously in operation 24 hours a day since 1926"), sitting up at the counter like they do in diners in the movies - that was fun. And I caught a taxi the rest of the way home, and was asleep by 9 pm.
This morning I'm packed and ready to check out. I'm catching another bus west of Downtown to eat at the Farmers Market and then visit LACMA "one of the finest art museums in the nation" and the La Brea tar pits, and then come back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and catch a shuttle bus to the airport. So this will be my last post until I get home. Pete's picking me up from the airport on Sunday morning.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Looking south west from Santa Monica
WEDNESDAY
I decided to catch a bus to Santa Monica today, as I thought it would involve less walking and give my aching feet a rest. The Visitor Centre instructions worked again for which bus to catch - all the way down Wiltshire Boulevarde, for an hour and a quarter. The smog here is really bad, even the surrounding hills are obscured.
On my to do list for Santa Monica was doing a tour on a Segway. The shop wasn't open when I arrived so I walked out along Santa Monica pier (complete with amusement park). There were a mob of photographers and a very small crowd surrounding someone making a speech about Santa Monica being the end of Route 66, and unveiling a plaque.
Continuing to the end of the pier, I looked vaguely in the direction of Australia and felt homesick. I fly home on Friday, and am looking forward to being back with Pete again. The pier had its 100th birthday this year and there was an interesting display about the history.
Back to the Segway shop. In case you don't know, Segways are a two-wheeled platform that's battery driven and steered by shifting your weight. I've always wanted to try one, but in Sydney apparently they're illegal to be used on the footpath (motorised vehicle) or the road (not registered). They have a maximum speed of about 12 miles an hour.
In Santa Monica you can ride them on the bike paths and the beach and the footpath (but in Venice, next door, not on the footpath). The shop wasn't running guided tours today but I was able to rent one for two hours ($75). A couple of German guys who are in the television industry and over here for the WMA (whatever that is) turned up so we all got our training together. The Segway is amazingly easy to learn to use, I love it.
After a few turns around the shop floor we were out on the footpath, down a steep roadway to the beach, and then off on our own. I wasn't game to go on the sand so just cruised the bike path all the way up Santa Monica Beach and down past Muscle Beach to Little Venice. It's a great way to sight see, and after a while I could relax and admire all the beach houses without thinking too hard about steering. There were lots and lots of people out exercising: walking, biking, roller-blading, skate boarding, walking the dogs, playing beach volley-ball. A bit too cold for swimming or surfing though, and after 2 hours I was cold too and ready to take it back to the shop. Pete, they're only $5,000 US, can I have one for Christmas?
I walked up to Third Avenue Promenade - four blocks of shopping with the street closed off - and found I'd missed the farmers market that's there on Wednesday and Saturday, they were just packing up. There were some gorgeous dinosaur sculptures in the promenade, with the bodies created by growing ivy over a wire frame. The shops were interesting, and I dropped into Old Navy to buy a $10 shirt as I was still cold. And I think I got chatted up by a Mexican cowboy, but it was hard to tell as he didn't speak English.
The Cirque du Soleil was performing at 8 pm on the beach near the pier, and I thought about sticking around but decided to catch a bus along Santa Monica Boulevarde and look for shoes for Pete. (He's given me the addresses of five shoe stores in LA that sell MBTs, hoping I could buy them for him at a cheaper price.)
Well, Santa Monica Boulevarde is a very very long street. I was looking for 12,050 Santa Monica Bouldevarde and couldn't find it, despite getting off the bus twice and walking for what seemed liked miles, so I eventually gave up and caught the bus again back to downtown LA via Sunset Boulevarde. Poor feet! Riding the bus is interesting, we went through some very rich looking areas (Beverley Hills, Los Angeles Country Club) and some very poor looking areas. Most of the people who catch the bus look like workers, and most announcements and notices in LA are bilingual. I hadn't realised what a strong Mexican influence there was in LA. Nearly all the Americans I've met have been friendly and helpful, but in LA I've noticed this even more. A young guy with a small daughter got on the bus and he looked like he was stoned; two elderly Mexican ladies noticed and were so concerned they mentioned it to the bus driver; and the driver asked the guy very nicely as he was getting off the bus whether he was okay, and to take care.
I thought I'd like to go to a show last night, and there were tourist signs in the street saying "theatre district this way", so I wandered around for a while looking, but concluded that the theatres were there historically but are now shops and bars. I stopped by a Thai restaurant that had only just opened (three days ago) and had a very nice vegetable curry and two beers (lovely to have vegetables again!). And was so buggered by the time I got back to the hotel that I went to bed, channel surfed unsuccessfully, and was asleep by 8 pm!
Tomorrow: shopping for Pete's shoes, and museums and art galleries.
I decided to catch a bus to Santa Monica today, as I thought it would involve less walking and give my aching feet a rest. The Visitor Centre instructions worked again for which bus to catch - all the way down Wiltshire Boulevarde, for an hour and a quarter. The smog here is really bad, even the surrounding hills are obscured.
On my to do list for Santa Monica was doing a tour on a Segway. The shop wasn't open when I arrived so I walked out along Santa Monica pier (complete with amusement park). There were a mob of photographers and a very small crowd surrounding someone making a speech about Santa Monica being the end of Route 66, and unveiling a plaque.
Continuing to the end of the pier, I looked vaguely in the direction of Australia and felt homesick. I fly home on Friday, and am looking forward to being back with Pete again. The pier had its 100th birthday this year and there was an interesting display about the history.
Back to the Segway shop. In case you don't know, Segways are a two-wheeled platform that's battery driven and steered by shifting your weight. I've always wanted to try one, but in Sydney apparently they're illegal to be used on the footpath (motorised vehicle) or the road (not registered). They have a maximum speed of about 12 miles an hour.
In Santa Monica you can ride them on the bike paths and the beach and the footpath (but in Venice, next door, not on the footpath). The shop wasn't running guided tours today but I was able to rent one for two hours ($75). A couple of German guys who are in the television industry and over here for the WMA (whatever that is) turned up so we all got our training together. The Segway is amazingly easy to learn to use, I love it.
After a few turns around the shop floor we were out on the footpath, down a steep roadway to the beach, and then off on our own. I wasn't game to go on the sand so just cruised the bike path all the way up Santa Monica Beach and down past Muscle Beach to Little Venice. It's a great way to sight see, and after a while I could relax and admire all the beach houses without thinking too hard about steering. There were lots and lots of people out exercising: walking, biking, roller-blading, skate boarding, walking the dogs, playing beach volley-ball. A bit too cold for swimming or surfing though, and after 2 hours I was cold too and ready to take it back to the shop. Pete, they're only $5,000 US, can I have one for Christmas?
I walked up to Third Avenue Promenade - four blocks of shopping with the street closed off - and found I'd missed the farmers market that's there on Wednesday and Saturday, they were just packing up. There were some gorgeous dinosaur sculptures in the promenade, with the bodies created by growing ivy over a wire frame. The shops were interesting, and I dropped into Old Navy to buy a $10 shirt as I was still cold. And I think I got chatted up by a Mexican cowboy, but it was hard to tell as he didn't speak English.
The Cirque du Soleil was performing at 8 pm on the beach near the pier, and I thought about sticking around but decided to catch a bus along Santa Monica Boulevarde and look for shoes for Pete. (He's given me the addresses of five shoe stores in LA that sell MBTs, hoping I could buy them for him at a cheaper price.)
Well, Santa Monica Boulevarde is a very very long street. I was looking for 12,050 Santa Monica Bouldevarde and couldn't find it, despite getting off the bus twice and walking for what seemed liked miles, so I eventually gave up and caught the bus again back to downtown LA via Sunset Boulevarde. Poor feet! Riding the bus is interesting, we went through some very rich looking areas (Beverley Hills, Los Angeles Country Club) and some very poor looking areas. Most of the people who catch the bus look like workers, and most announcements and notices in LA are bilingual. I hadn't realised what a strong Mexican influence there was in LA. Nearly all the Americans I've met have been friendly and helpful, but in LA I've noticed this even more. A young guy with a small daughter got on the bus and he looked like he was stoned; two elderly Mexican ladies noticed and were so concerned they mentioned it to the bus driver; and the driver asked the guy very nicely as he was getting off the bus whether he was okay, and to take care.
I thought I'd like to go to a show last night, and there were tourist signs in the street saying "theatre district this way", so I wandered around for a while looking, but concluded that the theatres were there historically but are now shops and bars. I stopped by a Thai restaurant that had only just opened (three days ago) and had a very nice vegetable curry and two beers (lovely to have vegetables again!). And was so buggered by the time I got back to the hotel that I went to bed, channel surfed unsuccessfully, and was asleep by 8 pm!
Tomorrow: shopping for Pete's shoes, and museums and art galleries.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Disneyland
TUESDAY
Today I caught a bus to Disneyland. It only cost $1.25, but it took an hour and a half (but a taxi costs $75 so I think I did okay). The Visitor Centre's handy guide to how to catch public transport to tourist attractions is coming in very handy.
Entry to Disneyland was $72 for just a one day, one park ticket. I thought that would do me. It was exciting to walk through the entrance to Disneyland and down Main Street. I went on lots of rides (can't remember them all now). The scariest was a Space Ride - lots of very very fast twists and turns - but I didn't scream much. I did the Jungle River ride with the hippos rising up out of the water, just like the postcards, and took lots of photos. I had my photo taken with Mickey Mouse (which reminds me, I forgot to mention that yesterday I went to Madame Taussard's wax museum and had my photo taken with lots of other famous actors). I walked for miles and miles and miles - from 11 am to 5 pm and was exhausted by the end, but I reckon I saw everything I wanted to see (apart from a few attractions that were closed):
NEW ORLEANS - Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean
FRONTIERLAND - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
CRITTER COUNTRY - Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
ADVENTURELAND - Indiana Jones Adventure, Jungle Cruise, Tarzan's Treehouse
TOONTOWN - Mickey's House, Disney Railroad
TOMORROWLAND - Honey, I Shrank the Audience*; Innoventions; Space Mountain; Star Tours
*I must say the 3D films were fun, particularly when they were combined with sprays of water and puffs of air to simulate touch as well as sight. It really felt as if there were mice running up my leg.
I caught the bus home again - another hour and a half trip, but at least this bus had television entertainment. Had dinner at Californian pizza restaurant, and walked home to the hotel, and discovered the internet computers in the lobby.
Tomorrow I'm going to have a less exciting day visiting museums and art galleries and doing a little light shopping.
Today I caught a bus to Disneyland. It only cost $1.25, but it took an hour and a half (but a taxi costs $75 so I think I did okay). The Visitor Centre's handy guide to how to catch public transport to tourist attractions is coming in very handy.
Entry to Disneyland was $72 for just a one day, one park ticket. I thought that would do me. It was exciting to walk through the entrance to Disneyland and down Main Street. I went on lots of rides (can't remember them all now). The scariest was a Space Ride - lots of very very fast twists and turns - but I didn't scream much. I did the Jungle River ride with the hippos rising up out of the water, just like the postcards, and took lots of photos. I had my photo taken with Mickey Mouse (which reminds me, I forgot to mention that yesterday I went to Madame Taussard's wax museum and had my photo taken with lots of other famous actors). I walked for miles and miles and miles - from 11 am to 5 pm and was exhausted by the end, but I reckon I saw everything I wanted to see (apart from a few attractions that were closed):
NEW ORLEANS - Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean
FRONTIERLAND - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
CRITTER COUNTRY - Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
ADVENTURELAND - Indiana Jones Adventure, Jungle Cruise, Tarzan's Treehouse
TOONTOWN - Mickey's House, Disney Railroad
TOMORROWLAND - Honey, I Shrank the Audience*; Innoventions; Space Mountain; Star Tours
*I must say the 3D films were fun, particularly when they were combined with sprays of water and puffs of air to simulate touch as well as sight. It really felt as if there were mice running up my leg.
I caught the bus home again - another hour and a half trip, but at least this bus had television entertainment. Had dinner at Californian pizza restaurant, and walked home to the hotel, and discovered the internet computers in the lobby.
Tomorrow I'm going to have a less exciting day visiting museums and art galleries and doing a little light shopping.
Hollywood
MONDAY:
I bought a weekly pass for the Metro (train and bus) and caught the metro red line to Hollywood, with a bundle of tourist brochures and the metro map in my shoulder bag.
First stop was Graumann's Chinese Theatre: a movie theatre built around 1933 in Chinese style, with lots of original paintings on the walls. It's famous for the imprints of movie stars' hands and feet (and sometimes other appendages) in the concrete pavement outside. I did the official tour, which was fascinating, about the architecture and the history. It's still used occasionally for movie premieres, and the rest of the time it's a working cinema. I went back that night and watched The Fourth Kind, just to experience it; but the movie was lousy and I definitely don't recommend it - a part documentary/part recreation of someone's alleged experiences with alien abduction.
Next stop was Ripley's Believe It Or Not (because the Hollywood Museum next door was closed on Mondays). Ripleys was very entertaining for the oddities it contained. It included, interestingly, a portrait of Jesus created by writing the gospel according to John in very small print (remember that portrait I was extolling at the portrait exhibition in Louisville?)
Then I caught the metro to Universal Studios and took their official tour. That was also very interesting, and part of it was like a theme park ride. There were parts where we were told we had to be quiet because there was filming going on, and we did actually drive through the set for Desperate Housewives and see some activity (though as I've never watched the show I couldn't recognise any of the actors).
Then back to Hollywood Boulevarde for dinner and the movie. I had some time to kill and wandered around the shops for a bit. There was also a movie premiere across the street, of a movie called (I think) Old Dogs with Robin Williams. Lots of people and photographers were lined up along the street watching.
I caught the metro home after the movie (see above) with no hassles at all.
I bought a weekly pass for the Metro (train and bus) and caught the metro red line to Hollywood, with a bundle of tourist brochures and the metro map in my shoulder bag.
First stop was Graumann's Chinese Theatre: a movie theatre built around 1933 in Chinese style, with lots of original paintings on the walls. It's famous for the imprints of movie stars' hands and feet (and sometimes other appendages) in the concrete pavement outside. I did the official tour, which was fascinating, about the architecture and the history. It's still used occasionally for movie premieres, and the rest of the time it's a working cinema. I went back that night and watched The Fourth Kind, just to experience it; but the movie was lousy and I definitely don't recommend it - a part documentary/part recreation of someone's alleged experiences with alien abduction.
Next stop was Ripley's Believe It Or Not (because the Hollywood Museum next door was closed on Mondays). Ripleys was very entertaining for the oddities it contained. It included, interestingly, a portrait of Jesus created by writing the gospel according to John in very small print (remember that portrait I was extolling at the portrait exhibition in Louisville?)
Then I caught the metro to Universal Studios and took their official tour. That was also very interesting, and part of it was like a theme park ride. There were parts where we were told we had to be quiet because there was filming going on, and we did actually drive through the set for Desperate Housewives and see some activity (though as I've never watched the show I couldn't recognise any of the actors).
Then back to Hollywood Boulevarde for dinner and the movie. I had some time to kill and wandered around the shops for a bit. There was also a movie premiere across the street, of a movie called (I think) Old Dogs with Robin Williams. Lots of people and photographers were lined up along the street watching.
I caught the metro home after the movie (see above) with no hassles at all.
Eeeek!
SUNDAY:
I've been having problems with my beloved Asus eee pc on this trip - something to do with the authorisations for hidden files on the root directory, I think, which from what I read after Googling seems to be a bit of a bug that requires greater knowledge of Linux commands than I have. In desperation I decide to update my software, and now I've lost it completely. Maybe a complete reinstall? I need a computer repair shop that understands Linux.
Anyway, I'm behind with my blog again, and am updating this from the lobby of the Historic Mayfair where I'm staying in downtown Los Angeles.
Sunday was boring, and in retrospect I should have stayed with the Kiwi Express tour until Nashville and then caught a connecting flight to St Louis to pick up my flight to LA on Sunday night. What I actually did was hang about my hotel in St Louis (miles from anything interesting, unless I walked 1/2 an hour to the nearest shopping mall, which didn't open until 11 am so it was too late anyway), do my laundry, and watch crappy television.
I checked out at midday, caught the airport shuttle bus to St Louis, and then hung about there (reading) until my flight took off at 5:30 pm. I ran into two of the Kiwi ladies I'd been touring with at St Louis airport, on their way back to New Zealand via LA. Luckily the airport had a bookshop and I picked up a couple of vampire novels by Charmaine Harris.
It's a three hour flight to LA but there's a two hour time difference so I didn't get in too late. I took another airport shuttle (I'm getting good at this) to my hotel in downtown LA, the Historic Mayfair and had a late dinner at the hotel. It's very handy for transport, and quite attractive, but a little run down compared with the hotels I was staying in on tour. It's on 7th Avenue, and 5 minutes down the street there's a metro station and lots of buses. More about that in the next post.
I've been having problems with my beloved Asus eee pc on this trip - something to do with the authorisations for hidden files on the root directory, I think, which from what I read after Googling seems to be a bit of a bug that requires greater knowledge of Linux commands than I have. In desperation I decide to update my software, and now I've lost it completely. Maybe a complete reinstall? I need a computer repair shop that understands Linux.
Anyway, I'm behind with my blog again, and am updating this from the lobby of the Historic Mayfair where I'm staying in downtown Los Angeles.
Sunday was boring, and in retrospect I should have stayed with the Kiwi Express tour until Nashville and then caught a connecting flight to St Louis to pick up my flight to LA on Sunday night. What I actually did was hang about my hotel in St Louis (miles from anything interesting, unless I walked 1/2 an hour to the nearest shopping mall, which didn't open until 11 am so it was too late anyway), do my laundry, and watch crappy television.
I checked out at midday, caught the airport shuttle bus to St Louis, and then hung about there (reading) until my flight took off at 5:30 pm. I ran into two of the Kiwi ladies I'd been touring with at St Louis airport, on their way back to New Zealand via LA. Luckily the airport had a bookshop and I picked up a couple of vampire novels by Charmaine Harris.
It's a three hour flight to LA but there's a two hour time difference so I didn't get in too late. I took another airport shuttle (I'm getting good at this) to my hotel in downtown LA, the Historic Mayfair and had a late dinner at the hotel. It's very handy for transport, and quite attractive, but a little run down compared with the hotels I was staying in on tour. It's on 7th Avenue, and 5 minutes down the street there's a metro station and lots of buses. More about that in the next post.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
And so we bid a fond farewell ...
Louisville is where I part company with the Kiwi Express tour. Sue and I shared a room for the last time on Friday night, and this morning we finished packing up our surplus clothing in FedEx boxes and staggered several blocks to the local FedEx office. It turned out to be open for business, but not open for sending international parcels; for that, we had to go to the other FedEx office a taxi ride away. Our part of downtown St Louis was remarkably deserted, with no taxis to be seen, so we staggered another couple of blocks to the UPS office (once I'd found it hidden in the depths of a hotel) where a nice girl called Chelsea took half an hour to work out how to do international freight - something she'd never done before. My box weighed 21 lb 10 oz and cost over $200 to send home, but there was no way I was carrying it back to the hotel to repack into my two overflowing suitcases so it's now on it's way home without me.
Back at the hotel, the Kiwi Express buses were departing at 12 noon so I stayed to say goodbye and wave them off. I had a great time on the tour, it was very well organised, and we did a lot ... but it was lovely to be on my own again.
I had three hours before my taxi arrived at the hotel to take me to the airport, so I called in to the Visitor Centre. They recommended a walking tour down Main Street, taking in some museums and the Museum Hotel, and a film at the Kentucky Centre. The walking tour was interesting, with lots of historic buildings and different styles of architecture.
According to the guy in the Visitor Centre, the Museum Hotel is supposed to be rated the best hotel in America (I must look it up on Google). He says the urinals are amazing: the mirrors have the eyes of blind dart throwers that watch you (no, I'm not making this up). The hotel also has large red penguins above the entrance. On the outside wall there was an artwork that was a thousand paper emperor butterflies attached to the wall, with white plaster hands holding yellow carnations. Inside, above the reception desk, were four wooden figures, naked; and in the foyer and surrounding rooms there was an amazing exhibition of portraits. One of them was chipboard with black paint, and the paint had been partially etched away by a pattern of bullet holes leaving the outline of a face. Another portrait was composed of tiny writing, with different shades of grey achieved by different densities of writing - the guy next to me said it looked like Prince, and I had to admit I didn't know what Prince looked like.
I couldn't find the restrooms so can't report on the mirrors, damn it.
Further down the street I went to the Museum of Arts and Crafts. it was more shop than museum, with lots of works by local artists and craftworkers for sale; but they did have some very beautiful quilts on display from someone's collection, all with a water theme. I have never seen quilts like them - definitely art, not just craft. At the other end of the scale they also had an exhibition of folk art: very crudely carved and painted figures which didn't appeal to me at all. And there was an exhibition about the Day of the Dead, which I think is a Mexican festival where people create elaborate altars to commemorate the dead, with photos and decorations.
I walked up the Belvedere to view the Ohio River: wide, picturesque. Louisville started because there were rapids on the river and people had to get out of their boats and carry their goods around the rapids, according to the sign.
And then I found out where all the people were: there's a pedestrian mall on Fourth Street, with shops and restaurants. I bought more books at Borders (in anticipation of long waits at airports) and toothpaste at a pharmacy, then headed back to the hotel to catch my taxi to the Louisville airport. My taxi driver said: "Oh, you must be from New Zealand" - he knew there was a group on tour from New Zealand in town, and picked up the different accent. Small town!
South Western don't do seat allocations, you just get a number that determines what order you get on the plane and then pick your own seat. I paid a bit extra to go on early (and get a free glass of wine) and that worked fine. The plane had empty seats and it was a quick flight, just 45 minutes, so we got in to St Louis early.
Now I'm at the SpringHill Suites in Earth City, St Louis, 10 minutes from the airport, and looking forward to a quiet evening on my own. The rest of the tour should be arriving in Nashville about now, and settling into the Opryland Hotel.
Back at the hotel, the Kiwi Express buses were departing at 12 noon so I stayed to say goodbye and wave them off. I had a great time on the tour, it was very well organised, and we did a lot ... but it was lovely to be on my own again.
I had three hours before my taxi arrived at the hotel to take me to the airport, so I called in to the Visitor Centre. They recommended a walking tour down Main Street, taking in some museums and the Museum Hotel, and a film at the Kentucky Centre. The walking tour was interesting, with lots of historic buildings and different styles of architecture.
According to the guy in the Visitor Centre, the Museum Hotel is supposed to be rated the best hotel in America (I must look it up on Google). He says the urinals are amazing: the mirrors have the eyes of blind dart throwers that watch you (no, I'm not making this up). The hotel also has large red penguins above the entrance. On the outside wall there was an artwork that was a thousand paper emperor butterflies attached to the wall, with white plaster hands holding yellow carnations. Inside, above the reception desk, were four wooden figures, naked; and in the foyer and surrounding rooms there was an amazing exhibition of portraits. One of them was chipboard with black paint, and the paint had been partially etched away by a pattern of bullet holes leaving the outline of a face. Another portrait was composed of tiny writing, with different shades of grey achieved by different densities of writing - the guy next to me said it looked like Prince, and I had to admit I didn't know what Prince looked like.
I couldn't find the restrooms so can't report on the mirrors, damn it.
Further down the street I went to the Museum of Arts and Crafts. it was more shop than museum, with lots of works by local artists and craftworkers for sale; but they did have some very beautiful quilts on display from someone's collection, all with a water theme. I have never seen quilts like them - definitely art, not just craft. At the other end of the scale they also had an exhibition of folk art: very crudely carved and painted figures which didn't appeal to me at all. And there was an exhibition about the Day of the Dead, which I think is a Mexican festival where people create elaborate altars to commemorate the dead, with photos and decorations.
I walked up the Belvedere to view the Ohio River: wide, picturesque. Louisville started because there were rapids on the river and people had to get out of their boats and carry their goods around the rapids, according to the sign.
And then I found out where all the people were: there's a pedestrian mall on Fourth Street, with shops and restaurants. I bought more books at Borders (in anticipation of long waits at airports) and toothpaste at a pharmacy, then headed back to the hotel to catch my taxi to the Louisville airport. My taxi driver said: "Oh, you must be from New Zealand" - he knew there was a group on tour from New Zealand in town, and picked up the different accent. Small town!
South Western don't do seat allocations, you just get a number that determines what order you get on the plane and then pick your own seat. I paid a bit extra to go on early (and get a free glass of wine) and that worked fine. The plane had empty seats and it was a quick flight, just 45 minutes, so we got in to St Louis early.
Now I'm at the SpringHill Suites in Earth City, St Louis, 10 minutes from the airport, and looking forward to a quiet evening on my own. The rest of the tour should be arriving in Nashville about now, and settling into the Opryland Hotel.
Friday, November 6, 2009
... and Horses
Today's Friday, and we travelled from Morgantown, West Virginia to Louisville Kentucky. We stopped on the way at Kentucky Horse Park, but got there too late for some of the live attractions so settled for a short documentary on horses, and then a visit to the museum. The museum was excellent: history of the horse starting with evolution from a small shy quadruped, and then horses and humans from about 4000 BC in Egypt, Asia, America and Europe. I wish we'd had more time to spend there.
Our hotel in Louisville is downtown, rather than out of town, so we were able to walk just a few blocks to find a restaurant for dinner after our usual happy hour. We five Aussies decided to take a 15 minute horse and carriage ride on the way home, which was fun. Our driver (a very pretty girl who lost her job as a paralegal because of the recession) said our horse was the first carriage horse in Louisville doing these carriage rides, and he's now 34 years old, but missed it so much when they tried to retire him that he still works a couple of nights a week.
I noticed from the bus as we drove through the Appalachians that a lot of the deciduous trees have now lost their leaves completely. The pattern of their branches against the setting sun reminded me of a painting I'd seen: haunting, but alien to an Australian landscape.
Tomorrow I see the rest of the tour off to Nashville and continue on my own to Los Angeles via St Louis.
Our hotel in Louisville is downtown, rather than out of town, so we were able to walk just a few blocks to find a restaurant for dinner after our usual happy hour. We five Aussies decided to take a 15 minute horse and carriage ride on the way home, which was fun. Our driver (a very pretty girl who lost her job as a paralegal because of the recession) said our horse was the first carriage horse in Louisville doing these carriage rides, and he's now 34 years old, but missed it so much when they tried to retire him that he still works a couple of nights a week.
I noticed from the bus as we drove through the Appalachians that a lot of the deciduous trees have now lost their leaves completely. The pattern of their branches against the setting sun reminded me of a painting I'd seen: haunting, but alien to an Australian landscape.
Tomorrow I see the rest of the tour off to Nashville and continue on my own to Los Angeles via St Louis.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Hershey and Harley
Another big day today. Our first stop was the Hershey chocolate factory in Hershey. It's big: much bigger than the Cadbury factory in Tasmania. We didn't go into the factory itself (like the Cadbury tour) but went on a kind of amusement park ride through a tunnel, with life size cow puppets singing, voice over commentary, and mock ups of all the stages of factory production. It was cute, and the quickest introduction to how chocolate bars are made that I've ever seen.
At the end of the tour we got two free samples, and then visited the shop. I couldn't stop smiling: all that chocolate! But I was very restrained (unlike some of my fellow tourists) and only bought some hot chocolate powder and one chocolate bar - and 5 chocolate marshmellow pumpkins on special after Halloween for 50 cents. There was a very cute denim jacket with diamante spelling out Kisses (Hershey are famous for Hershey Kisses) that I managed to resist.
Next stop, at York, was a Harley-Davidson factory. We did quite a long tour with a tour guide of the factory where the custom-built Harley motor cycles are built, and that was fascinating: alll the way from stamping out the basic parts, to laser cutting and trimming, to chroming and painting, to the assembly line, to testing. Too bad they don't give free samples there! In the show room there were several motor cycles that we could sit on and have our photos taken, and of course there was a Harley shop as well.
Next stop was Gettysburg, but it was getting late and so we just had half an hour at the museum - not enough time to visit the battlefields or see the audio-visual presentations. I had run out of books to read (had even reread the Da Vinci Code) so bought "The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" which I'm enjoying immensely. I seem to remember reading "Oldest Living Confederate General Tells All" some years ago, and this is along the same lines but told from an old woman's point of view.
Then on to the hotel, take away for dinner, and the usual happy hour. I've managed to book a flight on South west airlines from Louisville to St Louis, and a hotel near the St Louis airport for Saturday night, and this blog is now up to date again, so it's all good.
(There's lots of stuff that gets left out of the blog because I can't remember it - after a couple of cocktails - but I think of it later. too bad.)
At the end of the tour we got two free samples, and then visited the shop. I couldn't stop smiling: all that chocolate! But I was very restrained (unlike some of my fellow tourists) and only bought some hot chocolate powder and one chocolate bar - and 5 chocolate marshmellow pumpkins on special after Halloween for 50 cents. There was a very cute denim jacket with diamante spelling out Kisses (Hershey are famous for Hershey Kisses) that I managed to resist.
Next stop, at York, was a Harley-Davidson factory. We did quite a long tour with a tour guide of the factory where the custom-built Harley motor cycles are built, and that was fascinating: alll the way from stamping out the basic parts, to laser cutting and trimming, to chroming and painting, to the assembly line, to testing. Too bad they don't give free samples there! In the show room there were several motor cycles that we could sit on and have our photos taken, and of course there was a Harley shop as well.
Next stop was Gettysburg, but it was getting late and so we just had half an hour at the museum - not enough time to visit the battlefields or see the audio-visual presentations. I had run out of books to read (had even reread the Da Vinci Code) so bought "The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" which I'm enjoying immensely. I seem to remember reading "Oldest Living Confederate General Tells All" some years ago, and this is along the same lines but told from an old woman's point of view.
Then on to the hotel, take away for dinner, and the usual happy hour. I've managed to book a flight on South west airlines from Louisville to St Louis, and a hotel near the St Louis airport for Saturday night, and this blog is now up to date again, so it's all good.
(There's lots of stuff that gets left out of the blog because I can't remember it - after a couple of cocktails - but I think of it later. too bad.)
Princess Di and Pops A Cappella
We left Boston at 7:30 am. Some of our good friends (including the Owens family, who are off to Canada) left the tour at this point - we hugged Mary goodbye.
It was a long drive to Philadelphia. We stopped in Philadelphia to visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, but there were no tickets left to Independence Hall so I decided to see the Princess Di exhibition which was on at the Constitution Exhibition Centre instead: $23 and half an hour to see it. Actually it was good value: lots of photos and film clips of Diana from when she was a child right through to her marriage, plus jewellery, The Wedding Dress, and several other couture outfits that she wore.
The highlight of the day - and one of the highlights of the trip - was visiting Pops A Cappella. they are a mixed a cappella group that toured New Zealand earlier this year and had joint shows with Waikata Rivertones. They put on a pot luck dinner for us, and performed for us, and invited the Rivertones to perform as well. They rehearse in business premises owned by Siemens, so we had to sign in as visitors and be escorted down to the rehearsal hall. Like the River Blenders they were delightfully friendly and hospitable people. I really enjoyed their singing: while they don't do the "synchronised swimming" choreo of Sweet Adelines, they were very expressive and had lots of interactive stuff going on between the men and the women, which was a lot of fun. They also had some very good soloists. It made me want to sing mixed a cappella too.
For this night only we stayed at a hotel called the Staybridge Suites in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where we five Aussies shared a two bedroom, two bathroom suite. Sue was banished to the sofa bed in the living room as she has a very fluey cough.
This netbook worked for a while and then wouldn't connect to the internet: very frustrating, as I need to book flights and accommodation to get me from Louisville to St Louis on Saturday.
It was a long drive to Philadelphia. We stopped in Philadelphia to visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, but there were no tickets left to Independence Hall so I decided to see the Princess Di exhibition which was on at the Constitution Exhibition Centre instead: $23 and half an hour to see it. Actually it was good value: lots of photos and film clips of Diana from when she was a child right through to her marriage, plus jewellery, The Wedding Dress, and several other couture outfits that she wore.
The highlight of the day - and one of the highlights of the trip - was visiting Pops A Cappella. they are a mixed a cappella group that toured New Zealand earlier this year and had joint shows with Waikata Rivertones. They put on a pot luck dinner for us, and performed for us, and invited the Rivertones to perform as well. They rehearse in business premises owned by Siemens, so we had to sign in as visitors and be escorted down to the rehearsal hall. Like the River Blenders they were delightfully friendly and hospitable people. I really enjoyed their singing: while they don't do the "synchronised swimming" choreo of Sweet Adelines, they were very expressive and had lots of interactive stuff going on between the men and the women, which was a lot of fun. They also had some very good soloists. It made me want to sing mixed a cappella too.
For this night only we stayed at a hotel called the Staybridge Suites in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where we five Aussies shared a two bedroom, two bathroom suite. Sue was banished to the sofa bed in the living room as she has a very fluey cough.
This netbook worked for a while and then wouldn't connect to the internet: very frustrating, as I need to book flights and accommodation to get me from Louisville to St Louis on Saturday.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Boston
We're in Boston (or at least, in Andover near Boston) so it must be Tuesday.
Today our coach took us into Boston. In the morning we visited the JFK Library and Museum: a bit of a challenge for our coach drivers as there were roadworks, and I heard them saying to each other "what does your GPS say?", but we got there in the end after asking a policeman or two.
As JFK was the President who really made television his tool, there was lots of great archival footage, starting with Kennedy family home movies when he was just a gorgeous boy and then going to Paris when his father was Ambassador to France, and then various election campaigns and his victory speech, right through to the assassination. We only had an hour, and I wish we'd had more time to spend there, but we were running late.
We had a quick lunch at Quincy Market, which has some wonderful food stalls and a few interesting shops, and then picked up our onboard licensed guide for a tour around Boston. She was excellent: Swiss by birth, she emigrated in the sixties to the US.
Boston is very pretty, surrounded by water and with some wonderful parks and historic buildings. We visited Old North church (where the Sons of Liberty shone two lamps in the window to let Paul Revere know which way the British soldiers were coming: "one if by land, two if by sea") and sat in the enclosed pews that still had the names of the people who rented them back in 1794. We drove past Boston Common, where cows were grazed, and saw the land reclaimed from the sea that has been turned into park, and the statue of the duck with her ducklings: Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Oack, Pack and Quack.
And we visited USS Constitution (Old Iron Sides), one of America's first Navy ships after Independence.
It was bloody cold, so we didn't linger. After we dropped our tour guide off we headed back to Andover and had dinner at Crackerjack (another clone, but with even faster service). I discovered that blackberry cobbler is pretty much blackberry jam, served with icecream on top.
I"ve been wrestling with my ASUS eee pc netbook and in desperation followed some advice that I found when I googled the error message. It involved using Linux commands, which makes me very nervous, but seems to have part-fixed the problem. Mainly now I think the problem is that I don't have much memory, but at least I can move photos from my camera SD card to my memory stick.
Today our coach took us into Boston. In the morning we visited the JFK Library and Museum: a bit of a challenge for our coach drivers as there were roadworks, and I heard them saying to each other "what does your GPS say?", but we got there in the end after asking a policeman or two.
As JFK was the President who really made television his tool, there was lots of great archival footage, starting with Kennedy family home movies when he was just a gorgeous boy and then going to Paris when his father was Ambassador to France, and then various election campaigns and his victory speech, right through to the assassination. We only had an hour, and I wish we'd had more time to spend there, but we were running late.
We had a quick lunch at Quincy Market, which has some wonderful food stalls and a few interesting shops, and then picked up our onboard licensed guide for a tour around Boston. She was excellent: Swiss by birth, she emigrated in the sixties to the US.
Boston is very pretty, surrounded by water and with some wonderful parks and historic buildings. We visited Old North church (where the Sons of Liberty shone two lamps in the window to let Paul Revere know which way the British soldiers were coming: "one if by land, two if by sea") and sat in the enclosed pews that still had the names of the people who rented them back in 1794. We drove past Boston Common, where cows were grazed, and saw the land reclaimed from the sea that has been turned into park, and the statue of the duck with her ducklings: Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Oack, Pack and Quack.
And we visited USS Constitution (Old Iron Sides), one of America's first Navy ships after Independence.
It was bloody cold, so we didn't linger. After we dropped our tour guide off we headed back to Andover and had dinner at Crackerjack (another clone, but with even faster service). I discovered that blackberry cobbler is pretty much blackberry jam, served with icecream on top.
I"ve been wrestling with my ASUS eee pc netbook and in desperation followed some advice that I found when I googled the error message. It involved using Linux commands, which makes me very nervous, but seems to have part-fixed the problem. Mainly now I think the problem is that I don't have much memory, but at least I can move photos from my camera SD card to my memory stick.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Abyssinian Baptist Church
The wakeup call came at 5:45 am, an hour earlier than we'd asked, so the daylight saving change hadn't worked as well as we expected.
On the coach again at 8:30 am with all our bags packed, we travelled to Harlem to attend a church service at the Abyssinian Baptist Church. We had pre-booked, which was a good thing because there was a queue of tourists stretching the whole block waiting to get in, and we got priority ahead of all of them. We still had to queue in the chilly New York morning air from 9 am to 11 am, and whiled away the time singing.
The church is very efficient and had ushers (men in suits, ladies in white dresses and gloves) doing crowd control. At last they let us in and we took seats in the upper balcony. The liturgy was not too different from what I remember in the days when I went to church, and I was able to sing along with some of the hymns. The choir sat in the choir stalls up above, next to a very nice organ, and sang some Hayden. I was impressed that the Assistant Pastor was a woman, who spoke very well; but the highlight was definitely the sermon by Pastor Butts, who was a very powerful speaker. He welcomed visitors, mentioned us as Sweet Adelines from New Zealand, and had us sing a song (It Is Well With My Soul) which won us a standing ovation - heady stuff.
The congregation member next to me kept punctuating the sermon, about what it means to be a Christian, by calling out "Amen" and "Preach". There was also quite a lot of political comment as the Pastor reported on a recent visit to Washington and his support for President Obama.
During the offertory the choir sang a lively gospel song and everyone clapped. The service ended around 1:30 pm, and we got back on the coaches and headed towards Boston. We stopped at another Costco outlet for rest breaks, food (a very late lunch) and more shopping. I picked up some cardboard boxes from FedEx to post some of my surplus clothing home.
We got to Andover, Massachussetts, around 7:30 pm, had our usual happy hour and then retired to our rooms for dinner and unpacking.
On the coach again at 8:30 am with all our bags packed, we travelled to Harlem to attend a church service at the Abyssinian Baptist Church. We had pre-booked, which was a good thing because there was a queue of tourists stretching the whole block waiting to get in, and we got priority ahead of all of them. We still had to queue in the chilly New York morning air from 9 am to 11 am, and whiled away the time singing.
The church is very efficient and had ushers (men in suits, ladies in white dresses and gloves) doing crowd control. At last they let us in and we took seats in the upper balcony. The liturgy was not too different from what I remember in the days when I went to church, and I was able to sing along with some of the hymns. The choir sat in the choir stalls up above, next to a very nice organ, and sang some Hayden. I was impressed that the Assistant Pastor was a woman, who spoke very well; but the highlight was definitely the sermon by Pastor Butts, who was a very powerful speaker. He welcomed visitors, mentioned us as Sweet Adelines from New Zealand, and had us sing a song (It Is Well With My Soul) which won us a standing ovation - heady stuff.
The congregation member next to me kept punctuating the sermon, about what it means to be a Christian, by calling out "Amen" and "Preach". There was also quite a lot of political comment as the Pastor reported on a recent visit to Washington and his support for President Obama.
During the offertory the choir sang a lively gospel song and everyone clapped. The service ended around 1:30 pm, and we got back on the coaches and headed towards Boston. We stopped at another Costco outlet for rest breaks, food (a very late lunch) and more shopping. I picked up some cardboard boxes from FedEx to post some of my surplus clothing home.
We got to Andover, Massachussetts, around 7:30 pm, had our usual happy hour and then retired to our rooms for dinner and unpacking.
Tourist attractions, New York
Saturday was another big day. The coaches left early to take us to a ferry terminal somewhere in the bookdocks (lots of swamp) to catch the ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island.
Ellis Island is where immigrants were processed. They had a very good audio tour of the building where new arrivals dropped their baggage, went upstairs for a 6 second medical check, waited to be questioned, and then were either free to go or were detained. Seems like not much has changed. I was surprised to find out that most immigrants were accepted, back then, and only 2% (or was it 6%) rejected. But it must have been a terrifying experience. The doctors checked for trachoma by turning back your eyelids with a button hook, and medical conditions were chalked in a code on your clothing.
We caught the ferry again to visit Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty. Another audio tour: there was a 45 minute wait to climb up inside so most of us just walked around the perimeter, and that was interesting enough. She looks solid, but she's actually a thin layer of copper sheets over a structure designed by Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame. Here's a trivia question: what's inscribed on the book that she holds? It's July 4th (Independence Day) with the year in roman numerals that I couldn't quite read.
The New York skyline from the ferry was just beautiful: especially as we came into land, with the sun turning the windows to gold and silver.
The ferry dropped us at Battery Point and the coaches took us to the Empire State Building, where we caught a lift up to the 80th floor and another lift to the 86th floor where the observatory is. It was very windy, but we were able to walk right around and see a wonderful 360 degree view of New York below us. Most of the rooftops were pretty filthy.
I lost the rest of the Aussie contingent (not intentionally) and headed north towards the Museum of Modern Art. I'm not a fan of the newer stuff, but it was wonderful to see original Picasso and Mondrian and Klint that I'd only ever seen in art books. Monet's waterlilies were supposed to be there but I couldn't find them and was running out of time and energy.
My next stop was Central Park, and by sheer coincidence I ran into Sue, Jill, Jennifer and Mary on a street corner. They were on their way back from shopping at Tiffany's. We joined forces and walked up to Central Park together to take a horse-drawn carriage ride around the park. That was fun: Sue and I had an Irish coach driver who pointed out the sights. The ice rink had opened and people were skating.
Walking along 7th avenue we saw several people and children in Halloween costumes. There was a Halloween parade starting at 7 pm but it was the other end of town so we didn't get to see it. One cute baby in a stroller was dressed as a lobster.
Next on the schedule was going to South Pacific at the Lincoln Centre. It was very hard to flag down a taxi, so eventually we split up. Jill and Jennifer went off to pursue a taxi and Mary, Sue and I ventured into the subway at 59th street. Unfortunately the Halloween Parade and the New York Marathon (on Sunday) meant some subway services had been suspended. We caught what we thought was a subway to the Lincoln Centre but it turned out to be an express that didn't stop until 107th street, so we caught another express back to 59th street and walked the few blocks to 65th street along Broadway. We had a sort of meal at Starbucks, and then found Jill and Jennifer (who'd managed to flag down a taxi very quickly) waiting outside the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.
South Pacific was wonderful. I'd never seen it before, so didn't know what to expect. It's based on short stories by James A Michener, and deals with issues of mixed marriages: between an American nurse, Nellie, and a French plantation owner; and an American soldier and a Tahitian girl. Great singing, wonderful music, fantastic scenery.
We caught a taxi home - not a licensed taxi, and he charged over the odds, but he was willing to take all 5 of us in one taxi and he was there, so it worked out okay. We were home by 11:30 pm, and it's the end of daylight saving so we got an extra hour's sleep (or should have).
Ellis Island is where immigrants were processed. They had a very good audio tour of the building where new arrivals dropped their baggage, went upstairs for a 6 second medical check, waited to be questioned, and then were either free to go or were detained. Seems like not much has changed. I was surprised to find out that most immigrants were accepted, back then, and only 2% (or was it 6%) rejected. But it must have been a terrifying experience. The doctors checked for trachoma by turning back your eyelids with a button hook, and medical conditions were chalked in a code on your clothing.
We caught the ferry again to visit Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty. Another audio tour: there was a 45 minute wait to climb up inside so most of us just walked around the perimeter, and that was interesting enough. She looks solid, but she's actually a thin layer of copper sheets over a structure designed by Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame. Here's a trivia question: what's inscribed on the book that she holds? It's July 4th (Independence Day) with the year in roman numerals that I couldn't quite read.
The New York skyline from the ferry was just beautiful: especially as we came into land, with the sun turning the windows to gold and silver.
The ferry dropped us at Battery Point and the coaches took us to the Empire State Building, where we caught a lift up to the 80th floor and another lift to the 86th floor where the observatory is. It was very windy, but we were able to walk right around and see a wonderful 360 degree view of New York below us. Most of the rooftops were pretty filthy.
I lost the rest of the Aussie contingent (not intentionally) and headed north towards the Museum of Modern Art. I'm not a fan of the newer stuff, but it was wonderful to see original Picasso and Mondrian and Klint that I'd only ever seen in art books. Monet's waterlilies were supposed to be there but I couldn't find them and was running out of time and energy.
My next stop was Central Park, and by sheer coincidence I ran into Sue, Jill, Jennifer and Mary on a street corner. They were on their way back from shopping at Tiffany's. We joined forces and walked up to Central Park together to take a horse-drawn carriage ride around the park. That was fun: Sue and I had an Irish coach driver who pointed out the sights. The ice rink had opened and people were skating.
Walking along 7th avenue we saw several people and children in Halloween costumes. There was a Halloween parade starting at 7 pm but it was the other end of town so we didn't get to see it. One cute baby in a stroller was dressed as a lobster.
Next on the schedule was going to South Pacific at the Lincoln Centre. It was very hard to flag down a taxi, so eventually we split up. Jill and Jennifer went off to pursue a taxi and Mary, Sue and I ventured into the subway at 59th street. Unfortunately the Halloween Parade and the New York Marathon (on Sunday) meant some subway services had been suspended. We caught what we thought was a subway to the Lincoln Centre but it turned out to be an express that didn't stop until 107th street, so we caught another express back to 59th street and walked the few blocks to 65th street along Broadway. We had a sort of meal at Starbucks, and then found Jill and Jennifer (who'd managed to flag down a taxi very quickly) waiting outside the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.
South Pacific was wonderful. I'd never seen it before, so didn't know what to expect. It's based on short stories by James A Michener, and deals with issues of mixed marriages: between an American nurse, Nellie, and a French plantation owner; and an American soldier and a Tahitian girl. Great singing, wonderful music, fantastic scenery.
We caught a taxi home - not a licensed taxi, and he charged over the odds, but he was willing to take all 5 of us in one taxi and he was there, so it worked out okay. We were home by 11:30 pm, and it's the end of daylight saving so we got an extra hour's sleep (or should have).
New York, New York
Now it's Friday. (Well,actually it's Sunday but I'm a couple of days behind with this.)
We're staying in Newark, New Jersey near the Newark International Airport. There are a bunch of hotels on the New Jersey Turnpike, near the airport, a long way from anything else: I guess they're handy for commuters.
We took both coaches into New York and picked up our on board tour guide, Martha, who's a born and bred New Yorker. We wished that we'd had a map of New York to trace where we went, as it got very confusing. There are 5 boroughs; there's"uptown" and "downtown" (handy when catching subways); the avenues and the streets are numbered, and the streets are either East or West of 7th avenue (I think). We had a brief walk in Central Park, and the rest of the time we were on the bus. Lunch was at the Rockefeller Centre, where there's an ice skating rink and a lot of shops.
Some people chose to stay in the city after the tour and make their own way home, but we caught the coach back and settled for Lean Cuisine in our room.
We're staying in Newark, New Jersey near the Newark International Airport. There are a bunch of hotels on the New Jersey Turnpike, near the airport, a long way from anything else: I guess they're handy for commuters.
We took both coaches into New York and picked up our on board tour guide, Martha, who's a born and bred New Yorker. We wished that we'd had a map of New York to trace where we went, as it got very confusing. There are 5 boroughs; there's"uptown" and "downtown" (handy when catching subways); the avenues and the streets are numbered, and the streets are either East or West of 7th avenue (I think). We had a brief walk in Central Park, and the rest of the time we were on the bus. Lunch was at the Rockefeller Centre, where there's an ice skating rink and a lot of shops.
Some people chose to stay in the city after the tour and make their own way home, but we caught the coach back and settled for Lean Cuisine in our room.
Washington to New York via Baltimore
Today was a travel day, so there's not much to report.
We loaded all our luggage (getting heavier every day, with all our shopping) on the coaches and our first stop was just down the road at the Manassas Super Walmart: the new one, that had just relocated from the one we visited a day or so ago. More shopping.
Our lunch stop was some hours down the road at Costco. It's a cooperative wholesale outlet intended for small business, but luckily Joe's a member so we were able to shop. I escaped with wallet intact, but wandered over to J C Penney's across the car park where they were having a sale, and found a few things to buy. We're doing our best to stimulate the US economy.
We got to New Jersey late afternoon and booked into our next hotel, which is near the Newark International Airport. Staying out here in the boondocks is much cheaper than staying in New York, and theoretically it's only 30 minutes drive into the city. For dinner there was a choice of take away, microwaving an instant meal from the hotel shop, or walking down the road to another Marriott hotel's restaurant. We took the last option. I think they were a bit overwhelmed by the influx, as the service was remarkably slow.
Travellling seems to be a lot about food and shelter and shopping. I'm reading Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods and it's the same with him (but he's much funnier to read) - except for the shopping.
We loaded all our luggage (getting heavier every day, with all our shopping) on the coaches and our first stop was just down the road at the Manassas Super Walmart: the new one, that had just relocated from the one we visited a day or so ago. More shopping.
Our lunch stop was some hours down the road at Costco. It's a cooperative wholesale outlet intended for small business, but luckily Joe's a member so we were able to shop. I escaped with wallet intact, but wandered over to J C Penney's across the car park where they were having a sale, and found a few things to buy. We're doing our best to stimulate the US economy.
We got to New Jersey late afternoon and booked into our next hotel, which is near the Newark International Airport. Staying out here in the boondocks is much cheaper than staying in New York, and theoretically it's only 30 minutes drive into the city. For dinner there was a choice of take away, microwaving an instant meal from the hotel shop, or walking down the road to another Marriott hotel's restaurant. We took the last option. I think they were a bit overwhelmed by the influx, as the service was remarkably slow.
Travellling seems to be a lot about food and shelter and shopping. I'm reading Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods and it's the same with him (but he's much funnier to read) - except for the shopping.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Washinton Monuments, Memorials and Madness
We had an interesting day yesterday (I think it was Wednesday, but I've kind of lost track) doing a tour of memorials and monuments with a local tour guide. Kathleen was previously a university lecturer and now takes tours on Shakespeare, American history, and architecture. She was very good and pointed out all sorts of interesting things we'd never have discovered on our own.
We visited: World War II memorial; Roosevelt memorial; Korean War Memorial; Lincoln Memorial; Vietnam Memorial; White House (from the outside); lunch at Union Station food court; Arlington Cemetery; and shopping and dinner at the Pentagon Mall.
The Roosevelt memorial was impressive, formed of huge blocks of granite into four "rooms" representing different stages of Roosevelt's Presidency. There were quotations chiselled into the granite, and water features in each room that represented the times (eg waterfall for the Depression). Many Americans at the time didn't know that Roosevelt was in a wheelchair, because there was no television and the press didn't mention it.
The Korean War Memorial was very moving, with statues of soldiers placed as if they were on patrol in the jungle, looking out for enemy soldiers. Their faces showed their fear - this was not a victory, Kathleen says, it ended with an armistice.
The Lincoln Memorial looks over a reflecting pool and the World War II memorial to the Washington Memorial in the distance. His statue dominates the memorial, with quotes (again) chiselled into the walls either side. Kathleen pointed out that the pose is ambiguous: one side firm and resolute, the other side conciliatory and seeking peace.
The Vietnam War Memorial is the one you hear most about. It was a polished granite wall with the names of all the dead and missing, in the order in which they were lost. From the wall there's a direct line of sight to the Washington Monument, so that all the great monuments are linked to each other. It was designed by a uni student, who also submitted it as an assignment and got B+ from her professor.
The White House is right in the heart of the city, with hotels and government offices all around. I'd always imagined it was set apart, as the Governor-General's residence is in Canberra, but I was wrong. Blair House, where visiting foreign heads of government are put up when they're in town, is just in the next block. Kathleen pointed out that President Obama was in residence and working in the Oval Office, because there was a Marine posted outside, but we didn't get to see him.
Union Station was meant to be the transport hub of the city in the days when rail was the modern form of transport, and was built in suitably impressive dimensions. It's still functioning, but now has lots of shops and a food court.
After lunch our tour guide took us to Arlington Cemetery - a vast expanse of lawn, trees, paths, and long lines of white crosses for soldiers, sailors and airforce who died on active duty. (and other dignatories). They are also allowed to have wives and children buried with them. The cemetery is filling up, so now the rules about who can be buried there are stricter. We saw the grave of John Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, set in the ground with an eternal flame; and Robert Kennedy (just a white cross in lawn).
Then off to the Pentagon Mall where we said goodbye to our tour guide, and then had dinner and more shopping. I must say the husbands who came on this trip are a pretty patient lot when it comes to shopping, as we've done a lot of it.
After dinner it was back on the buses as headed off to the Kennedy Centre for an interactive play called 'Shear Madness' which was a murder mystery. The police lieutenant got the audience to put their hands up when the suspects lied, and to ask questions, and then to vote on who the murderer was. It was very funny, with lots of ad lib jokes: they mentioned Aussies, and New Zealand, and Sweet Adelines, and the names of all the school groups that were in the audience. The Kennedy Centre is a massive rectangular building with an atrium that's supposed to be the biggest room in the world (or the US, I can't remember). There's a wide terrace all around the top floor with wonderful views of Washington.
Today we're off to New York, with a bit of shopping on the way.
We visited: World War II memorial; Roosevelt memorial; Korean War Memorial; Lincoln Memorial; Vietnam Memorial; White House (from the outside); lunch at Union Station food court; Arlington Cemetery; and shopping and dinner at the Pentagon Mall.
The Roosevelt memorial was impressive, formed of huge blocks of granite into four "rooms" representing different stages of Roosevelt's Presidency. There were quotations chiselled into the granite, and water features in each room that represented the times (eg waterfall for the Depression). Many Americans at the time didn't know that Roosevelt was in a wheelchair, because there was no television and the press didn't mention it.
The Korean War Memorial was very moving, with statues of soldiers placed as if they were on patrol in the jungle, looking out for enemy soldiers. Their faces showed their fear - this was not a victory, Kathleen says, it ended with an armistice.
The Lincoln Memorial looks over a reflecting pool and the World War II memorial to the Washington Memorial in the distance. His statue dominates the memorial, with quotes (again) chiselled into the walls either side. Kathleen pointed out that the pose is ambiguous: one side firm and resolute, the other side conciliatory and seeking peace.
The Vietnam War Memorial is the one you hear most about. It was a polished granite wall with the names of all the dead and missing, in the order in which they were lost. From the wall there's a direct line of sight to the Washington Monument, so that all the great monuments are linked to each other. It was designed by a uni student, who also submitted it as an assignment and got B+ from her professor.
The White House is right in the heart of the city, with hotels and government offices all around. I'd always imagined it was set apart, as the Governor-General's residence is in Canberra, but I was wrong. Blair House, where visiting foreign heads of government are put up when they're in town, is just in the next block. Kathleen pointed out that President Obama was in residence and working in the Oval Office, because there was a Marine posted outside, but we didn't get to see him.
Union Station was meant to be the transport hub of the city in the days when rail was the modern form of transport, and was built in suitably impressive dimensions. It's still functioning, but now has lots of shops and a food court.
After lunch our tour guide took us to Arlington Cemetery - a vast expanse of lawn, trees, paths, and long lines of white crosses for soldiers, sailors and airforce who died on active duty. (and other dignatories). They are also allowed to have wives and children buried with them. The cemetery is filling up, so now the rules about who can be buried there are stricter. We saw the grave of John Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, set in the ground with an eternal flame; and Robert Kennedy (just a white cross in lawn).
Then off to the Pentagon Mall where we said goodbye to our tour guide, and then had dinner and more shopping. I must say the husbands who came on this trip are a pretty patient lot when it comes to shopping, as we've done a lot of it.
After dinner it was back on the buses as headed off to the Kennedy Centre for an interactive play called 'Shear Madness' which was a murder mystery. The police lieutenant got the audience to put their hands up when the suspects lied, and to ask questions, and then to vote on who the murderer was. It was very funny, with lots of ad lib jokes: they mentioned Aussies, and New Zealand, and Sweet Adelines, and the names of all the school groups that were in the audience. The Kennedy Centre is a massive rectangular building with an atrium that's supposed to be the biggest room in the world (or the US, I can't remember). There's a wide terrace all around the top floor with wonderful views of Washington.
Today we're off to New York, with a bit of shopping on the way.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Smithsonian
Today we took the bus into Washington DC and had our choice of Smithsonian Museums to visit. I chose the National Gallery of Art to start with. After three hours I'd walked through 41 galleries (13th to 15th century Italian, 16th century italian and spanish, 17th century italian, spanish and french and 18th century german, 15th to 16th century netherlandish and german, and part of 17th century dutch and flemish. I learnt a lot, but I was exhausted, and decided I needed a change, so I missed french, british and american and a whole bunch of sculpture and porcelain in the remaining 50 galleries.
By the way, I didn't know that El Greco wasn't his real name, it just means The Greek. And I can't see why some artists became famous and their contemporaries didn't, when their paintings seemed just as good to me.
Anyway, after lunch at the cafe I took the underground walk from the West Gallery to the East Gallery and had a look at some modern art. I decided I don't understand modern art. At all. I did try.
Then I found my way to the sculpture garden (mostly under renovation) and thence to the National Museum of Natural History. Tuesdays there's free entry to the live butterfly exhibit. They had some glorious butterflies from all over the world, and they're very strict about making sure they don't escape to become feral pests. The temperature was tropical so I didn't stay long.
I dropped into the gem collection to admire the Hope Diamond, which has an exhibit all to itself, and took a look at some large topaz, rubies and other jewels. On the way back to the bus I saw an albino squirrel, very tame, hanging about the food concession in the Mall.
On the way back to the hotel we dropped into Walmart to pick up some necessities. It so happened the Walmart was relocating the next day, so they were shutting early and we only had 20 minutes to shop. It's impressive how fast we can shop when we have a deadline to meet.
Back on the bus, back to the hotel for happy hour. We carry our own liquor with us and have a team of guys organised to set up the bar whenever there's an opportunity. The hotels are very accommodating about giving us space to do this. I was awarded first prize for the Aussie entry in the biography competition: a White House christmas decoration, and a very pretty scarf.
Then off to dinner at the Outback Restaurant: good food, good service, and not too expensive. We sang Waltzing Matilda (the Aussie contingent is mostly basses, so we weren't equpped to do any four part harmony).
Tomorrow we head back to Washington for a guided tour, and then most of us are going to dinner at the Pentagon Mall and a show at the Kennedy Centre called Shear Madness. It should be fun.
By the way, I didn't know that El Greco wasn't his real name, it just means The Greek. And I can't see why some artists became famous and their contemporaries didn't, when their paintings seemed just as good to me.
Anyway, after lunch at the cafe I took the underground walk from the West Gallery to the East Gallery and had a look at some modern art. I decided I don't understand modern art. At all. I did try.
Then I found my way to the sculpture garden (mostly under renovation) and thence to the National Museum of Natural History. Tuesdays there's free entry to the live butterfly exhibit. They had some glorious butterflies from all over the world, and they're very strict about making sure they don't escape to become feral pests. The temperature was tropical so I didn't stay long.
I dropped into the gem collection to admire the Hope Diamond, which has an exhibit all to itself, and took a look at some large topaz, rubies and other jewels. On the way back to the bus I saw an albino squirrel, very tame, hanging about the food concession in the Mall.
On the way back to the hotel we dropped into Walmart to pick up some necessities. It so happened the Walmart was relocating the next day, so they were shutting early and we only had 20 minutes to shop. It's impressive how fast we can shop when we have a deadline to meet.
Back on the bus, back to the hotel for happy hour. We carry our own liquor with us and have a team of guys organised to set up the bar whenever there's an opportunity. The hotels are very accommodating about giving us space to do this. I was awarded first prize for the Aussie entry in the biography competition: a White House christmas decoration, and a very pretty scarf.
Then off to dinner at the Outback Restaurant: good food, good service, and not too expensive. We sang Waltzing Matilda (the Aussie contingent is mostly basses, so we weren't equpped to do any four part harmony).
Tomorrow we head back to Washington for a guided tour, and then most of us are going to dinner at the Pentagon Mall and a show at the Kennedy Centre called Shear Madness. It should be fun.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Roanoke to Manassas
Today we left Roanoke at 9 am to continue our journey. I scored 12 out of 67 for the biographies (and I think I was the only Aussie who entered the competition) - the Kiwis did much better. But it was fun trying to match up names.
We got to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's estate, around 11 am. There's a visitor complex with cafe, theatre, museum and shop. From there we took a shuttle bus up the hill to the house. We had a lovely guide, Allan, who showed us around. The house is beautifully preserved and it was fascinating to see how Jefferson had designed it based on architectural principles he'd picked up while being Ambassador to the French Court. He lived on the first floor (what we'd call the ground floor) and didn't need to go upstairs, so the stairs that the rest of the family and the servants used were narrow and inconvenient. His bed was set in the wall between two rooms so he could get out one side and be in his study, or the other side and be in his bedroom. The stables, kitchen, wine cellar, storage and laundry are all on the basement level, out of sight underneath the terraces. We didn't have time to explore the gardens and grounds, and could easily have spent the whole day there.
Back on the buses, we went down the road a short way for lunch (choice of burgers or Mexican). Then another couple of hours on the road, and we arrived at Luray Caves. This is one of the biggest cave complexes in the US, we're told. It's certainly very impressive. They've done a lot of work with paths and concealed lighting to give visitors good access, and there's a self-guided audio tour. It takes about an hour and a half to go all the way through. It's bigger than Jenolan Caves or Yarrangobilly in NSW. Some of the Kiwi's sing in the Cathedral cave and they sound wonderful.
Back on the bus, and we get to our hotel in Manassas around 8 pm and head out (to Crackerjack, again) for dinner. All the Crackerjack restaurants we've been in have been identical in layout, even down to where the goods are displayed in the shop that we have to go through to get to the restaurant.
Back to the hotel - no happy hour tonight, as it's so late. There's one washing machine, one dryer, and a queue of people wanting to do laundry, so I'm planning to get up early and do it in the morning.
We got to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's estate, around 11 am. There's a visitor complex with cafe, theatre, museum and shop. From there we took a shuttle bus up the hill to the house. We had a lovely guide, Allan, who showed us around. The house is beautifully preserved and it was fascinating to see how Jefferson had designed it based on architectural principles he'd picked up while being Ambassador to the French Court. He lived on the first floor (what we'd call the ground floor) and didn't need to go upstairs, so the stairs that the rest of the family and the servants used were narrow and inconvenient. His bed was set in the wall between two rooms so he could get out one side and be in his study, or the other side and be in his bedroom. The stables, kitchen, wine cellar, storage and laundry are all on the basement level, out of sight underneath the terraces. We didn't have time to explore the gardens and grounds, and could easily have spent the whole day there.
Back on the buses, we went down the road a short way for lunch (choice of burgers or Mexican). Then another couple of hours on the road, and we arrived at Luray Caves. This is one of the biggest cave complexes in the US, we're told. It's certainly very impressive. They've done a lot of work with paths and concealed lighting to give visitors good access, and there's a self-guided audio tour. It takes about an hour and a half to go all the way through. It's bigger than Jenolan Caves or Yarrangobilly in NSW. Some of the Kiwi's sing in the Cathedral cave and they sound wonderful.
Back on the bus, and we get to our hotel in Manassas around 8 pm and head out (to Crackerjack, again) for dinner. All the Crackerjack restaurants we've been in have been identical in layout, even down to where the goods are displayed in the shop that we have to go through to get to the restaurant.
Back to the hotel - no happy hour tonight, as it's so late. There's one washing machine, one dryer, and a queue of people wanting to do laundry, so I'm planning to get up early and do it in the morning.
Nashvile to Roanoke
On Sunday morning Sue and I had planned to get up early to be picked up for our Kiwi Express tour. Somehow I managed to reset the clock when I set the alarm, so that we had an hour less than we thought we had, but luckily we'd both done some packing the day before so we still managed to be in the foyer at 8:30 am to be greeted by Joe Veeder. All the other Aussies (Mary, Jill, Jennifer, and the Owens family: Mary, David, Robbie, Carol and Pat) were already waiting for us on the bus.
We swung by the Holiday Inn to pick up some of the New Zealanders, and then headed out of Nashville. Kate Veeder had organised a competition to match people's names with their biographies, which was an incentive to get to know each other, and we also had a competition to name our mascots. The coaches are well stocked with water, soft drinks and treats. There is also a box at the back for recycling books after we've read them, so I was able to unload a few I'd been carrying with me.
We drove through some beautiful country side as we headed north-west along highway 81 through Tennessee,Virginia and West Virginia. The trees are turning shades of yellow, orange and red. The towns we passed through looked very inviting, with weatherboard houses with gables separated by expanses of green lawn.
We stopped along the way for lunch and a rest break, and didn't get to our hotel at Roanoke until 7 pm. After we unpacked, we got back on the coaches to go to Crackerjack for dinner, and then back to the hotel for a happy hour, which is traditional on Kiwi Express tours. I came back after one glass of wine to wrestle with a wireless internet connection. Sue and I have separate beds, and we both slept very well.
We swung by the Holiday Inn to pick up some of the New Zealanders, and then headed out of Nashville. Kate Veeder had organised a competition to match people's names with their biographies, which was an incentive to get to know each other, and we also had a competition to name our mascots. The coaches are well stocked with water, soft drinks and treats. There is also a box at the back for recycling books after we've read them, so I was able to unload a few I'd been carrying with me.
We drove through some beautiful country side as we headed north-west along highway 81 through Tennessee,Virginia and West Virginia. The trees are turning shades of yellow, orange and red. The towns we passed through looked very inviting, with weatherboard houses with gables separated by expanses of green lawn.
We stopped along the way for lunch and a rest break, and didn't get to our hotel at Roanoke until 7 pm. After we unpacked, we got back on the coaches to go to Crackerjack for dinner, and then back to the hotel for a happy hour, which is traditional on Kiwi Express tours. I came back after one glass of wine to wrestle with a wireless internet connection. Sue and I have separate beds, and we both slept very well.
Chorus finals
Saturday afternoon and evening (3 pm to 9 pm) was the highlight of the week, the chorus finals. The top ten choruses from the semi-finals present a 15 minute package for judging. I understand that the rules require 2 competition level songs but they can also include other songs and patter.
These are the top 10 choruses in the competition, so they all sound equally good to me - I'm not knowledgeable enough to judge them on sound, music and expression, which are three of the four judging categories, so I just go for the ones that are most entertaining. There are a couple that stood out in my memory.
Lions Gate chorus did a very clever package about barbershop competition being like a sporting competition, and what if you could review the singing the sports commentators do on TV. Two commentators controlled the action as the chorus sang in slow motion, froze, rewound, and fast forwarded. It was hysterically funny, and they got a standing ovation.
The Rich-Tones did an enormously energetic set with lots of different dance styles, as their Director, Dale, tried to keep up with them. I'm amazed at how they can all dance like an aerobics work out and sing at the same time.
The Rich-Tones were placed first, and Lions Gate second.
These are the top 10 choruses in the competition, so they all sound equally good to me - I'm not knowledgeable enough to judge them on sound, music and expression, which are three of the four judging categories, so I just go for the ones that are most entertaining. There are a couple that stood out in my memory.
Lions Gate chorus did a very clever package about barbershop competition being like a sporting competition, and what if you could review the singing the sports commentators do on TV. Two commentators controlled the action as the chorus sang in slow motion, froze, rewound, and fast forwarded. It was hysterically funny, and they got a standing ovation.
The Rich-Tones did an enormously energetic set with lots of different dance styles, as their Director, Dale, tried to keep up with them. I'm amazed at how they can all dance like an aerobics work out and sing at the same time.
The Rich-Tones were placed first, and Lions Gate second.
Rising Stars
Okay, here it is Monday already and I'm several days behind with the blog. Let's rewind back to Saturday morning.
On Saturday morning I watched the Rising Stars competition. This is held in conjunction with our International Convention. It's a competition for young women (under 25, I think) singing in quartets. It's part of our Young Women in Harmony program, to promote barbershop singing to a younger generation.
The entrants were high school and college age, all young and gorgeous. Some of them were more confident than others, and some of them had amazing voices. The Waikato Rivertones had a quartet entered, so I cheered very loudly for them (and they're on the bus trip with us now).
Damn, I've packed away all my notes from Saturday's competition so I can't even tell you the name of the winning quartets, or what they wore or sang. You'll have to take my word for it that it was both entertaining and inspiring.
On Saturday morning I watched the Rising Stars competition. This is held in conjunction with our International Convention. It's a competition for young women (under 25, I think) singing in quartets. It's part of our Young Women in Harmony program, to promote barbershop singing to a younger generation.
The entrants were high school and college age, all young and gorgeous. Some of them were more confident than others, and some of them had amazing voices. The Waikato Rivertones had a quartet entered, so I cheered very loudly for them (and they're on the bus trip with us now).
Damn, I've packed away all my notes from Saturday's competition so I can't even tell you the name of the winning quartets, or what they wore or sang. You'll have to take my word for it that it was both entertaining and inspiring.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Queens of Harmony
The Coronet Club Show is a Sweet Adelines tradition. The Coronet Club is made up of all the quartets who have won first place at an international convention. When they win they are crowned with a diamante tiara or crown (each year there is a different design). They can wear their crown at all Sweet Adelines events, and particularly at International Convention. They are known as Queens, and they put on a show each year as part of the Convention.
Last night's show was at the Sommet Centre, where our quartet and chorus competition is being held. It's actually an oval indoor arena where ice hockey is played. There's raked seating all around a flat floor (under which is the ice, so I believe it gets quite chilly if you're sitting in the privileged seats on the floor). For the convention there's a stage across one end. There are three tiers of seating, but we're only using tiers 1 and 2 and there's still plenty of room.
I forgot to take my pen with a light, so I've just scrawled some rough notes about the show on the back of my program. Let's see how much I remember.
All the Queens come on stage in western gear (boots and jeans) and sing and dance a couple of songs. They fill the risers.
After they go off there are MC voiceovers by a man with a gorgeous voice announcing the acts, and each act's name is up in lights on the screen at the back of the stage. Most of the acts have a Nashville theme.
The Four Bettys are the first quartet to sing, I think, followed by an octet among which are Salt, recognisable because of their height and long legs. Then there's the Buzz (sorry, I didn't make any notes about songs or patter) and Swinglish Mix.
The show is being compered by Liz Hardcastle, herself a Queen. Liz comes on dressed as Polly Darton with enormous boobs and a blonde curly wig, escorted by Cowboy Mike (the man with the gorgeous voice). She says "is that an i-phone in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me" - a line pinched from Mae West, but what the hell. She has to hold her notes up higher to see over her breasts.
The Queens are back on stage, dressed in black and sequins and wearing their crowns. There's a bit of history about the Yankee Misses, who were queens 50 years ago in 1958, and a slide show with photos of them. Then 3 of the 4 Yankee Misses come downstage - the fourth one can't be there because of family illness.
Moxy Ladies sing one of my favorite Billie Holiday songs, My Man (I'm crying again).
Then Salt sing.
The guest act for this show is a Country & Western singer called Kathy Mattea. Cowboy Mike encourages us all to stand up and dance while her band is setting up. Kathy has a backing band of three guys: guitar, double bass and banjo/fiddle. She does a few country numbers and invites us to sing along with some of the choruses. She loves our singing. She says lots of nice things about Sweet Adelines and barbershop and talks about making a "joyful noise". She sings another song that makes me cry, written by her husband about his parents. She jokes that if you're lucky enough to have a hit, you hope it's one you can stand to sing every night for the rest of your life, because your audience expects it. We give her a standing ovation.
That was about a three hour show, with no intermission, but I didn't want it to end.
I came back to our room after the show, but Sue stayed downstairs where the Queens were singng and partying on in the bar. I'm sorry I missed that.
Last night's show was at the Sommet Centre, where our quartet and chorus competition is being held. It's actually an oval indoor arena where ice hockey is played. There's raked seating all around a flat floor (under which is the ice, so I believe it gets quite chilly if you're sitting in the privileged seats on the floor). For the convention there's a stage across one end. There are three tiers of seating, but we're only using tiers 1 and 2 and there's still plenty of room.
I forgot to take my pen with a light, so I've just scrawled some rough notes about the show on the back of my program. Let's see how much I remember.
All the Queens come on stage in western gear (boots and jeans) and sing and dance a couple of songs. They fill the risers.
After they go off there are MC voiceovers by a man with a gorgeous voice announcing the acts, and each act's name is up in lights on the screen at the back of the stage. Most of the acts have a Nashville theme.
The Four Bettys are the first quartet to sing, I think, followed by an octet among which are Salt, recognisable because of their height and long legs. Then there's the Buzz (sorry, I didn't make any notes about songs or patter) and Swinglish Mix.
The show is being compered by Liz Hardcastle, herself a Queen. Liz comes on dressed as Polly Darton with enormous boobs and a blonde curly wig, escorted by Cowboy Mike (the man with the gorgeous voice). She says "is that an i-phone in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me" - a line pinched from Mae West, but what the hell. She has to hold her notes up higher to see over her breasts.
The Queens are back on stage, dressed in black and sequins and wearing their crowns. There's a bit of history about the Yankee Misses, who were queens 50 years ago in 1958, and a slide show with photos of them. Then 3 of the 4 Yankee Misses come downstage - the fourth one can't be there because of family illness.
Moxy Ladies sing one of my favorite Billie Holiday songs, My Man (I'm crying again).
Then Salt sing.
The guest act for this show is a Country & Western singer called Kathy Mattea. Cowboy Mike encourages us all to stand up and dance while her band is setting up. Kathy has a backing band of three guys: guitar, double bass and banjo/fiddle. She does a few country numbers and invites us to sing along with some of the choruses. She loves our singing. She says lots of nice things about Sweet Adelines and barbershop and talks about making a "joyful noise". She sings another song that makes me cry, written by her husband about his parents. She jokes that if you're lucky enough to have a hit, you hope it's one you can stand to sing every night for the rest of your life, because your audience expects it. We give her a standing ovation.
That was about a three hour show, with no intermission, but I didn't want it to end.
I came back to our room after the show, but Sue stayed downstairs where the Queens were singng and partying on in the bar. I'm sorry I missed that.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Quartet Finals
I skipped the mass sing so I could catch up on this blog - the things I do for you!
So now it's midnight and I'm back from the Quartet Finals and the Coronet Club Show. Again, I'm not going to describe the quartet finals in details because you should have been watching the webcast and reading Marti Lovejoy's excellent descriptions on the Sweet Adelines Yahoo group.
There were some very funny moments in the quartet contest. Each quartet has 15 minutes and must perform two contest level songs, but can do other stuff and include some patter. For instance, AKA, the microphone testers, did a skit about teaching Harriet to cook coq au vin: complete with rubber chook, chefs hat, kitchen utensils and bottle of wine. Remix are looking for another contest they can win, and try a midsized quartet contest (only 2 of them sing) and a small chorus (one directs, 3 sing). Martini tell what sounds like a very old joke about how a phone call to God costs $50000 in the US but only 50 cents in Canada - because in Canada it's a local call. There are several versions of a country accent.
At Intermission Peggy Gram presents the President's Life Time Achievement Award to Britt-Helene from Sweden, and Britt-Helene makes a very moving speech including part in Swedish (because it's difficult to express emotion in English). Lots of little things today are making me cry - it's a very emotional day.
After the quartets finish, Moxie Ladies, who are last year's champions, perform and there's another award presentation from the Music Educators National Committee to Karen, who is a music teacher in a high school and started a young women in harmony program that's been going 18 years. She makes me cry too.
The quartets are called back on stage and the results are announced.
Spritzer is 10th with 2553
Mojo is 9th with 2625
Remix is 8th with 2646
Razzcals is 7th with 2650
Capri is 6th with 2666
Journey is 5th with 2687
Martini is 4th with 2710
Maxx Factor is 3rd with 2712
Jackpot is 2nd with 2789
Zing! is 1st with 2821.
Zing! were faculty for the barbershop cruise Jo and I did round Hawaii last year, so we're very pleased for them. More tears as they receive their crowns and trophies and flowers.
Di Huber, our coach and good friend from River Blenders chorus, directs everybody in singing the Winners Song.
And then it's off to dinner. The first few places we try have long queues - Friday night must be when everyone comes to town in Nashville. A group of us find a pasta place that's mostly empty and has no waiting. At least it offers salad. And beer.
It's now a quarter past midnight: you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the next exciting instalment, which will be about the Coronet Club Show. More tears, I'm afraid.
So now it's midnight and I'm back from the Quartet Finals and the Coronet Club Show. Again, I'm not going to describe the quartet finals in details because you should have been watching the webcast and reading Marti Lovejoy's excellent descriptions on the Sweet Adelines Yahoo group.
There were some very funny moments in the quartet contest. Each quartet has 15 minutes and must perform two contest level songs, but can do other stuff and include some patter. For instance, AKA, the microphone testers, did a skit about teaching Harriet to cook coq au vin: complete with rubber chook, chefs hat, kitchen utensils and bottle of wine. Remix are looking for another contest they can win, and try a midsized quartet contest (only 2 of them sing) and a small chorus (one directs, 3 sing). Martini tell what sounds like a very old joke about how a phone call to God costs $50000 in the US but only 50 cents in Canada - because in Canada it's a local call. There are several versions of a country accent.
At Intermission Peggy Gram presents the President's Life Time Achievement Award to Britt-Helene from Sweden, and Britt-Helene makes a very moving speech including part in Swedish (because it's difficult to express emotion in English). Lots of little things today are making me cry - it's a very emotional day.
After the quartets finish, Moxie Ladies, who are last year's champions, perform and there's another award presentation from the Music Educators National Committee to Karen, who is a music teacher in a high school and started a young women in harmony program that's been going 18 years. She makes me cry too.
The quartets are called back on stage and the results are announced.
Spritzer is 10th with 2553
Mojo is 9th with 2625
Remix is 8th with 2646
Razzcals is 7th with 2650
Capri is 6th with 2666
Journey is 5th with 2687
Martini is 4th with 2710
Maxx Factor is 3rd with 2712
Jackpot is 2nd with 2789
Zing! is 1st with 2821.
Zing! were faculty for the barbershop cruise Jo and I did round Hawaii last year, so we're very pleased for them. More tears as they receive their crowns and trophies and flowers.
Di Huber, our coach and good friend from River Blenders chorus, directs everybody in singing the Winners Song.
And then it's off to dinner. The first few places we try have long queues - Friday night must be when everyone comes to town in Nashville. A group of us find a pasta place that's mostly empty and has no waiting. At least it offers salad. And beer.
It's now a quarter past midnight: you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the next exciting instalment, which will be about the Coronet Club Show. More tears, I'm afraid.
Education Class with Melodeers
This morning's education class was with Jim Arns and the Melodeers, last year's champions (and four times before that as well).
We were in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel, next to the Convention Centre. It was a bit hard to see from where we were sitting, but I took lots of notes.
We started with physical warmups: mostly arm waving, as that's all we could see. It reminded me of Michaela's warmup exercises for CKC.
Then Renee Porzel (I think) led a session to emphasise the similarities of everyone in Sweet Adelines. It was "raise your hands if you ...". The Melodeers are similar to everyone else in the proportion of old and new members, members who travel distances, members with children and grandchildren.
The theme for this class was "the common thread - it's all about the music"
Choosing Personal Responsibility
The Melodeers make it as simple as possible, and everything is based on the music. They create rehearsals that people want to attend, and so they've got rid of a lot of rules about things like attendance records. They believe in Choosing Personal Responsibility. This means that each member is in charge of what she gets out of rehearsal and what she contributes. For example, they don't provide learning tracks for new songs. For one thing, Jim keeps changing the arrangement and interpretation. Members learn however they can. Many members make their own recordings of rehearsals. If they miss a rehearsal, it's up to them to ask a riser buddy to tape it for them so they can catch up. People will also make their own video recording of choreo, or arrange to get a copy of someone else's recording.
There is a lot of internal peer pressure from other members that motivates people. There is also a lot of help available from Section Leaders and the Visual Team. Jim teaches at the level of the fastest learners, and he teaches the members who are at rehearsal (not those who've missed rehearsals).
Renee says this all carries over to her personal life as well: she found her 7 year old son phoning Dominos to order pizza because on rehearsal nights, he knows they have pizza for dinner.
What they don't do
Julie has been a member of the Melodeers for 40 years and has 5 international first place medals to show for it. She says they don't do much admin business at rehearsals, they trust their leaders to do it behind the scenes. Since 1976 they have not had attendance requirements, because it bogged things down. She says you can't legislate enthusiasm, and perfect attendance doesn't win points from the judges. Members don't want to miss a minute of rehearsals. They want to give Jim all the time he needs.
Vocal Production
Jim talks about their approach to vocal production.
Unity means a common approach to whatever we do. He refers to the 5 principles: posture, breathing, phonation, resonation, articulation.
About posture: "the finest instrument on the globe has a human around it" - the voice is different from other musical instruments because it is not fixed in place. The chorus demonstrates monkey vs person vs champion singer.
About resonance: Jim talks about the 'living room' vs the 'bathroom'. In the living room, we want to get the sound absorbing soft bits out of the way to produce a rich, warm, lush sound. In the bathroom we use the hard surfaces of the hard palate and teeth to produce ring. We change the internal shapes and surfaces of the vocal instrument to produce sound.
Jim talks about the living room vowels: ah oh aw; and the bathroom vowels: ee, eh , (and others I didn't write down), the schizo vowels oo and eugh (roadkill oo), and the ugly child a. I might not have these exactly right.
(I'll finish this later, the quartet finals are starting in 10 minutes).
Jim gets the Melodeers to demonstrate various kinds of disunity by singing Love Letters Straight to Your Heart: Vowel matching disunity, placement disunity, resonance disunity. We can hear the difference, even though the notes and words are correct.
Our knowledge and expectations have increased over the years, we're all still learning.
Artistry and Expression
Renee says the lyrics of most of our barbershop ballads are beautiful, they're often about love and other emotions. Each member of the Melodeers is asked to create their own story that means something to them, based on their own life experiences, to help them feel and communicate the emotions of the song.
Renee says as a judge she looks across the faces of a chorus and can see lightbulbs either on or off (on, on, off, on). The Melodeers demonstrate with the baris off and the rest on: we can pick the baris. Then the whole chorus demonstrates off, on, off. Faces also affect the sound.
Physical movement
Telling everyone to move on the breath is a basic way of getting everyone moving, but it looks pretty funny (the Melodeers demonstrate) when it doesn't match the lyrics. It's better to move in a real and genuine way, and this also helps phrase endings and makes dynamics easier.
New member
Alison has been a member for 2 years. She is a professor of communication in her other life and says you can apply a 'transactional model of communication" to singing: it's about sending and receiving messages. Music, emotion and individual messages are all simultaneously communicated. She says Melodeers rehearsals are fun, action packed and never dull.
Demo
Jim uses Time After Time to demonstrate what it sounds like when each part does something different; then one voice sticking out; then baris over-emoting. He says if everyone is emotionally connected, there's unity. By the way, Renee says the rule for the chorus is no hands above the waist.
Then they demonstrate singing with a steady flow of air, and how this prevents choppiness.
The Melodeers sing Why Did I Choose You.
Administration
Donna is Team Manager. She explains how administration has been streamlined, and that "it's all about the music". The Management Team meets once a month for an hour before rehearsal. They circulate all reports before the meeting, and any questions and clarification is done by email beforehand. Financial decisions are based on "does it help the singing?" Dues are $365 a year and have not been increased for 4 years. The role of the Management Team is to support Jim's vision. Rehearsals are for singing.
Inflection
Jim says in speech inflection is the rise and fall of pitch in the voice to add meaning and emphasis. In singing we also use inflection on some words to add character. They demonstrate using Ring Out the Bells in Dixieland to contrast with inflection, without inflection.
Renee says the visual plan matches the music. They demonstrate using small hands vs big hands for the big bell on "ding dong ding dong". A visual mismatch affects the music too because it feels wrong for the singers.
Questions
How do you get rid of 's'?
Sing vowel to vowel eg ki-ssme, not kiss me. In uptunes the tempo tells us where the vowels go, so it's easier than ballads. Watch the Director: often stray 's's are human error. Jim is not a big fan of having some people leave off the 's': it's a cheap short cut that makes it harder for singers to express meaning ("ki me"?)
Does Jim sing, and if so what part?
No, but if he did it would be bass.
How do you indoctrinate new members?
Melodeers don't provide learning tapes, because Jim is always making changes and learning tapes would become out of date very quickly. New members are thrown in the deep end. They do their own taping and recording and they show up every week so they don't miss out.
How to achieve those long held notes at the end of a song?
Good breathing skills. Or, if necessary, stagger breathing but do it artistically: make sure you exit and enter on whatever vowel the rest of the chorus is singing.
How big is your Music Team and how often do they meet?
Jim introduces the Music Team: Associate Directors, Director's Resource Coordinator, Section Leaders, Tape Evaluations. There are quite a lot of them. They meet whenever they need to - not necessarily all together.
How often do you have Section rehearsals?
Section rehearsals are always on chorus nights, because of the distances people have to travel and the other demands on their time. Also, if some people didn't come to Section rehearsals they would be unproductive.
They don't have extra rehearsals leading up to contest. They do have geographic groups that meet separately sometimes.
Does Front row learn choreo separately? And do they sing as well as dance?
There are no outside rehearsals for front row, and they do sing. Jim demonstrates how the chorus sounds when the front row doesn't sing. The choreo plan is taught during normal rehearsals: 90% is the same as the chorus anyway. It's never about the front row: they are a minority.
What are qualifying requirements?
Vocal requirement is 0 0 0: zero mistakes on words, notes or breathing. The vocal qualification check is done over two weeks: if they don't pass the first week, they work on it during the week and then resubmit the second week. The deadline is firm, and some people don't go to contest because they haven't qualified. It happens about 10-12 weeks before contest.
Once they have passed the vocal requirement, they do a visual qualification on the risers during a rehearsal. It's done by the Visual Team, who assign scores. They must achieve a pass.
Qualification is only required for contest, not for all repertoire. It's not punitive, because lots of help is offered to get people through it.
How can a small chorus sound as good as the Melodeers?
Jim demonstrates what it sounds like when just one row of the Melodeers sing.
Do you have auditions for front row?
There is ongoing evaluation during rehearsals. Front row auditions are held a year and a half before International contest.
Melodeers have got over being told individually when they make mistakes. Jim says "there is no crying in barbershop" - we are musicians, and like all musicians we can take critique.
How do new members learn the repertoire?
They do get a CD with the two audition songs (contest songs) on them. They get a list of current repertoire, and learn the rest of the repertoire the same way as everyone else. They are told who they can go to to ask them to record their part for them during rehearsal. They can buy Melodeers CDs! They are required to audition in a quartet in front of the Music Staff, about 4-6 weeks after they start.
We were in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel, next to the Convention Centre. It was a bit hard to see from where we were sitting, but I took lots of notes.
We started with physical warmups: mostly arm waving, as that's all we could see. It reminded me of Michaela's warmup exercises for CKC.
Then Renee Porzel (I think) led a session to emphasise the similarities of everyone in Sweet Adelines. It was "raise your hands if you ...". The Melodeers are similar to everyone else in the proportion of old and new members, members who travel distances, members with children and grandchildren.
The theme for this class was "the common thread - it's all about the music"
Choosing Personal Responsibility
The Melodeers make it as simple as possible, and everything is based on the music. They create rehearsals that people want to attend, and so they've got rid of a lot of rules about things like attendance records. They believe in Choosing Personal Responsibility. This means that each member is in charge of what she gets out of rehearsal and what she contributes. For example, they don't provide learning tracks for new songs. For one thing, Jim keeps changing the arrangement and interpretation. Members learn however they can. Many members make their own recordings of rehearsals. If they miss a rehearsal, it's up to them to ask a riser buddy to tape it for them so they can catch up. People will also make their own video recording of choreo, or arrange to get a copy of someone else's recording.
There is a lot of internal peer pressure from other members that motivates people. There is also a lot of help available from Section Leaders and the Visual Team. Jim teaches at the level of the fastest learners, and he teaches the members who are at rehearsal (not those who've missed rehearsals).
Renee says this all carries over to her personal life as well: she found her 7 year old son phoning Dominos to order pizza because on rehearsal nights, he knows they have pizza for dinner.
What they don't do
Julie has been a member of the Melodeers for 40 years and has 5 international first place medals to show for it. She says they don't do much admin business at rehearsals, they trust their leaders to do it behind the scenes. Since 1976 they have not had attendance requirements, because it bogged things down. She says you can't legislate enthusiasm, and perfect attendance doesn't win points from the judges. Members don't want to miss a minute of rehearsals. They want to give Jim all the time he needs.
Vocal Production
Jim talks about their approach to vocal production.
Unity means a common approach to whatever we do. He refers to the 5 principles: posture, breathing, phonation, resonation, articulation.
About posture: "the finest instrument on the globe has a human around it" - the voice is different from other musical instruments because it is not fixed in place. The chorus demonstrates monkey vs person vs champion singer.
About resonance: Jim talks about the 'living room' vs the 'bathroom'. In the living room, we want to get the sound absorbing soft bits out of the way to produce a rich, warm, lush sound. In the bathroom we use the hard surfaces of the hard palate and teeth to produce ring. We change the internal shapes and surfaces of the vocal instrument to produce sound.
Jim talks about the living room vowels: ah oh aw; and the bathroom vowels: ee, eh , (and others I didn't write down), the schizo vowels oo and eugh (roadkill oo), and the ugly child a. I might not have these exactly right.
(I'll finish this later, the quartet finals are starting in 10 minutes).
Jim gets the Melodeers to demonstrate various kinds of disunity by singing Love Letters Straight to Your Heart: Vowel matching disunity, placement disunity, resonance disunity. We can hear the difference, even though the notes and words are correct.
Our knowledge and expectations have increased over the years, we're all still learning.
Artistry and Expression
Renee says the lyrics of most of our barbershop ballads are beautiful, they're often about love and other emotions. Each member of the Melodeers is asked to create their own story that means something to them, based on their own life experiences, to help them feel and communicate the emotions of the song.
Renee says as a judge she looks across the faces of a chorus and can see lightbulbs either on or off (on, on, off, on). The Melodeers demonstrate with the baris off and the rest on: we can pick the baris. Then the whole chorus demonstrates off, on, off. Faces also affect the sound.
Physical movement
Telling everyone to move on the breath is a basic way of getting everyone moving, but it looks pretty funny (the Melodeers demonstrate) when it doesn't match the lyrics. It's better to move in a real and genuine way, and this also helps phrase endings and makes dynamics easier.
New member
Alison has been a member for 2 years. She is a professor of communication in her other life and says you can apply a 'transactional model of communication" to singing: it's about sending and receiving messages. Music, emotion and individual messages are all simultaneously communicated. She says Melodeers rehearsals are fun, action packed and never dull.
Demo
Jim uses Time After Time to demonstrate what it sounds like when each part does something different; then one voice sticking out; then baris over-emoting. He says if everyone is emotionally connected, there's unity. By the way, Renee says the rule for the chorus is no hands above the waist.
Then they demonstrate singing with a steady flow of air, and how this prevents choppiness.
The Melodeers sing Why Did I Choose You.
Administration
Donna is Team Manager. She explains how administration has been streamlined, and that "it's all about the music". The Management Team meets once a month for an hour before rehearsal. They circulate all reports before the meeting, and any questions and clarification is done by email beforehand. Financial decisions are based on "does it help the singing?" Dues are $365 a year and have not been increased for 4 years. The role of the Management Team is to support Jim's vision. Rehearsals are for singing.
Inflection
Jim says in speech inflection is the rise and fall of pitch in the voice to add meaning and emphasis. In singing we also use inflection on some words to add character. They demonstrate using Ring Out the Bells in Dixieland to contrast with inflection, without inflection.
Renee says the visual plan matches the music. They demonstrate using small hands vs big hands for the big bell on "ding dong ding dong". A visual mismatch affects the music too because it feels wrong for the singers.
Questions
How do you get rid of 's'?
Sing vowel to vowel eg ki-ssme, not kiss me. In uptunes the tempo tells us where the vowels go, so it's easier than ballads. Watch the Director: often stray 's's are human error. Jim is not a big fan of having some people leave off the 's': it's a cheap short cut that makes it harder for singers to express meaning ("ki me"?)
Does Jim sing, and if so what part?
No, but if he did it would be bass.
How do you indoctrinate new members?
Melodeers don't provide learning tapes, because Jim is always making changes and learning tapes would become out of date very quickly. New members are thrown in the deep end. They do their own taping and recording and they show up every week so they don't miss out.
How to achieve those long held notes at the end of a song?
Good breathing skills. Or, if necessary, stagger breathing but do it artistically: make sure you exit and enter on whatever vowel the rest of the chorus is singing.
How big is your Music Team and how often do they meet?
Jim introduces the Music Team: Associate Directors, Director's Resource Coordinator, Section Leaders, Tape Evaluations. There are quite a lot of them. They meet whenever they need to - not necessarily all together.
How often do you have Section rehearsals?
Section rehearsals are always on chorus nights, because of the distances people have to travel and the other demands on their time. Also, if some people didn't come to Section rehearsals they would be unproductive.
They don't have extra rehearsals leading up to contest. They do have geographic groups that meet separately sometimes.
Does Front row learn choreo separately? And do they sing as well as dance?
There are no outside rehearsals for front row, and they do sing. Jim demonstrates how the chorus sounds when the front row doesn't sing. The choreo plan is taught during normal rehearsals: 90% is the same as the chorus anyway. It's never about the front row: they are a minority.
What are qualifying requirements?
Vocal requirement is 0 0 0: zero mistakes on words, notes or breathing. The vocal qualification check is done over two weeks: if they don't pass the first week, they work on it during the week and then resubmit the second week. The deadline is firm, and some people don't go to contest because they haven't qualified. It happens about 10-12 weeks before contest.
Once they have passed the vocal requirement, they do a visual qualification on the risers during a rehearsal. It's done by the Visual Team, who assign scores. They must achieve a pass.
Qualification is only required for contest, not for all repertoire. It's not punitive, because lots of help is offered to get people through it.
How can a small chorus sound as good as the Melodeers?
Jim demonstrates what it sounds like when just one row of the Melodeers sing.
Do you have auditions for front row?
There is ongoing evaluation during rehearsals. Front row auditions are held a year and a half before International contest.
Melodeers have got over being told individually when they make mistakes. Jim says "there is no crying in barbershop" - we are musicians, and like all musicians we can take critique.
How do new members learn the repertoire?
They do get a CD with the two audition songs (contest songs) on them. They get a list of current repertoire, and learn the rest of the repertoire the same way as everyone else. They are told who they can go to to ask them to record their part for them during rehearsal. They can buy Melodeers CDs! They are required to audition in a quartet in front of the Music Staff, about 4-6 weeks after they start.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Chorus competition
Thursday, 22nd October: Chris Kemp's birthday.
I woke up at 5:30 am and crept out of the bedroom to get a head start on doing my nails. After showering I wandered around in knickers and bra ticking off my mental list of things to do. Have breakfast. Put in contact lenses. Just as I was about to start makeup, Sharon turned up and did my hair (and Sue's as well). I worked through the CKC 12 step program for putting on makeup. It took four goes to get the right eyelash on, and I only got it right with Sharon's help. It's extraordinary how long it takes to get made up and dressed: at 8 am Sue and I were just putting on the finishing touches.
We went down to the CKC room for makeup check at 8:15 am, and I passed muster. Then we went back down again at 9 am to start warmups.
Around 10 am we headed down to the foyer to line up and wait for the bus. Two nice Convention Assistants were waiting there to guide us. We sang I Am Australian while we were waiting, then on the bus we sang Can You Feel the Love, and then something else. The bus didn't have to go very far, just one block, but it took us to the stage door entrance of the Sommet Centre and then we started the traffic pattern. Scioto Valley were just coming off, and Waikato Rivertones were llining up to go on, as we made our way to the warm up room. There was hardly any time at all before we were lining up to go on stage.
I don't remember much about our 6 minutes of fame, to be honest. It went according to plan, and I didn't make any major mistakes, and it was over really quickly. It felt quite relaxed and fun to do, and the audience was great, very welcoming.
Because we were the second competitor, we were able to hear all the other choruses. The standard was very high, so there was lots of interesting stuff to hear and see. I had fun (again) recording the costumes and picking which choruses would make the finals. Lions Gate was our pick. Considering it's an international competition, I thought some of the costumes were horrific, and I'm very proud of ours - we had lots of compliments.
After the competition finished the Ann Gooch award was presented to Lea Baker, and then the Melodeers performed, including their Geek package from Honolulu which was very funny and clever. Then they announced the 10 finalists - not us, of course.
We headed back to the Hilton to wait for Vicki and Di to bring us the results. Vicki and Kaitlyn were in a rehearsal for the family chorus, but Steph picked up a copy of the chorus results when it was published so we found out that we had scored 1110 and come 25th. We were all up on the Mezzanine screaming with joy, hugging and taking photos of each other being ecstatic. Di Huber came by, and some of our River Blender friends. We moved to our CKC room to wait for Vicki, and spent the time drinking and gloating and taking more photos.
Vicki and James and Di and Kaitlyn and Liam arrived around 9:30 and we formed an arch of honour to welcome them. We all sat down and Vicki read out the comments on the score sheets. There was nothing to surprise us, and some encouraging comments that we were heading in the right direction.
We voted where to go for a late dinner (downstairs to the Sports Grille) and took over a room there for a spontaneous celebration.
And so to bed - late again, it's now half past midnight and we need to be up early for a class with the Melodeers.
I woke up at 5:30 am and crept out of the bedroom to get a head start on doing my nails. After showering I wandered around in knickers and bra ticking off my mental list of things to do. Have breakfast. Put in contact lenses. Just as I was about to start makeup, Sharon turned up and did my hair (and Sue's as well). I worked through the CKC 12 step program for putting on makeup. It took four goes to get the right eyelash on, and I only got it right with Sharon's help. It's extraordinary how long it takes to get made up and dressed: at 8 am Sue and I were just putting on the finishing touches.
We went down to the CKC room for makeup check at 8:15 am, and I passed muster. Then we went back down again at 9 am to start warmups.
Around 10 am we headed down to the foyer to line up and wait for the bus. Two nice Convention Assistants were waiting there to guide us. We sang I Am Australian while we were waiting, then on the bus we sang Can You Feel the Love, and then something else. The bus didn't have to go very far, just one block, but it took us to the stage door entrance of the Sommet Centre and then we started the traffic pattern. Scioto Valley were just coming off, and Waikato Rivertones were llining up to go on, as we made our way to the warm up room. There was hardly any time at all before we were lining up to go on stage.
I don't remember much about our 6 minutes of fame, to be honest. It went according to plan, and I didn't make any major mistakes, and it was over really quickly. It felt quite relaxed and fun to do, and the audience was great, very welcoming.
Because we were the second competitor, we were able to hear all the other choruses. The standard was very high, so there was lots of interesting stuff to hear and see. I had fun (again) recording the costumes and picking which choruses would make the finals. Lions Gate was our pick. Considering it's an international competition, I thought some of the costumes were horrific, and I'm very proud of ours - we had lots of compliments.
After the competition finished the Ann Gooch award was presented to Lea Baker, and then the Melodeers performed, including their Geek package from Honolulu which was very funny and clever. Then they announced the 10 finalists - not us, of course.
We headed back to the Hilton to wait for Vicki and Di to bring us the results. Vicki and Kaitlyn were in a rehearsal for the family chorus, but Steph picked up a copy of the chorus results when it was published so we found out that we had scored 1110 and come 25th. We were all up on the Mezzanine screaming with joy, hugging and taking photos of each other being ecstatic. Di Huber came by, and some of our River Blender friends. We moved to our CKC room to wait for Vicki, and spent the time drinking and gloating and taking more photos.
Vicki and James and Di and Kaitlyn and Liam arrived around 9:30 and we formed an arch of honour to welcome them. We all sat down and Vicki read out the comments on the score sheets. There was nothing to surprise us, and some encouraging comments that we were heading in the right direction.
We voted where to go for a late dinner (downstairs to the Sports Grille) and took over a room there for a spontaneous celebration.
And so to bed - late again, it's now half past midnight and we need to be up early for a class with the Melodeers.
What day is it?
Okay, this is the blog for Wednesday, because I'm a day behind. But here's a sneak preview from Thursday's chorus semifinals: CKC was place 25th out of 33 choruses, and scored 1110! This may not mean much to anyone outside the chorus, but for us it was very exciting, as we had expected to come last, or close to it. Anyway, more of that later.
On Wednesday we watched the quartet semi-finals, which started at 10:45 am. I had ordered a Keeping Score book through Vicki S, and had fun recording the costumes of the various quartets and the songs they sang. I tried rating them (A, B+, B or B-- they're all pretty good just to be there competing) but didn't worry about allocating exact points. Several quartets sang songs that are in CKC's repertoire: If I Give My Heart To You; Somebody's Happy; Never Say Never, How Deep Is The Ocean, Joint is Jumping, Kiss Me One More Time. I guess that shows Vicki's good taste! It was fascinating to see the different interpretations. I was paying particular attention to hair and makeup, my particular bugbears.
We stayed for BlackJaq's performance and then had to go to rehearsal from 3 pm to 5 pm. Di Huber was there again to encourage us and remind us to use our big muscles. Then we went back to the quartet semifinals. It was hard going, but a few of us stayed right until the end (quartet number 52) and announcement of the results.
By the time I got back to our room Sue was in bed asleep, so I closed the door and put on a layer of nail polish. In bed at 11 pm.
On Wednesday we watched the quartet semi-finals, which started at 10:45 am. I had ordered a Keeping Score book through Vicki S, and had fun recording the costumes of the various quartets and the songs they sang. I tried rating them (A, B+, B or B-- they're all pretty good just to be there competing) but didn't worry about allocating exact points. Several quartets sang songs that are in CKC's repertoire: If I Give My Heart To You; Somebody's Happy; Never Say Never, How Deep Is The Ocean, Joint is Jumping, Kiss Me One More Time. I guess that shows Vicki's good taste! It was fascinating to see the different interpretations. I was paying particular attention to hair and makeup, my particular bugbears.
We stayed for BlackJaq's performance and then had to go to rehearsal from 3 pm to 5 pm. Di Huber was there again to encourage us and remind us to use our big muscles. Then we went back to the quartet semifinals. It was hard going, but a few of us stayed right until the end (quartet number 52) and announcement of the results.
By the time I got back to our room Sue was in bed asleep, so I closed the door and put on a layer of nail polish. In bed at 11 pm.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Harmony in Nashville
On Tuesday we had two rehearsals, visited Harmony Bazaar, and watched the second half of the Harmony Classic competition.
Our first rehearsal was from 11 am to 1:45 pm and after warmups we moved to the Rich Tones risers in the Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel. Vicki D and Steph and Di were at the briefing, so Vicki S took us for the first part of rehearsal. We had lots of visitors: Lynne Smith, and Pat Le Vezu, and Lea Baker. Lynne and Lea gave us some last minute coaching and encouragement. There were also some of Vicki's friends from Bay Area Showcase and we sang I Am Australian for them.
Most of us put off lunch so that we could explore Harmony Bazaar. We queued up to get seats together for the Coronet Club show on Friday night (note to self: next time, book in advance!). I bought a brooch with my name in diamante, and a Sing Baby Sing book from the SAI shop (and a pen that lights up for writing in the dark). Then I visited Kate Veeder at the Young Singers Foundation Silent Auction booth to collect my Kiwi Express tote bag and throw. I am definitely going to have to post some stuff home before i go much further! I only did the periphery of Harmony Bazaar, and will have to go back again to see the rest.
We had another rehearsal on the international risers from 4 pm to 7 pm, but Vicki relented and let us out early because we were getting tired. Linda Wareham and Elidia Rymer made presentations to us - including chocolate kisses - and BlackJaQ, who sang us one song. There were also messages from Jim Arns and the Melodeers (who gave us fortune cookies with geek messages). Jim's message to Vicki was beautiful, I must get the wording from her.
From rehearsal we walked down to the Sommet Centre to watch the Harmony Classic contest. This is for small choruses. We missed the A division small choruses, but Kaitlyn said that Millenium Magic, who won with 1268 points, did an amazing Thriller package. Marti Lovejoy has a detailed description of each performance on the Sweet Adelines Yahoo group which is worth reading.
We did see the Division AA midsize choruses. Each chorus did a themed package. Metro Mix wore long debutante dresses in varied colours and each member had a sash with "Miss - xxx" on it" Miss-Demeanor, Miss-Spelled, Miss-allaneous, and so on. Several pageant contestants were interviewed and that led into the songs: Dr Jazz, I Was Never Spellbound, Stray Cat and You Gotta Know (that's probably not the right names).
Top of the Rock were cute, they all wore different Barbie costumes and celebrated Barbie's 50th birthday. There was even a Barbie astronaut. And a Ken doll. They sang It's Raining Ken, I Was never Spellbound, Oh You Beautiful Doll (of course) and finished with what sounded like an African song - with a drum - about Celebration.
Scioto Valley wore black knee length dresses with red lining and sparkly long sleeves - very classy. They had a great sound. Sang It's Going to be a Great Day, Sweetheart No More, a Jazz Medley, and Woman (with a soloist). They won the Division with a score of 1350.
Jacksonville Harmony, directed by Ann Gooch, were all dressed in overalls and were pit crew for a race. The pit crew boss was being interviewed about the secret of winning, and kept saying it's all about having a winning attitude. They sang Where Have My Old Friends gone, Let a Winner Lead the Way, It's Not Where You Start It's Where You Finish and The Greatest Race of All.
We were buggered by this time, but stayed on for the announcement of the winners. I found Sue back in our room, watching television, and we watched the tail end of Stripes (an army comedy with John Candy and Bill thingagummy from Ghostbusters).
I woke up at 5:30 am even though we set the alarm for 7 am, so I'm going to be really tired tonight. Today's program is chorus breakfast, quartet semifinals, rehearsal, and more quartet semifinals: with a bit of Harmony Bazaar and grocery shopping for fresh vegetables thrown in. There's a microwave in our room, and I fancy steamed veg for dinner.
Our first rehearsal was from 11 am to 1:45 pm and after warmups we moved to the Rich Tones risers in the Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel. Vicki D and Steph and Di were at the briefing, so Vicki S took us for the first part of rehearsal. We had lots of visitors: Lynne Smith, and Pat Le Vezu, and Lea Baker. Lynne and Lea gave us some last minute coaching and encouragement. There were also some of Vicki's friends from Bay Area Showcase and we sang I Am Australian for them.
Most of us put off lunch so that we could explore Harmony Bazaar. We queued up to get seats together for the Coronet Club show on Friday night (note to self: next time, book in advance!). I bought a brooch with my name in diamante, and a Sing Baby Sing book from the SAI shop (and a pen that lights up for writing in the dark). Then I visited Kate Veeder at the Young Singers Foundation Silent Auction booth to collect my Kiwi Express tote bag and throw. I am definitely going to have to post some stuff home before i go much further! I only did the periphery of Harmony Bazaar, and will have to go back again to see the rest.
We had another rehearsal on the international risers from 4 pm to 7 pm, but Vicki relented and let us out early because we were getting tired. Linda Wareham and Elidia Rymer made presentations to us - including chocolate kisses - and BlackJaQ, who sang us one song. There were also messages from Jim Arns and the Melodeers (who gave us fortune cookies with geek messages). Jim's message to Vicki was beautiful, I must get the wording from her.
From rehearsal we walked down to the Sommet Centre to watch the Harmony Classic contest. This is for small choruses. We missed the A division small choruses, but Kaitlyn said that Millenium Magic, who won with 1268 points, did an amazing Thriller package. Marti Lovejoy has a detailed description of each performance on the Sweet Adelines Yahoo group which is worth reading.
We did see the Division AA midsize choruses. Each chorus did a themed package. Metro Mix wore long debutante dresses in varied colours and each member had a sash with "Miss - xxx" on it" Miss-Demeanor, Miss-Spelled, Miss-allaneous, and so on. Several pageant contestants were interviewed and that led into the songs: Dr Jazz, I Was Never Spellbound, Stray Cat and You Gotta Know (that's probably not the right names).
Top of the Rock were cute, they all wore different Barbie costumes and celebrated Barbie's 50th birthday. There was even a Barbie astronaut. And a Ken doll. They sang It's Raining Ken, I Was never Spellbound, Oh You Beautiful Doll (of course) and finished with what sounded like an African song - with a drum - about Celebration.
Scioto Valley wore black knee length dresses with red lining and sparkly long sleeves - very classy. They had a great sound. Sang It's Going to be a Great Day, Sweetheart No More, a Jazz Medley, and Woman (with a soloist). They won the Division with a score of 1350.
Jacksonville Harmony, directed by Ann Gooch, were all dressed in overalls and were pit crew for a race. The pit crew boss was being interviewed about the secret of winning, and kept saying it's all about having a winning attitude. They sang Where Have My Old Friends gone, Let a Winner Lead the Way, It's Not Where You Start It's Where You Finish and The Greatest Race of All.
We were buggered by this time, but stayed on for the announcement of the winners. I found Sue back in our room, watching television, and we watched the tail end of Stripes (an army comedy with John Candy and Bill thingagummy from Ghostbusters).
I woke up at 5:30 am even though we set the alarm for 7 am, so I'm going to be really tired tonight. Today's program is chorus breakfast, quartet semifinals, rehearsal, and more quartet semifinals: with a bit of Harmony Bazaar and grocery shopping for fresh vegetables thrown in. There's a microwave in our room, and I fancy steamed veg for dinner.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Touring Nashville
We'd picked up some tourist brochures from the concierge last night and decided we wanted to go shopping at Opry Mills, which involved a shuttle bus, and do a trolley tour, and see an Elvis Presley show.
It was kind of late by the time we got up and dressed. We went out for breakfast, but there weren't many places open. We found the place where we buy tickets for the trolley tour, and decided to get the 3 in 1 ticket which includes a walking tour and a ticket to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Then we dashed down the street to Mike's Coffee Bar to pick up coffee/tea and bagel/muffin for breakfast, and back to catch the 10 am trolley tour. It was interesting and entertaining: a great way to start, as we found out about lots of places that it would be good to go back and see in more detail later. There's a replica of the Parthenon in the park, and we went down Music Row where there are lots of recording studios and music publishing houses.
When we got back we did the walking tour, from 11 am to 12:30 am. That took us into the Ryman Auditorium, where they were having rehearsals for the ASCAP awards; and into a record store where a late night radio show was recorded with live musicians after they finished performing at the Ryman; and through the Orchid Room which has a "Hall of Fame" with pictures and signatures of famous (and not so famous) musicians. Our guide, Marianne, told us lots of interesting stories about the history.
We had lunch at the arcade and then bought more groceries at Dollar General Store and walked back to the hotel. We kept running into other CKC people, and other Sweet Adelines.
We missed the shuttle bus to Opry Mills so we shared a taxi with Leanne and Gigi. It cost $25 one way, and we shared the cost between us so it wasn't too bad - only 15 minutes. Opry Mills is a big shopping mall. It has lots of shoe shops and dress shops. I bought a few things at the Old Navy Store that were on the clearance racks, and Sue bought a second suitcase. There's a wonderful cafe called the Rainforest Cafe which has aquaria, trees, vines, and wildlife like a jungle. Occasionally the lights dim and flash and there's a sound of thunder. They have a hippo rising from mist outside the door. We saw Karen and Di and Vicki Sutton and some others queued up to record two songs for a CD, but decided not to stay and watch as we were running out of time.
We caught a taxi back, changed quickly, and dashed down to the Sports Grill for a sandwich before the bus picked us up for the Elvis Presley show. As it turned out the bus was later than we had expected. Our driver Larry gave us some more background about Nashville as we went by other hotels to pick up guests. The biggest industry is health (lots of hospitals). Entertainment was about number 5.
The Elvis Tribute was performed by John Beardsley, with a band and two girl singers. He's been doing it for 10 years. The auditorium was pretty full. It was two hours non-stop, with about 30 Elvis songs. He has done a lot of research to make the performance authentic - costumes, instruments, sound and even the type of microphone. He had amazing energy all the way through: an example to us when singing in the chorus!
We were sitting in the front row, centre. When he asked for a hanky to mop his brow, Lorraine stripped off and offered her jacket: very sexy! There was also a group of Future Famers of America who got very involved and whistled and cheered - especially the girls.
We caught the bus home to the hotel, and dropped into the Sports Grill for a cocktail and a beer. I left Sue to it and came back to blog.
And so to bed. A big day tomorrow, with rehearsals most of the day and Harmony Classic in the evening.
It was kind of late by the time we got up and dressed. We went out for breakfast, but there weren't many places open. We found the place where we buy tickets for the trolley tour, and decided to get the 3 in 1 ticket which includes a walking tour and a ticket to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Then we dashed down the street to Mike's Coffee Bar to pick up coffee/tea and bagel/muffin for breakfast, and back to catch the 10 am trolley tour. It was interesting and entertaining: a great way to start, as we found out about lots of places that it would be good to go back and see in more detail later. There's a replica of the Parthenon in the park, and we went down Music Row where there are lots of recording studios and music publishing houses.
When we got back we did the walking tour, from 11 am to 12:30 am. That took us into the Ryman Auditorium, where they were having rehearsals for the ASCAP awards; and into a record store where a late night radio show was recorded with live musicians after they finished performing at the Ryman; and through the Orchid Room which has a "Hall of Fame" with pictures and signatures of famous (and not so famous) musicians. Our guide, Marianne, told us lots of interesting stories about the history.
We had lunch at the arcade and then bought more groceries at Dollar General Store and walked back to the hotel. We kept running into other CKC people, and other Sweet Adelines.
We missed the shuttle bus to Opry Mills so we shared a taxi with Leanne and Gigi. It cost $25 one way, and we shared the cost between us so it wasn't too bad - only 15 minutes. Opry Mills is a big shopping mall. It has lots of shoe shops and dress shops. I bought a few things at the Old Navy Store that were on the clearance racks, and Sue bought a second suitcase. There's a wonderful cafe called the Rainforest Cafe which has aquaria, trees, vines, and wildlife like a jungle. Occasionally the lights dim and flash and there's a sound of thunder. They have a hippo rising from mist outside the door. We saw Karen and Di and Vicki Sutton and some others queued up to record two songs for a CD, but decided not to stay and watch as we were running out of time.
We caught a taxi back, changed quickly, and dashed down to the Sports Grill for a sandwich before the bus picked us up for the Elvis Presley show. As it turned out the bus was later than we had expected. Our driver Larry gave us some more background about Nashville as we went by other hotels to pick up guests. The biggest industry is health (lots of hospitals). Entertainment was about number 5.
The Elvis Tribute was performed by John Beardsley, with a band and two girl singers. He's been doing it for 10 years. The auditorium was pretty full. It was two hours non-stop, with about 30 Elvis songs. He has done a lot of research to make the performance authentic - costumes, instruments, sound and even the type of microphone. He had amazing energy all the way through: an example to us when singing in the chorus!
We were sitting in the front row, centre. When he asked for a hanky to mop his brow, Lorraine stripped off and offered her jacket: very sexy! There was also a group of Future Famers of America who got very involved and whistled and cheered - especially the girls.
We caught the bus home to the hotel, and dropped into the Sports Grill for a cocktail and a beer. I left Sue to it and came back to blog.
And so to bed. A big day tomorrow, with rehearsals most of the day and Harmony Classic in the evening.
St Louis to Nashville
And up at 6 am on Sunday. I was having a complicated dream about looking for a place where I could change my costume, and finding Sue sleeping, and heard Sharon calling out. I thought it was the middle of the night and she was talking in her sleep (David had warned us about that) but it turned out to be a call to breakfast.
Breakfast was omelette and a Bloody Mary, garnished with pickled okra in lieu of an olive and celery. Sharon gave each of us a care package (fruit, cookies and chocolate) and we packed and loaded all our bags into the back of the truck. We left at 8 am so we'd have time to shop for basic supplies on the way, and arrived at the church at 10 am. The two coaches turned up, and gradually We all sang How We Sang Today, with our arms around each other's waists, and We Are Family. Then the River Blenders lined the road as we drove away.
It was interesting to see the scenery as we drove out of St Louis. The trees are starting to change colour. I was reading a book about raccoons which was set in 1918, and then its sequel some years later, and the author described beautifully the countryside back then and all the wildlife. He made raccoons sound delightful. We've seen them only as road kill, but in numbers which suggest they're still plentiful in the countryside.
We crossed several rivers and went down several highways, none of which I can remember the names of. We stopped for a late lunch at Mount Vernon, and scattered in several different directions to find food. There were long waits at most of the fast food outlets and our driver, Rick, was right to say we'd need at least an hour there. then it was back on the road again, and another short rest stop further along at a tourist information centre. After we crossed the border into Tennessee we sang for a while, with Vicki directing, and then Liam did a solo with ipod backing.
Around 6:30 pm we saw the lights of Nashville, and were glad to pull up at the Hilton. Lorraine and I had collected a dollar or two from everyone to tip the drivers, and split it between them. There was a long line of us at the reception desk waiting to check in, and only one person on reception (or so it seemed to those of us at the back of the queue) but eventually Sue and I got our room key and could settle in.
Our room has a bedroom separate from the living room and bathroom, and ours has a king bed which we decided was big enough to share without annoying each other. Internet access is $11.95 a day (ouch) and after I'd signed up to this for the week i discovered the business centre downstairs has free internet access (bother). We settled in and then went out for dinner to Ripley's Grill and Bar-B-Q around the corner. There were a couple of guitarists playing. Apparently all the bars have live music, and the musicians just play for tips.
Then we came home and slept very soundly. The bed is very comfortable.
Breakfast was omelette and a Bloody Mary, garnished with pickled okra in lieu of an olive and celery. Sharon gave each of us a care package (fruit, cookies and chocolate) and we packed and loaded all our bags into the back of the truck. We left at 8 am so we'd have time to shop for basic supplies on the way, and arrived at the church at 10 am. The two coaches turned up, and gradually We all sang How We Sang Today, with our arms around each other's waists, and We Are Family. Then the River Blenders lined the road as we drove away.
It was interesting to see the scenery as we drove out of St Louis. The trees are starting to change colour. I was reading a book about raccoons which was set in 1918, and then its sequel some years later, and the author described beautifully the countryside back then and all the wildlife. He made raccoons sound delightful. We've seen them only as road kill, but in numbers which suggest they're still plentiful in the countryside.
We crossed several rivers and went down several highways, none of which I can remember the names of. We stopped for a late lunch at Mount Vernon, and scattered in several different directions to find food. There were long waits at most of the fast food outlets and our driver, Rick, was right to say we'd need at least an hour there. then it was back on the road again, and another short rest stop further along at a tourist information centre. After we crossed the border into Tennessee we sang for a while, with Vicki directing, and then Liam did a solo with ipod backing.
Around 6:30 pm we saw the lights of Nashville, and were glad to pull up at the Hilton. Lorraine and I had collected a dollar or two from everyone to tip the drivers, and split it between them. There was a long line of us at the reception desk waiting to check in, and only one person on reception (or so it seemed to those of us at the back of the queue) but eventually Sue and I got our room key and could settle in.
Our room has a bedroom separate from the living room and bathroom, and ours has a king bed which we decided was big enough to share without annoying each other. Internet access is $11.95 a day (ouch) and after I'd signed up to this for the week i discovered the business centre downstairs has free internet access (bother). We settled in and then went out for dinner to Ripley's Grill and Bar-B-Q around the corner. There were a couple of guitarists playing. Apparently all the bars have live music, and the musicians just play for tips.
Then we came home and slept very soundly. The bed is very comfortable.
All Keyed Up
After Friday night's technical rehearsal we had a leisurely morning at home on Saturday. David took each of us for a ride on the golf cart down the hill to the creek that runs at the bottom of their property. They have a tree house that's the best I've ever seen (the previous owners had 7 children) and a barn and enclosed pen for animals. We picked turnips and carrots from the vege patch, but the deer had eaten the tops of the kale leaving only hoofprints. They have several persimmon trees on the property. I've never eaten a persimmon.
We went out to pick up pizza and the makings of salad, and brought them home for lunch. Sharon's son Jack dropped by to visit. Then it was time to put on makeup. Sharon did my hair by spraying it with Aussie Instant Freeze hairspray and scrunching it up. It took just a few minutes - amazing - and stayed in place all night. She's promised to do it again for competition in Nashville.
We finished off the scrabble game (Betty won) while waiting for our nails to dry. I struggled with eye makeup as I'm wearing contact lenses that give me long distance vision in one eye and close up vision in the other, but I did manage to get my eyelashes on all by myself.
We double checked that we had everything: shoes, costume, Aussie banners; and headed into St Louis to the auditorium at Logan University where the show is. It's called "All Keyed Up". River Blenders and CKC all shared the dressing room, which added to the camaraderie as we helped each other with hair and makeup and safety pins. They wear "all-in-ones" to control bulges under costumes, which can be pretty funny when they fasten in the crotch. Blenders were on stage in the first act and then came back for a costume change. We went on in the second act. It went very quickly (maybe because we were singing faster than usual?) and then the Blenders came back and sang Let theRiver Run with Us, and Irish Blessing to us (very moving, and I cried) and we finished with We Are Family.
After we changed out of our costumes and ripped off our false eyelashes, Sharon drove us to Umos Bar andGrill for a late dinner. We sat in booths, which made it hard to mix, but the food was good and the beer even better. With a long drive home ahead of us, we left at midnight and played "guess that song" again on digital radio to keep Sharon awake.
In bed at 1:30 am.
We went out to pick up pizza and the makings of salad, and brought them home for lunch. Sharon's son Jack dropped by to visit. Then it was time to put on makeup. Sharon did my hair by spraying it with Aussie Instant Freeze hairspray and scrunching it up. It took just a few minutes - amazing - and stayed in place all night. She's promised to do it again for competition in Nashville.
We finished off the scrabble game (Betty won) while waiting for our nails to dry. I struggled with eye makeup as I'm wearing contact lenses that give me long distance vision in one eye and close up vision in the other, but I did manage to get my eyelashes on all by myself.
We double checked that we had everything: shoes, costume, Aussie banners; and headed into St Louis to the auditorium at Logan University where the show is. It's called "All Keyed Up". River Blenders and CKC all shared the dressing room, which added to the camaraderie as we helped each other with hair and makeup and safety pins. They wear "all-in-ones" to control bulges under costumes, which can be pretty funny when they fasten in the crotch. Blenders were on stage in the first act and then came back for a costume change. We went on in the second act. It went very quickly (maybe because we were singing faster than usual?) and then the Blenders came back and sang Let theRiver Run with Us, and Irish Blessing to us (very moving, and I cried) and we finished with We Are Family.
After we changed out of our costumes and ripped off our false eyelashes, Sharon drove us to Umos Bar andGrill for a late dinner. We sat in booths, which made it hard to mix, but the food was good and the beer even better. With a long drive home ahead of us, we left at midnight and played "guess that song" again on digital radio to keep Sharon awake.
In bed at 1:30 am.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Exploring Troy
Yesterday Sharon took us for a drive around the local area. We saw the houses where she and David lived when they first married. I'm fascinated that so often there are no fences at all between neighbours - it has a real 'village' feel, with green lawn joining the houses into one community. We saw the church where Sharon worships: it was originally a German church with a little German school house next door. Sharon says her minister and his wife ride Harley Davidsons.
We visited two branches of the Bank of Old Munroe where Sharon works. The banks are very welcoming: not just the people, but they have comfortable chairs, displays of children's art from the local school, a community notice board, and free food (hotdogs in one, chips and soda in the other). It's a community bank, and was established in 1906 so it's not a new idea as it is in Australia. Sharon makes a point of introducing her three Australian guests to all her friends and workmates, and then says to us "now say something" so they can enjoy our accent. She thinks it's cute when we say "bloody" - as in "bloody beautiful, mate".
We also managed to squeeze in a couple of secondhand/consignment shops. In one Betty found a plate that she says was worth much more than the $3.50 she paid for it. In another we chatted to the young girl who owns it, whose ambition is to be an actress and have her own sit-com (kind of a Christian version of Sex in the City).
We had lunch at Harry J's steakhouse, and drank more Bud. I think I'm finally getting the hang of this tipping business. I'm glad to report that my ANZ Travel Card is working perfectly so far.
Back home at Sharon's we sat down for a game of scrabble, but had to leave for rehearsal before we finished (Betty is ahead on points right now).
The Sommet Centre is part of a University, and set in beautiful grounds with lawn and trees and deer and fountains. We warmed up in the foyer, had a quick guided tour of the rooms we'll be using, and then sat in the theatre to watch the tech rehearsal for the five finalists in the talent competition River Blenders have been running. The MC interviewed each of them. She's very good - encouraging, and professional.
Then we went back to our warmup/dressing room to rehearse with Vicki, so we missed hearing River Blenders singing their songs for the first half of the show. I thought our tech rehearsal went pretty well, considering, and we were finished by 9:30 pm.
Sharon took us home for a much-needed cup of tea and plied us with cornbread, chocolate and chocolate brownies. I've been reading a book she lent me which is a romance by one of the River Blenders, and finished it before I went to sleep.
Today (Saturday) the sun is shining and it's stopped raining. It was lovely to sit at the breakfast table in the sunshine. Breakfast was a bacon and egg croissant. Over the last few days we've been exploring differences between American and Australian English. We pronounce 'coupe' (as in cars) as coop-ay, and Sharon and David say coop. Sharon wants to buy a duck-plucker that was advertised at an auction because her son is a passionate duck-hunter. This got us on to talking about chickens and the chicken coop that we saw at the house they owned before they bought this one last year. "No, it's chicken coop-ay" said Betty! We all fell about laughing.
Today we're doing our laundry and pottering about getting ready for the performance tonight. I brought my wig to wear, but Sharon has offered to fix my hair instead. This week has gone so quickly, it's hard to believe this is our fifth day here. I'm so glad that the River Blenders invited us to visit: staying with Sharon and David has been wonderful, and I feel like I've got to know a little bit of America much better than I ever could as a tourist.
We visited two branches of the Bank of Old Munroe where Sharon works. The banks are very welcoming: not just the people, but they have comfortable chairs, displays of children's art from the local school, a community notice board, and free food (hotdogs in one, chips and soda in the other). It's a community bank, and was established in 1906 so it's not a new idea as it is in Australia. Sharon makes a point of introducing her three Australian guests to all her friends and workmates, and then says to us "now say something" so they can enjoy our accent. She thinks it's cute when we say "bloody" - as in "bloody beautiful, mate".
We also managed to squeeze in a couple of secondhand/consignment shops. In one Betty found a plate that she says was worth much more than the $3.50 she paid for it. In another we chatted to the young girl who owns it, whose ambition is to be an actress and have her own sit-com (kind of a Christian version of Sex in the City).
We had lunch at Harry J's steakhouse, and drank more Bud. I think I'm finally getting the hang of this tipping business. I'm glad to report that my ANZ Travel Card is working perfectly so far.
Back home at Sharon's we sat down for a game of scrabble, but had to leave for rehearsal before we finished (Betty is ahead on points right now).
The Sommet Centre is part of a University, and set in beautiful grounds with lawn and trees and deer and fountains. We warmed up in the foyer, had a quick guided tour of the rooms we'll be using, and then sat in the theatre to watch the tech rehearsal for the five finalists in the talent competition River Blenders have been running. The MC interviewed each of them. She's very good - encouraging, and professional.
Then we went back to our warmup/dressing room to rehearse with Vicki, so we missed hearing River Blenders singing their songs for the first half of the show. I thought our tech rehearsal went pretty well, considering, and we were finished by 9:30 pm.
Sharon took us home for a much-needed cup of tea and plied us with cornbread, chocolate and chocolate brownies. I've been reading a book she lent me which is a romance by one of the River Blenders, and finished it before I went to sleep.
Today (Saturday) the sun is shining and it's stopped raining. It was lovely to sit at the breakfast table in the sunshine. Breakfast was a bacon and egg croissant. Over the last few days we've been exploring differences between American and Australian English. We pronounce 'coupe' (as in cars) as coop-ay, and Sharon and David say coop. Sharon wants to buy a duck-plucker that was advertised at an auction because her son is a passionate duck-hunter. This got us on to talking about chickens and the chicken coop that we saw at the house they owned before they bought this one last year. "No, it's chicken coop-ay" said Betty! We all fell about laughing.
Today we're doing our laundry and pottering about getting ready for the performance tonight. I brought my wig to wear, but Sharon has offered to fix my hair instead. This week has gone so quickly, it's hard to believe this is our fifth day here. I'm so glad that the River Blenders invited us to visit: staying with Sharon and David has been wonderful, and I feel like I've got to know a little bit of America much better than I ever could as a tourist.
Friday, October 16, 2009
A is for Arch, B is for Budweiser
I woke up on Thursday morning at 2 am and couldn't get back to sleep, so was still a bit jet-lagged all day. We drove into town to meet some of the others at the Arch. To get to the top we sit in tiny little carriages, 5 per compartment, and ascend - then get out at the top and look through little windows at views over downtown St Louis on one side and the Mississippi River on the other. Sharon doesn't like heights, so was very brave in coming with us: we sang loudly all the way up, and held hands. Coming down was faster and not so scarey.
Then we went to the Museum of Western Exploration. I was fascinated by the layout: it was an arc of a circle, with the earliest time at the centre and then going out by decades, 1800, 1810 and so on; and on different radii, different themes: explorers, settlement, Native Americans. There was a lot of information about the Lewis and Clark expedition which set out from St Louis to find a way to the Pacific.
After that we hung about until it was time to go down to the river for our cruise: too cold to wait about outside. We reckoned the Museum should have had a coffee shop, it would have made a lot of money from us!
There weren't many people on the cruise so we had a great seat all together at the front. We saw several historic bridges, and a tugboat pushing about 15 big barges all linked together. The Mississippi is still used for commercial transport of goods.
Then it was off to a French area (Soulard) for lunch: we ended up at a Welsh pub called Llewellyns. Pubs are definitely the place to eat: good cheap food, and cold beer, and friendly service. We're paying for our hosts' meals, so had to do complicated calculations of cost plus tip divided by how many of us.
Here's a drink recipe that someone told us about over lunch:
Hungarian Rhapsody: "good for coughs, colds and sore ars%^&&**((" - take equal parts rye whiskey, bourbon and gin and add some rock candy. Let it sit until the candy dissolves - about a week. Drink it.
Sharon took us to find a discount clothing shop called the Scholars Shop. She had to phone her daughter for directions, and we got a bit lost (with me navigating from a not very detailed map) and just as we'd given up and were heading to rehearsal we found it! It has lots of donated clothes, and the money goes to a scholarship fund for university students. I was too tired to shop properly but picked up a red wool jacket (anticipating even colder weather as we head north after Convention). They also had real mink coats, full length - for $1000.
We were a bit late at rehearsal, at the church where the River Blenders rehearse, and went straight into warmups. I'm afraid after a week off, and with jet lag, we werent' sounding our best: Vicki looked dismayed, but we did our best, and the church acoustics helped. Then in the foyer all the River Blenders were lined up and sang us the Lord's Prayer: very moving, and I cried. On the other side of the foyer was a long corridor with a long table loaded with food, and we filed past filling our plates with home cooking. The rehearsal room had round tables set up and we sat with our hosts to eat. Here's my favorite dish from Kitty:
Toss baby spinach, sliced strawberries, candied nuts, dried cranberries and cubed provolone cheese. Before serving add a sweet viniagrette (sweet vinegar and oil). If you like, you can add poppy seeds to the dressing. To die for!
After dinner there was a presentation from the Blenders to Di and Vicki, and they gave us all a RiverBlenders bag (oops, I forgot to pick mine up). Then we all ran through the second half of the show with Ann Keller's help (she's stage manager, and wonderfully efficient). We couldn't hear the pitch pipe for Lazy Days, and got off to a bad start (Vicki looked horrified). But we got through, and will do better next time. River Blenders joined us on the risers for Let the River Run and it was wonderful to be part of that bigger sound, but a bit squishy trying to do choreo while standing hip to hip.
We ended by all singing How We Sang Today, holding hands, and I cried again. Then Sharon took us home. She has digital radio, and when you press a button the name of the artist and the name of the song is displayed, so we played "Guess the Artist" to stay awake. She won, but Betty was pretty good too. There are so many channels on digital radio: an Elvis channel, and several Country channels, and separate 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's channels.
I slept for 8.5 hours last night without waking and I woke up feeling great. Sharon cooked biscuits and gravy for breakfast and was stunned when we all said we'd never tasted it. Biscuits are scones, and gravy is not what you'd think, it's a white sauce with chopped pork sausage in it. It's delicious, but fattening - puts on a lining on your stomach, David says.
David picked fresh field mushrooms and was surprised when I ate one raw.
Okay, off today for more shopping and sight seeing before our tech rehearsal .
C is for sight seeing?
Then we went to the Museum of Western Exploration. I was fascinated by the layout: it was an arc of a circle, with the earliest time at the centre and then going out by decades, 1800, 1810 and so on; and on different radii, different themes: explorers, settlement, Native Americans. There was a lot of information about the Lewis and Clark expedition which set out from St Louis to find a way to the Pacific.
After that we hung about until it was time to go down to the river for our cruise: too cold to wait about outside. We reckoned the Museum should have had a coffee shop, it would have made a lot of money from us!
There weren't many people on the cruise so we had a great seat all together at the front. We saw several historic bridges, and a tugboat pushing about 15 big barges all linked together. The Mississippi is still used for commercial transport of goods.
Then it was off to a French area (Soulard) for lunch: we ended up at a Welsh pub called Llewellyns. Pubs are definitely the place to eat: good cheap food, and cold beer, and friendly service. We're paying for our hosts' meals, so had to do complicated calculations of cost plus tip divided by how many of us.
Here's a drink recipe that someone told us about over lunch:
Hungarian Rhapsody: "good for coughs, colds and sore ars%^&&**((" - take equal parts rye whiskey, bourbon and gin and add some rock candy. Let it sit until the candy dissolves - about a week. Drink it.
Sharon took us to find a discount clothing shop called the Scholars Shop. She had to phone her daughter for directions, and we got a bit lost (with me navigating from a not very detailed map) and just as we'd given up and were heading to rehearsal we found it! It has lots of donated clothes, and the money goes to a scholarship fund for university students. I was too tired to shop properly but picked up a red wool jacket (anticipating even colder weather as we head north after Convention). They also had real mink coats, full length - for $1000.
We were a bit late at rehearsal, at the church where the River Blenders rehearse, and went straight into warmups. I'm afraid after a week off, and with jet lag, we werent' sounding our best: Vicki looked dismayed, but we did our best, and the church acoustics helped. Then in the foyer all the River Blenders were lined up and sang us the Lord's Prayer: very moving, and I cried. On the other side of the foyer was a long corridor with a long table loaded with food, and we filed past filling our plates with home cooking. The rehearsal room had round tables set up and we sat with our hosts to eat. Here's my favorite dish from Kitty:
Toss baby spinach, sliced strawberries, candied nuts, dried cranberries and cubed provolone cheese. Before serving add a sweet viniagrette (sweet vinegar and oil). If you like, you can add poppy seeds to the dressing. To die for!
After dinner there was a presentation from the Blenders to Di and Vicki, and they gave us all a RiverBlenders bag (oops, I forgot to pick mine up). Then we all ran through the second half of the show with Ann Keller's help (she's stage manager, and wonderfully efficient). We couldn't hear the pitch pipe for Lazy Days, and got off to a bad start (Vicki looked horrified). But we got through, and will do better next time. River Blenders joined us on the risers for Let the River Run and it was wonderful to be part of that bigger sound, but a bit squishy trying to do choreo while standing hip to hip.
We ended by all singing How We Sang Today, holding hands, and I cried again. Then Sharon took us home. She has digital radio, and when you press a button the name of the artist and the name of the song is displayed, so we played "Guess the Artist" to stay awake. She won, but Betty was pretty good too. There are so many channels on digital radio: an Elvis channel, and several Country channels, and separate 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's channels.
I slept for 8.5 hours last night without waking and I woke up feeling great. Sharon cooked biscuits and gravy for breakfast and was stunned when we all said we'd never tasted it. Biscuits are scones, and gravy is not what you'd think, it's a white sauce with chopped pork sausage in it. It's delicious, but fattening - puts on a lining on your stomach, David says.
David picked fresh field mushrooms and was surprised when I ate one raw.
Okay, off today for more shopping and sight seeing before our tech rehearsal .
C is for sight seeing?
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