This past week has been busy with Christmas parties as well as the final push by our contractor to complete the kitchen renovations. December is racing along and I have been too busy to enjoy the simple pleasures of the season. Today we took time on a lovely sunny afternoon to visit the annual Christkindl [...]
Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
Boar’s Head and other Delights
Posted in Christmas, history, Music, people and places on December 7, 2009 | 11 Comments »
Thoughts on the Life and Death of Celebrities
Posted in history, Music, people and places on June 26, 2009 | 13 Comments »
The news event of the week will undoubtedly be the untimely death of Michael Jackson. I never listened to his music (other than in the movie Free Willy), never practiced his famous dance steps, and never took a picture of his wax likeness at Madame Tussaude’s in New York City last year. But he was [...]
Pascha
Posted in Music, special days, spirituality on April 10, 2009 | 15 Comments »
The Becka and I drove outside the city last evening at dusk to watch the rise of the full moon. There were bands of light cloud in the sky marking the surface of the orangey ball as Becka took this picture. The Pascal Moon describes the lunar cycle which occurs after the vernal equinox. This [...]
The Christmas Guest
Posted in Christmas, Music, Poetry, spirituality on December 14, 2008 | 13 Comments »
This week I had the privilege of playing the piano for a Christmas carol service at a local retirement home. I have visited this particular facility regularly for at least 15 years and have come to know several of the residents quite well. Many suffer from chronic illnesses and various degrees of disability that make [...]
Technology Tortoise
Posted in family, Music, this and that on September 15, 2008 | 12 Comments »
A local city park we visit has a small zoo and one pen features a South African tortoise with a number of rabbits and guinea pigs. The sign on the fence reads “The Tortoise and Hare”. We watched the tortoise doing deliberate laps around the perimeter of the enclosure while the rabbits (not hares) burrowed [...]
August Blues Festival
Posted in Music, people and places on August 13, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Our city hosted the annual Blues Festival this past weekend. It has been so successful in the past that extra stages were added this year in the downtown area so three gigs could run concurrently. The main street was closed and vendors sold food, music and handcrafts under tents between the stages. Friday night’s weather [...]
A Quiet Place
Posted in Music, spirituality on June 22, 2008 | 7 Comments »
A Quiet Place by Ralph CarmichaelThere is a quiet placeFar from the rapid paceWhere God can soothe my troubled mind.Sheltered by tree and flowerThere in my quiet hourWith Him my cares are left behind.Whether a garden small,Or on a mountain tallNew strength and courage there I find.And then from that quiet placeI go prepared to [...]
Sunday Song
Posted in Music on May 4, 2008 | 15 Comments »
Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee,Opening to their sun above.Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,Drive the dark of doubt away;Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day All Thy works with joy surround Thee,Earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,Stars and angels [...]
Music of Christmas: The Huron Carol
Posted in Christmas, Music, spirituality on December 16, 2007 | 5 Comments »
For the third Sunday of Advent, I am featuring the first Canadian Christmas carol written in 1643 by Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit missionary to the Huron people. Sainte-Marie among the Hurons is on Georgian Bay about an hour or so north of Toronto. I remember going there on a class trip when I was [...]
Music of Christmas: Come to the Manger
Posted in Christmas, Music on December 9, 2007 | 10 Comments »
Living Nativity Scene at Christkindl Market The familiarity of old carols and Christmas songs links us to past generations in traditional observances of the season. Each year new Christmas songs and recordings are introduced and a few of them become new favourites and classic in a different way. Last week Anvilcloud commented on my Advent [...]
