bigmacbear (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bigmacbear) wrote2003-03-24 03:26 pm
bigmacbear) wrote2003-03-24 03:26 pm
Extended Weekend
Where: Desk at home
Wearing: Grey sweatpants
H Factor: 1
C Factor: 3
Along with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gmjambear I chose to make this an extended weekend by taking a couple of days off. I'm very glad now I did this, as with all the activity this weekend I definitely needed the extra sleep.
Friday afternoon at work I reminded my boss I was taking today and tomorrow off. He asked if I was doing anything special and I mentioned I was going to an Oscar party. I didn't think it prudent to tell him the Oscars are the gay equivalent of the Super Bowl, though I did mention that to one of my co-workers who's pretty cool about the whole thing.
Friday evening we had our tech rehearsal for the RGMC concert on Saturday. There I met a friend of a fellow Chorine named Dennis (redcub: yes, the Dennis you have been working with) visiting from out of town whose name happened to also be Dennis. Apparently the Dennises met through the GALA Choruses mailing list. The tech rehearsal went fairly well.
Saturday we chose to sleep in, which really helped. The concert, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow featured a number of our favorite songs from the past (Yesterday), five movements from NakedMan (Today), and a world premiere of a newly commissioned piece based on an e.e. cummings poem (Tomorrow). I did the bass solo in "Dance On Your Grave", and got a lot of compliments on the chorus's performance in general and my solo specifically. Damn, that felt good! ;-)
After the concert we went to Dennis's house for a soiree. Gary and I ended up having a fairly lengthy conversation with the visiting Dennis and discovered he had lived in Cincinnati for some years, was married there, and was going back to see his children and to work through some issues on his divorce. Turns out that for a time he was living right around the corner from my parents' place. Around midnight we got into a discussion of current events. Someone made the observation that by then fully one third of the participants were named Dennis (there was a third Dennis present, who is on the RGMC board but isn't singing with us). In general a good time was had by all.
Sunday we slept in again. The visiting Dennis called and asked if he could come to church with us and we agreed to pick him up. We were expecting to have Episcopal Mass but the priest didn't show, so instead we had evening prayer and shared bread and wine instead of Communion. Dennis the Chorine came to pick up the visiting Dennis after the service. We spent some time at coffee hour after church before heading off to the Oscar party. (One of our church friends wondered aloud why we were going to play in trash cans. He was thinking of Oscar the Grouch. ;-)
The Oscar party was, as always, a fun time for all. Peter and Jim outdid themselves with the cooking, and it was fun watching the goof-ups on the closed captioning and listening to Steve Martin. Some of the attention given to The Pianist was somewhat of a surprise to me, especially the choice of Roman Polanski for Best Director. But for the most part I expected Chicago to do well, and for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers to win in those categories where it didn't have to compete against Chicago. So although there were a few surprises, in the end I wasn't disappointed.
P.S.gmjambear decided to yell "SLUT!" at the screen when Susan Sarandon appeared toward the end of the Oscar broadcast (as she was included in the 59 Oscar-winning actors and actresses, having won for her role in Dead Man Walking) and see who picked up on the joke (which dates back to The Rocky Horror Picture Show). This got a belly-laugh from some collegiate bears (cubs?) in the next room who have been performing along with Rocky Horror recently.
So now I'm just taking it easy, and tomorrow I will have the car worked on and try to do some long-needed cleanup at the house. What a long, strange trip it's been. ;-)
Wearing: Grey sweatpants
H Factor: 1
C Factor: 3
Along with
gmjambear I chose to make this an extended weekend by taking a couple of days off. I'm very glad now I did this, as with all the activity this weekend I definitely needed the extra sleep.Friday afternoon at work I reminded my boss I was taking today and tomorrow off. He asked if I was doing anything special and I mentioned I was going to an Oscar party. I didn't think it prudent to tell him the Oscars are the gay equivalent of the Super Bowl, though I did mention that to one of my co-workers who's pretty cool about the whole thing.
Friday evening we had our tech rehearsal for the RGMC concert on Saturday. There I met a friend of a fellow Chorine named Dennis (
redcub: yes, the Dennis you have been working with) visiting from out of town whose name happened to also be Dennis. Apparently the Dennises met through the GALA Choruses mailing list. The tech rehearsal went fairly well.Saturday we chose to sleep in, which really helped. The concert, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow featured a number of our favorite songs from the past (Yesterday), five movements from NakedMan (Today), and a world premiere of a newly commissioned piece based on an e.e. cummings poem (Tomorrow). I did the bass solo in "Dance On Your Grave", and got a lot of compliments on the chorus's performance in general and my solo specifically. Damn, that felt good! ;-)
After the concert we went to Dennis's house for a soiree. Gary and I ended up having a fairly lengthy conversation with the visiting Dennis and discovered he had lived in Cincinnati for some years, was married there, and was going back to see his children and to work through some issues on his divorce. Turns out that for a time he was living right around the corner from my parents' place. Around midnight we got into a discussion of current events. Someone made the observation that by then fully one third of the participants were named Dennis (there was a third Dennis present, who is on the RGMC board but isn't singing with us). In general a good time was had by all.
Sunday we slept in again. The visiting Dennis called and asked if he could come to church with us and we agreed to pick him up. We were expecting to have Episcopal Mass but the priest didn't show, so instead we had evening prayer and shared bread and wine instead of Communion. Dennis the Chorine came to pick up the visiting Dennis after the service. We spent some time at coffee hour after church before heading off to the Oscar party. (One of our church friends wondered aloud why we were going to play in trash cans. He was thinking of Oscar the Grouch. ;-)
The Oscar party was, as always, a fun time for all. Peter and Jim outdid themselves with the cooking, and it was fun watching the goof-ups on the closed captioning and listening to Steve Martin. Some of the attention given to The Pianist was somewhat of a surprise to me, especially the choice of Roman Polanski for Best Director. But for the most part I expected Chicago to do well, and for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers to win in those categories where it didn't have to compete against Chicago. So although there were a few surprises, in the end I wasn't disappointed.
P.S.
gmjambear decided to yell "SLUT!" at the screen when Susan Sarandon appeared toward the end of the Oscar broadcast (as she was included in the 59 Oscar-winning actors and actresses, having won for her role in Dead Man Walking) and see who picked up on the joke (which dates back to The Rocky Horror Picture Show). This got a belly-laugh from some collegiate bears (cubs?) in the next room who have been performing along with Rocky Horror recently.So now I'm just taking it easy, and tomorrow I will have the car worked on and try to do some long-needed cleanup at the house. What a long, strange trip it's been. ;-)
no subject
I'm glad the concert went so well. I cannot tell you how much I miss the RGMC, even if I miss Rochester not a bit.
As for "working" with Dennis, that's a misnomer. I gave him lyrics, several months (a year?) later I got sheet music. Since I can't read sheet music you can imagine how excited I am. I had no input on Dennis's music, much as he gave me no feedback on words (which had been writen long before we talked about collaborating). I have yet to hear the damn thing. The closest I got to having feedback was when Fuzzy told me he didn't mind rehearsing it before Nick cut it from the line-up.
So much for my dream of writing for the Alma-mater, huh? (rueful grin)
no subject
Hope this helps, and thanks for the kind words.
no subject
Ah! Last conversation I had with Dennis, Nick had just pulled "Song," and had promised to perform it "at some later date." I don't recall GALA being mentioned, but Dennis may have, and I forgot.
"In fact, wasn't that the whole point to have something for GALA?"
Ummm, actually, no. There was a specific cause and effect which I won't go into right here, but I wrote the lyrics intending them to be sung by the RGMC whenever you guys wanted to sing it.
I never had GALA in my sights. If between us we have come up with something GALA worthy, then I am flattered that you think so.
"Since Dennis and I make up a good chunk of the Music Committee we'll be sure Nick doesn't forget about it. ;-)"
Mike you are a prince and a sweetheart, a scholar and a Gentleman. Tell me more about the concert! Tell me more about your solo!