music and kestrels
Dec. 6th, 2008 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkToday I decided to leave the car parked and go get some exercise. I walked from our home to the Allen Public Library, some three and nine-tenths miles away. I took my Swift Audubon binoculars, in case I saw any interesting birds. I was glad I had it, as I got to see three kestrels. One went fluttering down from a telephone wire in pursuit of prey on the ground, which led me to write this road-song called "The Kestrel". I enjoyed listening to my mp3 player during my walk, and in particular songs by Cagey House, the Eternal Jazz Project, Robert Rich, and Psonikadia.
The Allen Library is very nice. I checked out three books--a non-fiction about podcasting, Ben Bova's new science fiction novel about Mars, and Leonard Susskind's book about physics called "The Black Hole War".
I then walked to Lenny's Sub Shop and ate a roast beef sandwich, before walking home.
Jay Bennett, who used to be with Wilco, released an album under a Creative Commons for free download on Chicago netlabel Rock Proper, so I downloaded that new album and made a 2 dollar donation to Rock Proper.
We took our dogs for a walk in the park, which they enjoyed very much. The temperature crossed sixty degrees today, which is part of why I love living in Texas.
Tonight my wife and I went to the auditorium at the Allen Public Library for a free concert by jazz harpist Cindy Horstman and the Allen Symphony Choir. Ms. Horstman arranged a number of holiday songs and one jazz standard for jazz harp, eschewing the cloying glissandi used by some artists to instead provide a syncopated, full-bodied sound. We enjoyed her playing very much. She also did a lot of question and answer and explaining about harp play. I had not realized that a concert harp costs $ 25,000 to $ 30,000 these days. My guess would have been off by a factor of three or four. It makes me want to buy a folk autoharp, as 300 or 400 dollars will buy a nice hand-crafted one of those. The Allen Symphony Choir, a solid ensemble, sang a number of holiday songs from here and there in the world. We liked best a cool dreidl song. We also liked that the event lasted 75 minutes, which was just right. We had a great time at the concert, and then we drove to a nearby new restaurant called Nate and Al's seafood, where we had fresh fish and enjoyed ourselves. I came home, finished my new song, and will now settle in for some late night science fiction reading.
The Allen Library is very nice. I checked out three books--a non-fiction about podcasting, Ben Bova's new science fiction novel about Mars, and Leonard Susskind's book about physics called "The Black Hole War".
I then walked to Lenny's Sub Shop and ate a roast beef sandwich, before walking home.
Jay Bennett, who used to be with Wilco, released an album under a Creative Commons for free download on Chicago netlabel Rock Proper, so I downloaded that new album and made a 2 dollar donation to Rock Proper.
We took our dogs for a walk in the park, which they enjoyed very much. The temperature crossed sixty degrees today, which is part of why I love living in Texas.
Tonight my wife and I went to the auditorium at the Allen Public Library for a free concert by jazz harpist Cindy Horstman and the Allen Symphony Choir. Ms. Horstman arranged a number of holiday songs and one jazz standard for jazz harp, eschewing the cloying glissandi used by some artists to instead provide a syncopated, full-bodied sound. We enjoyed her playing very much. She also did a lot of question and answer and explaining about harp play. I had not realized that a concert harp costs $ 25,000 to $ 30,000 these days. My guess would have been off by a factor of three or four. It makes me want to buy a folk autoharp, as 300 or 400 dollars will buy a nice hand-crafted one of those. The Allen Symphony Choir, a solid ensemble, sang a number of holiday songs from here and there in the world. We liked best a cool dreidl song. We also liked that the event lasted 75 minutes, which was just right. We had a great time at the concert, and then we drove to a nearby new restaurant called Nate and Al's seafood, where we had fresh fish and enjoyed ourselves. I came home, finished my new song, and will now settle in for some late night science fiction reading.
