Today Kathleen and I leave for an extensive road trip. Our furthest destination will be Ottawa to visit my family, but the loop will carry us through the prairie provinces, the upper portions of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, crossing at Sault Ste Marie. After a two day stay at Kathleen's Dad's on the Bruce Peninsula, we continue to Ottawa.
We have tee times starting tomorrow at Dakota Dunes south of Saskatoon (A Canadian tour stop), The King's Walk in Grand Forks North Dakota (an Arnold Palmer course) and Cobble Beach Golf Resort in Owen Sound Ontario (one of the top rated Canadian courses).
Our travel home from Ottawa will include stops in Toronto and Chicago for some MLB games (Jays VS Yankees, and Cubs VS Marlins), and then through Illinois (a brief appearance by Indiana), on through Southern Michigan, Wisconsin, skirting the top of Iowa, trekking through South Dakota (including Mount Rushmore and Deadwood) cutting through the corner of Wyoming and passing through various points of eastern Montana before hitting the southern Alberta Border and on to home. When all is said and done, We'll have been on the road for 21 days and nearly 10,000 kilometres (about 6200 miles).
Blogging will happen in various places:
Our main travel blog: http://johnandkathleen.blogspot.com/
My golf blog: http://johnsgolfblog.blogspot.com/
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
A Free Write for Sabbatum Sanctum
It might seem that I had given up blogging for Lent. My last post was a short video I posted way back on March 2nd. I have noticed, and perhaps my more faithful readers would to, that my postings over the course of the last eight months have been significantly lower than in previous school years. Today, while I enjoy the quietness of Holy Saturday, watching the Jays vs. Rays game, I'm going to try a free write in this post in the hopes that it might spur a rebirth of posts in the coming weeks.
I'm not 100% sure why I have found posting more difficult this year, it certainly isn't a lack of things to write about. In many ways, it's been the busiest year of my working career. I'm balancing a part-time teaching load at a local private university college, a half-time church position, a community chamber choir, a professional early music ensemble, plus various other singing and chorus prep work with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, including a very intense four rehearsal chorus prep for the Duruflé Requiem just last month. Perhaps, looking over this list above, this could be why the posts were so few and far between.
Even as I write this, I am still three services away from the end of Holy Week and Easter services, then I head off on a five day bus tour with the above university college choir through northern parts of British Columbia, then back for a intense week to prepare for the first annual Early Music Alberta Festival, and then one week later the last Da Camera concert of the year. At least my grades are now submitted, and the term is over.
Normally by this time of year, I would already be playing golf on a regular basis and most of my activities will have been completed. We have had the pleasure of an extended winter in Edmonton this year, there is still plenty of snow on the ground in shaded areas, so the start of golf season is delayed by nearly a month. They only nice thing about that is I'm just plain too busy to play, so I can wait out the next few weeks before the courses open without feeling envious of those who have the time to play.
We are also into the last few weeks of a federal election here in Canada. I'll refrain from posting political comments here, as I've been vocal enough on my facebook about the current situation. I will be happy though to see the removal of the election signs in the few days after May 2nd. One of the best bylaws we have in our little hamlet is that all signs have to be down within two days of the election.
That's enough rambling for one day. I hope in the next few weeks (perhaps not until after the tour, unless I decide to blog on the bus) to put a few posts up about the season I had this year, wrapping up the individual projects and looking ahead to the next season.
In the mean time - off the to the driving range to see if I still remember how to swing.
I'm not 100% sure why I have found posting more difficult this year, it certainly isn't a lack of things to write about. In many ways, it's been the busiest year of my working career. I'm balancing a part-time teaching load at a local private university college, a half-time church position, a community chamber choir, a professional early music ensemble, plus various other singing and chorus prep work with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, including a very intense four rehearsal chorus prep for the Duruflé Requiem just last month. Perhaps, looking over this list above, this could be why the posts were so few and far between.
Even as I write this, I am still three services away from the end of Holy Week and Easter services, then I head off on a five day bus tour with the above university college choir through northern parts of British Columbia, then back for a intense week to prepare for the first annual Early Music Alberta Festival, and then one week later the last Da Camera concert of the year. At least my grades are now submitted, and the term is over.
Normally by this time of year, I would already be playing golf on a regular basis and most of my activities will have been completed. We have had the pleasure of an extended winter in Edmonton this year, there is still plenty of snow on the ground in shaded areas, so the start of golf season is delayed by nearly a month. They only nice thing about that is I'm just plain too busy to play, so I can wait out the next few weeks before the courses open without feeling envious of those who have the time to play.
We are also into the last few weeks of a federal election here in Canada. I'll refrain from posting political comments here, as I've been vocal enough on my facebook about the current situation. I will be happy though to see the removal of the election signs in the few days after May 2nd. One of the best bylaws we have in our little hamlet is that all signs have to be down within two days of the election.
That's enough rambling for one day. I hope in the next few weeks (perhaps not until after the tour, unless I decide to blog on the bus) to put a few posts up about the season I had this year, wrapping up the individual projects and looking ahead to the next season.
In the mean time - off the to the driving range to see if I still remember how to swing.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Countdown
Only one full day left before all "H-E-double-hockey-sticks" lets lose. (It's a Canadian expression - but you should be able to figure it out no matter where you're from - but just in case - hockey sticks, when upside down, look like the letter "L" - we also use it in Golf for when you score a seven - but of course, the hockey stick is upside up in that instance. It's "one less than a snowman").
Schedule for the work week for the most part looks like this
On that note, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that my blog post on ChoralBlog about the Apple iPad (published on the day the iPad was released) was referred to in a CBC radio national news broadcast this past weekend. I'm amazed at how the art of news reporting has moved into using the blogesphere - and happy to be a part of it!
All the more reason to get back into the blogging habit
Schedule for the work week for the most part looks like this
Mondays - Da CameraSomewhere in there - I'll blog, and I DO VOW TO BLOG MORE!
Tuesdays - two lectures and movie night with the wife (see her post here)
Wednesdays - Church staff meeting and church work day, and University choirs in the afternoon, and hopefully curling league at night.
Thursdays - two lectures and church choir
Fridays - University choirs and "extra" work (i.e. Pro Coro and Scona Chamber Choirs)
Saturdays - various rehearsals
Sundays - Church in the morning, and various rehearsals and concerts throughout the year.
On that note, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that my blog post on ChoralBlog about the Apple iPad (published on the day the iPad was released) was referred to in a CBC radio national news broadcast this past weekend. I'm amazed at how the art of news reporting has moved into using the blogesphere - and happy to be a part of it!
All the more reason to get back into the blogging habit
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
New Blogs!
If you've clicked on my profile lately, you might have noticed I've set up a pile of new blogs for future use.
Podium Speak will still be my home base for choral music thoughts, and from time to time, general nonsense. However, I've created blogs for the choirs I conduct and courses I'll teach next year (none of which have posts yet - but I'll link to them when they become active).
One blog which will be active through the summer when choral music tends to be quiet for me is my new golf blog!
So, if you want to read in more detail about my quest to break 80. You are welcome to read about it here.
Podium Speak will still be my home base for choral music thoughts, and from time to time, general nonsense. However, I've created blogs for the choirs I conduct and courses I'll teach next year (none of which have posts yet - but I'll link to them when they become active).
One blog which will be active through the summer when choral music tends to be quiet for me is my new golf blog!
So, if you want to read in more detail about my quest to break 80. You are welcome to read about it here.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Looking ahead
On October 17th, Podium Speak will be celebrating it's first Birthday, and I've taken a moment or two in the past day to reflect on what the purpose of my blog is, and what I hope to achieve with it.
Still now in its infancy, and trying to find a voice amidst the other great blogs that I read everyday, I find that I struggle from time to time to think of a creative, individual, and thoughtful post. Once in a while, an article will pop up that will make for an easy post, but to find a topic outside of a borrowed subject can be difficult. My topics have ranged from the mundane to the serious, from the pedagogical to the theoretical, and occasionally (and most recently) the political.
The coming months are pretty full up with concerts and rehearsals, and will likely not leave me with a lot of energy to think up creative posts, so what I hope to do is write a bit about the various projects I am involved with, which include my first ever staged opera, and conducting a Handel oratorio (which is NOT Messiah). You can read more about these projects here.
You'll have to excuse me if the posts become rambling sessions, but the hope is that there will a topic or two, whether it be about performance practice, rehearsing and conducting pedagogy, or just plain straight forward observations. I'll probably also work on program notes and translations through this venue.
I tend to go about my daily schedule without much thought about what's coming up next, so having a few things down in writing might assist me with the planning - and certainly be an interesting look back for me in a few months.
I'll still post interesting articles and silly stories (and likely my strong opinions on the current and future political landscape) from time time.
I hope you enjoy the journey!
In other news - a recent cold front has brought the season of Fall upon the northern Alberta capital, so the golf clubs are being removed from the trunk, and being replaced by the curling broom. The first draw is tonight (the only night a week where I normally do not have a rehearsal) - I anticipate soreness in the upper body tomorrow morning.
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