Happy Christmas Night, Sweet Baby,
I hope your Christmas was a success in all respects and full of good feeling. I was back in church this morning - as noted in last night's blog - and again the singing went very well. I am learning that exercising the voice is very much like lifting weights, you are developing a muscle, and because of my recent "car singing" I can now do things I couldn't do before. My voice has more fluidity to it, or maybe flexability. It just feels like it is much, much easier to get it to do what I want it to do. Now I wanna see where I can take it from here. Greg Lake was my all-time favorite singer - as also previously noted - and while I may never have a voice like his, he is my standard when I think of what I'd like to shoot for. Might as well set a high bar, right?
After church we went back to Pearl's for a Christmas brunch, which was very nice, with visits from neighbors and some old friends of Pearl's as well. The Doberman Pinscher was doing well, and he even barked semi-vigorously at the visitors, a rare thing in his advanced age but formerly automatic. A good sign, I think. Btw - the name thing. He has many names, most of which are easy to decipher. That may be the case with "The Doberman Pinscher" also, but just for clarity, it comes about according to the following sequence : "Kobi" (his real name), which mutates into "Kober-Dober", then just plain "Dober", and then it turned into "The Doberman Pinscher", which is fine with him because he sees himself as a ferocious guard dog anyway. But if he is anything, he is A Dog Of Many Names.
I am listening to "Mass In B-Minor" by J.S. Bach, which I think is one of the very greatest pieces of music ever written, and certainly in the choral sense. It's not strictly a Christmas piece, though like most of his work it is about Christ, and for me it is a yearly tradition on December 25.
Earlier in the evening I watched a movie : "Mr. Holmes", starring the great Sir Ian McKellan. Wait a sec, lemme switch back to non-italicised lettering.......
Okay, I'm back. So I watched "Mr. Holmes", which came out last year and is about Sherlock Holmes in his later life as he is beginning to suffer from senility. He wants to put to rest a final case that vexed him into retirement years earlier, and from there a wonderful story unfolds, interwoven with several threads.
The first thing I will say is that, if you can find a greater actor than Ian McKellan, please show him to me. He is of course phenomenal in everything he does, but this has got to be one of his best ever roles. The story is slow to develop, and thus is not made for a modern, CGI-excited audience. It is a movie with modern photographic techniques, but with an old fashioned pace and storyline, which is so beautifully rendered onscreen that it will put a tear in your eye. As I sometimes say, and wish I could say more often about modern films - this one is a 10 out of 10 in all respects. I found it at Northridge Libe yesterday and I am glad I checked it out. It is not Sherlock Holmes in the usual "hard boiled crime case" sense, but rather a movie about a long life lived, and decisions made, some that led to regret, and the need for closure and peace of mind. Highly recommended.
Well, that's all I know for tonight. It sure has been a wonderful Christmas season, I think. I love The Season, and I will miss it til next year, as always, but now we have the New Year coming up and I will look forward to it with high hopes and good expectations.
See you in the morn, SB. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment