February flew by this year, which of course it usually does being the shortest month. From my perspective it flew by because we had a very busy month. Nothing like having a lot of activities to make time fly. I still haven't solved the problem regarding uploading pictures. Thus, this entry will be another without images which make my banal blog entries slightly more interesting(all right a lot more interesting). I should note that this is the first February we've been in Durham that spring didn't arrive close to Valentine's Day. We've had multiple ice and snow storms which, since plowing, sanding, and salting are foreign to this clime, have left us house-bound on several occasions. Fortunately, it has warmed up enough between each storm to melt the "crap" away.
In between storms I had a chance to get to several Duke sport contests. I went to two women's basketball game: one of which we were defeated by Notre Dame and the other in which we beat Wake Forest. Notre Dame is a very strong team(currently ranked #2 in the nation). They showed why against us. They are very quick and shot the ball extremely well. We won the Wake game, but it wasn't as easy as it might have been. Unfortunately, we are now without a point guard. Three injuries(broken patella, torn ACL, and shin splints) to our guards have created problems for us. Wake pressured the ball right from the start and caused a number of turnovers and greatly slowed our pace of play. It's too bad because this group of seniors have been outstanding. Tricia Liston is one of the finalists for the Wooden Award.
I also got to a men's game at Cameron, which is always a fun experience. The game was against Virginia Tech. They are having a difficult year due to injuries and are weak at point guard. We pressured then full court most of the game and they had to force a lot of shots. Our outside shooting has suddenly gone cold, but we had enough scoring to win by 20.
Last year Duke lacrosse won the national championship and they're off to a good start this year. I got to see them defeat Stony Brook 14 - 6. On the same day as the lacrosse match Duke women's tennis was playing Syracuse. Ranked #1 at the moment, Duke features some of the top ranked collegiate tennis players. I had seen them play Furman earlier in the month, a team they shutout. Against SU they loss only one singles match.
On the Arts side of the calendar, we saw some great stuff and some not so great. Let me start with the great. The King Singers were formed in 1968 and named after King's College in Cambridge, England. Although none of the original members are still with the group, they still have 6 members, 2 of which sing countertenor. If you're not familiar with a countertenor, think of a man singing soprano and alto parts in a falsetto voice. The current member of the group with the longest tenure is David Hurley, who has been with it since 1990. Their tone, blend, technique, and pitch were incredible. The first half of the show consisted of madrigals and modern pieces using similar source material to the madrigals. Of these works I particularly loved "U soir de neige" a modern piece written by Francois Poulenc where close harmonies created a powerful mood. The second half of the concert consisted of pop standards from "The Great American Songbook" and features tunes by Arlen, Porter, Gershwin, and others. I saw The King Singers at Proctors in Schenectady back in the early 1970s and I was even more impressed with them this time.
Another excellent concert I attended was a recital by Duke faculty member Randall Love. Mr. Love teaches piano and fortepiano at the University and has performed at other venues throughout the US. Interestingly enough he was worked with Capitol Chamber Artists of Albany on a recording of Haydn's London Symphonies. He played Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff. It was great.
Not so great a show was a production of The Republic by Hoi Polli, a theater company out of NYC. Taking portions of Plato's master work, this 70 minute theatrical experience kept me looking at my watch. Done "in the round" or actually "in a square", the "set" consisted of interesting lighted, boxy, rectangular pillars which were moved around and which the cast of three moved through. This created both sight-line issues and hearing issues. The acting was fine, I just didn't get the purpose of the whole thing. But then again, I'm not sure I got The Republic when I read it all those many years ago.
The last theater piece we saw was a production of Caroline, or Change at Raleigh Little Theatre. RLT is celebrating its 75th year making it one of the oldest community theaters in the US. Their productions have good performance values and this one was no exception. Nominated for a Tony, this musical by Tony Kushner and Jeanie Tesori is in form more operatic than a "standard" musical. The cast all had great voices and handled the material well. I did have a difficult time hearing some of the lyrics and with aspects of the story and some of the characters as they were presented by the script.
I have been singing in the choir of the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship for almost 2 years now and enjoying it. Having spent 23 years conducting a choir and being responsible for the music at the Berlin UMC, I was looking for a group that didn't sing every Sunday and does interesting music. I found it at ERUUF. It also led me to meet an interesting group of people with whom I share a number of social justice beliefs. As a result I joined a group of ERUUF member who went to Raleigh to participate in a Moral March on Raleigh.
In case you weren't aware, the North Carolina legislature has passed a number of socially repressive laws that impact on a variety of civil right issues. Starting last year, in protest, members of the NAACP and other groups began to protest on Mondays in Raleigh. A number were arrested, including the ERUUF pastor. As the new legislative "season" approaches various group decided to have a mass march on the state capitol as a sign of solidarity among disparate groups against further repressive legislation. The march is part of a tradition of protest started in 2006 by the NAACP and is held yearly. It took on greater significance this year because of the actions of the legislature and governor.
The march itself was impressive. Estimates of the size varied, with USA Today putting the group at 100,000. I'm not sure it was that big, but it was large. There was a feeling of empowerment and a greater understanding of the various issues that brought all these people together. I'm glad I went. I met a lot of neat people too. Of course one day does not a movement make. Time to get involved.
