I guess you could call me a “working stiff” — meaning, that I’m back in the work force, after ten years of relative retirement. Here are some of the synonyms for “working stiff” from Dictionary.com: I’m a working stiff organist! My last post, “Too many notes … too much!” described the quantity of music I… Read More Working stiff
Lately I have to admit that I’ve been a little discouraged about the few number of organists in this town. I’ve been getting calls from churches looking for both temporary and permanent organists where in reality, none can be had. You may remember that the priest at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church contacted me early in… Read More The future … the organ ?
HONOLULU – Gov. David Ige announced that the state is ending the travel quarantine and the Safe Travels Hawaiʻi program after the current emergency period ends on Mar. 25. Beginning at 12:01 am, Mar. 26, passengers arriving from domestic points of origin will not have to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or a pre-travel… Read More Mask on, mask off
It’s only ONE WEEK AWAY from the onslaught of our “Celebrating the Pipe Organ in Hawaii” festival, and I have just finished updating the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists website with the artist programs and bios. We’ll be having an Executive Board meeting tomorrow where we’ll be putting the finishing touches on all the… Read More Help, I’m drowning!
After Friday’s carillon recital, Joey Fala booked time on the four major pipe organs so that I could have a chance to play. We went on an “organ crawl,” which is what organists call it when they visit organs in other churches. According to one source, “It’s called a crawl, because participants literally can get… Read More Duke organ crawl
This video from my sister, Doris, is what greeted me when I opened up Facebook this morning. (Yes, it’s my birthday, and I’m going out to dinner three different nights this week!) Of course, I recognized the organ right away from the preview picture—I didn’t need to play the video in order to confirm my… Read More Pipe organ birthday greetings
Despite being extremely tired after a long day on the road, most of our group went out after dinner to see the famous astronomical clock in old town Prague (by the way, old time Prague dates from the 14th century; “new” town Prague dates from the 15th century!) We were too late to see the… Read More Highlights of Prague—in 24 hours
Today the Hawaii Tribune-Herald newspaper on the Big Island published a story by Katie Young Yamanaka about our homeboy, Joey Fala, and his upcoming recital at the Higashi Hongwanji Mission, Sunday, March 12th at 3:00 pm. I was surprised that Joey came up with the same analogy as I have previously written about, particularly in regards… Read More Like going into someone else’s kitchen
One if by land, two if by sea was the phrase coined by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his famous poem about the American revolutionaries. It described the signal Paul Revere was to give to indicate the means by which the British were coming. One lantern hanging in the Old North Church meant they were… Read More One if by land, two if by sea
Okay, you probably didn’t know that I knew this term from basketball? According to Wikipedia, “A full-court press is a basketball term for a defensive style in which the defense applies man-to-man or zone defense to pressure the offensive team the entire length of the court before and after the inbound pass. Some presses attempt… Read More Full court press!