a southern gal in the north

We are heartened by the replies to the Opera BlogsOpera Blogs Ring invitation on the Opera-l list yesterday.  And looking forward to more… it was a 12+ hour work day and now its 230 am… more tomorrow.

Hope you had a grand time with fireworks and knitting and celebrating our country's freedom and pursuit of happiness (and hobbies!)

See what was in the Boston Globe today (on the right) – Its pretty cool!      Sculptor Dave Cole (upper right) and assistant Dave Sharp made final adjustments yesterday to a 20-foot-wide American flag, knitted by two excavators holding giant needles, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams. (Globe Staff Photo/ Mark Wilson) 

Hope you had a grand time with fireworks and food and family and friends celebrating our country’s freedom and pursuit of happiness (and opera!)

In other news, Renee Fleming was featured on a special one-hour show on WNYC today. 

From the WNYC website:

“World-renowned opera soprano Renée Fleming has fulfilled a life-long dream: to return to her first love, Jazz. “The Heart of Song: Renée Fleming with Fred Hersch” features Fleming in a very personal and insightful conversation—and performing songs you wouldn’t usually associate with the world’s most beloved diva. Renée Fleming is a great jazz singer and you will hear it for yourself in this one hour special, hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer.

In “The Heart of Song,” we join Fleming in an intimate performance setting, accompanied by collaborator Fred Hersch on the piano, and performing an eclectic set of favorites. The hour includes music from Joni Mitchell’s classic 1971 “Blue” release, to the standard “Love for Sale,” and features exclusive archival performances from Fleming’s earliest days as a young college student.

There is a link on the website to a recording of the show. Maybe La Cieca will podcast it!

in light of the O'Connor resignation, here is the next battlefront in the ongoing W war…  the NYTimes Editorial Board weighs in their Editorial Page on Saturday [ here ].  my excerpt below: 

She was sometimes called the most powerful person in America. That seems like a huge overbilling for a woman who toiled at legal writing in a modest office with a small staff, and whose vote was only one of nine. But on issue after crucial issue, it was her swing vote that decided what kind of nation America would be. Justice O'Connor's America is one that hews to conservative principles, but it is tempered by a compassion for individuals and an unwillingness to follow ideology blindly to unreasonable places.

When Justice O'Connor joined the court 24 years ago, there was no way of knowing how sorely she would be missed when she left. We are, in fact, beginning to miss her already as we envision the bitter confirmation battle that will take place if President Bush nominates a hard-line conservative to replace her. Senate Democrats, who have been willing to block ideologues nominated to the lower courts, will certainly do everything they can to prevent a right-wing ideologue from joining the nation's highest court.

Before that fight begins, Mr. Bush should ask himself whether Americans want to live in a country where the handicapped cannot find a champion in the law, where women are stripped of all abortion rights, where universities are barred from offering a hand up to deserving minority students. Then he should ask himself how much of his own party's current success has been due to Justice O'Connor's ability to save the right wing from the worst consequences of its extremism.

If he is thinking clearly, the president will understand how much he owes this quiet jurist who consistently looked for common ground. Perhaps he will also realize that the best way to repay the debt is to choose a replacement from the same mold.

***

on more prosaic fronts, much blog redesign was done in the last 30 hours or so…  finally figured out the html code to post the blog buttons and text as well as other neat things… check it out and let me know.

and so, because of the above, not much knitting done – although i did rip out two inches of Branching Out that i had screwed up on the train this week and reknit just a little ways beyond it. 

today i will suspend blogging /computers / news shows / ipodcasts and knit while catching up on taped EASTENDERS and AS TIME GOES BY episodes as well as a few movies.  then Tuesday back to the grind.

in light of the O’Connor resignation, that building represents the next battlefront in the ongoing W vs the liberals war.  the NYTimes Editorial Board weighs in their Editorial Page on Saturday [ here ].  my excerpt below: 

She was sometimes called the most powerful person in America. That seems like a huge overbilling for a woman who toiled at legal writing in a modest office with a small staff, and whose vote was only one of nine. But on issue after crucial issue, it was her swing vote that decided what kind of nation America would be. Justice O’Connor’s America is one that hews to conservative principles, but it is tempered by a compassion for individuals and an unwillingness to follow ideology blindly to unreasonable places.

When Justice O’Connor joined the court 24 years ago, there was no way of knowing how sorely she would be missed when she left. We are, in fact, beginning to miss her already as we envision the bitter confirmation battle that will take place if President Bush nominates a hard-line conservative to replace her. Senate Democrats, who have been willing to block ideologues nominated to the lower courts, will certainly do everything they can to prevent a right-wing ideologue from joining the nation’s highest court.

Before that fight begins, Mr. Bush should ask himself whether Americans want to live in a country where the handicapped cannot find a champion in the law, where women are stripped of all abortion rights, where universities are barred from offering a hand up to deserving minority students. Then he should ask himself how much of his own party’s current success has been due to Justice O’Connor’s ability to save the right wing from the worst consequences of its extremism.

If he is thinking clearly, the president will understand how much he owes this quiet jurist who consistently looked for common ground. Perhaps he will also realize that the best way to repay the debt is to choose a replacement from the same mold.

i’ve spent most of today and yesterday reconfiguring my blogs (i also have a knitting blog) and continuing to set up this laptop.  during some web google excursion i found the address to the stanford university commencement program two weeks ago by Steve Jobs as one in the throes of trying to figure out how my diverse life experiences connect, i felt it was synchronicity at work… enjoy.

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‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.   [read the rest… here]