a southern gal in the north

Associated Press 

There is so much being written in so many places (see below).  Tears streamed today as I listened to the lovely podcast by Charles Handelman and Parterre Box has some goodies too

Here are some Tributes – on the web and radio and live at Lincoln Center – tonight and this week.

Night After Night: Lincoln Center honors Beverly Sills.

Further to our post from this morning regarding the passing of beloved opera singer Beverly Sills, we’re posting verbatim a late-breaking press release from Lincoln Center regarding its own plans to remember her:

In response to the news today of the death of opera star and Lincoln Center leader Beverly Sills, a number of the constituents at Lincoln Center will pay tribute tonight, Tuesday, July 3, to her.

At 7:30 PM the thousands of dancers who gather on Josie Robertson Plaza for Midsummer Night Swing will be asked to observe a minute of silence.

At the same time, inside Avery Fisher Hall, the New York Philharmonic will begin its concert with a performance of Bernstein’s Overture to Candide. In a tradition that began with the death of Bernstein, it will be performed without a conductor. Zarin Mehta will speak from the stage. The Philharmonic chose the music because its celebratory nature matched Miss Sills’s zest for life.

At the same time, the house lights at Avery Fisher Hall and at the New York State Theater will be shut off for one minute.

The Metropolitan Opera on Sirius Satellite Radio (Channel 85) will broadcast tribute performances this week, beginning tonight (July 3) at 9 p.m. with a broadcast of The Siege of Corinth by Rossini, from Sills’s debut season (1975). Host Margaret Juntwait will give a special introduction about Sills. The tribute continues on Thursday night (July 5) at 9 p.m. with Sills’s Met broadcast of Massenet’s Thais, and again on Friday night (July 6) at 8 p.m. with a repeat of The Siege of Corinth.

Night After Night: Lincoln Center honors Beverly Sills..

Sirius Remembering Beverly Sills
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
Beverly Sills, one of the great sopranos of the late twentieth century as well as one of the most prominent administrators and fundraisers in the history of opera in America, died Monday of cancer. She was 78. Metropolitan Opera Radio will mark her passing with two memorable Met performances. Hear Ms. Sills perform the role of Pamira in her 1975 broadcast debut of Rossini’s L’Assedio di Corinto on Tuesday at 9:00 pm ET and Friday 8 pm ET. On Thursday at 9 pm ET, we will air her 1978 performance in the title role of Thais.

Tuesday and Friday 9:00 PM ET Rossini: L’Assedio di Corinto
4/19/75-Schippers; Sills, Verrett, Theyard, Diaz

Thursday 9:00 PM ET Massenet: Thais
1/28/78-Pritchard; Sills, Gibbs, Milnes, Morris

From WNYC Remembering Bubbles

Beverly Sills not only demystified classical music and opera for the public; but for many people, she defined it, pure and simple. Tonight (7 pm EDT) we pay tribute to “Bubbles” — as she was affectionately known — with recordings of some of her greatest roles, and clips of her previous appearances on WNYC.

“Beverly was an extraordinary artist, a gifted administrator, and a magnificent human being. In every facet of her career, she had a mission — to bring the joy and love of our great art form to as many people as possible. It was my privilege to work with Beverly frequently, and I will miss her enormously. She is simply irreplaceable.”
    — James Levine, Music Director, Metropolitan Opera

For more than 30 years, Beverly Sills was a tireless advocate for the arts through her stage and television appearances; as an administrator, she had a profound influence on the New York musical scene. Share your own memories and tributes below, by clicking on the “Comment” link.

New York Times Topics: Remembering Beverly Sills
Recordings of Beverly Sills available at amazon.com
Beverly Sills on YouTube
More Resources Online

1 Gardening Beginnings

From a barren backyard to the beginning of a garden (May 2006)

2 Cutting a Tree

In which I cut down a tree and learn a lot about saws!

3 A Garden Grows

The birth of the garden – from early design to first plantings – landscaping et al

4 Fall 2006 and Winter 2007

Fall and Winter in a Hudson River Village town (more photos to be added).

5 Spring 2007

The garden emerges from the cold winter … and gets new plantings.

It has been a busy several months—yikes where did the spring go?

Look for updates with lots of photos soon

Some hints as to what I have been up to…

we will resume blogging
                                   (sneeze)
sometime
               (cough)
soon
         (we hope).

is there a metaphor for life in driving?  maybe

Tuesday morning I took my visiting relative to the Newark Airport – I had googled directions and read thru them several times – and it seemed easy.  This was to be the first time driving over the George Washington Bridge and into New Jesrey in my new (used) car (still need a name!). 

So Tuesday dawned bright and clear – and at 745 am we were off (for a 1030 am flight).  Things were going fine until we couldn’t find the exit to I-95 (only today I realized they wanted me to be on the Sprain Parkway and not the Saw Mill but thats cause I need a map for the area – yeah I know).  So knowing that the GWBridge has an entrance off the Saw Mill we drove on – and while there was a bit of morning rush traffic – once we got to the turn for the Briidge it was clear sailing – so then it was just finding the turnpike exit (whew) and then driving for about 20 mins until the signs for the airport.

After making sure my passenger’s luggage was checked in to the correct destination and tearfully saying farewells.. I fired up my Ipod to the first act of the broadcast DIE MEISTERSINGER and set back to the city.  As I drove out of the airport and onto the turnpike I hit the first problem – at the toll I paid my cash but was in the far left booth and needed to be in the middle lanes.  Well, there were about 12 lanes and not a lot of road room to get over to the correct one, so I slowed down and put on my hazards until the cars behind figured out something was up – and then with a lot of hand signals and accomodating car drivers I made it to the correct lane. 

Driving along merrily to David’s paen to singing, I saw a sign for the Palisades – and had a momentary thought wondering if I should take that route home – (note it was about 935 am) but decided not to as I had only a vague idea of how to get from the Palisades to the Tappan Zee bridge … so I dismissed that route and kept to the Turnpike.

BIG MISTAKE!

To spare you a long boring monologue on being stuck in traffic – I was.  In fact it took excatly ONE HOUR AND A HALF to get over the George Washington Bridge – from the first sign to the bridge itself.  And I had about 1/4 tank of gas – I was so afraid of running out of gas.  Thank goodness I had that iPod – otherwise I would have been SCREAMING.

It was the most collosal waste of time … I arrived back home at 12 noon. (That return trip should have been about ONE HOUR).

Yes, in hindsight (always 20–20) I should have realized that at 10 am on a weekday morning ALL the TRUCKS in the WORLD are heading into Manhattan.  And it was – me and about 10 other cars and the TRUCKS of AMERCIA.  My poor little Honda – we were cowering amongst these huge hulking ugly dirty trucks.

so the moral?  Listen to your instincts?

If I had taken the Palisades – I may have had to stop to ask the way to the Tappan Zee Bridge but I bet it would have been smooth sailing uhm driving all the way. 

The rest of the day was crazy and full after that wasted time – a stop at the local mecahnics to replace the wiper blades which we had fallen apart in the last rain/snow storm (i bet they were the original ones) and to fill the washer fluid (almost empty); voting in the village election for mayor and two trustees (both candidates women!), fill up the gas tank, then grocery shopping for the Village Sister’s family (baby is 12 weeks now) and me, drop off shopping and then home to unpack my shopping and then practice for five hours.

And then today – woke up feeling pretty cruddy and its progressed thru the day … praying its not the flu and just a cold.  

Of course tomorrow is full of things planned in the city – a lesson and then some shopping and then a art gallery show opening reception and Yarn Harlot is in town for her book launch and then opening night of ANDREA CHENIER at the Met or Mitsuko Uchida at the Philharmonic (neither is sold out). 

As of now have cancelled lesson and am resigned to missing the rest.  Uchida is playing Friday and Saturday and Chenier will be around for a bit.    But I am a very bad patient – I hate being sick and feeling sick and resist and resist and worry about how I am feeling – and how the hell do you know how you will be in 24 hours anyway? (that’s always the issue with lessons and the cancelling of them and I hate making these kinds of decision but the fact that I am dithering usually means I am sick – I get all cranky and out of sorts and want to hide under the covers and pretty much anything sad or sentimental has me over reacting by weeping – and that’s usually the sign that I am sickening for something – oh and the sore throat today and being chilled and… whoa better end this parenthetical).  (and damnit I had really practiced hard this week and had so much to talk about at my lesson)

well, here is a lovely photo to reward you for making it thru this post (i am not even going to qualify what kind of post it is)  It’s the Hudson River near my village.

is there a metaphor for life in driving?  maybe

Tuesday morning I took my visiting relative to the Newark Airport – I had googled directions and read thru them several times – and it seemed easy.  This was to be the first time driving over the George Washington Bridge and into New Jesrey in my new (used) car (still need a name!). 

So Tuesday dawned bright and clear – and at 745 am we were off (for a 1030 am flight).  Things were going fine until we couldn’t find the exit to I-95 (only today I realized they wanted me to be on the Sprain Parkway and not the Saw Mill but thats cause I need a map for the area – yeah I know).  So knowing that the GWBridge has an entrance off the Saw Mill we drove on – and while there was a bit of morning rush traffic – once we got to the turn for the Briidge it was clear sailing – so then it was just finding the turnpike exit (whew) and then driving for about 20 mins until the signs for the airport.

After making sure my passenger’s luggage was checked in to the correct destination and tearfully saying farewells.. I fired up my Ipod to the first act of the broadcast DIE MEISTERSINGER and set back to the city.  As I drove out of the airport and onto the turnpike I hit the first problem – at the toll I paid my cash but was in the far left booth and needed to be in the middle lanes.  Well, there were about 12 lanes and not a lot of road room to get over to the correct one, so I slowed down and put on my hazards until the cars behind figured out something was up – and then with a lot of hand signals and accomodating car drivers I made it to the correct lane. 

Driving along merrily to David’s paen to singing, I saw a sign for the Palisades – and had a momentary thought wondering if I should take that route home – (note it was about 935 am) but decided not to as I had only a vague idea of how to get from the Palisades to the Tappan Zee bridge … so I dismissed that route and kept to the Turnpike.

BIG MISTAKE!

To spare you a long boring monologue on being stuck in traffic – I was.  In fact it took excatly ONE HOUR AND A HALF to get over the George Washington Bridge – from the first sign to the bridge itself.  And I had about 1/4 tank of gas – I was so afraid of running out of gas.  Thank goodness I had that iPod – otherwise I would have been SCREAMING.

It was the most collosal waste of time … I arrived back home at 12 noon. (That return trip should have been about ONE HOUR).

Yes, in hindsight (always 20–20) I should have realized that at 10 am on a weekday morning ALL the TRUCKS in the WORLD are heading into Manhattan.  And it was – me and about 10 other cars and the TRUCKS of AMERCIA.  My poor little Honda – we were cowering amongst these huge hulking ugly dirty trucks.

so the moral?  Listen to your instincts?

If I had taken the Palisades – I may have had to stop to ask the way to the Tappan Zee Bridge but I bet it would have been smooth sailing uhm driving all the way. 

The rest of the day was crazy and full after that wasted time – a stop at the local mecahnics to replace the wiper blades which we had fallen apart in the last rain/snow storm (i bet they were the original ones) and to fill the washer fluid (almost empty); voting in the village election for mayor and two trustees (both candidates women!), fill up the gas tank, then grocery shopping for the Village Sister’s family (baby is 12 weeks now) and me, drop off shopping and then home to unpack my shopping and then practice for five hours.

And then today – woke up feeling pretty cruddy and its progressed thru the day … praying its not the flu and just a cold.  

Of course tomorrow is full of things planned in the city – a lesson and then some shopping and then a art gallery show opening reception and Yarn Harlot is in town for her book launch and then opening night of ANDREA CHENIER at the Met or Mitsuko Uchida at the Philharmonic (neither is sold out). 

As of now have cancelled lesson and am resigned to missing the rest.  Uchida is playing Friday and Saturday and Chenier will be around for a bit.    But I am a very bad patient – I hate being sick and feeling sick and resist and resist and worry about how I am feeling – and how the hell do you know how you will be in 24 hours anyway? (that’s always the issue with lessons and the cancelling of them and I hate making these kinds of decision but the fact that I am dithering usually means I am sick – I get all cranky and out of sorts and want to hide under the covers and pretty much anything sad or sentimental has me over reacting by weeping – and that’s usually the sign that I am sickening for something – oh and the sore throat today and being chilled and… whoa better end this parenthetical).  (and damnit I had really practiced hard this week and had so much to talk about at my lesson)

well, here is a lovely photo to reward you for making it thru this post (i am not even going to qualify what kind of post it is)  It’s the Hudson River near my village.

look what i found… am drooling… another future WIP – and its another Zimmerman – man I love her sweaters!

Marseilles Pullover
Kathy Zimmerman

Goddess Yarns Phoebe (100% baby alpaca; 73 yd [66 m]/50 g): #0734 coral red heather, 14 (15, 17, 19) skeins.

see what nice Mother Nature dropped on us on Friday…. almost a foot of snow in that yard.  my poor dwarf english boxwood ARE dwarfed in this photo – hopefully they will be ok! 

Weather prediction for today/tonight is 40s and RAIN/SNOW showers… but its not 50s until Thursday so we will be seeing that snow for awhile.  It was interesting going out to the bird feeder to fill it – the snow came up to the top of my heavyduty snow boots!

in knitting news… i am nearing the end of the Back of the Aran sweater – its been a really crazy three weeks with a visiting relative in town – lots of nights out and day time events – and family outings – so my knitting has suffered due to sheer exhaustion. 

But as I near the point of finishing the back (about 8 rows) I am questioning whether I want a sweater – and am instead thinking of making a cardigan out of this pattern…. I may need to lengthen the back but I can leave the back undone at this point and figure out the patterns for the front – of course that means making two fronts as I am not going to rip this back up AGAIN and start over with steeks – and anyway, the considered opinion is that arans do better with seams due to the weight of the cables.

so to further complicate this sweater’s completion … on the other hand….doing the front would be easy as i have the patterns memorized – I wonder if I am just playing with the design cause I am dreading the thought of all that knitting when its getting warmer (well, not really but in a month maybe?) and I will be finishing this just in time to put it away for the summer – sigh.

so I could just leave it to next fall and add it to my always large group of UFOs or just plug ahead and do it – or rip it out and use the yarn on one of the other new patterns I found in LACE STYLE that I am just in love with – the Katherine Hepburn cardigan and the cover sweater (left photo) which I was thinking of in that Classic Elite Inca Alpaca Rio Red…. and I have some gorgeous Berocco Alpaca in a deep purple for the KH Cardigan. 

And least we forget the fair isle project of January –  the Fair Isle Fireman Sweater and a shawl (Flower Basket) which I started for a birthday present – and… the socks for the SOCK MADNESS competition which i have NOT EVEN started.

ok. my  head hurts.  I am going to practice the piano.

Tomorrow is another day (I heart Scarlett)

AND DONT FORGET YARN HARLOT IN NYC THURSDAY!

On Sirius  8:00 PM

Strauss: Die Ägyptische Helena (LIVE FROM THE MET)
Luisi; Voigt, Kerl, Damrau, Grove, Brendel, Sorenson

UPDATE – KERL has cancelled. Michael Hendrick gets a shot at the whole thing..

La Scala’s Ring
The first integral Ring since Furtwaengler’s in 1950, (Ben Heppner has already been cast) will be conducted by Daniel Barenboim, director Klaus-Michael Grüber, sets by Anselm Kiefer. Two operas in 2010, Rheingold in June, Die Walküre as La Prima on 12/7/2010. Then, in 2012: Sigfried in January, Götterdämmerung for la Prima in 12/7/2012.

Opera Chic: Stephane Lissner’s Masterplan.