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Busy busy weekend
Feb. 26th, 2007 10:43 amStill have more studying to do for tonight's Unix quiz, so why am I here? Oh yeah, waiting for my Adderall to kick in.
Saturday I did a bunch of studying and went to pick Jonathan up from BART when he returned from spending the weekend with his grandmother. He was joyful about getting his laptop back from repairs with the hard disk intact. It had a power problem that sent it to warranty repair. He was delighted that they'd replaced his keyboard that was missing a key and something else he hadn't asked them to do. We'll have him back here... when he has internet privileges. lol
His train was late. I got lost trying to transition from highway 237 to 101. Someone has apparently taken down all the signs and naturally, I turned the wrong way. As a result, the dinner we were supposed to have devolved into Jack-In-The-Box drive-thru. April was going to take me to a burrito place and I didn't want to be rude but I'd just had a burrito the night before. When I saw JITBox I asked her if it was a drive-thru and she said "No." We were so short on time, I asked if we could do the drive-thru instead. The chicken ciabatta sandwiches are fairly healthy as long as we don't get fries. Jonathan ordered a cheeseburger. Neither of us got fries. April should have eaten something, too as it turned out.
We got to the Gospel show with only a few minutes to spare. J and I scarfed our sandwiches down on the way. I wasn't too impressed at first. I guess I was expecting it to be more like the big Gospel event I attended years ago at a local evangelical church, with choirs from all over the bay area. This was more of a class-type event. A lady spoke about the history of African music and how in slave days, it was adapted to fit their situation. The songs all had double meanings. That's something I didn't know. The slaves used songs to tell each other where the overseer was and to send messages to escaped slaves about tracking dogs in the area, "Wade in the water children." Unfortunately, she spoke in somewhat of a monotone and frequently stumbled over the words she was reading. For some reason, she told each person or group's entire history of singing before letting them do their thing. Why didn't they put that in the program to keep the energy flowing?
They had a few local churches represented as well as one group from Stockton. We saw three interpretive dances that were wonderful. Most of the singing was done by the college Gospel groups. They weren't always on key. The ones from the churches were, but it seemed weird. Maybe part of it was the audience. The event I went to years ago was mostly attended by black people and the choirs were pretty much all black people. There's a richness of vocal quality most of us white people just don't have. We also seem to be somewhat rhythm impaired. I know I am. Most of the people on Saturday both in the audience and on stage were white. The energy of the singing fell short. Again, I know the audience plays a part in that. I know I was taught to sit quietly and enjoy the music. The folks in the choirs waiting their turns were participating from their seats. The gospel event years ago was the exact opposite. April and I participated when the leader wanted the audience to. Jonathan sat between us like a lump, sometimes leaning on me and sometimes leaning on April.
When they started doing Bible readings and preaching at us, I was not very happy. I went to hear Gospel music, not to be preached at. Jonathan and I were naughty. Whenever they'd tell us Jesus was the only way to salvation, we'd trade off whispering in the other's ear "And Buddha, and Krishna, and Mohammed..." lol
About 3/4 of the way through the program, April started getting a migraine and we had to leave. I was sad about missing the rest of the music but they seemed to be ramping up the preaching so I was a bit relieved to get out of there. I've got such bad memories tied into that kind of stuff that it makes a hard knot in my gut. Besides that, the seats were very bad for my neck and I was getting a headache myself.
When I got home, my head was hurting too badly for studying so I thought I'd make![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
finickynarcane's birthday card. I wanted to create a card that looked like it was constructed of her sculpture matierals. I created a 3D stone 50 on a wooden base and tried to make a steel "SUE", with the intermediary words looking like they were woven from purple and blue yarn. Whether she recognized them as the materials I intended, I don't know but I liked how it turned out. It took much longer than I expected. The sun was starting to come up when I was heading for bed.
(to be continued...)
Saturday I did a bunch of studying and went to pick Jonathan up from BART when he returned from spending the weekend with his grandmother. He was joyful about getting his laptop back from repairs with the hard disk intact. It had a power problem that sent it to warranty repair. He was delighted that they'd replaced his keyboard that was missing a key and something else he hadn't asked them to do. We'll have him back here... when he has internet privileges. lol
His train was late. I got lost trying to transition from highway 237 to 101. Someone has apparently taken down all the signs and naturally, I turned the wrong way. As a result, the dinner we were supposed to have devolved into Jack-In-The-Box drive-thru. April was going to take me to a burrito place and I didn't want to be rude but I'd just had a burrito the night before. When I saw JITBox I asked her if it was a drive-thru and she said "No." We were so short on time, I asked if we could do the drive-thru instead. The chicken ciabatta sandwiches are fairly healthy as long as we don't get fries. Jonathan ordered a cheeseburger. Neither of us got fries. April should have eaten something, too as it turned out.
We got to the Gospel show with only a few minutes to spare. J and I scarfed our sandwiches down on the way. I wasn't too impressed at first. I guess I was expecting it to be more like the big Gospel event I attended years ago at a local evangelical church, with choirs from all over the bay area. This was more of a class-type event. A lady spoke about the history of African music and how in slave days, it was adapted to fit their situation. The songs all had double meanings. That's something I didn't know. The slaves used songs to tell each other where the overseer was and to send messages to escaped slaves about tracking dogs in the area, "Wade in the water children." Unfortunately, she spoke in somewhat of a monotone and frequently stumbled over the words she was reading. For some reason, she told each person or group's entire history of singing before letting them do their thing. Why didn't they put that in the program to keep the energy flowing?
They had a few local churches represented as well as one group from Stockton. We saw three interpretive dances that were wonderful. Most of the singing was done by the college Gospel groups. They weren't always on key. The ones from the churches were, but it seemed weird. Maybe part of it was the audience. The event I went to years ago was mostly attended by black people and the choirs were pretty much all black people. There's a richness of vocal quality most of us white people just don't have. We also seem to be somewhat rhythm impaired. I know I am. Most of the people on Saturday both in the audience and on stage were white. The energy of the singing fell short. Again, I know the audience plays a part in that. I know I was taught to sit quietly and enjoy the music. The folks in the choirs waiting their turns were participating from their seats. The gospel event years ago was the exact opposite. April and I participated when the leader wanted the audience to. Jonathan sat between us like a lump, sometimes leaning on me and sometimes leaning on April.
When they started doing Bible readings and preaching at us, I was not very happy. I went to hear Gospel music, not to be preached at. Jonathan and I were naughty. Whenever they'd tell us Jesus was the only way to salvation, we'd trade off whispering in the other's ear "And Buddha, and Krishna, and Mohammed..." lol
About 3/4 of the way through the program, April started getting a migraine and we had to leave. I was sad about missing the rest of the music but they seemed to be ramping up the preaching so I was a bit relieved to get out of there. I've got such bad memories tied into that kind of stuff that it makes a hard knot in my gut. Besides that, the seats were very bad for my neck and I was getting a headache myself.
When I got home, my head was hurting too badly for studying so I thought I'd make
finickynarcane's birthday card. I wanted to create a card that looked like it was constructed of her sculpture matierals. I created a 3D stone 50 on a wooden base and tried to make a steel "SUE", with the intermediary words looking like they were woven from purple and blue yarn. Whether she recognized them as the materials I intended, I don't know but I liked how it turned out. It took much longer than I expected. The sun was starting to come up when I was heading for bed.(to be continued...)
