Month: March 2015

Yesterday I participated in a flash mob singing the Dona Nobis Pacem Chorus from the Bach B Minor Mass. A video of us will be released on YouTube on March 21st, Bach’s birthday, as part of the Bach in the Subways movement.

Our event took place on the downtown platform for the A train at West 4th Street Station. It was the best possible way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Thank you Harold Rosenbaum, who pulled this together! I just have one small suggestion for future flash mobs. We sang in voice part sections and we had a little bit of a problem which showed why this might not be the best way for groups to sing together. We were spread out up and down the platform and the sections couldn’t always hear each other. As a result the rhythm was a little jagged.

When you sing with all the voice parts mixed up, this not only forces you to really know your part, because you can’t count on being surrounded by a sea of voices singing your part, it’s a more glorious way to sing, to be in the harmony like that. You can hear all the other voice parts because they’re standing right next to you! This helps establish group rhythm. You’re more aware of what the other parts are doing and where you fit in.

I’m just nit-picking, though. Maybe the rhythm was perfectly okay overall and just the tiniest bit jagged where I stood. So thank you again, Harold Rosenbuam! I really had a fabulous time and wanted to sing it again and again. I could have happily sung the whole mass down there. I can’t wait to see the video!

I know there are many, many rescue organizations, and certainly a lot of them closer to home, but I’ve become addicted to the work and videos of Eldad Hagar, who I’ve posted about before, and a colleague of his, Annie Hart.

I’m always checking Facebook for a new video or new pictures. Here are the links so you too can become addicted. Eldad’s organization is Hope for Paws, but I also regularly (constantly) check his Flickr page. There’s one upsetting shot up there now, but it’s not too bad and there’s a happy ending. Click on the pictures though, because you’ll get the story behind them.

Eldad usually works with women like Lisa Chiarelli and Annie Hart because the dogs, who are often abused, are less afraid of women. Annie Hart started a rescue organization called Rescue From the Hart, and now I’m addicted to her videos and pictures as well.

Here is a recent rescue video. A very large spider makes an appearance in this video and that’s when I thought, “Yeah. I might not make a very good rescuer.”

I spent the day yesterday at the Municipal Archives scanning documents. I got over 400 done, and I was so proud and happy. Although I’ve got thousands upon thousands more to do (and maybe I should rethink what I’m doing) it was such a good start.

And then they just disappeared from my phone. Poof. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. I wrote the developers of the software I’m using, I have my theory, and I will make sure it doesn’t happen again, but still. Holy mother of god that was a loss.

Please send me your best drugs.

Some shots from the New York Public Library earlier this week. When the universe still liked me.

The ceiling in the hallway on the first where I walk back and forth and back and forth from one room to another. I should do a series of all the ceilings. The ones on the 3rd floor are my favorites.

I’m throwing this out there in case someone can help me. I need to find out what the weather was like in New York City on May 7, 1829. I checked every single newspaper on record for New York and not one of them had a weather report. Was this just not done in those days?? I emailed the National Weather … something (it was late and I was tired, I forget who I emailed now!) but if anyone has any ideas I’d be most grateful.

The wonderful Teresa Carpenter, author of New York Diaries, (which, according to Brain Pickings, “is easily the most dynamic and important depiction of the city since E. B. White’s timeless Here Is New York.”) checked for diary entries describing the weather and found something to indicate it was probably cold. If anyone can tell me where I might find more information, that would be great!

It’s been a busy archive-visiting week. Monday I was at the Oskar Diethelm Library at Cornell, (they specialize in the history of psychiatry). Yesterday I was at the Manuscripts and Archives division of the New York Public Library, and today I’m going to the Municipal Archives. In other words, a perfect Stacy week.

This is the New York Public Library but not Manuscripts and Archives. They won’t let you take pictures of the room. I do not know why.

In order to put off buying a new computer for another year or two (hopefully) I did everything I could to soup up my late 2008 MacBook. I maxed out the RAM, then I got a new, bigger hard drive and battery (thank you, Kevin!). This was supposed to enable me to install the OS Mavericks, but that is no longer available and running Yosemite on this machine is iffy.

So I installed Mountain Lion, which sent me straight to computer hell for a couple of days, forcing a clean-ish install, and, because I had to put them together from what I had in the house, a few very odd meals. But I emerged with a computer that feels like a brand new computer to me, and although it’s not up-to-date with something like Mavericks, it feels like I might get the extra year or two I needed. And, I was able to buy a wireless printer to replace my old HP which broke months ago. I can print again!

New apps I’ve installed: CityMapper, Starbucks, and MyEyesOnly.

That was a very geeky post, I know. Here’s my little Bleecker, resting from tormenting Finney and crying for pets from me (don’t worry, I pet him all the time).