Stacy Horn

I don’t think I’ve missed two days of blogging ever. My every waking moment has been consumed with: sell books. It’s exhausting. But wonderful that I get a chance to step up to the plate and take a swing. Thank you universe, thank you Algonquin Books, thank you Choral Society of Grace Church. All the rest of you: please buy my book. Thank you.

People who know more about tv: is there any chance that Bunheads could be picked up by another network? What can we do to make this happen?

I forget where I found this photograph. The caption says it was taken in 1910, and it’s South Ridgewood Avenue in Daytona Beach, Florida. I want to go back in time and live there. This is my Willoughby. I’ll bet there are still places down south that look like this, no?

On July 23rd, aka next Tuesday, at 8pm, I’m going to be giving a presentation about the History and Science of Group Singing at the Observatory in Brooklyn ($5 admission). I’ve got all the photographs I need, I think, and today I’ll be making notes and practicing my talk. I’ll try it out first on these guys.

I took that picture when it reached 1,000 degrees in New York City. I’ll never understand cats. They don’t necessarily seek out the warms spots when it’s cold and they don’t sit in the path of the air conditioner when it’s 1,000 degrees out.

Anyway, come to my talk. The truth is, public speaking scares me a little so part of me is thinking, “No that’s alright, you don’t have to come to my talk.” But the people hosting my presentation would not be thrilled to read that. So come to my talk and I will explain, convincingly, why you should sing even if you don’t think you’re particularly great at it.

Note to Stephen and Michelle: Thank you for the cab ride home and the delicious dinner at Elephant & Castle!

I called the Swim Program of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation to tell them they got the number of laps wrong for the pool at Tony Dapolito. The conversation went like this.

Them: We’ve been doing this for 12 years and 112 laps = 1 mile is what we’ve always used.
Me: But a lap at the Tony Dapolito pool is 50 feet (according to their own website!). If you do the math, that comes to 105.6 laps = 1 mile.
Them: We’ve used 112 for 12 years.
Me: But it’s wrong.
Them: It’s what we’ve always used.
Me: [Speechless.]
Them: Well, we’ll look into it.
Me: [Thinking in my head: no you won’t.]
Them: [Thinking in their head: Hahaha. Yeah. We’ll look into it.]

I also sent email, so we shall see. I’m going to try to swim a mile and a quarter each night, because I can’t always get there at the times where they keep track.

I saw this old prison window when I was downtown looking for the Chatham Street Chapel plaque. This is one of the places where prisoners were kept and where they died during the British occupation.

I just heard about a new choral radio program, Re-Choired Listening, and I thought I’d post a list of all the choral radio programs I know about. If you know of a program that I’ve missed please let me know and I will add them. These are in no particular order!

Choral Arts Classics is hosted by Tom Hall, who is the Director of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, and it airs at 9pm on the last Tuesday of each month between September and April.

The Choral Tradition is hosted by Curt Snook on Iowa Public Radio and it airs Sundays from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Re-Choired Listening with Saint Louis Chamber Chorus’s artistic director Philip Barnes
KIHT, Wednesdays, 7 pm, also on their HD2 channel 96.3.

Great Sacred Music, Sundays from 8 to 11 am EST with Rob Kennedy on WCPE.

Choral Mix with choral conductor, professor and organist Kent Tritle
WQXR, Sundays, 7am and 11am.

Choral Initiative/ A 24/7 choral stream
Minnesota Public Radio.

Choral Showcase programmed by Classical WETA Music Director David Ginder
WETA, Sundays, 9pm. They also have an online station called Viva la Voce. 

The Sacred Concert with director of the American Bach Soloists Jeffrey Thomas
KDFC, Sundays, 7 – 9am.

Choral Showcase with classical musician Theresa Woody
WDAV, Saturdays at 5:00 p.m.

Inspired Voices with Lexington Bach Choir bass Rick Dirksen
WEKU, Sundays at noon, repeated at 8:00 pm on WKYL.

The Choral Channel in partnership with Chorus America
This is a 24 hour online stream.

Sounds Choral, hosted by Marjorie Herman, on WWFM, the Classical Network, can be heard a number of ways, outlined here.

———

The Empire State Building peeking up behind the wreckage of the former St. Vincent’s hospital at 11th Street and 7th Avenue.

I swim in a city pool and they have this thing where you’ll win a tshirt if you swim 25 miles in eight weeks. I thought it was 24 and I’m quite put out about this extra mile, but I’m still in. I want that tshirt. And I hope it says on the front, “Give me a million dollars because I just swam 25 miles, damnit.” The back should read, “And cake. Again, because 25 miles.”

This is the pool where I swim, the former Carmine Street pool, now the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center. According to the people running the contest a mile is 112 laps in this pool. I did the math and it’s really 105.6, but they didn’t want to listen to me so 112 it is.

By the way, can I just say I don’t think most people “do the math” in life. Because if they did they wouldn’t be signing up for a lot of these insurance programs that are out there, for instance. I’m looking at you, dental insurance companies.