Stacy Horn

Still puttering. Among other things, I’m catching up on my reading. Here’s a short article about a pigeon who died while trying to deliver a message during WWII. So far, cryptographers today have been unable to decode it. Of course I am focused on the long dead pigeon. Poor little guy. I wonder if they have tried contacting the pigeoneers, the WWII unit responsible for the carrier pigeons. Oh except they were from WWI? There must have been an equivalent unit during WWII as well, though. In any case, I’m sure one of the pigeon handlers have reached out to them by now.

Then there’s this fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the tech used to help elect President Obama. I just started this one, but so far it’s one of those fun page-turners articles that is not only a great read but you also feel like you’re learning something.

Aaaannnnnd, I want this Golden Book about space travel.

I held my camera over my head in Union Square on Black Friday and took a couple of shots. The crowd was too daunting so I didn’t go in there, even though I enjoy just looking at all the stuff in the booths. (It’s a holiday-mart set-up.)

I just went out briefly for supplies, otherwise I’ve been staying in, puttering, with the Hallmark Channel on in the background. My neighborhood is pretty quiet. I didn’t walk down Bleecker, which might have some shoppers. I was on Hudson Street, where Christmas tree stands are going up …

… one of the restaurants set up this very appealing table. Except, I think the idea is to sit outside with your cider, all bundled up and cosy. Nice in theory, but I don’t know how that that would work out in practice. Damnit. I should have gotten a cider to go. Because now I am craving hot apple cider. And cider donuts. Yeah … cancel the cider, bring on the donuts.

When Hurricane Sandy hit I quickly learned that reading by candlelight is impossible, and annoying by flashlight. So I ordered the Coleman 3AA High-Tech LED Mini Lantern because someone on Echo wisely advised getting a lantern that took AA batteries rather than D batteries, which are harder to find in an emergency. Unfortunately, when it arrived and I tried it out it just didn’t feel bright enough. Also, it said the 3 AA batteries it takes will last six hours, which isn’t very much.

So I returned it and ordered the Rayovac Sportsman LED Lantern. It takes D batteries, but it also says it will last 40 to 90 hours depending on the setting and it’s 240 lumens at the highest setting vs 85 lumens for the other one at it’s highest setting.

This one is definitely much brighter than the other lamp, and much better for overall room lighting and also for reading, so I’m keeping it. That said, the light is harsh, and you have to position it just right to hit the pages of your book. Maybe the headlamp suggestion a friend gave me is the best.

Another reason for battery operated lighting: Bleeck jumped up to check out the candle and singed his whiskers. This is not the best shot, but if you look, the whiskers over his right eye are shortened. Since this picture was taken they’ve fallen out. They will grow back, right??

“I believe now more than ever that singing is a universal, built-in mechanism designed to cultivate empathy and compassion.” -Eric Whitacre, November 20th tweet. I believe that too, Eric Whitacre. My first thought when I saw that was, “Damnit. Why didn’t I say that first?? Now Eric Whitacre is going to get all the credit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit.”

This is Bleeck’s ‘should I bite you now or continue to rest in this window’ look.

I was telling people last night that he was 25, but he’s really 31. (Where did I get the idea that he was 25??) His first full-scale opera, Two Boys, which premiered in London in this spring, will be performed at the Metropolitan Opera next year. I can’t imagine having that kind of success so young. First, I can’t imagine writing an opera. Writing music is a mystery to me. I’ve tried it and honestly, I couldn’t summon anything, I have no clue where music comes from. Words, they’re in me. Original music, not a single freaking note. (Thank you very much, Universe.) Then, I can’t really imagine sitting in one of the front rows, or offstage, to see something that was inside me emerge in such splendid display in that venue? Yeah, I’d explode.

We’re doing a piece called Senex Puerum Portabat, and I’m singing what’s called the drone part. It’s surprisingly difficult and I’m not sure why, because on paper it looks like the least challenging part. But I can see why he’s a star. The piece is so completely original, although he talks about his influences here, and yes, we all have them, but if you focus on that, how can you listen, read, taste, look at anything? I hear and feel a new musical mind, and if I was going to get distracted at all it would have been by that, because this piece is really really smart. But I don’t.

There’s one part where we sing at whatever tempo/rhythm we like, as long as it’s different from the people around us.  It should sound like a mess, but it does this pulsating, expanding and contracting … thing.  It’s like a singing choir traveling through a bunch of different universes, and the sound warps and changes depending on the physics of the universe they are in at the time. It’s an incredible result for such a simple thing.  But why he does this is even better.  He wants us to represent a crowd of different ages, sizes, genders, backgrounds, all proclaiming Gloria in excelsis Deo (Glory to God in the highest) each in our own unique way. Pretty cool, huh? So even though there’s obviously a constantly thinking mind in the piece, (to have even conceived to try such a thing) in the moment it effectively moves from spookiness, mystery, tenderness, love, to exaltation.

Here are a couple of pictures of Nico Muhly with our choir director John Maclay.