Busy, Busy Week-end

I just had a rather crowded, but enjoyable week-end. ON Friday I went up to Cleveland with friends. The dsy started with the Cleveland Orchestra concert, featuring Schubert’s “Great” Symphony, and it really was great. I didn’t buy a season ticket this year, figuring I would pick and chose those concerts I really wanted to attend. My old seat is taken, but that didn’t matter. After the concert, we went over to the Botanical Garden for lunch and a brief stroll through the orchid exhibit, which is quite spectacular.


Then it was over to the art museum which is having a Rembrandt show. Lots of portraits. I had planned to go up with the family later so I just wandered through and let my friends spend time examining paintings while Ii just wandered. Last year I spent a lot of time up there when I took that “Drawing in the Galleries” class, which I did love. I miss it, but since I can’t drive, I can’t take it again. The museum is still being remodeled, rebuilt and rearranged. There are places I loved which no l longer exist. The print galleries and now in a bland set of rooms. They used to be in a really quiet, long passageway with little byways. It was like a private gallery. Their print and drawing collections are fantastic, so they could be changed and displayed different treasure forever. I first discovered those galleries when I was a student and they were always my favorite place to go. One of the worst things they have done is to roof over what had been a lovely outdoor plaza, with trees and sculptures which was right by the cafeteria, so you could go outside and eat your lunch and watch the birds and the sky and relax. It will now be a glass enclosed space, all hard edged and unfriendly. Don’t know why they do these things.

After Rembrandt, we went to Berea, the home of Baldwin –Wallace College, where my husband used to teach, to attend a choral concert. My friends’ grandson, who is a student at the conservatory there, was conducting the women’s chorus. He did a fine job and the concert was splendid. I had not been in that auditorium for over fifty years. While we were living there, I had been in the Bach chorus and had spent a lot of time in that auditorium. The campus has changed a lot. Where our house was (it belonged to the college) is now performing arts center. Many of the houses I knew are gone, replaced by college buildings.

Saturday I had thought to go to the Live HD opera, “Ernani,” but I was too tired after that long day and stayed home and listened to it on the radio. The singing was pretty awful so I didn’t muss anything, I guess.

Yesterday, Sunday, I went to see the university’s production of “Ragtime.” It was stunning, one of the best things I’ve seen them ever do. The actor who played Coalhouse Walker is a professional Equity actor, but he wasn’t the only good thing about it. Great dancing, singing, sets, orchestra, everything. It was a real treat.

Last night I watched the Oscars and was crushed that Martin Scorsese didn’t win for best director. I did love “The Artist,” but I think of it a more gimmicky that great movie making. I had also hoped that Michele Williams would have won for best actress. I do like Meryl Streep, but I didn’t see her Margaret Thatcher turn. Glad that “Midnight in Paris” got a writing award for Woody Allen. Loved that flick!

So it was busy week-end.


On A Different Note Entirely.

There was a horrible tragedy in a small town about 30 miles north of here today. A high school shooting, which resulted in the the death of at least one student and the wounding of four others. Happened to turn on the TV around 11 o’clock and found that the usual TV news crews were doing what they do, while knowing absolutely NOTHING: Speculating, passing on rumors, talking, talking, talking, repeating scraps of information gleaned form other news reporters. I wonder why they do this? They know NOTHING, but they keep talking, talking and talking. They managed to interview one poor kid and then kept repeating what he had said as if it was new information over and over again. It would be so refreshing if one of them had just said, “We don’t have any information at the moment, but when we do, we will let you know.”