Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Chichester Psalms

I first heard Chichester Psalms at a SUNY Potsdam concert where they also performed something by Norman Dello Joio . I turned to my friend Micky and said "Why isn't this guy famous?" and she said "He IS." I got to sing it years later and I'm listening to it right now. 
http://www.milkenarchive.org/works/view/683#/videos/view/145
www.milkenarchive.orgWest Side Story meets the Book of Psalms in Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms for chorus and orchestra. Sample tracks, video, and historical notes. 

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

The art of being retired.

Here am I at last. I now can do whatever I want, be whoever I choose to be. I retired on April 1.  I immediately set out to get sick in any way I could - diverticulosis, stroke number five, and my back as bad as it's been in years.  So whatever I wanted was sleep, sleep, sleep.  I slept and watched a lot of movies and binge watched a lot of TV - cable shows mostly that I was able to find online after some searching.

But gradually I started to wake up and now I'm working on acquiring the habits I want to have in my retirement.  One is exercise - which I do at Aquacare, a physical therapy heated pool.  It is closed whenever there is lightening which is unfortunate with the weather we've had recently (thank you, CO2). Along with that is writing. I'm using some writing exercise books that I bought a few years ago and am only just now putting to use. After getting those two in my consciouness, I've added a daily period of decluttering (just started, not yet a habit). Exercise had to be a prerequisite because physical pain made writing and decluttering quite difficult.

PS This afternoon I was reading http://www.brainpickings.org ... a great resource on writing ... and it seems that many writers put exercise (including swimming) into their daily routines. Good to know!