There’s one sure-fire way to get Episcopalians to pipe down and listen up. I’ve seen it work at potlucks and now at an organ concert Friday night. The concert was by Dr. Philip Kloeckner, who teaches keyboard at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and directs the choir at my church, which is why the Shepherd School organ hall filled up with Episcopalians happily and loudly nattering. When it came time to begin, the emcee said, ‘THE LORD BE WITH YOU!” The audience instantly chorused “AND ALSO WITH YOU!” and awaited the emcee’s next words in perfect silence!

And what a concert it was.  The Shepherd School organ is a magnificent instrument with 5,000 pipes. It can sound like any of several eras of historical organ.  Philip gave us at least three distinctly different organ sounds in music by various composers.  His last piece was an improvisation on two Christmas carols given to him on the spot.  After thinking about it for all of half a minute,  he wove “Joy to the World” and “Angels We Have Heard on High” into an incredible fabric that seemed to involve pulling out every stop on the organ and sounding every pipe from the tiniest tinkling one to the massive pipe that sends a vibration through your chest if you’re in the audience.

Per today’s New York Times, you can rent live potted Christmas trees in Southern California. It isn’t cheap, but it gets you a quite nice tree that does not proceed to die in your living room. And: “Families can even order the same tree year after year to see how it has grown. ”  Somehow this seems as touching as it is silly.

And so is this:  my craftsy colleague Sarah not long ago informed me that earlier this year a call went out to the knitting community for wool sweaters for lots of little penguins rescued after a bad oil spill Down Under. There was a knitting pattern online.  Knitters the world over responded with a flood of tiny sweaters.  With some of these the knitters got really creative – bright colors, colored borders, even tuxedo patterned knit jobs.   The results, as reported in Fashionista (!) online, were adorable. And it worked.  The wool sweaters kept the birds warm until their oil-soaked, cleaned-up feathers regained their natural oils, by which time the sweaters shredded off.

Speaking of adorable, one of the Circulation student assistants here at Fondren Library, unbeknownst to us,  created a YouTube video of herself and several confederates studying in the Library in Finals to a soundtrack adapted from a pop song and with full-bore choreography.  That video has been a big hit around here.

Meanwhile everything else that’s going on in the world is going on.

Penguins strike us as lovably odd species, but it’s Homo Sapiens that’s genuinely peculiar – in ways that are good and bad and indifferent and profound and never more so than at this season.

Bev Hale made this cool piece of Steampunk jewelry.   It is much admired when I wear it to work at the Rice University Library.  I work with a lot of people who have an eye for unique jewelry – and the Rice mascot is an owl!

Oh, this was interesting!  Below is the description of the event at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.  What the description leaves out (because it could not have been promised, and was almost ineffable) was the sense of  holiness that came across in the mingled voices of the singer and organ.  The organ hall – extremely acoustically live and reverberant – came alive with Hindu prayer.  I’ve never heard anything like it.    

At the beginning, the organ played by Dr. Phillip Kloeckner sounded notes that definitely weren’t Western, rhythmic music.  Mr.  Surender Talwar entered the hall and sang as he slowly walked to the front.   Immediately, the shape of the organ’s biggest pipes became conspicuous.  These are flue pipes.  They have mouths.  They sing.  It never registered on me that way before! 

The final raga-organ improvisation (by which time the place was saturated with the musical stuff of this marvelous experiment) included Mr. Talwar singing  one of the few Sanskrit words recognized by many non-Sanskrit speakers.  Namaste.  Reverent greeting – how apt as a final graceful note on this occasion. 

Improvaraga!

A twenty-first century exploration of the synergies between two ancient traditions, one Eastern, one Western. Hindustani ragas (melodic modes) have been the vehicles for improvised mantras (sanskrit prayers) for centuries, and for almost a thousand years, organists have provided spontaneous music for liturgical and non-liturgical occasions.  Enjoy and appreciate an hour of improvisations that blend, juxtapose, and contrast these diverse traditions into fresh and provocative music for our time with the magnificent Edythe Bates Old Grand Organ.

In Terminal E of the Atlanta airport , there’s a conspicuous mosaic that says, “Let each man pass his days in that endeavor wherein his gift is greatest – Propertius.”  Per Wikipedia, Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet.  To read the words easily you have to be at least half a gate area away.   Close up, it’s hard to make out the words, but you notice what the mural is made of:  business cards. All kinds of real cards of all kinds of business.  Those that are white or pale in color form the background, and the less numerous brightly colored business cards constitute the poet’s advice.

The Atlanta airport is big on art – which is a wonderful boon to travelers with time on their hands.  The Propertius mosaic and other concourse works of art are shown here.

Seen in the parking lot of St. Stephen’s Episcopal church yesterday:  St. Stephen’s School’s own Art Car in all its shining glory!

This Art Car’s theme is – obviously – recycling.

Note the row of metallic daisies on the lower edge of the car’s body – the sea turtle riding on the driver’s side – the passenger rear view mirror tiled with bottle caps.  Way to go St. Stephen’s Episcopal School!

Whimsical folk art often turns up in the workplace – in this case, the Circulation/Reserve Department at the Rice University Library.  This item is on top of one of our space dividers.  It’s only about 6 inches long but conspicuous w-a-y out of proportion to its dimensions.