Rhone Street Garden

Thursday, March 22, 2007

IMG_7295 copy

IMG_7295 copy
Originally uploaded by sweber4507.

Another sunrise shot...this one from from 33rd street headed towards Marine Drive. It's just a five minute drive from my house, and I just discovered it by accident the other weekend when we missed the normal route we usually take to Salty's restaurant, and ended up on 33rd instead. Amazingly it cuts across marshy open land just west of the airport and ends up right on Marine Drive around 1/2 mile from the restaurant! That wasn't the really great part, the best thing about it is that since it cuts through fairly open fields, it gives you a great view of Mt. Hood. I forgot about it until this morning, when it looked like it might be a promising sunrise, so I hopped in the car and sped out to the spot I remembered and was rewarded with a great sunrise!

Friday, March 16, 2007

CD REVIEW!

A Cotswold Romance

Well, as my first-ever music review I could hardly start with a cd that surprised me as much as this one. Let me just admit I’ve become enamoured with Ralph Vaughan Williams over the past few years. My first RVW recording was of his Fantasia on Greensleeves which was the sole RVW track on a Telarc cd I originally bought mainly for Pachelbel’s Canon. I thought it was pleasant (Greensleeves being one of my all-time favorite melodies I could hardly not like it), but wrote RVW off as a really good arranger and nothing more. Over the next (gulp) ten or so years I heard a few more pieces, most notable his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and The Lark Ascending. Although I really like all of them (especially the Tallis Fantasia) I never really looked any further. Then, after moving to Portland, I found the London Symphony (Symphony No. 2) and for some reason it all clicked. Afterwards I started seeking out as much of his music as I could find. I’ll admit, I bought the Cotswold cd mainly out of a sense of completionism…wanting to have as much of RVW’s music as I could. Also, I have yet to find a piece of his music I don’t at least enjoy a little. Boy was I surprised to discover this has to be one of my favorite RVW scores of all time! It’s hearty, melodic, bucolic, rousing, melancholy and romantic. I can honestly say it’s right up there (for me) with Sir John In Love.

Fave Tracks/Moments:

Hugh’s Song of the Road…upbeat and lushly beautiful at the same time. The chorus and soloist has great interplay in this track, passing the melody between them, a very dynamic track.

Love at First Sight…lush and romantic. Sweeping orchestration and background chorus back up soaring solos by tenor and soprano.

Alone and Friendless…beautiful and melancholy

Freedom at Last…soaring and amazing…a really great culmination to the opera, full of drama and beautiful melodies. Reinterates the main themes and merges them all together…truly beautiful. I especially love how the music fades out in the end, rather than a loud flourish.

The disc ends with the suite “Death of Tintangiles” which is nice, melancholy RVW music, great atmospheric pieces.

Ha! They have just put the giant inflatable crab "Jake" up on top of Jake's Famous Crawfish here in downtown Portland. Apparently it was put up for St. Patrick's day and will stay up until the Rose Festival is over. I know it's cheesy, but i get a little joy from seeing it up there. As a poster mentioned on my Flickr site, it seems inevitable that it will someday fight the inflated octopus over Greek Cusina. Shades of Godzilla Vs. Mothra!

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

AHHHHH...Spring has arrived in Portland! I took a walk this weekend around my neighborhood in NE and just enjoyed the insanely warm weather and all the flowers and shrubs that are starting to bloom. There are plenty of daffodils, crocus and forsythia in bloom right now, with the cherry trees just starting and magnolias and tulips waiting in the wings for their entrance. A quick trip to the Porltand Nursery (http://www.portlandnursery.com/) was inevitable...and there were quite a few people wandering about with "garden lust" in their eyes. Luckily for my bank account, I resisted the urge to buy three of everything (can I ever have enough Erysimum?).

Hmmmmm...First post in forever.

Well Daylight Savings Time started three weeks earlier this year, much to the detriment of my sleeping patterns. The only upside so far is that it's actually light out when I get out of work now! Last night there was some amazing clouds above Portland. Feels like spring. All that means is that now I can take pictures later in the day. Take that!