A Month Is Ending, and So Is My First Graduate Semester

It amazes me at how fast the year has really flown by!  We just celebrated Thanksgiving a week ago (and just finished up the leftovers of our turkey yesterday!) and it never fails - it seems like every year at around this time I catch a bug, which I am starting to recover from!  Although the year got off to a bumpy start, the good news is that it is ending much better than it started.

As you may have figured out by reading my earlier material, I started my Masters degree program in August, and at this juncture (November 29th) I am about to wrap up my first semester - one down, five to go!  It has taken some getting used to, as much has changed at the campus since I got my Bachelors there back in 1996, but I am finding my "groove" finally and the research projects are actually motivating me to do some much-needed study on things I have been wanting to do but never had the incentive.   I would surmise that as of the end of this semester, I have written probably a couple of hundred pages easily in research projects, critical reviews, and a couple of in-class presentations I was assigned, and as I write this I am finishing up my last two projects before the semester wraps up and I get a few weeks of much-needed rest to enjoy the holidays.   Next term should be much smoother now that I have my routine established.

One other aspect of this past few months has been the acquisition of a CD recorder, and I have been able to finally get a lot of my LP's onto CD, some of which have no prospect of reissue professionally.  I have been wanting to get one of those for years, and finally have been able to do so.  Of course, I have a lot of LP's to transfer yet, so it is a project that will take a while, but the good thing is that I have some good stuff on CD now that I have better access to listen to and enjoy more.  That project actually entails two aspects - one is vintage big band records, and the other is some of my old Gospel and Armenian/Assyrian music that is both on vinyl and cassette.   Like many things that stimulate good memories, this stuff does - hearing some old material on cassette I haven't listened to in years was particularly refreshing, whether it be the Chilingirian String Quartet's recording of Aslamazian's Armenian Suite, or Diane Bish's masterful rendition on the great Rufatti organ at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church of Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee, or other LP's of vintage material - soprano Sylvia Kutchukian's beautiful rendition of Armenian sacred music, Baptist evangelist Ed Reese's recordings of Gospel standards on an instrument called the Cordovox (an electronic accordion that also can play organ tones), or the earliest vintage LP's of such Christian music luminaries as Dino Kartsonakis (from 1963) and Phil Driscoll (from 1972).   As for my vintage big band collection, it is also good to get some material like Ernie Hecksher and Jose Melis, two bandleaders who have no CD reissues available, on disc.   However, I have to do these in small doses due to the fact school now has me pretty busy.  However, I anticipate doing about 30 more LP's in the coming few months.

Concerning the holidays, Christmas decorations are now up too, and the cats as usual think the Christmas tree is a big chew toy.  Let me ask you all something, and feel free to email me with the answer to this if you have it - why is it that cats like chewing on Christmas trees anyway??   For one thing, our tree is artificial, so it cannot taste all that nice.   And, then after chawing on the tree, these dang cats get sick and yack up bits of green stuff all over the floor, which is a mess to clean up.   What complicates that fact is that we have four of them, and all but one likes munching on the greenery!   However, despite the fact I would like to strangle them on occasion, I love our four furry children - even as a kid I have always been a cat person.  They are adorable, fun to watch, and at this point in my life I can't imagine what it would be like not having a cat in the house.   And, no offense to dog people, but I have much more patience with cats than I do dogs - my mother's shi-tzu, honestly, has got to be one of the most mentally-unbalanced of God's creatures; he seems to always be hungry and "horny" all the time (pardon the crassness of the latter term, but for alliterative purposes and also the fact there is not a better word that fits this creature, I had to use it!) - and, for some reason he has an unnatural affection for cats, as he is always trying to molest ours.  Of course, that never ends well, as he generally ends up getting the tar knocked out of him by our large male Snowshoe Siamese at least once during the course of a visit.  But, like people who vote for Obama (my apologies to any friends who did - nothing personal!) he didn't learn the first time!  If they had a Dr. Phil for pets, just saying, that person would get rich from just treating Mom's dog!

Meet "the Beast" - Mom's shi-tzu Cobby, eater of all and rider of cats!

Got a new show you all should watch too that I have gotten interested in over the past few months since we switched to satellite.  If any of you get RFD-TV, there is a show on at 11 PM on Saturdays called "Larry's Country Diner," and it is a must-see for anyone who likes a good, clean variety show with a down-home feel.   The show is actually set up as a diner that serves food, with the MC, Larry Black, overseeing the festivities of the program.  The highlight of the show is Nadine Nadine (no kidding - that is her name!), an elderly but sharp-tongued church lady who arrives to the tune of ragtime music with a print dress and matching hat carrying a big Bible that Charles Atlas would have a challenge lifting!  Although vintage country music is not my thing, this show is a haven for those who do appreciate it, as he often features as guests vintage country musicians such as Jim Ed Brown and others.  Of course, my favorite guests of his are Riders in The Sky - one of the best groups ever!  So, if you have nothing better to do on Saturday nights (Larry is on after the Molly B Polka Party which I also never miss), take a virtual visit to Larry's, where, as the tag line says, "the cameras are rolling and WE DON'T CARE!" 

 

The one and only Nadine!

 

 

Speaking of polkas, I have been watching Molly B's show on RFD religiously, as both myself and Oreo our cat love it.  What I found to be really good about that lately is that she is featuring more bands that play this style of polka called "Dutch Hop," and it is good stuff!   This is a style of polka you will hear a lot out in Colorado and adjacent areas, and is a product of the various groups of Volga Germans (Germans originally from Russia) that settled there over a century ago.   The distinction of this style is that it utilizes (thanks to the Russian influence) an instrument called a hammered dulcimer, which really gives the music a pretty sound.  This instrument has popped up in other musical genres before (notably in klezmer, where it is called a streifidl (Yiddish for "straw fiddle") but I never had the appreciation for it that I developed listening to these "Dutch Hop" bands.   Some of the better-known groups are the Polka Nuts (they are phenomenal!), John Fritzler, and the Dutch Hop Music Makers.   Google them if you wish to find out more information about them, or for a historical book and recordings on the genre, go to the Center For Volga German Studies website at http://cvgs.cu-portland.edu/.   I promise, once you hear "Dutch Hop" it will be a good experience to your ears!

 

A hammered dulcimer, the trademark instrument of "Dutch Hop" polka bands.

 

 

That is all I have to share for today, but hopefully will be visiting with you again soon before 2012 winds down (provided the Mayans were not correct - just joking!). And, if I miss some of you, may you have a blessed holiday season, and remember Who we are celebrating it for and why.