Get to Know Me

My blog is about some of my travels and my collecting. I am also a lyric tenor. I love to sing,which now I do most of in church. I feel most at home there and it is my spiritual center, even though I have sung in many chorus' and some with famous people in concert. I have had my 15 minutes of fame singing in a concert having a solo that was taped on video and played on Minnesota tv.

I am a collector of hard to find opera and of course a 60's child, so I collect classic rock. I am very much into Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Bellini and Rossini as well as some of their lesser known contemporaries. Through having worked in the IU Music Library for 6 1/2 years as well as making certain friendships I have been able to find certain recordings that were the last recorded version of an opera. Yes, I went as far as ordering over the internet to get a vinyl recording from Paris, France. Not everything was put on CD! Some cd recordings also go out of print.

I find I like the mostly comic side of Mozart as an all around composer for opera and instrumental works. I like the contrast of Donizetti for his flare for the dramatic as well as comic opera. Between these two the soprano has the vocal fireworks and I guess I also love Donizetti because of how he wrote for the tenor voice. Rossini is superb in being comical on the farce side even though he does have some dramatic tragic operas.

I love the 60's and 70's. Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Aretha Franklin, the Supremes, The Four Tops, The Temptations, The Beatles, The Doors,Barbra Streisand, Judy Collins, The Mamas and the Papas and of course the disco age are what make up a huge part of my collection. PBS had a 60's special that was pretty good for such a short time on tv.

Some of the music of the 60's and 70's like the Mamas and Papas, Judy Collins and the Beatles had a classical background. The orchestrations and voice mixings were great. Just take the Mamas and Papas "Once Was A Time I Thought", a short piece from one of their albums and the phrasing and vocal styling is just so tight, the alliteration, tempo and voice mixing.

I also like to collect antique Christmas ornaments and a few items of glassware and dishware. It is fun to find in places like Illinois and Michigan those little out of the way antique places. You have to scrounge a little, but the bargain is worth the hunt. Of course the peaches, blueberries and cherries are also worth the trip to Michigan. I love to bake. Michigan offers a sense of serenty of you are in the right place.

I am also a cheeshead by birth and I head back to my roots every now and then just to do things. Go to a dairy and get real cheese and butter at a decent price and go on a Friday for a great, fantastic all you can eat fish fry. I tend to hit Fitzgeralds in Middleton, WI. There are all those small towns that have folklore and fairytales. The Trollway. House on the Rock and Frank Lloyd Wright. Monroe, WI Home of the cheeseburger.

These are just a few of things that will be on my blog. I am just starting on this journey.