Thursday, September 23, 2004

Not THAT Advanced in Age . . .

A senior citizen?

I felt the need to blog my response to that one . . as i look at my computer clock right now, i note that it is 11:43 p.m.

And I'm still awake. I've been reading news stories like this one, like this one, and even like this one.

There is some choir news, if any of you are reading this before our performance tomorrow. The administrative superpowers have allowed us one other song besides the Alma Mater tomorrow, so we are doing "See What the End Is Going to Be." Now . . . that could be the new title for the Karai "Alleluia," (after our first performance of the piece) but i'm talking about the spiritual by
Ron Staheli.

As long as i'm responding to previous comments, i'd like to thank Keith Kendrick about the "to whom much is given" compliment. I've found a couple of interesting websites on the phrase, this one discussing the bible version and this one from the speech by J.F. Kennedy.

Wow . . . now it is after midnight and my radio show is about to come on. It seems that tonight they are talking about some guy named Jonathan Goldman (his website: healingsounds), an authority on sound healing, will explain how certain sounds influence physical, mental and spiritual dimensions.

I don't really get into the healing mumbo jumbo aspect of the show. I like the quasi-science things like this and UFO things. Listen to the radio show sometime . . . occasionally crazy and occasionally thought-provoking. Have i identified myself as a nut yet?


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

dr copeland, let's be honest. you identified yourself as a nut a loooong time ago. the "pride" you showed yesterday as we sang the Alma Mater was only the most recent example. believe me, the cosmo kramer-ish rambling exhibited on the last blog should be the least of your worries.
just kidding (kinda). you do good work.
francesca

Unknown said...

Thank God you know.

I was getting tired of hiding it.

Anonymous said...

Just a few thoughts here (both moral and diverting):

Take one somewhat older choir member, a black tuxedo jacket, the Alabama sun, a kitchen cellar with an ambient temperature of 80 degrees plus, a flight of stairs, and an ironically non-diverse group of alumni...

Breathe! We all just gotta breathe!

That aside, kudos to us! What other college choir could hear and sing their Alma Mater for the first time only a few days ago and pull it off as fabulously as we did? I’ll not abide any critic’s voice here!

I felt very proud when they all rose to their feet for UAB and I thought to myself, “comrades!”
There was something there. Something new and worth while that replaces question of whether or not it was good enough or whether or not the baritones were still breathing by the time they made it out on stage.

Despite being out of breath and having a wilted collar, actually having been there seems most important. Maybe it was just an epiphany for me alone. I dunno. For someone who never though he’d go to college much less be about to earn a degree, being a part of such a great, poised and graceful choir inflates in value every time we perform together and I am heartily grateful for the opportunity to be included in such.

Today I learned how great it was to stand with my classmates singing my school’s Alma Mater and I heard my mind write down, “This is important. You will always remember this.”

I will stop waxing poetic here. I thought our performance today was wonderful!

P.S. I am going to change the familiar phrase to, “Trial by choir!”

Jessie said...

Hey Copie,
I'm not about to read all those articles you posted, and all that other stuff. Needless to say, I'm alot younger than you, haha. Anyway, I thought today was pretty cool. I was touched when that little old woman sitting up front stood up, and then everyone stood up after she did. She was even singing (with the words posted on her hand-out). However, it kinda felt like it was over too quickly and we didn't get recognized for our fabulous singing. (considering the GREAT acoustics we had - NOT!) But it was cool to get to sing for the Alumni Association.

Katie Mo said...

Boring speeches that we had to listen to while sitting in what has to be the dirtiest place in all of that posh place -


this is why i'm in choir!!!!!!!!!!!!!! whee. we're a mushy group, we are.
...unless we're supposed to be quiet, and then it's a lot of fun to yell at the boys when their game of rock paper scissors gets too rambunctious - "Y'all are idiots! Shut UP!"

...and yes, Charles, I'm here, again!!! and i should be writing a paper. oops.

Unknown said...

To Anonymous @ 2:43 . . .

thanks for your wonderful words. I'm guessing that is Keith Kendrick but i'm not sure. I still don't know who was talking about the milk in an earlier post.

Ah, wasted time: my plan is that our performance will benefit the choral program in the present or future. My gut instinct said to do it, so perhaps we will see if it was the right call or not in the future.

To be honest, I had my reservations. I'm a guy who doesn't like to lose ANY rehearsal time--it is just too valuable for what we are trying to be. I knew that the performance today would cost us time that we could have spent doing something else but i chose to do it anyway.

Everything is a trade-off, isn't it?

Believe me, I "counted the cost" of having the baritones in the 80 degree stairwell--it wasn't my ideal plan to be sure.

President Carol Garrison and Vice-President Shirley Khan had very nice things to say about the choir's performance. I was proud of you for doing it. My thanks to my great choir . . . you are a fantastic bunch of people to teach.

Katie Mo said...

aw, Dr Copeland! We love you! haha

so when are we gonna do a birthday list so that no one is forgotten?

Jessie said...

Katie Mo I was just thinking about that the other day. We should so do a birthday list, because I love giving cards to people. I work at Hallmark! Anyway, yeah Copie, we need to make everyone write their birthdays down.

Katie Mo said...

okay well this is TOTALLY unrelated but my friend just sent me the best link ever and i thought it was hilarious and that i should share so plug your ears because the singing sucks but the song is GREAT!
http://www.ryantown.com/gayboyfriend/#
(sorry, i can't link stuff. copy/paste, you bum!)

Anonymous said...

katie,
do you know what's even wierder than that song? the fact that i heard it already...LAST YEAR! if it's what i'm thinking of, and i think it is because the singing did suck and it was called gay boyfriend, they showed it at the film festival last year. so how about them apples!
francesca

Anonymous said...

Dr. C,

You are the most random person on the face of this earth. But in a good way! I actually went to the "Interdimensional Hurricane Conspiracy" and it was a good read. There are some freaks out there. Or... are THEY the normal ones and WE are the freaks? Food for thought.
Hmmmm... food... C Ya!

Clayton