jwg

Dancing

19 evenings of English Country Dancing in JP
5 evenings of English Country Dancing in Harvard Square
3 evenings of Contra Dancing at the Scout House in Concord
23 evenings or afternoons of Contra Dancing at BIDA in Cambridge
4 evenings of Contra Dancing in JP
1 evening of Contra Dancing at New York City Village Contra
3 day weekend at the Dance Flurry in Saratoga Springs, NY
3 day weekend Beantown Stomp in Cambridge
3 day weekend Dance Camp at Monte Toyon in Aptos, CA
3 day weekend at NEFFA
3 day weekend LCFD Dance Camp at Pinewoods in Plymouth, MA
3 day weekend LCFD Dance Camp at Camp Woodstock, CT
7 day Tropical Dance Vacation dance weekend in St Croix
7 days of dancing in Paxos, Greece

that is dancing on 87 days

Sleeping

Our unit in Brooksby Village Peabody, MA
Our house in Gloucester
St Croix for Tropical Dance Vacation
La Quinta hotel near San FranbciscoPark 55 Hotel in San Francisco
Monte Toyon in Aptos
Chelsea Pines Hotel in NYC
Pinewoods Camp in Plymouth, NA
YMCA Woodstock in Woodstock, CT
Independance Park  Hotel in Philadelphia
Cavalieri Hotel in Corfu, Greece
Suite in Paxos, Greece

We have classical music radio (via internet) on in the background all the time.  

On Christmas day to avoid the too much Christmas music we play some of our own CDs and Records.

Didn't do it all day this year since the station we now listen to - WFMT from Chicago - has much more interesting stuff.

But this is what we chose this year

Bob Dylan:   Nashville Skyline
Trio Live Oak:  Star Shining on the Mountain
Choir of Kings College:  Britten: Ceremony of Carols +..
Guarneri Quartet:   Schubert "Death and the Maiden" +..
Quadrivium:    Long Time Ago
Beetles:  Rubber Soul
Cecilia Society:  A Boy was Born

I was in Quadrivium (early music) many years ago (I played the harp in that icon in concerts).   
Trio Live Oak was a threesone who we're in the Quadrivium
Cecilia is the group Robert was in.

I just finished reading a very interesting book: Lost City of the Incas by Hiram Bingham. It was written in 1948 and is about his expedition in 1911 to Peru (and several more over the next few years) where his discovered lots of things about the Incas including the city Machu Picchu. He was a professor of South American History at Yale. He was accompanied by several colleagues and worked with a bunch of local people traversing many ruins. The Incas had o writing so there is jo written record of anything.

I've been to Machu Picchu twice. What an incredible place! The Incas were incredible architects and builders. The buildings are made of huge carved stones that fit together very tightly and used no cement.

Interestingly in 1954 I was visiting a friend in northwestern Connecticut and spent a few days as a caddy at a local golf course and my client was Hiram Bingham! I knew nothing about him at the time but later learned that he had been Connecticut Lt Governor and then Senator a few years after his explorations.

Lots of info and pictures about my trips.  https://jwg.livejournal.com/tag/machupicchu/

Dancing

16 evenings of English Country Dancing in JP
7 evenings of English Country Dancing in Harvard Square
3 evenings of Contra Dancing at the Scout House in Concord
14 evenings Contra Dancing at BIDA in Cambridge
4 evenings of Contra Dancing in JP
1 evening of Contra Dancing at Brooklyn Contra
3 day weekend at the Dance Flurry in Saratoga Springs, NY
3 day weekend Beantown Stomp in Cambridge
3 day weekend Dance Camp at Monte Toyon in Aptos, CA
3 day weekend at NEFFA
3 day weekend LCFD Dance Camp at Pinewoods in Plymouth, MA
3 day weekend LCFD Dance Camp at Ashoken in Olivebridge, NY

        that is dancing on 63 days

Sleeping

Our unit in Brooksby Village Peabody, MA
Our house in Gloucester
San Juan Airport hotel and Guana Island in the British Virgin Islands
Park 55 Hotel in San Francisco
Monte Toyon in Aptos
New Yorker Hotel in NYC
Pinewoods Camp
Hotel in Lisbon and Viking Hemming (ship) on the Douro River in Portugal
Ashokan Camp in Olivebridge, NY
Hotels in Marseilles, Avignon, and Nice on Road Scholar trip in France

On Christmas day instead of listening to classical music radio we play some of our own CDs and LPs.

CDs

Bach - Brandenburg Concertos 4, 5, and 6
Schubert — String Quartettes
Tallis — The Lamentations of Jeremiah
Britten —  A Ceremony of Carols and other pieces
Bare Necessities — Nightcap  (English Country Dance music)
Beethoven — string quartet: Rasumovsky
Voice of the Turtle: Full Circle  (music of the Spanish Jews of Jerusalem)
KGB: Contra-intelligence  (contra dance music)
Stravinsky — The Rite of Spring (orchestral and pianola version)

LPs

Mozart — Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra
Christmas in Anglia  (early English music)
Nonesuch and other Folk Tunes
Miles Davis: Four & More
The Quadrivium: Long Time Ago (medieval, renaissance, and early American)

I was member of Quadrivium as were all the musicians in Voice of the Turtle)

I have danced with Bare Necessities and KGB as the band

We need to be thankful for those who served - particularly in the two World Wars. The world would be quite different if it wasn't for our victories.

On Veterans Day I am always glad that I am not a veteran. I was able to get draft deferments while being an MIT and Columbia student and then when I got a job as a computer programmer in what was deemed as a "critical industry". The Vietnam war was raging at the time.

The closest I got to being a veteran was in Army ROTC in my freshman year at MIT (It was required for freshmen and sophomores at MIT because it was a "Land Grant school"). I got excused in my sophomore year because of eyesight. I'd heard that you could get excused if you had flat feet - so I went to the MIT infirmary at the beginning of my sophomore year and they said I don't have flat feet, but my eyesight would qualify.

In my ROTC uniform. In ROTC we learned a lot of military history and various practical things like how to polish brass buttons and how to march. I did get to fire an M1 rifle at the MIT rifle range.

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The other night we watched a documentary about Freedom Summer or Mississippi Burning - the horrible events in 1964 in Mississippi dealing with rights and voter registration of black people. As part of that Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney - activists - were murdered.

Horrendous story and a slight personal connection for me. In 1958 I was a counsellor at Camp Tacoma Pines in Maine (no longer exists) and one of the campers in my cabin was Andy Goodman.

I am 3rd from the left in the bottom row and Andy was 4th from the left.

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The picture above has the Rev. Ira Blalock on the left, Martin Luther King in the center, and the Rev. Gordon Gibson on the right. It was taken in the spring of 1965 after Blalock and Gibson had been released from the Selma jail for protesting.  

Just before this I was going to a UU church in Wellesley where Ira Blalock was the Minister. One of my roommates had been a member of the Appalachian Mountain Trail Crew, and another AMTC member was the organist at this church. A bunch of us went regularly, enjoyed the service run by Ira where he always talked about current events and situations, and then usually had a meal at our house afterwards. (This is my only experience of going to a religious institution on a regular basis). A year later I was marrying Meg Hickey, who I'd met as part of this weekly event, and we needed a minister. Ira had moved away and he recommended Gordon Gibson and it was he who married us.

Evening Dances:
  10 times at JP Contra
  18 times at JP English
  19 times at BIDA
  3 times at Harvard Square English

  3 day weekend at Dance Flurry in Saratoga Springs
 3 day weekend at Queer dance Camp in Aptos, CA
 3 day weekend at NEFFA in Marlboro
 3 day weekend at LCFD dance camp at Pinewoods

That was 62 days — lower than the past — mostly because the JP contra is sporadic — used to be twice a month

Sleeping:

Our unit at Brooksby Village in Peabody, MA
Our house in Gloucester
Saratoga Springs for Dance Flurry
San Juan Airport hotel;
Guana Island in the British Virgin Islands
San Francisco
Aptos for Queer Dance Camp
Pinewoods at Plymouth, MA for LCFD dance camp
Seattle and Astoria, OR for motss con.

Our usual tradition is to play records and CDs instead of listening to classical music on WCRB or WQXR because they play too much Christmas music.  Here is what we played (a broad spectrum of types):

Menotti: the Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore - Boston Cecilia  (Robert was in the group)
Dufay: Moments from the Masses: Motets, Chansons
Christmas in the New World - The Western Wind
Bob Dylan - 1961
Nonesuch and other tunes - Pete Seeger
Beethoven Piano Concert and Sonata 27
Sweet Mischief - Impropriety Vol V (English Country Dance)
In the Window - Ethan Hazzard-Watkins (Contra Dance)
Mozart - Piano Concerts 20 & 23 - Collegium Musicum
Beatles - Rubber Soul
Bartok - The Miraculous Mandarine
The Sword of the Dove -  Voice of the Turtle (friends - Quadrivium Colleagues -no longer exists)
Speaking in Toungues - Talking Heads
The Lost Spindle - Live Oak  (friends - Quadrivium Colleagues -no longer exists)
Schubert - Der Tod und der Madchen + ..
Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain