News of the week of January 28, 2014

Meeting report: January 28

We played:

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays on 7:45 pm at my place.

News of the week of January 15, 2014

Meeting reports

Meeting of January 7, 2014

We played:

Meeting of January 14, 2014

We played:

Schedule

We resume our usual meetings on Tuesdays on 7:45 pm at my place.

Other events

Music
for Viols and Friends will perform the complete Dowland
Lachrimae at 8pm on Saturday January 25 and 3 pm on Sunday January
26.

Convivium Musicum will
perform Puccini’s Tosca with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra
on Sunday January 19, and a program entitled “Lost” on January 25
and 26.

Schedule for the week of January 7

No meeting reports
since we haven’t had a meeting since the last one. There was a
snow storm, and then it was Christmas Eve, and then it was New
Year’s Eve.

Regular meeting

There will be a meeting as usual tomorrow
night, January 7, at 7:45pm but my furnace isn’t working, so it
will be at Stuart’s. He lives at 1328 Broadway, Unit #2, in
Somerville, and his phone number is (617) 776-0065.

Another party

Although we just had a party, we’ve decided it’s time for
another one. Barney Gage will be in town for the weekend, so
anyone who wants to is welcome to come over to my place on Sunday
evening, January 12. Some of us will be at West Gallery in Newton
Highlands until 5, so the party can’t get started until 6 or so.

We will do some combination of eating, drinking, playing,
singing, and telling war stories. Let me know if you want to come
and whether you’re bringing food.

News of the week of December 10, 2013

I’ve been counting votes in Cambridge instead of putting out
meeting reports, so here are several.

Meeting report, November 26

  • Loeillet, Sonata in A minor
  • Hymn tune warmups
  • Byrd, O Lord my God
  • Palestrina, Vestiva i Colli
  • Adieu mes amours, Des Prez, Moutons
  • Guerrero, Adios me amor
  • Cavendish, Come, gentle swains

Meeting report, December 3

  • Lots of Susato
  • Des Pres, Mille regrets
  • Susato, Les miens aussi
  • Lassus, Bonjours mon coeur
  • Certon, Chantons Noël
  • Praetorius, Lo how a rose
  • Star in the east

Meeting report, December 10

  • Deloach, A Baroque Christmas
  • Gaudeamus Pariter
  • Quem Pastores Laudavere
  • Arbeau, Bransle Officiele
  • Praetorius, Psallite, Von Himmel Hoch, In dulci jubilo, Puer
    Natus
  • Josquin, Adieu mes amours, Mille regrets, O Venus bant
  • Carols

Schedule

We will meet as usual on December 17.

We will not meet on December 24.

I’m easy about meeting on December 31, but I would expect most
poeple to feel that they had something either more exciting or
less exciting that they’d prefer to do that evening, given we’re
having the party on January 1. Let me know by the December 17
meeting if you would like to come over on December 31. And
consider it a commitment – I’ll be annoyed if I turn down
invitations or don’t go to First Night and then nobody
shows up. I’ll schedule a meeting if at least two people want one.

The Christmas party is on January 1 at 4 PM. Please invite all
your friends, especially people you feel might be interested in
joining us on Tuesdays some of the time.

After that, we will resume meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

Cantabile Band Christmas Party

horses

It will be at 4 PM on Wednesday, January 1, 2014 at 233 Broadway, Cambridge. Tell everybody you
know to bring everybody they know.

Bring any food or drink you want to share, any instruments you
want to play, and a cheerful voice. If there’s music you
want to do, bring 10 copies or so.

For more information, email or call Laura at (617) 661-8097.

There are printable invitations: foldable
and two-sided,
with the flyer on the back.


l14

News of the week of November 19, 2013

Meeting report

We played:

Schedule

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesdays at 7:45 PM at my place.

Please remember to let me know whether you’re coming or not (or
if you’ve already said, if what you’ve said changes).

Other events

Coro Flauto Dolce Gala Concert

Twelve Renaissance Recorders!
works of
Josquin, Gervaise, Morley, Praetorius, Vecchi, Viadana, and more

Thursday, December 12,
8:00pm,

Jewett Hall,
First Church in Cambridge,
11 Garden Street,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Admission Free ~ Donations Appreciated. For more information email
John Tyson or call him at
(617) 460-4653.

Sammy retires

[Sammy]
Sammy on November 17, 2013.

Since Saturday (three days now), Sammy seems to have decided it isn’t any longer his job to take me on a long walk in the morning. Not that they’ve been being so very long, but now he seems to think it’s fine to just go to the park across the street and come home, and he previously always wanted to go to at least one other park, and sometimes several. He’d sometimes be reluctant to leave the comfort of his couch and go out, but once he was out, he always seemed happy to stay out for a good length of time.

Last night he was having enough trouble walking that I wondered if there was an injury, but I don’t see any other sign of that, and this morning he just seems stiff, not injured.

I’ve been sorry I didn’t record the date Sunny (my previous dog) retired as a watchdog. So I’m here recording November 16, 2013 as the date Sammy retired as a dog who likes long walks.

Lighted a cabinet

When I had my kitchen redone in 1996, I put in a cabinet with glass
doors and interior lighting for displaying my glassware. The
problem with the incandescent light bars my contractor used was
that they burned out after a year or two, and I had to go to Home
Depot to replace them, and so it was frequently not lit at
all.

So I decided that in this day and age, one should use LED’s for
that kind of application, and they wouldn’t burn out for a long
time.

After poring over the descriptions I ordered Hitlight
warm white flexible ribbon strip lights and a transformer,
and a portable
mini dimmer. I also had to go to the hardware store and buy
an outlet, since the previous lights had attached with wire nuts,
and the transformer has a regular plug.

It turns out that it was a good thing I took the advice in the
Amazon review and got the dimmer — I don’t think this picture
does justice to the Las Vegas atmosphere of the lights on full
blast.


[cabinet]
Cabinet with led strip lights on full blast.

But I think I’ll like them a bit dimmer, although I wasn’t
expecting the curves of reflected dots.

[cabinet]
KItchen cabinet with LED strip lights dimmed.



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What happened on the pubcrawl

[Sloan, DT, Brandon]
Worts (Sloan, DT and Brandon) drinking beer at The Thirsty Scholar, the fifth stop on the 2013 pubcrawl.

Mostly, we drank beer. Here’s what I had:

Cambridge Brewing Company
They had just run out of the first thing I picked off of
their list (this time of year it’s really heavy on pumpkin
beers, which I don’t see any need for), so I had the cask. It
was their ESB, which is a good session beer, dry-hopped with
Chinook, and the people sitting next to me recommended it
highly, and after I recommended it highly one of the other worts
had one and also really liked it. I had joined earlier than I
said I would because it felt like lunch time, so I also had the
biscuits and gravy. They’ve changed it since the last time I
had it — it used to be two large biscuits and an enormous
amount of gravy on a plate, and I ended up taking about half of
both the biscuits and the gravy home. Now they give you a board with
three smaller biscuits and a bowl of gravy. So I ate all the
biscuits and ended up taking about half the gravy home. I also
bought two growlers. I live pretty close to between here and
the next stop, so I dropped them off at home. I joined 4 people
who had already had lunch at Meadhall.
Lord Hobo
I had the Trillium Valley buckwheat. At first I thought it
was a little sweet, but I got used to it pretty fast and really
enjoyed it. Several people ordered food, so I
took a donut someone offered me. I was also offered fritters
and corn cakes, but didn’t have anywhere to put them after the
biscuits and gravy and the donut and the beer.
Atwood’s
I had the Milk Stout Nitro. People had had it at both Lord
Hobo and the Meadhall, and enjoyed it a lot, so I ordered one
here. Again, I had to get used to how sweet it was, but once I
was, I was sorry to see the end of it.
Bukowsky’s
The Jack’s Abbey Kiwi Rising Double IPL. A nice dose (some
would say overdose) of hops to cut the sweetness of the last two
beers. We lost a several people after this stop, but were
joined by a new person.
Thirsty Scholar
The beer list here was a lot less stellar than the other
places. I had a Leffe Brown Ale. The new person from the last
stop was joined by his wife here.
R.F. O’Sullivan
I came here because they promised me good onion rings. I
had a Sierra Nevada Torpedo and a Black and Blue Burger with
onion rings. The onion rings were OK, but I like the ones at
Doyles better. The burger was outstanding, but I had to take
almost half of it home. Sammy agrees that it was good, but he
doesn’t seem to like blue cheese.

Apologies to Sloan for cutting some of his head off. The
camera on my phone is much better than the display, so I really
couldn’t see the composition of the picture at all when I took it.