It's a sad day. Comedian and entertainer Bob Hope has died. Bob Hope was a class act -- he gave freely of himself and displayed a dedication to our fighting men and women that is sadly rare among entertainers today. He'll be missed.

"Thanks for the memories", Mr. Hope.

Friday Five

I mean to do this every Friday, but I often forget... anyway:

1. If your life were a movie, what would the title be?

This is hard! Maybe "Still Waters Run Deep" or "Life On Schedule" or "A Man for All Occasions"

2. What songs would be on the soundtrack?

Mostly choral music -- Barber's "Agnus Dei", the Howell "Requiem", also a lot of Palestrina. On the more modern side, some Gershwin and a variety of pop -- Amy Grant, Sting, and yes, Debbie Gibson.

3. Would it be a live-action film or animated? Why?

Live action, definitely.

4. Casting: who would play you, members of your family, friends, etc?

I can see Jason Alexander or Richard Dreyfus, or Wayne Knight. For my family... hm. Hard. Jerry Orbach could play my Dad, perhaps, and Meryl Streep my mom (the budget's infinite, right?). Drew Barrymore could play my friend Amber Lee, Marisa Tomei could play Maria.

5. Describe the movie preview/trailer

A series of quick crosscuts between.... graduation (both of them), my Mom's funeral, out at sea on a destroyer, UA football games, the Rolling Requiem, walking in the rain with a girlfriend, and skating lessons.

These are hard questions!

Robert Cringely's latest column proposes a "son of Napster" that he believes is both legal and able to effectively cripple the RIAA and its members. It's an interesting idea and I think he is right both that it is not illegal and that RIAA would bring all its considerable resources to bear to try to get legislation to make it so. What do you think?

CNN is reporting that the Pentagon claims Saddam's sons are dead. Assuming this is true, it's a pretty big breakthrough, and I hope it will help things settle down a bit in Iraq now.

Here's some cool news! A small swatch of the Tilma of Guadelupe will be displayed in Tucson in October! It's been said that a close examination of the Tilma shows an image in the Virgin's eyes. Pretty amazing stuff!

The Star has an article today about the sexual abuse settlements and how they are affecting the Diocese of Tucson. Not surprisingly it's making it difficult for the diocese to survive. Also not surprisingly, some people think that they shouldn't have to contribute to the settlements. I guess "we are church" only applies to the good times.

My head hurts! I spent most of yesterday, as well as this morning, playing in the Ye Olde Pueblo Open, organized by the Southern Arizona Chess Association. This was the first tournament I'd played in since 1991! I was expecting to get my butt kicked. All in all, I played 4 games (had a bye for the 5th round since I have to go to Mass sometime!), won two and lost two. The last game in particular lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes and was a real nailbiter. I thought several times that there was no way I could win, but I managed to pull it out.

I should play more often! Perhaps this is the kick I need to get out and do it more often. There are not that many tournaments in Tucson so it's worthwhile to make an effort for the ones there are.

Birthdays! Thursday, Maria's daugher Kristen turned 15! And yesterday my goddaughter Isabel celebrated her first birthday! Woohoo! *clap* *clap* :-) They are both beautiful, of course!

The Arizona Daily Star has a cool article about one of Tucson's best homegrown restaurants, Eric's Fine Foods. Eric's is just down the street from me, but I've not been there in a while. I should rectify that.

Here's the transcript of Tony Blair's address to the US Congress. It wasn't without a touch of humor:

On our way down here, Senator Frist was kind enough to show me the fireplace where, in 1814, the British had burnt the Congress Library. I know this is, kind of, late, but sorry.

God bless the UK!

NASA has some cool pictures of the Aspen fire. They are just now letting homeowners up on the mountain again. It's all very sad.

I'm famous! Okay, not really, but I did get my name in the paper this morning, in the Arizona Daily Star's "Dry Heat" column. I'm whining about people who say "orientate" when they mean "orient."

Archbishop Justin Rigali has been appointed to the be the new Archbishop of Philadelphia. Seems like a good choice. I was betting that he would be the new Archbishop of Boston, but I was wrong.

Ah! Relief! While Tucson's monsoon hasn't yet official been declared to have arrived, our first monsoon-style storm struck last night and gave us half an inch of rain. It was wonderful!

In the "what-world-IS-this?" department, Fr. Rob Johansen comments on Britney Spears and Catholic teaching on sexuality. Yes, I never thought I'd see the day... but read what he has to say, he's right on (as usual).

On my skating blog, I've posted about my strength and fitness. I'm thinking about taking a yoga class in the fall. Anyone have insights/experiences they'd like to share?

Tucson's heat wave continues; it's supposed to be 111 degrees (F, of course) today. The Star has a whiny editorial about it, but it's balanced by an article about people who really enjoy the heat. Fave quote:

"I think of the heat as another force of nature - like a high wind or heavy surf or when it's snowing really hard," says Wallace, a captain with the Tucson Fire Department's hazardous material team.

I got a letter from the Tucson Symphony yesterday, saying that they wanted me to do a callback audition for the TSO Chorus. Specifically they called attention to excerpt preparation, rhythmic drill and sightsinging. After thinking about it for a while, I've decided not to do the callback. It's not a pride thing ("they should have just let me in to begin with"), it's just that I don't think I am likely to do any better. To be honest, I thought I did pretty well at my audition, better than I expected to do. So I will leave it at that and go sing in Collegium Musicum. Still, the audition experience was a good one and I'm glad I took the time to do it.

While I was in Dallas, I went with my friend Maria to look at pianos. I'm interested in getting a digital piano. I want a digital vs. a traditional mostly for two reasons... 1) tuning a traditional piano is expensive, and in Tucson at least, it's necessary several times a year, and 2) being able to do it with headphones on would be great. I really want a very simple piano, nothing horribly fancy. Anyway, after playing several different pianos at the store I wound up settling on the Clavinova series. The store in Dallas (well, Irving) only had the CLP-130 but the person said the CLP-120 had the same basic keyboard, just fewer features. Based on that I went and checked one out on my lunch hour yesterday (there's a piano store across the street, Hachenberg and Sons who have been in Tucson for a long time). The 120 goes for $1900, which is a bit steep for out of pocket, shall we say! I am thinking I might use next year's income tax refund on that though. Then of course I'd have to start taking lessons... it all adds up, but I need to get moving, I'm not getting any younger!

It's still very smoky today, and Tucson is enduring record heat. The Arizona Daily Stars asks, "Have we all died and gone to hell?" It's supposed to be 109 today and 111 tomorrow. My personal take on temperatures in Tucson:

• 70-79: Nice!
  
• 80-89: Pleasant.
  
• 90-99: Warm.
  
• 100-109: Hot.
  
• 110+: DAMN hot!
  

So we will be in the DAMN hot! range...

It's very smoky in the valley today, and you cannot see the mountains at all (except for the westernmost end). Yech! When I walked across the street to go to lunch today one of the SkyCrane tanker helicopters flew right over me, on its way back to the airport I assume.

An interesting article from MSNBC on cholesterol-fighting drugs and their effects and implications. My doctor has suggested putting me on statins (like Lipitor) but I've been resisting because I think I need to really fix my underlying diet/exercise issues. Maybe I should take them, though.

Please pray for the repose of the soul of my e-buddy Brenda Elfgirl's grandmother, who passed away this afternoon.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei.

CNN reports on selective abortion and infanticide in India. The male-female ratio is already skewed and it's getting worse. The sad part is that NOW et al in the US are so committed to supporting abortion that they don't criticize this stuff because they'd have to admit abortion is wrong.

I came across a couple of neat articles on the Web today. The first is an article by CBC News, What the World Thinks of America. It has both the results of a poll taken to survey attitudes, as well as essays written by prominent journalists. The countries represented are:

• Australia
  
• Brazil
  
• Canada
  
• France
  
• Indonesia
  
• Israel
  
• Jordan
  
• Russia
  
• South Korea
  
• United Kingdom
  

The second article is in The Atlantic Monthly, Headlines Over the Horizon. This article by analysts at the RAND Corporation discusses international security issues that are approaching but are not being (adequately) addressed. They are:

• The Israeli Wall
  
• Russia's Shrinking Population
  
• India's Hindu-Muslim Divide
  
• AIDS and African Armies
  
• Tehran-New Delhi Axis
  
• Anti-Satellite Attack Threat
  
• Consolidation in the Defense Industry
  
• Aircraft Carrier Shortage
  
• Pakistan-Indian Water Conflict
  
• Challenges of Urban Warfare
  

Wow, I've been very chatty today. One last post -- check out this cool article by Dinesh D'Souza on 10 Great Things About America. This July 4th it's good to see America through the eyes of an immigrant and remember that for all her faults, she's the greatest nation on earth and there's certainly no place I'd rather live. God bless our country!

CNN is now reporting that the Aspen fire is approaching Ventana Canyon on Tucson's northeast side. Eeeep!

Bonnie Henry writes about how Tucson is the Rodney Dangerfield of the West.

Music for Mass
Peter Dodge and Gordon Zaft, cantors
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gathering Song: I Heard the Voice of Jesus (KINGSFOLD)
Penitential Rite: spoken
Gloria: spoken
Responsorial Psalm: (OCP Respond & Acclaim)
Gospel Acclamation: Praise His Name (Joncas) refrain w/verse of the day
Preparation of the Gifts: Christ, Be Our Light (Farrell)
Holy,Holy: (Hurd Mass)
Memorial Acclamation: (Hurd Mass)
Great Amen: (Hurd Mass)
Our Father: Yantis
Lamb of God: (Hurd Mass)
Communion: We Are the Light of the World (Greif)
Recessional: Let There Be Peace on Earth (Miller & Jackson)

Alas, the verse for "Let There Be Peace on Earth" was the stupid "optional text": "With God as our Father, we are family. Let us walk with each other." GRR!

If you like Catholic jokes*... I mean, if you really like Catholic jokes*... check out the comments to this post on Mark Shea's excellent blog.

*By this I mean jokes that Catholics would enjoy.

I flew home from Dallas last night. Security at DFW is definitely tight -- I had to remove my shoes, was wanded all over, and had to unbuckle my belt and be patted down. The trip was uneventful (always a good thing!). As we were approaching Tucson I could see that the Aspen fire has really worked its way west and south -- the devastated area is now just enormous. The fire at night was really something frightful to behold, and the cloud of smoke in the east part of the valley is enormouse and thick, obscuring the mountains there. It's really bad.

Since I've been out of town, I missed this story on wacky ex-Catholics "ordaining" a Tucson woman. Not surprisingly in reading the story, they tout the liberal Catholic line -- abortion, contraception, homosexuality, etc. They are wanting to have their cake and eat it too. Too bad.

While I'm usually loth to quote myself, I have to say you should check out my latest lyrics, Get Me To The Rink On Time. The skaters will know where I'm coming from :-).

From Slashdot, a cool link to an article on building a home network from scratch. Check it out, it's pretty neat and not so techie as to be inaccessible.

I've been on vacation to Dallas since Saturday but I had to blog about the appointment of Bishop O'Malley as new archbishop of Boston. I'm a alittle surprised that he got this appointment, but he was a Massachusetts bishop for a long time and should be relatively familiar with the territory. I think it's a good choice. I'm sure there will be a lot of discussion around St. Blog's about the matter.

My visit to Dallas has been a lot of fun, as I count fun anyway. It's been very relaxing. I am staying with some of my oldest and best friends and it's nice to be immersed in family life.

I haven't blogged about the Supreme Court's decision to overthrow the Texas sodomy laws. I guess it is not surprising, once Roe v. Wade made up a "right to privacy" then it follows that pretty much anything goes. The irony is that it means that Sen. Rick Santorum will be shown to be a prophet. This decision will have pretty far reaching effects, including an inability to outlaw prostitution, pornography, and eventually the invalidation of statutory rape laws (if a 16 year old can get an abortion without her parents' knowledge and consent, why can't she be a porn actress or have sex with an adult?).

Mark Shea has some good thoughts on this.

What do you think? Can the diocese of Phoenix get this man as its next bishop? I'm praying so!

My e-buddy ElfGirl the former Catholic blogs about the Church. I wish every priest would read this and give it some thought. Of course, the ones most likely to read this are almost always the ones who least need to...

Things I like about my new job, in no particular order ....

• There's so much that needs doing, no matter what I feel like doing it undoubtedly needs to be done! (A target-rich environment, as we used to say)
  
• The office is nice and cool
  
• I have my own office, with a nice comfy chair, a 2.4 GHz P4 with 1 GB memory and an 80 GB hard disk, and a 4' x 6' white board
  
• I get to set my own hours
  
• The people I work with are fun
  
• I get to work with some cool technology (Java, Tomcat, Struts, JMeter, etc)
  
• The parking lot is not crowded and I can usually park pretty close to the building
  
• We're on the sixth floor, so if I want a little more exercise I can take the stairs and have it be worthwhile
  

My friend Colin has taken some neat pictures of the Aspen Fire. The fire continues to grow, it's mostly moving north down the other side of the Catalinas, and also west. The eastern route is mostly blocked by the burned-out area from last year's Bullock Fire.

Okay, it's a small thing, but I actually took the time tonight to get my printer working. YAY! It's a Compaq IJ600. I tried a while back to get it working on the USB port and it just would not. Finally tonight I dug out the parallel cable for it and hooked it up and everything seemed fine -- except of course that I needed to buy a new ink cartridge for it. The problem with inkjets, of course, is that the cartridges are insanely expensive. In my case, I paid $20 for this printer at a yard sale, and now I just spent $30 at Office Max for a black cartridge for it. Oh well, it's nice to have a printer again anyway.

The Aspen fire on Mt. Lemmon continues its path of destruction. The smoke is plainly visible from Tucson, still, although the majority of the fire is now on the north side of the Catalinas, away from Tucson. Some residents of Oracle are already evacuating even though the Forest Service claims that Oracle should be safe.

Mt. Lemmon continues to burn. This morning there was smoke but it wasn't too out of hand; but while I was at the dentist around lunchtime I saw large plumes of smoke developing. I'm assuming the wind up there kicked up again. Meanwhile the "Helen II" fire in the Rincons continues to burn -- fortunately there are no structures up there.

The Arizona Daily Star has pretty extensive coverage:

• Half of homes gone
  
• Surreal landscape on the front lines
  
• 'Some of us are numb; we're homeless' -- story on the victims
  

The Star is reporting that among the casualties is the post office and the beloved Alpine Lodge. It's really sad. The Star wrote a nice article on the history of Mt. Lemmon. There are a number of structures that are still in danger, including radio antennas and UA's Mt. Lemmon Observatory. A Richard Ducote column and the Star's editorial board both editorialize on the loss.

Mt. Lemmon Inferno

The news is devastating -- the Aspen fire has mushroomed in size and most of the village of Summerhaven has been destroyed in the space of an hour. Apparently the fire grew from about 400 acres to over 4000 in the space of just a few hours this afternoon, pushed by high winds and fueled by the bone-dry condition of the forest due to the continuing drought.

I was coming back from Phoenix this afternoon and came back into Tucson around 5. The smoke from the fire was visible for 50+ miles, and the columns of smoke had risen to 20,000 feet or more. It reminded me of a smaller version of the pictures of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in the Phillippines. The only good news out of this is that there have been no casualties (Deo gratias!) due to the evacuation that was ordered yesterday. The high winds that pushed this fire up the mountain were apparently gusty in the 50 mph range. The winds were from the southwest, which has kept the smoke from entering the Tucson valley but, of course, pushed the fire right up the mountain and over Marshall Gulch into Summerhaven.

This is sad on many fronts. Of course it's sad for the homeowners and businessmen that have lost homes and livelihoods. It's also sad for those with breathing problems as they are going to have a rough couple of weeks. It's sad for everyone in Tucson because Mt. Lemmon will never be the same; it's always been our refuge, our retreat from the heat, a place where we could get away and enjoy cool pine trees and fresh air and a beauty that is rare. Unfortunately with the devastation, all that beauty will be just a memory for a long time to come.

There is a forest fire near Mt. Lemmon, in the Catalina Mountains just north of Tucson. The smoke is plainly visible from Tucson. It's pretty scary -- the village of Summerhaven has already been evacuated. The ongoing drought has made the forest pretty dry, and there were gusty winds last night that are making things difficult. Tucsonans are still thinking about last summer's disastrous Bullock fire on Mt. Lemmon, which charred over 30,000 acres of forest.

As if that weren't bad enough, there is also a small fire in the Rincon Mountains east of Tucson. It too is clearly visible from Tucson. Scary stuff!

As I had hoped, Phoenix Bishop O'Brien has resigned. Let's hope the new bishop up there is someone who will be more open, forthright, and committed to leadership that is both orthodox and respectful of all the people of the diocese.

My buddy ElfGirl blogged about postmodernism and faith the other day. It's been bothering me since but I've not really had time to respond.

I agree with her critique of modernism and rationalism, but I don't think postmodernism is such a great thing for the relationship between faith and reason either. Of course the ultimate (in my view) statement of the relationship between faith and reason is John Paul II's 1998 encylical, Fides et Ratio. One quote:

102. Insisting on the importance and true range of philosophical thought, the Church promotes both the defence of human dignity and the proclamation of the Gospel message. There is today no more urgent preparation for the performance of these tasks than this: to lead people to discover both their capacity to know the truth and their yearning for the ultimate and definitive meaning of life

Postmodernism strikes at the heart of the faith, but in a different way than rationalism. Rationalism said that only those things that could be known by reason (and eventually, only by the scientific method) were true. Postmodernism, at its heart, says that truth is unknowable. If truth is unknowable, then ultimately God (who is Truth) is unknowable. If you look around at society today, you find many people yearning for truth in a society that denies that they can know the truth. But Jesus says "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). So postmodernism is ultimately contrary to the Gospel. I don't see how anyone who claims to be a Christian, who accepts the Bible as inspired, can fail to see the danger of postmodernism.

John Paul II writes:

"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves" (Fides et Ratio)

Besides being a beautiful statement in and of itself, it points out that if we cannot know the truth (or, cannot know we know the truth), then we ultimately cannot know God -- and, furthermore, if we cannot know God, we cannot know ourselves, children of God made in His image.

Now this is interesting -- Norma McCorvey ("Roe") has filed a motion to overturn Roe v. Wade. She is, I believe, the only person who could file this kind of appeal since as the original plaintiff she has standing. I'll be fascinated to watch the reaction of NOW, NARAL, etc.

It's been a very hazy day in Tucson. Smoke from a fire near Picacho Peak has obscured the valley most of the day, making it look more like Pasadena -- you can barely see the mountains! Check out the UA Webcam to see for yourself.

Today was my first day on my new job. It went pretty well, except that my computer is not yet ready. In these days it's pretty much impossible to accomplish much useful work without a computer on your desk. It should be ready sometime tomorrow I expect. So I mostly spent time doing paperwork (insurance etc.) and other miscellaneous tasks, plus reading up on the Struts framework for building web applications. Getting to work with cool stuff like this is one of the reasons I'm so psyched about this job.

Most of the folks at St. Blog's have been very disturbed by the news out of the Archdiocese of Phoenix, so the news that Bishop O'Brien was arrested after a fatal hit-and-run is just more agony. If this is really true, he should resign.

More disturbing news on diabetes -- CDC projection points to tripling of U.S. diabetics. As I've blogged about before, diabetes (especially Type II) is set to become the scourge of the 21st century, causing a lot more problems than HIV, believe it or not. The disturbing part is that it is, for the most part, a lifestyle disease -- or at least, one triggered by lifestyle. The numbers are staggering.

Music for Mass
Diaconate Ordination
Diocesan Chorale
St. Augustine Cathedral, Tucson, Arizona

Entrance Song: Here I Am, Lord (Schutte)
Penitential Rite: Kyrie (Chant)
Gloria: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 16: The Path of Life (Soper)
Gospel Acclamation: Celtic Alleluia (Walker)
Litany of the Saints: (Becker)
Laying on of Hands: Veni Sancte Spiritus (Taizé)
Preparation of the Gifts: Servant Song (McGargill)
Holy,Holy: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Memorial Acclamation: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Great Amen: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Our Father: (English Chant)
Lamb of God: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Communion: One Lord (Soper)
Pan de Vida (Hurd)
Into Your Hands (Haynes)
Recessional: Lord You Give the Great Commission (ABBOT'S LEIGH)

There were a total of 30 (!) deacons ordained. It was a really great occasion, but it made for a really long Mass (2.5 hours!). We were all pretty exhausted when it was over, especially since we wound up singing the preparation song (Servant Song) over and over again as the new deacons all insisted on (seemingly) giving the Kiss of Peace to absolutely everyone. Still you can't really blame them! I could have done without "Here I Am, Lord" -- it's another on the list of songs I liked the first 500 times I sang it. Oh well!

After the Mass I bumped into Fr. Jason Thuerauf. Fr. Jason is transferring to the Archdiocese of Denver, where he will be an associate at St. John the Evangelist in Loveland, CO. Please pray for Fr. Jason -- he's one of the best and holiest priests I know.

Today was my last day at TCI Solutions. It was pretty nice. I brought 2 dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts in for the QA gang; they were much appreciated :-). I handed off some stuff to one of the guys who is going to be taking it over, had my exit interview, cleaned out my desk, hung out a bit, and then went to lunch with my boss and the guys from my immediate group. After lunch I went home and then went skating. All in all a nice day, and a nice way to leave the job. Monday I'm starting my new job.

A cool article in USA Today on the Two Towers extended edition DVD -- 'Towers' collectors' DVD runs a spell longer. It's definitely on my Christmas list.

Things are winding down at my old job. I have my exit interview tomorrow morning and a bunch of things I'm trying to wind up. I start my new job on Monday. I found out yesterday, though, that STC (new job) only pays people once a month. Eeep! I've never worked for a company that does that. I asked when my first paycheck would be and was told 6/30 or 7/1. Since presumably that will be only half a paycheck I will have a bit of an income shortfall for July. I guess that's where my payout for my vacation from TCI will go. I thought I had a nice little windfall but instead I'll just squeak by, possibly pulling some $ out of savings. Darn.

I drove by SSPP School this morning to drop off a couple of computers I'm donating to them. They are tearing out the landscaping on Campbell. I asked a woman who was standing there what was up and she said they are tearing out the grass and palm trees and putting in a berm and desert landscaping. It's kind of sad to see but I guess it's probably for the best to reduce the school's water use, especially in an area the students don't really use.

Woohoo! FreeBSD 5.1 is out! I've been tracking -current for several months now and 5.1 should be a good improvement over 5.0 -- more stable, better drivers. From the release announcement:

It is my great privilege and pleasure to announce the availability of FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE. This release continues FreeBSD on the path of advanced multiprocessor and application thread support and includes many improved and widely-sought features:

• Experimental 1:1 and M:N thread libraries provide kernel support for efficient application multithreading.
  
• Support for Physical Address Extensions enables Pentium Pro and higher CPUs to access up to 64GB of RAM.
  
• Experimental Name Service Switch infrastructure allows enterprises to seamlessly integrate with LDAP and Active Directory services.
  
• Enhanced "jail" management, allowing one server to provide many different "virtual machines" with reduced administrator workload.
  
• New device drivers include support for IBM/Adaptec ServeRAID controllers, expanded support for USB 2.0 and USB Ethernet adapters, and Promise Serial ATA controllers.
  
• Experimental support for the amd64 platform allows FreeBSD to run on single processor AMD Opteron systems.
  

Although stability is greatly improved and many bugs have been fixed, FreeBSD 5.1 might not be suitable for all users. More conservative users may prefer to continue using FreeBSD 4.X. Information on the various trade-offs involved, as well as some notes on future plans for both FreeBSD 4.X and 5.X, can be found in the Early Adopter's Guide, available here:

http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/5.1R/early-adopter.html

For a complete list of new features and known problems, please see the release notes and errata list, available here:

http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/5.1R/relnotes.html
http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/5.1R/errata.html

For more information about FreeBSD release engineering activities, please see:

http://www.FreeBSD.org/releng/

This release is dedicated to the memory of Alan Eldridge. Alan was a talented and dedicated member of the KDE On FreeBSD team and the FreeBSD community, and his passing is mourned by all of us. For more information, please see http://freebsd.kde.org/memoriam/alane.php


Availability
--------------

FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE supports the i386, pc98, alpha, sparc64, and ia64 architectures and can be installed directly over the net using the boot floppies or copied to a local NFS/FTP server. Distributions for all architectures are available now.

From MSN, a good article on biochemistry of diabetes. Pretty much everyone should read this article -- really! -- especially if you or someone you know is overweight. Since 60% or more of Americans are obese or overweight, almost everyone in America either is at risk for Type II diabetes or knows someone who is. It's good to get more understanding of the nature of the disease and why it's likely to reach epidemic proportions in the next few years.

For myself, what I got out of this was that I need to keep doing the things I am doing, plus get more exercise and lose more weight to keep my free fatty acid levels down.

Hmm. Richard Chonak, a friend and one of the authors of Catholic Light, is offering to host other blogs on the new stblogs.org domain. I'm considering taking up the offer.

Pro: stblogs.org uses Movable Type, which is very cool blogging software that seems offhand to be MUCH nicer than Blogger. The server might be more responsive, and I wouldn't be dependent on the tender mercies of BlogSpot. No ads, either.

Cons: Mostly effort of moving stuff, and the risk I'd lose both my readers :-) in the transition. Also, my blog seems to be a bit more "personal" and "eclectic" than many of the other St. Blogs members, so perhaps it's not a good fit.

Please comment and let me know what you think!

I noticed in our parish bulletin that our parish school graduated 59 kids from 8th grade May 23rd. The impressive part is that 40 of them (67%) had attended SSPP School all the way through from Kindergarten! Wow!

Music for Mass
Priestly Ordination
Diocesan Chorale
St. Augustine Cathedral, Tucson, Arizona

Gathering Song: Cristo Rey (arr. Thomas)
Entrance Song: O Love of God/Amor de Dios (Hurd)
Penitential Rite: Kyrie (Chant)
Gloria: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 89: Forever I Will Sing (Schoenbachler)
Gospel Acclamation: Celtic Alleluia (Walker)
Litany of the Saints: (Becker)
Laying on of Hands: Veni Sancte Spiritus (Taizé)
Preparation of the Gifts: Into Your Hands (Haynes)
Holy,Holy: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Memorial Acclamation: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Great Amen: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Our Father: (English Chant)
Lamb of God: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Communion: One Lord (Soper)
Pan de Vida (Hurd)
Post Communion: Salve Regina (chant, priests of the Diocese of Tucson)
Recessional: Lord You Give the Great Commission (ABBOT'S LEIGH)

If you've never been to an ordination, you should go sometime. It's a very moving ceremony. This ordination (there's a nice article in the Arizona Daily Star about it) is the largest we've had in many years -- 4 men, all born in Mexico. There is also another man being ordained in Nogales, Sonora on Thursday for our Diocese, making a class of 5. Given the circumstances, much of the Mass was in Spanish. A particularly moving custom among the Hispanic culture is the mother giving her son a blessing before his ordination.

One of the men, as I blogged about before, is (now) Father Manolo Padilla. Fr. Manolo has been assigned to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Yuma. I think it's a good assignment for him. The pastor there is a wonderful priest, Fr. Pat Crino, who is a good friend who was assigned to Ss. Peter and Paul when I got there. It will be a welcoming parish I know, and he will do well there. It's a wonderful day.

Over at Confessions of an Accidental Choir Director, a helpful comment pointed out this way-cool website on Gregorian Chant Notation. Check it out, I've been looking for this for a while.

New Job!

I have accepted a job as Quality Assurance Manager at Scientific Technologies Corporation. I will be starting there June 16th. Accordingly I have resigned my position as Senior Quality Assurance Engineer at TCI Solutions; my last day there will be June 13th.

This new position is very exciting. I'll be reporting to Andrey Yeatts, who I worked with at NewMonics. Many of the developers at STC are also former NewMonics employees. They are a great bunch, smart, talented, and fun to work with. It's going to be great. It will also be a lot of work, as I will basically be establishing the QA department as a separate entity. I'm really looking forward to it.

Fr. Greeley weighs in on the O'Brien fiasco and The Situation -- Indictments might be only spur to bishops.

Good news! 'Partial birth' abortion ban passes House. This is very encouraging that finally we can at least start drawing a line somewhere! I've never understood how anyone who understands what PBA is can possibly support it, it's so gruesome and inhumane.

Under the bill, partial birth abortion is defined as a procedure in which the fetus is killed after the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother or, in the case of breech presentation, "any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother."

The legislation characterizes the procedure, which typically involves puncturing the fetal skull to bring about death, as "the overt act, other than completion of delivery, that kills the partially delivered living fetus."

Well, this is interesting. Saturday night I had gone to a party for one of the Opus Dei members who finished his Ph.D. and is going home to Mexico (Guadalajara). Tonight I had a call from one of the Opus Dei cooperators, who asked me if I had gotten sick Sunday or Monday. Well, of course I had. Apparently so had a lot of others who were at the party Saturday -- though not all. We're thinking maybe it was the beans. So that makes me feel a little better, I was thinking it was the bacon on my hamburger Sunday night.

A little Arizona humor...

YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN ARIZONA WHEN:

1. You've signed so many petitions to recall governors that you can't remember the name of the incumbent.
   
2. You notice your car overheating before you drive it.
   
3. You can say Hohokam and people don't think you're laughing funny.
   
4. You no longer associate bridges (or rivers) with water or front yards with grass.
   
5. You see more irrigation water on the street than there is in the Salt River.
   
6. You know a swamp cooler is not a happy hour drink.
   
7. You can say 115 degrees without fainting.
   
8. You can be in the snow, then drive for an hour and it will be over 100 degrees.
   
9. You have to go to a fake beach for some fake waves.
   
10. You discover, in July, that it only takes two fingers to drive your car.
    
11. You can make sun tea instantly.
    
12. You run your air conditioner in the middle of winter so you can use your fireplace.
    
13. You notice the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.
    
14. You realize that Valley Fever isn't a disco dance.
    
15. Hotter water comes from the cold water tap than the hot one.
    
16. You can pronounce the words: "Saguaro", "Tempe", "Gila Bend", "San Xavier","Canyon de Chelly", "Mogollon Rim", "Cholla", and "Tlaquepaque".
    
17. It's noon in July, kids are on summer vacation, and not one person is moving on the streets.
    
18. You actually burn your hand opening the car door.
    
19. Sunscreen is sold year round, kept at the front of the checkout counter, a formula less than 30 spf is a joke, and you wear it just to go to Circle K.
    
20. Some fool can market mini-misters for joggers and some other fools will actually buy them.
    
21. Hot air balloons can't go up, because the air outside is hotter than the air inside.
    
22. No one would dream of putting vinyl upholstery in a car.
    
23. You can understand the reason for a town named "Why."
    

For those who lose faith in the youth of today -- Cops: Teens help foil carjack with kids aboard. What great kids they are! Smart, too.

A truly troubling situation -- Phoenix bishop signs pact on abuse. While I have no doubt that O'Brien's actions were reprehensible and outrageous, it does seem that the county attorney made a special effort (a year long investigation!) to get him. I'm glad I'm not responsible for trying to determine the truth in all this.

I am sick. My boss sent me home early yesterday and I slept from noon to six. I stayed up until midnight, got up at 8:30 and called in to work, then went back to sleep for 3 hours. I'm feeling much better but still a little woozy.

The following is the text of a reflection I gave yesterday at our Living Stones Commencement.

Living Stones Reflection

Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it says in scripture: "Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame." Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," and "A stone that will make people stumble, and a rock that will make them fall." They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny. But you are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises" of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. --1 Peter 2:4-9

This passage is one on which I spent a lot of time in reflection; what it meant to me, and how it related to me as a Christian. After all, no one wants to be thought of as rejected by human beings, although being chosen and precious is appealing. I think we cannot truly embrace Christ, we cannot follow Him, until we are willing to accept in our own lives the rejection of society and the "chosenness" and value of ourselves as living stones in our parishes, in the Diocese of Tucson, and in the Church as a whole.

In turning this passage over in my mind, much as one might turn a stone over and over in one's hand, I've come to the conclusion that being a living stone is something that must be worked on over the course of a lifetime. Like a river rock, God is constantly scouring us and wearing down our rough edges, helping to fashion us to be just the shape He wants for us. It's sometimes a painful process, since we think we are just fine the way we are. In our 3 ½ years of study, discussion, and prayer, we as a group found that we were wearing down each other's rough edges. We talked and we discussed; sometimes we agreed and sometimes we did not. We were Christ to one another just as much in the times we disagreed as in the times that we were of one mind. In the process we came, I think, to see each other as "chosen and precious", gifts to each other. It's a gift that we will always carry with us.

Commencement, graduation, whatever you wish to call it - the end of the beginning is here. Is what follows the beginning of the end?

I don't think so. It's just a beginning. The God who makes all things new is creating us anew constantly, if we but let Him. The Spirit told me something I'll pass on to you - unless we are willing to try new things, to do new things, to go new places, and even to be new people, we will never get to Heaven, for it is the newest of new places and none of us has ever been there. When I get there, God willing, I think I'll see a bunch of Living Stones ready to greet me, learn with me, discuss and debate - but there will be no more rough edges.

Music for Mass
Eucharistic Celebration and Service of Commissioning
Feast of the Ascension of the Lord
Living Stones Graduation Mass Choir
St. Augustine Cathedral, Tucson, Arizona

Gathering Song: Sumus Domus Domini (Walker)
Penitential Rite: Kyrie (Chant)
Gloria: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Responsorial Psalm: (World Library Publications)
Gospel Acclamation: (OCP)
Preparation of the Gifts: Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service (HOLY MANNA)
Holy,Holy: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Memorial Acclamation: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Great Amen: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Our Father: Spoken
Lamb of God: Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Communion: Pan de Vida (Hurd)
One Lord (Soper)
Recessional: Go to the World (SINE NOMINE, Arr. James Chepponis (GIA))

The music for this Mass (I'll blog more about the Mass itself later) was just wonderful. The Walker piece is very moving and fit very well with the themes of lay service present in the Mass, and specifically with the Living Stones program concept. We had a choir of about 30, all volunteers from different parishes in the diocese. We used organ, two trumpets, flute and some kind of drums (not tympani but they sounded similar). They were especially effective on the recessional piece, it sent chills up my spine. We had our current bishop and also our bishop emeritus. It was a wonderful, wonderful celebration.

A nice article in the Arizona Daily Star on the upcoming ordination of 5 new priests for the Diocese of Tucson -- wishing them Bienvenido a Tucsón. One of the 5 has spent his internship and diaconate at my parish. He is a real blessing, with a true heart for God. Please pray for Deacon Manolo and all the soon-to-be priests!

New life! Today we had a special Mass to confirm one of our RCIA candidates who was not able to join the Church at the Easter vigil. Please pray for our newest neophyte, V, who has been battling cancer. It was a small but beautiful Mass, and I couldn't help but reflect on the aptness of the readings for today (the feast of the Visitation of Mary) to the occasion. God works in mysterious ways! Another example of a mysterious thing -- no weddings during that time. Saturday in late May, prime time for weddings, especially at Ss. Peter and Paul; but there were no weddings today. God is good!

I went back to the dentist today for my last quadrant of periodontal treatment. The hygenist was very impressed and pleased with my progress, my gums are much healthier and while it's not possible to undo the bone loss I experienced, it looks like the disease itself is under control. When I first went in a month ago I had pretty severe bleeding from my gums when they probed them etc. Today during my treatment there was almost no bleeding at all. Good stuff!

Someone pointed out to me (don't remember who/where) how weird we are about these things. If any other part of your body was bleeding you'd be alarmed, you'd do something, you'd take care of it. Yet if your gums bleed it's easy to think "I must be brushing too hard" or "I just have sensitive gums." Normal, healthy gums shouldn't bleed!. If your gums are bleeding, go to the dentist now and check it out!

We've been having some wacky weather lately -- Visitor is wet - and welcome. Yes, for us rain in late May is newsworthy since May and June are ordinarily very hot and very dry. This afternoon the winds have picked up and it looks like it's raining down south of our offices.

A bunch of us were looking south out the windows of the office (we're on the 3rd floor) and one of those stereotypical moments happened -- the wind had grown to fever pitch and a couple of women (probably legal assistants, or maybe from one of the mortgage brokers in the building) were pushing these steel carts with boxes of documents out to the parking lot. They apparently didn't see the curb, and so when they went over the curb one of the carts overturned, and the wind whisked the top off of a box and POOF! documents flying everywhere, being swept by the wind. It was funny, but I felt sorry for the women and whoever owned the documents.

Here's a cool article from NewsForge about VNC: Virtually there and back again. VNC is a free remote desktop client and server that allows you to view the entire Windows or XWindows desktop on a different machine. If you have multiple machines to manage it can make life a lot simpler and easier.

Happy Birthday Bob Hope!

CNN salutes Bob Hope on his 100th birthday. Bob Hope is a classic. To me he exemplified something somewhat rare in show biz these days, a man who had a lot of success but still believed in service, and who gave a lot of time and effort to serve his country.

From CNN, a classic conflict of state and religion -- Muslim woman fights to keep on veil for driver's license photo. The woman claims that the state doesn't have the right to take her picture. This in spite of the fact that in most Islamic countries women do not cover their faces in I.D. pictures.

This raises a whole host of issues, of course. What if one's religion prohibits one from paying taxes, or getting any kind of ID card, or handling money, or any one of dozens of such possibilities? While I'm sensitive to the idea of modesty and respect for religion, these sorts of issues are hard to balance.

A sad day in Tucson -- TPD officer killed while chasing man. This is the first officer killed in the line of duty since 1982 in Tucson.
Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace.

Happy Memorial Day

President Bush Honors the Brave and Fallen Defenders of Freedom. I hope you can take a moment to remember the fallen, too.

Their sacrifice was great, but not in vain. All Americans and every free nation on earth can trace their liberty to the white markers of places like Arlington National Cemetery. And may God keep us ever grateful.

As if all that other stuff wasn't enough, after the concert Amber Lee and I went to see "Bruce Almighty" (Noel decided to go home and sleep, the wimp!). It was enjoyable, although I don't think I'd care to see it more than once. As is typical of Jim Carrey movies there was a lot of physical humor. Parts of it were really quite funny. Of course there was the deeper message behind the humor -- that God really does love us, that prayer matters, that learning to love others selflessly is how we can grow in love for God. The story line was predictable and you could see the ending about a mile off. Still, I'm a sucker for movies like this. It was a lot of fun. Check it out.

While I was at the Reid Park concert I bumped into my stepfather, Fred. Fred married my mother in 1982, and they were married for about 2 years when she contracted lung cancer and died. They were, I think, the happiest two years of her life, for which I will always be grateful to him. He has been teaching at The University of Arizona(tm) for a while in the Nutrition department (my mom got her master's degree in nutrition -- it's how they met), but I rarely see him. It was really nice to talk with him for a bit and catch up. He remarried some time ago to a very nice violist who was playing at the concert last night.

Saturday evening I went to a concert of the Catalina Chamber Orchestra at Reid Park. This is one of those free evening concerts in the park that Tucson is famous for -- we are really quite spoiled. The weather was terrific and the music was good. I went with Amber Lee, and our mutual friend Noel was performing in one of the pieces (the Fauré Elegie). Here's the program:

Catalina Chamber Orchestra
Dr. Enrique Lasansky, Artistic Director
May 24, 2003
Demeester Outdoor Performance Center

Young Artists Concert

Program

Franz Joseph Haydn
Piano Concerto in D major, Hob. XVII:11
Jennifer Bao, piano
Junior Competition Winner

Don't Quit
A poem
Cheryl Copeland
Soccer Mom and Community Activist

Gabriel Fauré
Elegie, Opus 24
Devin Kim, cello
Senior Competition Winner

Serge Prokofiev
Peter and the Wolf
Barbara Grijalva, narrator
KOLD-TV Anchor


The Fauré was nice, as was the Haydn. The poem was... trite. I'm not sure what the point was, but it was the kind of poem you hear at every high school graduation (almost). And the Prokofiev was nice, but I like it much better without the narration.

Saturday during the day I went to the final retreat for our Living Stones program. It was a great retreat, and it was wonderful to spend some more quality time with this group of people I've been with for 3.5 years. We've all grown pretty close, and while we certainly don't always agree, there is a great deal of love and respect among us. The Church is blessed to have people like this serving her. The theme of the retreat was "A Time for Treasuring" with a focus on Mary's reflection and contemplation (Lk 2:51). We were invited to reflect on what we have achieved, and where we are going, and what God is calling us to do next. One thing we were invited to do was to write our own form of the Magnificat. In my case it metamorphosed into this:

Gordon's Canticle of Praise

Lord, I am tired.
Weary.
I've done too much for too long.
I need rest.
I want to rest in You.
I know I can find peace there
In the quiet place
Alone with You.

Lately I've been afraid
Of being alone
Of growing old
Of pain, disease, death.
But I know that in You
And with You
I'm never alone
And ever new.

John Paul II reminded us
As his first words
That You said
"Be not afraid!"
Help me now, Lord
To trust in You, as Mary did,
That Your promise will be again
Fulfilled.

I'm not sure exactly how it is a Canticle of Praise, but that's what I'm calling it.

Victor Lams is a blogging genius. A singing (what, no dancing?) genius.

Bill Gates isn't all evil. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is going to help build a new Catholic high school on Tucson's south side.

Whoo-ee! Some students have been getting to see more of school staff than usual -- Nude photo layout rocks TUSD. A high school counselor posed nude for an adult magazine. What was she thinking?

This is pretty disturbing -- Prime Time Porn. Pornography has become a billion-dollar business and there doesn't seem to be any way to stop it.

Obscenity cases have proved increasingly difficult to prosecute, however, as digital technology and the pervasiveness of sexual imagery have weakened the Supreme Court's famous 1973 decision holding that "community standards" are the crucial factor. In other words, market forces may ultimately decide what kind of porn will be piped to a video screen near you.

The Arizona Daily Star had an article yesterday on building trust in transportation. There's a good quote from the chairman of the Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee on which I sit.

Alex Rodriguez, a market research manager at Raytheon Missile Systems who chairs a citizens transportation committee for the city, said efforts to re-establish trust are "right on the money."

"All the elected officials and city staff must keep trust at the forefront of their thinking; otherwise they won't have support for their decisions," he said.

My friend Jenn called me tonight to tell me that a cousin of hers had committed suicide yesterday sometime. Please pray for the family, and for him that in his last moments of life he came to final repentance. Thanks.

Okay, I originally meant it as a joke, but I'm thinking it's not a bad idea. Therefore, I've started Gordon's Sk8er Boi Blog. Seriously! From now on I'm going to post all my skating and skating-related posts there, and only there. So if you want to read about my skating exploits you'll have to go there, otherwise keep reading here. Sorry for those of you who will have to then read two blogs instead of just one, but I think it's just as well.

It's occurred to me that lately my readers (both of you!) may be concerned that this blog is turning into Gordon's Sk8er Boi Blog. Don't fear, I have lots of other things to talk about, and I will!

Tonight was the very last regular meeting of our Living Stones class. Living Stones is a lay leadership formation program for the Diocese of Tucson. The culmination of 3.5 years of study. It was a nice session; we had a potluck dinner, did an evaluation of our last course, discussed our commencement Mass (June 1st) and had some final prayer and reflection time together. It's been a long haul but it's been very, very worthwhile and I'm really glad I did it. I'm especially glad for all the support I received from my pastor, Fr. John Lyons, and all the staff at Ss. Peter and Paul. All that's left now is our final retreat this coming Saturday (5/24) and the commencement Mass at the Cathedral June 1st. Whew!

Annnnnd.... tomorrow I get to skate! (sorry, couldn't resist!)

More skating reading -- Julie Learns to Skate. This is a diary of an adult skater who spent a solid couple of years learning to skate. Sadly (at least, I think so) she didn't keep up with her lessons. It seems like she certainly learned a lot in that time (and faster than I do!). I guess for adult skaters a lot depends on how much enjoyment you get out of it, and what your successes and motivations are. Julie also wrote a very cool Layperson's Guide to Lutzes and Loops that's worth reading even if you only watch skating on TV.

Whee! I am tired, but happy. I got to Gateway about 7 or so and went in the pro shop. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) 3/4 or more of the shop is hockey stuff, with just a little bit of figure skating gear, and most of that clearly aimed at little girls. If I understood the guy aright, they don't carry men's figure skates in my size. They would measure me for them and I'd have to wait for them to come in. I'm not too thrilled at that, I'd rather try them on and make sure they are okay. I'm considering going to Phoenix sometime to get skates.

Anyway, the public session didn't start 'til 7:35 due to the Zamboni being a bit late. But nice, fresh ice! It was gorgeous. It was not crowded at all, maybe 5 people at the beginning and it probably peaked at 10 tops. For the last 15 minutes or so it was just myself and a hockey player practicing his moves.

The one stupid thing tonight was that my skates just didn't feel right. They felt strange around the ankle and just a bit too tight. After half an hour of this I decided I'd had it and went back to ask for a different set. "Oh!" the guy behind the counter says, "you have women's skates!". Sheesh! Of course this was not the same person who had handed me the skates to begin with. NOTE TO SELF: At Gateway, at least, men's skates have red on the back, women's have black!

So I got a new set of skates and went back on the ice. Wow, what a difference! I felt great. All in all I spent about an hour or so just working on my forward swizzles. It took me a while but I finally started getting the hang of it. It's a question of keeping the weight toward the back of the foot and using the inside edge. I was really beginning to feel the edge! It was very cool. I then spent the rest of the time working on forward glides and I started experimenting with stroking, which just kind of happened naturally.

I'm really very pleased. I'm also quite tired. I tried to take frequent breaks after the first hour or so, figuring I needed them. I didn't really feel THAT tired until I left Gateway and got in my car, actually -- at which point I really felt tired, mostly in my shoulders (?) and my lower legs. I think at this point I ice skate almost as well as I rollerblade -- pretty amazing, really (also tells you a lot about my rollerblading skills :-)).

I think I'm starting to obsess a bit about skating. This would make sense if I actually knew what I am doing, but since I don't yet, it's just... strange. I have to admit that every time yesterday and today when I've said to myself "I'm going skating Monday night" I get a little thrill down my spine. Weird, I know. I'm going to go early tonight so I can go to the pro shop and look at skates. If there are some reasonably priced ones I will probably buy some -- these rental skates are driving me nuts! The only question is, white or black? I've always had this thing for white skates but I suspect black would be both more customary for a man and also probably look better on me -- so I'll probably go with black.

In case you thought you'd seen everything, the Arizona Daily Star's Bonnie Henry unearths Our Lady of Guadalupe Spray. Yep. I bet you thought you'd seen every variety of Catholic kitsch, but nope, there's new stuff. At least the diocese is, as always, hard-headed:

"I feel very confident none of these products carries the approval of the Roman Catholic Church," says Fred Allison, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Tucson.

"There is no limit to the inventiveness and imagination of folks wanting to make a buck."

On the other hand, says Allison, "There is a marketing of various goods Catholics regard as sacramentals, such as statues and holy cards.

"But spraying this spray around your house is not going to mean any less time out of purgatory."

I probably shouldn't admit it in a public forum, but I watched the last half or so of ABC's "The Bachelor" tonight. I had missed most of the series, actually, but I had thought on watching a bit of it several weeks ago that he should pick Jen as she seemed the smartest, most honest and level-headed, and overall good character AND pretty (what a combo!). So I was quite pleased that he did, in fact, pick Jen. Hooray for common sense (in an overall ridiculous situation!). He asked her to marry him and she said "Yes" quite enthusiastically. I hope this one works out better than some of the other shows of this sort.

I had my audition for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra chorus today. The TSO is celebrating their 75th anniversary this year, which makes them the oldest performing arts organization in Arizona, at least. The audition went reasonably well. It consisted of:

1. A prepared piece. In my case, this was Caccini's "Amarilli, Mia Bella". I did pretty nicely on it, I thought. I was quite pleased with the way I sounded and the director had a slightly goofy smile on his face. I couldn't decide if the smile meant, "Oh Lord, not the Caccini again", or "gosh, that sounds nice" or simply "what a cheesy song!".
   
2. I sang a brief excerpt from the Handel Messiah ("His Yoke is Easy"). Since it's a piece I know well I was comfortable with it and it was fine.
   
3. I sang a brief excerpt from the Verdi Requiem. This was not so fine. In particular, there was a minor third that I knew might be an issue, and I had worked on it, and I still goofed it the first time. He let me do it again though and I got it. Overall I guess this part was okay.
   
4. Tonal memory. The pianist played a 3-note pattern, a 4-note, and a 5-note. I am pretty sure I nailed 'em all. YAY!
   
5. Language/rhymthic reading. They were in Latin and German. Overall pretty easy, although I did miss a couple of small rhythmic things. I think my diction and pronunciation were good except for one spot of German.
   
6. Sight reading -- two excerpts. The first was Palestrina's "Sicut Cervus" which I mostly have memorized, so this was quite easy. The second was a Gloria by Argento. I did less well on this, I worried so much about the rhythm I sang some bad notes.
   

All in all I was pretty happy with how it went. They are supposed to let us know "soon" how we did etc. One nice point was that the pianist for today was a woman I know from school, which was a nice calming influence. Also the person before me was a tenor I know from Collegium, he had several solos in the last Collegium Musicum concert.