The Representation of Chaos

 

Before leaving for the European leg of the tour, the choir, orchestra and soloists all meet at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp property in secluded western Michigan for what is affectionately known as “intensive week” for days upon days of rehearsals and meetings.  The natural, open setting seems even more appropriate this year as we are performing a piece directly centered around the creation of, well, nature itself. 

In the Biblical telling, God begins with molding heaven and earth and ends with humanity’s creation in the forms of Adam and Eve.  With all this maker-ism on the mind it wasn’t hard to start seeing things around camp through a similar lens.

A performers eye view from the stage of the Stewart performance shell during our 8am dress rehearsal

 

“And God said: Let there be Light, and there was Light. And God saw the Light, that it was good; and God divided the Light from the darkness.” (The Creation, movement 1a.)

A shadowy self-portrait on the steps outside of Merrick hall

 

“Outrageous storms now dreadful arose… By heaven’s fire the sky is enflamed, and awful rolled the thunders on high.” (The Creation, movement 2a.)

The night before leaving for Europe we had a mighty storm pass through western Michigan, as is evident by the lightning struck tree.  Mind you, this is in the middle of faculty village, where multiple cabins are located.

Donner und Blitzen, indeed!

 

“And God said: Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together under one place … and it was so.” (movement 3a.)

Admittedly, this is a bit of a stretch, but I couldn’t quite figure out the most organic way to work this picture into the post.

I’m pretty sure this is more acurately known as the creation of diphtheria

 

“And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creatures after his kind … Unnumber’d as the sands in whirl arose the hosts of insects.” (movement 9a.)

 

Meet Theodore and Howard!  The former, Sabrina and I found while on a walk one morning and the latter landed on her leg during our dress rehearsal, hanging out for a good twenty minutes to enjoy the free concert

Unfortunately we did have one entomological incident during a rehearsal.  On the page directly after my singing of the “hosts of insects” I looked over and saw this poor little guy.

He’d be hard pressed to find a more appropriate page in the score.  HARD PRESSED, I SAID!!! *groan*

 

"And God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.” (movement 10a.)

So speeeaaaaking of the ‘breath of life’… I was wandering through one of the buildings one day and came across this myriad of lifeless bodies staring up at me.  They had been stashed in a side room in preparation for the regular summer camp’s health staff arrival but were quite disconcerting nonetheless.

 

I’m pretty sure that if they aren’t already, a group of CPR dummies should be known as a “chorus” … or maybe I just have a bit too much music on the brain

 

“And God saw ev’ry thing that he had made; and behold it was very good. And the heavenly choir in song divine thus closed the sixth day.” (movement 11a.)

Throughout the whole of my Blue Lake experiences I have had the great pleasure of becoming dear friends with Sabrina, Leah and Zach.  Without hyperbole I can say they are a large part of my continued return to this gem of western Michigan, and any tour without their involvement would be intensely diminished as far as I’m concerned.  Before leaving for the airport, it is customary for the parents and family members of the campers to see their children off, and I’m so glad that Leah and Sandy, one of the other international staff members, were there to act as our send-off squad!

And behold it was very good!

 

Artist: Joseph Haydn / Album: Die Schӧpfung (The Creation)

Back to Where I Was

 

Oh well HELLOOOO there ladies and gents!  A little over three years ago I set up this site as a kind of half journal / half repository for the myriad of interests which I find intriguing, enlightening and entertaining (you know, as opposed to all those other blogs out there that are nothing like that at all).  At times I feel as though I was quite successful and others, well, let’s just forget about those, shall we?

One of the greatest gifts the blog has given me is a detailed memory of my many summers working at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and touring internationally as a soloist for their oratorios.  For those tens upon tens of readers who used to regularly check in, you’ve probably noticed I have been an abysmal failure at updating for nearly a year.  Well weep no longer, faithful followers: I am thrilled to once again be returning to BLFAC for another European tour and reviving the blog in the process!

With a little more than gentle prodding from friends and fellow soloists, Sabrina Laney Warren (returning this year as blonde) and Zach Vanderburg (promoted to soloist from his previous years as section leader for our Elijah and Brahm’s Requiem tours), I have decided to once again take up the mantle of mediocre travel blogger. Selfishly, it’s so I can have another great account of my travels, but I don’t have any problem fudging the truth and saying I’m doing it for you, the people.  YOU’RE WELCOME! :)

This year the orchestra, choir and soloists will be busing all throughout Germany performing Joseph Haydn’s masterpiece, Die Schoepfung (The Creation), which, as you clever people might have surmised, follows the Biblical story—with a little bit of John Milton’s Paradise Lost thrown in for good measure—of God’s creating light and darkness and heaven and earth and plants and animals and Adam and Eve and everything and everything.  Well, I say everything, but we all know that caffeine, carbs and chocolate are the Devil’s work, okaaaaaay!

Just sayin’

 

During the holidays of last year I had the pleasure of going up to Dallas and spending some good, quality time with my brother, sister-in-law, nephews and the whole Friess family clan, taking an excursion to the Fort Worth zoo in the process. I snapped the following picture and immediately sent it to Leah, my boss (and good friend) at the international program, joking that it should be used for the promotional poster for the Creation tour ‘cause it looks just so darned creationy.  *Shock and awe* they decided to go in a “different direction,” but I excuse it by telling myself that they couldn’t afford my royalty fees.  At any rate, here it is for posterity’s sake so that future generations can revel in it’s Instagramed glory.

Seriously, though… that zebra is rockin’ some creation realness

 

And for those of you inclined to hear a bit of the piece itself, here’s the prelude to the oratorio, entitled “The Representation of Chaos.”  This is, like, music history 101 right here for you peeps.

Also… puh-LEASE notice the zebras and rainbow at 4:40!

 

Artist: Eric Hutchinson / Album: Sounds Like This

On the 4th of July

 

I had the pleasure of spending yesterday's July 4th celebration off camp (and in the States for the first time in two years) at Josh and Leah's house doing all those wonderful Summer things our founding father's had in mind when splittin' from ye Old England: grilling, fireworks, beer and friends!

 

We were also joined by Josh's parents, who were in from Illinois, both of Leah's assistants from Blue Lake, and a couple from across the street.  Not just any couple, mind you, but part of North Muskegon's political elite—the wife was the first female city counsel member who then went on to become the first female mayor of the city! (Which, unfortunately, is probably not what the founding father's had in mind :-/ )

My contributions to the evening were two of my go-to fav's: Jezebel sauce (a spicy jelly concoction served, of course, over a block of cream cheese) and watermelon salsa.  And what Summer in Michigan is complete without Bell's Oberon!

 

 

Josh also picked up some de-licious burgers from Mac's Meats and Country Road Bakery in the nearby town of Rothbury. I'm just gonna go on and put it out there that these burgers could kick your burger's ass from here to the Canadian coast.

Grill, baby, grill!

 

After dinner we headed out to the "party-o" to enjoy the fireworks display to be held over the nearby lake. 

Please note… the presence of fire does NOT equate to a chill in the air

 

While we were waiting for the sun to set, the former Mayoress told the group about a recent death in another nearby community.  Apparently a local man who had run a fireworks stand every holiday season recently passed away and requested only one thing: that his remains be packed into a firework and shot off over the lake during the festivities. 

R.I.P Tom: As it oft repeated in these somber moments: Earth to Earth, ashes to ashes, dust to highly-combustible-multicolored-dust and GOD BLESS 'MERICA!

 

Unfortunately my phone battery died before the official show began so I have no real evidence of the real display.  At any rate, here's hoping everyone had a fun and safe holiday!

 

Artist: James Taylor / Album: October Road

Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?

 

After my brief stay in Ann Arbor it was back to the campgrounds at Blue Lake for one more final round of concerts.  Sabrina and I were fortunate enough to get to stay with Leah and Josh as our host parents!!  Leah was technically my boss (though I do consider her a friend now) and was responsible for hiring me last year for the Elijah tour. Truth be told the only reason I returned this year to do the Brahms was because I failed to get one single picture with her in 2011—and you all know how much I love a good photo op!

As I feel I have already exhausted myself on talking about the camp itself I’ll just focus on all the fun we got to have in North Muskegon… starting with THE FOOD.  Bernie O’s is a local pizza joint that has been ranked nationally and even appeared on the Food Network (did you hear that, Jan?!).  One of their claim's to fame is the Firebird pizza, which isn’t so much an homage to Stravinsky as it is to the fact that it uses ghost chili peppers.  There is a competition to eat the pizza (at the third level of crazy heat) within a certain time limit and if you win then you get to go on the wall of FLAME!  Josh and I joked about doing it but you need a third person and neither Leah nor Sabrina were up for it.

 

Please notice how the wall is completely empty :(

 

We, however, opted for a couple of more sane options and they. were. DELECKER!!

 

Before Sabrina and I had to part ways again we needed to get a picture we’d been talking about taking for the whole summer.  It was noticed very early on that our computers appeared to match our respective sizes and here is the evidence to prove it:

Yeah, I’m pretty sexy in argyle sox and shorts.

 

Now, some of you may notice a certain toy of the equine persuasion trying to get in on the photo action.  Sabrina found it in the basement and naturally neither of us could resist a good opportunity to prove our ages.

 

 

Apparently we’re not very coordinated… It looks like I’m trying to speed up while BriBri is slowing down

 

There aren’t really words to describe how appreciative I am for Leah over these last two years doing the international tour.  She didn’t go to Europe this summer (she was busy coordinating all nine of the Blue Lake tours while concomitantly organizing over twenty European groups that were coming to the states to do tours themselves!) and was greatly missed by everyone.  I’ll never forget last year when sweating my way through 3 hours of Elijah in the summer heat every other day she was always there on the front row acting as our cheerleader.  I’m pretty sure she was contractually obligated to do so, but she at least did a good job of pretending to enjoy it each time ;)

Finally, as is customary for the last picture of these such posts, we got a family photo!

Leah and Josh: host family first timers NO MORE! I finally got to get my picture with yooooouuuuu!!!

 

Artist: U2/ Album: Achtung Baby

Anyone Can Cook

 

Because I value you, my dear blog readers, I decided to put my health at risk at your request and do a follow up blog post to one I made about my previous trip to Blue Lake in May.  More specifically, I returned to the gas station near highway 31 and “cooked” myself up a good ol’ fashioned bowl of biscuits and gravy. For those unfamiliar with this assault on the culinary community check here.

Step 1: Peel back corner of film from tray to vent.  Heat in microwave for 10-15 seconds.

The antici… … … pation is killing me!

 

Step 2: Peel back film and enjoy with Bob Evans sausage gravy from dispenser.

Stray observation—apparently the optimal temperature for gravy is 156 degrees in case any of you needed to jot that down in your recipe books

 

Enjoying the “nose” of the complex flavor combinations

 

Not so much enjoying the “taste.” Sabrina on the other hand…

 

Biscuits (and gravy) be CRAZY!

 

Actually, her real response went a little something like this:

Sabrina: It’s not sausagy enough.  My guess is they didn’t use any sage.

Leah: Ummm… ya THINK?!

Step 3: Proceed immediately to restroom or hospital, whichever happens to be closest.

Artist: Michael Giacchino/ Album: Ratatouille