weekend

[cellio]

Shabbat went pretty well. I read torah, which went very well, and lead the service from the beginning of the torah service to the end, which went adequately. (There were a couple places where my musical will was insufficiently strong to force a key -- so we'd start to sing and then I'd realize that a large group had started in a different key and they weren't budging. Odd.)

I got a bit of a scare Friday night about the torah reading. Our congregation reads Friday nights (most Reform shuls do), and my rabbi started the second aliya (what I'd be reading the next day) one verse later than what I had learned. No big deal normally -- except that I had built my entire drash around that first verse, and if it wasn't really supposed to be there I was going to have to cons up something new that night, or decide to use it anyway. Had I really mis-learned the portion? When I got home I re-checked my tikkun and checked two chumashim besides, and they all agreed that I had the break in the right place. Good.

The talk went well (just a couple minutes, not long), and I got compliments on both the reading and the talk. One person told me afterwards that she wants me to teach an adult-ed class. I said "on what?" and she said it didn't matter; she likes the way I think about things. But I'm much better on "can you teach such-and-such?" than on "can you teach something?", so there it will sit until someone makes a specific proposal.

(There's a psychological thing with me and teaching. It's not just the phobia of standing up in front of a group; in addition, I do not consider myself an expert, let alone the most qualified person to speak, on any topic within the religious scope. Now intellectually I realize that doesn't matter; if I know more than other people and am willing to share, that's good enough. But it still feels like I'm pretending to know more than I really do, or something like that.)

Two more people told me they want to learn torah trope. I have to talk to the rabbi about how to address that. (No, this isn't something I can teach. I'm still working on it myself. If I couldn't read regular music notation I'd be doomed, because I"m relying on a phrase-by-phrase cheat sheet.)

Last night's party went well. Shabbat ended before 6, which gave me two hours to cook before the start time of 8. lefkowitzga came early and helped cook, chop veggies, and set things up, which was a great help. I had too much food; next time I'll know better. Fortunately, we were invited to a pot-luck dinner this evening. :-) (The host was at the party and I had told her in advance that I'd be bringing something she would recognize, but I couldn't say what yet.)

Various people brought food too, including bread from schulman, pumpkin cookies from geekosaur, kugel from lefkowitzga, and cheese from Sharon and Elliott. (There was more, too.)

I knew that lorimelton was going to bring much cake goodness, because when a kick-ass baker offers to bring you a cake you say yes, but I was still awed by the results. The cake was in three main layers (concentric circles of diminishing diameter), and each of those layers consisted of two layers of white cake with fruit filling between. (Apricot?) This was covered with a tasty butter-cream icing which in turn was covered with sugared almond slices. She topped it with three fresh roses. Beautiful! I hope someone took pictures. (I didn't think to fetch my camera.) It was incredibly good, and we have enough left to enjoy some more today. :-)

dr4b was visiting from Seattle and therefore wins the "greatest distance travelled" award. dagonell and Cigfran drove down from New York and stayed with us last night, so we got to visit with them more before they headed back today. There were about 50 people total -- many SCA, a healthy dose of the extended Claritech group, and assorted other friends. It was a good mix of people, and I got to see some people I haven't seen in a while. Some people were able to put faces to LJ names, too. A few people I was expecting didn't make it.

I discovered one small "oops" this afternoon. Some friends had asked if their son could watch a videotape during the party and I said sure. We have more than one VCR, so when I put the tape in for him I handed him that VCR's remote, not the universal remote, to avoid confusion. Unfortunately, the parents didn't notice this, and accidentally walked off with my West Wing tape instead of "Land of the Lost VII" (I think that was the title). Fortunately, it was not a rental that they had already returned. Fortunately, I will see one of the parents on Monday and can exchange hostages. (We haven't seen Wednesday's episode yet.) That had the potential to be much worse!

Food notes for the future:

• Two dozen devilled eggs (that is, four dozen pieces) went quickly. I actually intended to make twice as many, but storage space was a challenge (can't stack 'em, after all) beforehand and stuffing them was sufficiently time-consuming that I didn't make the rest during the party. I wonder what other people do.
• Skewers of roasted veggies (peppers, mushrooms, onions, squash, cherry tomatoes in various combinations) went over like lead balloons.
• Spinach balls were well-received.
• A few too many sliced apples; some caramel dip used.
• One large tray of raw veggies was enough. Dip got used.
• I had breads and crackers, and things to put on bread and crackers (cheese, cream cheese, jam). The cream cheese and jam were barely touched; next time just stick with the cheese. People ate about 1.5 to 2 pounds of cheese (various sorts).
• I started with a quart of hummus (for the veggies and the pita) and had about a cup left at the end.
• Gefilte fish had lukewarm reception.
• Cheese-onion tarts (in 3" shells) were reasonably popular -- used between 3 and 4 dozen. Gail's electric hot plate was a major aid here.
• Kugel was popular -- only a few pieces left from a large pan.
• One package of roasted peanuts would have been sufficient. Banana chips were not too popular.
• Sweets are always popular. :-)
• Went through about a case of beer (plus a couple of the 25-ounce bottles). Haven't dug through the rest of the drink leftovers yet. There are plenty, but at least some bottles are unopened and the back porch is cool enough to hold the rest, so they'll get used.

Comments

Teaching trope

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

http://www.uahc.org/music/torahcant.shtml

I used the one for Haftarahs and Megillot to learn Kohelet, and I thought it was pretty great.

Re: Teaching trope

[cellio]

Actually, that's the book I'm learning from. The most useful part for me is the two pages in the back that summarize each phrase type in standard musical notation. I pattern-match that list from the tikkun. I'm getting to the point where I just know (most of) them and don't have to look them up, but I largely didn't work through the lessons in the book. (Ironically, I would have if they hadn't included the CD -- that means they didn't include music in the lessons, and my prime study time is on Shabbat, when I don't use the stereo.)

I've pointed some people at that book already, and photocopied those two pages for a couple others, but we also have people who would learn better with a teacher than from a book, and I'd like to find some way to accommodate them. We'll be able to get something through the adult-ed program for next year (where years start in September), but I'd like to do something sooner than that, if I could just figure out what and how.

In the meantime, the rabbi makes tapes for people who want them and some people read rather than chanting.

My rabbi has good things to say about Trope Trainer, which I will probably get. (Ah, I see they now have a downloadable demo; I'll give that a look soon.)