weekend

[cellio]

Since Friday was Independence Day, our cantorial soloist made certain modifications to the music at services. Adon Olam is Greensleeves-complete (that is, it can be sung to anything that Greensleeves can be sung to, which is a lot); so is the national anthem. Sort of, but "sort of" is normal for mutations of Adon Olam. (Everybody picks that song in particular to beat up on... :-) )

We had no rabbis this Shabbat, so I was asked to lead the torah study on Shabbat morning. I participate every week, but leading is a little different. I think it went reasonably well, especially with the difficult passage I had to cover. (Ahem. Rabbi, I'll thank you not to leave us in such a challenging place next time. :-) ) Deut 25:11-12, for the curious. Maybe more about that in a different post.

The service was led by the person who organizes the torah readers; he happened to be reading that day, so he got the whole service. He has told me in the past that he's uncomfortable with singing/chanting, but he did a great job this week. It probably helped that a few of the regulars who tend to run roughshod over any non-rabbinic leader weren't there. These are the folks who won't give the lay leader a chance to start a song in a comfortable key or choose a melody, for instance. It's pretty frustrating, as it forces leaders who are not necessarily practiced at this to be pushy rather than taking that calming breath before doing something major. They don't much faze me (I'm loud and, when the designated leader, assertive), but I feel for some other folks. But anyway, yesterday's leader did a fine job, and I hope he'll be more comfortable doing this in the future now that he's done it once.

After lunch Dani and I went to ariannwyn's holiday party. Her new house is excellent for parties that can use outdoor space; the deck and yard are expansive and comfortable. She's also got a good space for gaming, though we didn't break out any games at this party. It was nice to chat with some folks I don't see often (or do see but it's at events and they're busy being, say, royalty).

The secret to parking near her house, by the way, is to ignore the thing that looks like a street (it's a driveway) and follow the thing that looks like a driveway (it's a street).

Today has been mostly a quiet day at home. We went out for brunch and ended up on Craig Street, where we encountered roadblocks and lots of classic cars parked in the street. The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix isn't for another two weeks, but apparently today was the kick-off for the festivities -- what we saw turned out to be cars lining up for a road rally. I've never participated in a rally, but they sound like fun (though I'd be most interested in low-tech ones; I think it's more fun if you have to do your own calculations, don't have a GPS telling you exactly where you are, and so on).

I think of rallies as being more of a rural or suburban thing; this one was right in the city. But I guess there are different sorts; the ones I've heard about revolve around instructions like "go 28MPH for 3.7 miles", which would be harder if you have to deal with traffic lights and want to stay legal. (A rally isn't a race; you are peanlized for passing checkpoints either too early or too late (based on how long it should have taken you to get there had you followed the directions precisely).) Maybe someday I'll learn more about them from a participant's perspective.

I found a recipe for cold cherry soup today that I like. I finally seem to have learned how to use cornstarch as a thickener (though I gather that's not the only thing going on here). This recipe is pretty easy, and tasty. Definitely a keeper.

I spent some time learning the torah portion I'm chanting in two weeks. I'm not sure yet whether repeated text with different trope is good (hey, I already know these words) or bad (...but not to that melody). I'm reading the part of Pinchas that goes through the holidays listing the offerings to be brought for each, which are mostly the same. It's kind of long, but not in words.

Comments

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Adon Olam is Greensleeves-complete (that is, it can be sung to anything that Greensleeves can be sung to, which is a lot); so is the national anthem.

This confuses me. I tried to sing the national anthem to the tune of Greensleeves, but it didn't work--per phrase, there are many more words in the anthem than there are notes in the tune. America the Beautiful matches up decently well, though.

[cellio]

Now that I'm trying, I find myself utterly unable to get my brain to combine those words with that melody, in either direction. Adon Olam did work to the Star-Spangled Banner, though -- with some smooshing of non-emphasis syllables, sure, but that's pretty normal as these things go.