Tic-Tac-Toe Office Windows

Posted on January 22, 2016 by Katherine Wikoff

That’s what all the different light-fixture patterns inside all the window squares put me in mind of, anyway 🙂

Tic Tac Toe Office Windows

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Approaching “Lake Effect” Snow

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Katherine Wikoff
Approaching "Lake Effect" Snow

Dark snow clouds forming over Lake Michigan and moving west toward Milwaukee

A high-pressure system to our north is causing a strong breeze to come in from the northeast. As the cold Canadian air crosses over the warmer water of Lake Michigan, it is picking up moisture, forming it into dark clouds and then dumping it as snow again once it hits shore. This is what they call “lake effect” snow.

Milwaukee’s weather usually moves in from the west, so lake-effect snow is not quite the issue here that it is on the  Michigan shore across the lake.

Buffalo, New York, is on the northeastern end of Lake Erie and a little southeast (and south and southwest, too!) of Lake Ontario, so those poor people have about triple the odds of winding up on the receiving end of the “lake effect,” which explains why they get such crazy-high annual snowfall totals.

Just today’s little weather tutorial, offered as a public service for everyone who doesn’t live next to a large body of water in a place that has cold winters and, thus, hasn’t had an opportunity to learn all of this the hard way😄

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Menomonee River, early morning January

Posted on January 2, 2016 by Katherine Wikoff

I had an appointment that took me along the Menomonee River Parkway early this morning, and as the sight of morning winter sunlight on the snow beside the river is one rarely glimpsed in the normal course of my daily and weekly routine, I made a quick stop to take a few photos.

Menomonee River, early morning January [2]

Menomonee River, early morning January [3]

Below is a footbridge across the river that was built in the 1930s by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), one of the Great Depression era’s “alphabet soup” New Deal public work relief programs.Menomonee River, early morning January, footbridge

And here: a row of picnic tables stacked together (looking like a conga line 🙂 ) awaiting the spring thaw.picnic tables, stacked together, winter

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Crow amid empty branches, December 31

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

imageCrows are sometimes seen as bad omens, even signs of impending death. But they are also seen as omens of positive change and messengers from the gods.

I much prefer the latter interpretation, especially as catching sight of this one today would then augur well for positive changes in store for the new year. Happy 2016!

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12 Days of Christmas Songs (#5) – “Barbara Allen”

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

“Barbara Allen” is a real downer of a song; no question about it. And it isn’t really a Christmas song, but I have always associated it with this time of year, dating from my first viewing of A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim as Scrooge.

Have a look/listen at this scene near the end of the film, when Scrooge goes to his nephew’s home to reconcile with his only living relation.

The harmony is lovely, and as the song is being sung at a Christmas Day gathering, you can see how I might have assumed it was an old carol. The Wikipedia entry on “Barbara Allen” says that the song’s earliest mention comes in a diary entry by Samuel Pepys, dated January 2, 1666, that talks about how it was sung at a New Year’s party.

Another holiday connection.

Which is odd because basically “Barbara Allen” is about a young man on his deathbed who sends for the girl he has a crush on. She comes, takes one look at him, and remarks, “Young man, I think you’re dying.” So then, his romantic hopes dashed, he turns his face to the wall and dies. Barbara Allen goes home and tells her mother that since her love died for her that day, she would die, in turn, the next.

How this song became associated with Christmas and New Year’s Day is beyond me.

Even stranger is the fact that this 17th-century tune became a darling of the folksinger set in the 1950s–1970s. Maybe because of the striking melody, but maybe because of the lyrics, too. In “For Dave Glover,” a poem that appeared in the program for the 1963 Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan said that

The folk songs showed me the way

They showed me that songs can say somethin human [sic]

Without “Barbara Allen” there’d be no “Girl From the North Country”

While looking up some basic info for this post, I was surprised to find video on YouTube of the song being performed by Joan Baez, Art Garfunkel, Emmylou Harris, and Pete Seeger. I’ve posted them below in case you’re interested in hearing any/all. (Sorry about any ads, if there are any.) Plus, because I just mentioned it (and happen to really like it myself 🙂 ), I’ve also included “Girl from the North Country,” as sung by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.

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12 Days of Christmas Songs (#4) – “Silver Bells”

Posted on December 26, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Christmas shopping when I was young meant pausing at magical window displays while trundling along snowy sidewalks in heavy coats and boots between the fancy department stores and the Woolworth’s and Kresge’s five-and-dime stores. Tinsel, pine boughs, and strands of multicolored lights strung across the streets. Santa seated on his throne in the sparkling toy department awaiting our visit.

And everywhere the sounds of Christmas music floated in the air.

“Silver Bells” was the first song I can remember noticing the harmonies in. Harmony would soon become what I liked most in music—hence, my enduring regard for groups like The Beatles, The Mamas & the Papas, ABBA, Duran Duran, etc. In “Silver Bells” the harmony reminds me of real bells, especially the way the chorus “rings” out and then reverberates—SILVER BELLS (silver bells), SILVER BELLS (silver bells). The strands of melody and harmony progress in lockstep on the “Silver Bells” lines, then split apart at “it’s Christmastime in the city,” where the melody rises and the harmony descends to slow the pace slightly in the same way a bell hangs in momentary suspension at the outer edge of its arc before swinging back.

The lyrics in “Silver Bells” also delighted me. Those “strings” of stoplights morphing into Christmas lights as they blinked bright red and green. Sidewalks “dressed” in holiday style. Shoppers rushing home with their treasures, snow crunching underfoot, children laughing, “and above all this bustle” the sound of bells. Even the “silver” gleam captivated me—no ordinary bells, these. The vivid images and onomatopoetic sounds perfectly captured the Christmas downtown shopping experiences of my childhood.

I’ve always associated “Silver Bells” with Bob Hope. Mostly, I assumed, because he sang it so often on his annual Christmas special. But just now, searching for video from those old shows, I discovered that “Silver Bells” was actually introduced to the world in one of his old movies, The Lemon Drop Kid (1951). Here is video of that original performance.

And here is Olivia Newton-John appearing with Hope in his 1977 Christmas special.

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12 Days of Christmas Songs (#3) – Handel’s Messiah

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Merry Christmas! For today’s post, I thought the most appropriate “song” might be Messiah, the most significant musical work ever composed about the life of Christ within the context of Biblical Old Testament prophecies about his birth and Gospels about his life, death, and resurrection.

Final bars of the “Hallelujah” chorus, from the original 1741 score (via Wikipedia, public domain)

The best overall version of Handel’s Messiah that I’ve found online—that is, the version I most prefer 🙂 —is the London Symphony Orchestra’s performance. The almost ludicrously ornamental vocal and instrumental acrobatics are characteristic of the Italian opera that was extremely popular in 18th-century London. And Handel was one of the most famous composers of Italian opera. Although born in Germany, he traveled to Italy in his early twenties and began writing opera there. A few years later Handel emigrated to London, shortly before his employer, the German Prince George, also emigrated to become King George I of Great Britain and Ireland.

Obviously the most appropriate Messiah chorus for today would be “For Unto Us a Child Is Born.” Here is the London Symphony Orchestra’s “For Unto Us a Child Is Born.”

And here is the more famous “Hallelujah” chorus. As the story goes, Handel was overcome by emotion and in tears when he finished writing this piece, exclaiming to a visitor, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself.”

Below is my favorite Messiah chorus, “And He Shall Purify the Sons of Levi.” I’m including the video here, just because 🙂

And finally—ironically, I guess, to put at the end of this post—here is Messiah‘s “Overture.” I had to search YouTube to find a performance that best fits my “ideal”—not too ponderously slow, not too fast, and with just the right amount of embellishment in terms of trilled notes (rather than plain and unornamented, because remember this is basically 18th-century Italian opera). The version below, by the City of Preston Orchestra in the United Kingdom, gets it right.

When I close my eyes and listen to this “Overture” through headphones, I truly feel what Handel described: that I can see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself.

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12 Days of Christmas Songs (#2) – “Have a Merry Merry Merry Merry Christmas”

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

During my childhood in Ohio in the 1960s, my mom (and grandmother and great-grandmother, for that matter) were fans of Ruth Lyons, a pioneering Cincinnati radio and television personality who began her career in the earliest days of commercial radio in the 1920s.

When I had a tonsilectomy in second grade, my hospital stay was considerably brightened when a cart was rolled into my room and I was allowed to select a toy to keep, courtesy of the Ruth Lyons Christmas Fund. In addition to her other talents, Ruth Lyons was a gifted songwriter. Every Christmas she wrote a new tune, which was sung on her television show and also released as a record, the proceeds going to the Christmas Fund.

My mom bought several of the records, and I grew up thinking these local (mostly Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana) 45 rpm singles were just as widely known as the Perry Como, Bing Crosby, and Andy Williams records we also played each holiday season. (Along with those great Firestone Christmas albums my parents picked up at the tire store each year 🙂 ) In the course of writing this post, I discovered that there is a CD compilation of 18 Ruth Lyons Christmas songs—which I was all set to purchase until I realized that it was available only through re-sellers. A “new” CD, still sealed, would cost $199. Nope.

While the most famous of Ruth Lyons’ Christmas songs is apparently “Let’s Light the Christmas Tree,” my personal favorite remains the cheery “Have a Merry Merry Merry Merry Christmas.” Both songs are on YouTube, and I’ve posted the “videos” below.

And a bonus: My mom used to make “Ruth Lyons’ Peanut Butter Fudge” during the holidays. You’ll find the recipe below, following the videos.

Ruth Lyons’ Peanut Butter Fudge (unofficial, my mom’s recipe 🙂 )

  1. Add 2 cups sugar, Âž cup milk, Âź teaspoon salt, and 2 teaspoons vanilla into a pan.
  2. Boil without stirring to soft ball temperature (approx. 235 ÂşF); you can test in cold water. (Here’s a link to a YouTube video demonstrating the soft ball test.)
  3. Remove pan from heat immediately.
  4. Add Âž cup peanut butter.
  5. Beat mixture until it loses its shine (to a dull look).
  6. Pour into greased pan.
  7. Let cool/harden. Slice into squares.

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12 Days of Christmas Songs (#1) – “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

The “Twelve Days of Christmas” is actually the 12-day period beginning on Christmas Day and ending on January 5th (the day before the day the three kings/Magi/wise men visited the Christ child, aka “Epiphany“). So I’m getting started a little early.

Backstory: I was thinking about doing a blog post listing my favorite five Christmas carols. Too hard, though, picking just five. Then I tried for a list of ten songs—but when I counted them up, I had twelve. Well, that still works out: If I post one song per day from now until the last day of my break (Sunday, January 3), that’s twelve days.

Today’s song is one of my very favorites, “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.” To me, the harmonies sound very medieval, like something that should be sung by monks in an ancient European monastery. “Lo, How a Rose” is actually a German carol that dates from around 1600, so not quite as old as the Middle Ages. Its German title is “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen.” (For more, see the Wikipedia article here.)

This video contains both the lyrics (in German) and the sheet music with all four singing parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), which is fun.

Hope you enjoy it!

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Looking forward versus looking back

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Katherine Wikoff

Strange how a shift in perspective changes everything. I was walking north with the sun at my back this afternoon when I noticed this interesting pattern of shadow and light reflections on the sidewalk ahead of me.After walking a little farther, I turned around and looked back at that same image in reverse, this time facing into the sun. And, wow—pretty amazing to see how completely altered something can be depending on your vantage point. Looking into the shadows creates a totally different image than looking into the sun. Good thing to to remember, like the glass that’s half empty or half full 🙂

shadow and light pattern on sidewalk

 

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