You're asking a lifelong, DNA-embued Raider fan, AND his faithful spouse to travel into the heart of "The Immaculate Reception-Land?"??? Forgive? Yes! Forget? Never!!!
Well, m' queen and lady, we'll be there! Besides, NPM Pittsburgh '99 was my NPM Waterloo. Can I sing "Niener, niener, niener" in Tone 8? Kathy, spare change for airfare? Ooh, and U.S. Airways has Pitt as a hub, and I really don't like flying with those folks. The horror, the horror.
After my funeral dismissal, all of you can sing "What he did for Mass.....WHAT HE DID FOR CHANT!!!"
this is great but i will miss that wonderful wonderful woman who greated us every day in the cafeteria line. I asked her to marry me last year but she said no...
Don, it's so interesting that I thought of that nice woman too! I feel bad for her. She lived to attend Mass at the colloquium. Maybe she will come to Duquesne.
Well, phooey! I wanted to go back to Chicago b/c my daughter lives in Indy and was a wonderful reason to spend the weekend on either side of Colloquium with her. I stayed in the dorms at Duquesne the last time NPM was in Pittsburgh. We drove and got SO ROYALLY lost trying to find the Univ. We ended up miles away at 10PM at night. A long drive from Knoxville. And no sailboats. Oh well.
Pittsburgh is a great town! And it's within relatively easy road-trip distance for me from the sunny south . . .
Woo hoo! Road trip. I'll bring the family van and ferry some people from the airport.
Congratulations, AOZ! This is marvelous as far as I'm concerned. I, too, will miss the Cafeteria Lady; but there are nice people in Pittsburgh as well.
And as for the food in Pittsburgh, all I can say is that you have to have at least one dinner at Pasquarelli's. And Primante Brothers is also highly recommended, but in a different way.
Why the switch? Well, I can think of about 95 reasons why . . . or was that just the temperature in the rehearsal rooms?
The dearth of rehearsal spaces, especially because there was no place to hold the reading session that had an organ instead of a piano, was also problematic in my opinion. The lack of organ was especially painful considering the general viewpoint about using the piano in church, or even using it as a rehearsal instrument (according to Dr. Marier and others).
And these reasons are all just observations on my part, not the result of any inside knowledge. But I'm glad I didn't complain much after the Colloquium; the totality of the experience was so transcendent that the adversities seemed insignificant. After all, there's no situation so bad that it can't be made worse by complaining.
I actually screamed when I saw this. I am absolutely THRILLED, since I've had a love affair for years with the beautiful city of Pittsburgh. This is fairly close to home for me, and only one hour from my in-law's house. And academic credit too? I am in awe.
There are so many things to look forward to at Duquesne. We are thrilled! Too many to list, in fact, but I'll give it a go: practice rooms (organ and piano) everywhere. Beautiful parish church right next door with a flexible and welcoming schedule. Is it in walking distance? Yes - right next door!
I'll go on: lovely dorms with optional hotels: Duquesne is right downtown. Morning prayer in historic campus chapel. All catered meals in beautiful new ballroom. Starbucks on campus for the addicts; two in fact. Graduate credit from the Mary Pappert School of Music for those who wish to pursue it.
The list goes on and on. Lastly for now and of prime importance to many: a total price (not announced yet, so please be patient....) that will be lower than last year's.
Well, Kathy, when I went to visit and walk the walk and do the talk I didn't figure in any pub time. Darn. But I know there are restaurants and pubs everywhere. Right downtown.
Lower price! Are you sure? Is that even possible? That would be a big help anyway. I can't wait till I tell my schola. We can all drive together.
Thanks Arlene and CMAA.
(Daniel Page, would you please email me?)
(I went to Traditional Mass this morning. This is like the first one in this area. There was a gentleman who said this was the first one for him in 50 years. We are all grateful to this young priest who said the Mass. He will be doing the Traditional Mass once every week. The server who converted only 3 years ago after studying history in masters program knew all the prayers in latin. And he is coming to my schola. I told them about the Colloquium. I know this area is changing! Thanks CMAA. Deo Gratias.)
The real thanks are due to key people in Pittsburgh who've recognized the merit in what we do and have welcomed us with open arms: Rev. Carmen D'Amico, Pastor at The Church of the Epiphany; Prof. Ann Labounsky (whom you will remember from this past Colloquium), Chair of Sacred Music in the Mary Pappert School of Music, and Prof. Ed Kocher, Dean of the School of Music.
Daniel, this would be a good time for a reprise :)
Well, it sounds great. And I have just remembered that one of my best friends from Air Force days lives in Roanoke, and my son's in-laws are in Raphine, so I can take two days to do the trip if I want to. My biggest disappointment about Loyola was that there was no central 'hang-out' place. I only met a couple of people on this blog b/c the name tags were so small and no place to meet them. Was very disappointing. Not complaining about the over all show, you understand. When I went many years ago to the one which took place at Christendom everyone met in the cafeteria and we all had a riotous time. It didn't close down after dinner. (Of course, the numbers were way smaller)
Meal time was the best time to hang out and talk to people. I didn't mind that I couldn't eat and talk at the same time so much and oftentimes didn't have time to get coffee (never drank so much coffee before, I needed it because of getting up so early to hit the shower before others and full day activities. I didn't want to miss any of them.)The meal time was never enough, but it was great, otherwise I'd have been talking all night, plus we had so much to learn and sing.
If I'm reading correctly, it looks like the Organ Historical Society will be having its annual national convention in Pittsburgh at the same time (June 21-25). They're at www.organsociety.org I'm sure that many OHS convention-goers (hundreds and hundreds) would be extremely and pleasantly surprised to see the quality of the music and liturgy at the Colloquium.
AOZ, you are so kind. We're so excited. We still have 10 months. I hope you don't stress yourself getting ready so fast. Is there anything we can help?
And most of all, thank you, Arlene. If you've ever arranged even a lunch meeting for 10 people (including two Kosher Jews), you have a vague idea of the horrors of conference planning.
I don't care about the bars - I'm going to be looking for sausage! (As well as the higher things like music, liturgy, etc.)
Thanks, m'queen, AOZ asks "Anything else?" Why, yes ma'am. I've already spent some active cognition regarding enological issues and accomodations, if that's what you're sniffing (Ah, it has a nose of...) Surprisingly, hotel prices around Dusquene as currently listed at both hotel and discount sites seem exorbitant. Maybe they didn't get TARP, though I certainly qualify as a "clunker."
Mary Jane, are there earthly things higher than sausage? Sausage is a pretty wonderful thing.
Richard, you are hilarious. I wouldn't have thought of that one. Since my granddaddy used to run 'shine, the two X's made me think of a little brown jug.
And what a perfect tie-in. In a parallel thread Jeffrey Tucker pointed out the great ICEL Resource Collection. There's also a reference on that page to the St. Gregory Hymnal-Spiral but if you look closely you'll notice that the copyright is actually held by the St. Grogory Guild. Colloquium Dos Equis indeed!
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