MN Mondays #19 - Up yours, Gustafson.

When it became clear that, amazing and lovely as it was, Wheelock Woods needed owners with access to substantially more resources than we could bring to bear, We started looking for a smaller house in St. Paul.  There was this one place on the East Side that looked cute and was actually pretty similar to Blair House.  But it was a little more than we wanted to spend and then it got snapped up before we could even go look at it, anyway.  So it was back to the drawing board.

We kept looking throughout the summer of 2013 as we continued to fix up bits of the house to make a better impression when we put it on the market.  We finally got everything the way we wanted it and put Wheelock on the market.  And got 3 offers the first weekend, if I remember correctly.

Needless to say we weren't ready for things to move quite that fast.  We hadn't seriously looked at many houses as prospects but now we had to get it in gear.  The sale of Wheelock was not going to take the 6 months to a year that we had figured on.  Here's where Jacob's recreational MLS scouring played in our favor.  Between him and our agent Genevieve we were able to see loads of places in a fairly short amount of time.

Grumpy Old Manor - May 2014

But none of those houses was the right one.

Then in the summer, that lovely little house we liked came back up on the MLS.  Apparently the sale had fallen through.  And the sellers had dropped the price a bit too, to boot.  So we jumped on it and scheduled a viewing.  It was exactly what I was looking for.  Early 1900s with a porch and lots of decorative wood touches.  It had many of the positive things that we both loved about Blair House and fewer of the negatives.

Grumpy Old Manor - June 30, 2107

It was also at this point that we learned about the house's particular claim to fame - it's staring role as the home of Jack Lemmon's character in the Grumpy Old Men movies.

We're coming up on 4 years in the Grumpy Old Manor and busily making our mark on it.  I've finished part of the basement as an office.  Jacob has the walls hung with art and the built-ins adorned with weirdness and objet d'art as is his want.  The gardens, flower and veg, see progress every year.  We have plans for things we want to accomplish here and continue to seek opportunities to share our home with friends and loved ones.

A fitting way to look back at memories and look forward to making new ones.

MN Mondays #18 - The Singers

In the spring of 2005, my friend Dave invited everyone in church choir to come hear a concert that he was singing in with a relatively new choral group.  I knew that the core of the group was people who had sung with Dale Warland until he retired and disbanded his choir.  That's pretty much all I knew.

So Jacob and I and some other folks from St. Christopher's attended the last concert of the season for a group named The Singers at the Basilica of St. Mary.  And I was blown away by the quality of the ensemble.  I left there knowing that I was going to audition as soon as there was an opportunity.  Turns out there was a pretty immediate opportunity and I joined their ranks that fall at the beginning of season 3.  This fall we'll start season 14 and it will be my twelfth with the amazing group of people.

There have been many mountain top experiences with The Singers: Martin's Mass, Rachmaninoff's Vespers, Talbot's Path of Miracles, Carnahan's Ghost Camp, and too many others to list.  More recently, you've all been bombarded by links to YouTube videos of the music we've been making in recent years, but there have been many moments over that weren't captured.  And a recording never really matches the in-person experience.

So if you're a choral music lover living near the Twin Cities, you owe it to yourself to check us out.  It will be worth your time and money, even if I do say so myself.  For example...

MN Mondays #17 - Best Friends

We had a few dogs when I was growing up, but the four dogs that have meant the most to me found me here in MN over the last 20 years.  There's been a fair amount of loving on these dogs since last winter, but just like all living dogs they deserve every little bit of love and attention there is to give.

 Diana Elizabeth, here on her 5th birthday.  A princess in all ways. Even in her tie dye t-shirt.
(7/1993 - 11/2008)

 Dixie the runner.  Beautiful and dumb.  (?/1999 - 10/2009)

My son, Brutus.  Still breaks my heart, but I have his photo by both of my desks, so he isn't ever very far away. (12/2002 - 01/2017)

Lily, all wiggle and wag. Knucklehead.  (?/2009 - 12/2016)

MN Mondays #16 - The Other St. Pauls

Birch and cardinal decorating the
chancel during Advent. 

In 2010, Jacob switched parishes from St. Christophers in Roseville to the St. Paul's parish in Minneapolis beside Lake of the Isles and I went with him.  So if you've been paying attention to dates, you might be asking yourself, "Wait, does that mean that he was working for St. Paul's on the Hill and St. Paul's Lake of the Isles at the same time?"  Yes, yes it does.  In order to keep everything straight, we had to call one SPOTH and the other SPW (St. Paul's West).

St. Paul's (West) has a hundred year history or more of good music programs.  There was even a choir school at one point.  So Jacob didn't have to focus immediately on choir development.  Instead he could spend time bringing his own ideas in and exposing this choir to music and techniques that they may not have seen before.  It's always amazing to watch him work with a choir.  He's very good, that one.  💚  Even when I don't agree with what he does, he achieves results that you can't argue with.  And they never know what hit them. :) 

The choir family at St. Paul's is just that - a family.  We always manage to make friends in the choirs we've worked with, but I dare say that not being the spring chicken's we were at St. Christopher's has allowed us to make stronger connections with folks our own age in the parish.  And for a parish that has been written off for dead more than a few times, the music program under Jacob's direction has contributed to another resurgence.  Combined with (generally) liberal politics and real care for each other, this is a parish that is growing again.

First choir rehearsal of Fall 2016.

MN Monday #15 - The Gregs

Back in 2000, after getting my masters and while I was thinking that music was my next path, I happened upon an audition call for a group named The Gregorian Singers.  Thus started my education in Anglican church music, past and present.

The first thing everyone says when they hear the name of the group is "Oh, I _love_ Gregorian Chant!"  Which is, I suppose, reasonable.  But the repertoire of the group is so much more than chant.  Ancient music in many forms, English church music from the medieval through today, German works of the Reformation, music of Latin America, even stupid little pieces like Little Potato are among the vast array of music I have been exposed to singing with this group.  Monte, the founder and director, brings his vast knowledge and whimsical nature to bear and programs music that many people don't even know exists much less perform.  An accomplished composer in his own right, he knows how to pair modern music with ancient in a way that plays to the strengths of both.

I ended up singing with "The Gregs" for 8 seasons, which is longer than I've sung with any other group save one.  Monte is still a dear friend and I have darkened the pews on occasion when he has need of a ringer or two.  Go hear them if you get the chance.

Gods above we had fun in that group.  I don't remember exactly what year that picture up there was taken but it was a photo shoot after the group had moved into SPOTH.  The photographer just wanted us to pile in so she could start taking pictures.  And this is what happened, without any prompting or staging -- henceforth known as the Adams Family Portrait and, apparently, I'm Gomez.  lol  This kind of spontaneous weirdness is something I miss about those people and that group.

MN Mondays #14 - On the Hill

St. Paul's on the Hill Episcopal Church (affectionately known as SPOTH), is a fine old church.  The parish folded a few  years ago and the building needs serious repairs, but she is a grand and glorious space.  Designed by Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, the same architect that designed the Cathedral of St. Paul (St. Paul) and the Basilica of St. Mary (Minneapolis), the acoustics in this intimate space still are some of the best in the Twin Cities.

Over the years, I have spent many (_many_) hours singing in that space for several different reasons.  The Gregorian Singers started rehearsing and performing there in the mid 'aughts.  I was a paid singer there for several summers over the years.

But the biggest part of my time there started in 2008 or so.  Jacob became the organist for evening and holy day services there and had to put together quartets and a rotation of solo cantors.  SPOTH was one of the few parishes that did a service for every holiday and saint's day on the church calendar.  And I mean _every_ one.  So he or I or both would be at SPOTH at least once or twice a week.  It was not uncommon to get a text or email at work asking if I could pinch hit for a service that very evening.  This is why I have my "traveling cassock" in my car to this day.

Frankly, when you're in the middle of such a workhorse-like treadmill, it's difficult to see the good things that are going on as well.  It could be a challenging place to care about sometimes, as it had it's own rhythm and way of doing things.  But when we did the final service there, I found myself moved in a way that I hadn't quite expected to be.

The music that was made there was special.  And the space absorbed it all; would ring with it for a while after each service.