If a tree falls, and you don't hear it...

Yes, the proverbial question, if a tree falls and you don't hear it - did it really fall?

The answer is a resounding yes!

Last night, Amarillo was hit with a round of rather severe thunderstorms. Bryan and I were enjoying a calm evening at his house and went about our business once the storm hit. (Bryan was working on his new power amps, and I was watching a movie on cable.)

At one point the wind got a little intense (hmm, this might be an understatement) so I switched from the movie I was watching to a local news cast. At one point the weatherman indicated that there were trees down on Cline Street. Odd. We were on Cline Street. Ok. Maybe after it stops raining we can go exploring, I thought -and I went back to my movie watching. The storm ended - and I went exploring. Needless to say, I was surprised that my exploring did not take me very far before I noticed the source of the downed tree report. Yes, the two trees down on Cline Street were down in the yards of Bryan's neighbors. A tree was uprooted and landed on a truck in the driveway of the house immediately to the south of Bryan's house and across the street, another tree was uprooted and landed on a vehicle in the street. Check out this video for a visual of the damage. Luckily, no one was hurt in either case - only property damage. Bryan still can't believe that there was not more damage to his house.

HaPpy is a Finely Tuned Business

There is also a higher res version here.

It's Monday, Smile!

Cherryholmes

On Friday night, the Symphony in partnership with the GNC, presented the bluegrass group, Cherryholmes. The band, composed entirely of family members (Daddy literally plays bass, Mom, and the kids all join along) perform an edgy sort of bluegrass. The daughter's voice reminds me of Alison Krause. If you get a chance to pick up their cd, do it - I think you will like it.

Hmm, I also had the distinct pleasure of taking the family to the airport the morning after the concert. Yikes. I was not at all excited to hear the alarm at 3:30 a.m.

Leave your mark

This weekend we celebrated Kelly's completion of her master's degree. Way to go Kelly! Kelly earned her Masters in Fine Arts. Did you know that the color for the Masters in Fine Arts hood is brown? Brown! Seriously folks is that the most appropriate color for the school full of allegedly creative types? Crikey!

To celebrate Kelly's degree I thought it appropriate that she have a bottle of wine. So, off to the beverage store to find an appropriate celebratory beverage.

I had some fantastic assistance at the Party Stop as I made it clear I was looking for a good tasting bottle of wine with a fun label. The clerks narrowed the field and clearly, the Meeker's Vineyard bottle with colorful handprints was the most appropriate option to celebrate a Fine Arts Degree. Each bottle of Handprint Merlot from Meeker's Vineyard is individually decorated. Check it out here - the plus side is that it is also a tasty bottle of wine.

(About the pic, yes it's a photo from my new phone. Not too shabby!)

I'll be able to say "I knew that guy when"

Yeppers, this is one guy I'll be able to say, "I knew him when"...or "I was engaged to him when"(Ok, so that was only an April Fool's prank, but we got some people and we got them good).

In all seriousness, this is a guy to watch, err, listen for on the opera scene. He is a tenor with a voice that will fill the great performance halls in the coming years. Check out this story that previews his tremendous talent; he's affectionately referred to as the Pavarotti of the Panhandle.

Way to go, EB!

(Ok, I'll be honest, I can't watch this story without being reminded of elephants and more elephants.)

Big orchestras, big headaches

The last two months of the symphony season were filled with large scale orchestras. Perhaps that is part of my large scale headaches from the past two months. In all honesty, I'm not quite sure what we were thinking when we scheduled these concerts in rapid succession. For the three magical concerts we managed to squeeze well over a hundred performers on stage. While not a Mahler size feat, the sight was still impressive.

Here the youth orchestra performs with the symphony during a subscription concert. Yes, there were 20 cellists on stage!

Here the three youth orchestras combined for the finale to the Spring Youth Orchestra Concert. Yes, that's three conductors, three separate conductors, and three levels of stage. In the final feat of the season (that I don't have a picture of) we placed an 86 piece orchestra on stage with a 125 voice choir. Crazy fun stuff. :)