I don’t want to sound like those other bloggers - “Man, life has been so busy I just haven’t had a chance to write! Ha ha!” I said to myself, “mounty, don’t you dare complain about how stinkin’ busy you are, because 1.) no one probably really cares [that’s the cynic in me] and 2.) everyone else is busy too, and you moaning about it will only make them feel worse.” I really like one of the door signs on the hall: “There will be a $5 charge for whining.” I need that on my monitor, I think.
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On today’s date, two hundred sixty five years ago in Dublin, Ireland, George Frederic Handel’s Messiah enjoyed its world premier. Nowadays, the piece enjoys annual performances all across the world. But it was not always so. The first American performance of the work was in a New York City tavern, as a benefit concert. And while most folks today who enjoy the finer arts will at least acknowledge, if not enjoy, such performances, that, too, was not always so. In fact, in 1862, shortly after the start of the American Civil War, the New York Tribune had this to say about such repeat performances of Messiah: Click for more…

Get yourselves on over to the list and check out the new bloggers:

1. Title: Broken Chocolate
   • URL: http://www.brokenchocolate.com/
   • Author: Philip Van Reijn
2. Title: Tangible Theology
   • URL: http://tangibletheology.blogspot.com/
   • Author: Rob McQueary
3. Title: My Mind’s Musings
   • URL: http://www.mindsmusings.wordpress.com
   • Author: Ben Howard
4. Title: InFocus
   • URL: http://www.givemetruth.net/infocus
   • Author: Jason Harris

Note on InFocus - that’s the former Fundamentalist Resource Centre (complete with British/Aussie spelling!) but has been renamed and redesigned into something a little less oblique. Otherwise the other three are all new additions. Go on by, pay them a visit, and thank them for associating with the fountainhead of all things BJ Blogging related, mounty’s corner!

My recital’s done and over with. That’s a huge load off my shoulders! It went well - the mistakes that were made were largely unnoticeable if you’re not intimately familiar with the nuances of my facial expressions (which are quite nuanced, to the point that I can be quite excited without looking like it). I did have one of those “catharsis” moments right before my last piece on the program - some of you might have noticed the lopsided, almost goofy grin as I came back out. My last piece (from which the title was drawn) involved a chorus of 10 highly talented singers. The six girls in the group were to come onstage from the wing where I was hanging out, rehydrating, madly studying notes and words, etc. I stepped off after the Vaughan Williams selection, and they were all back there, a excited buzz in the air. Someone in the group wanted to know when they should leave the stage; I told them to wait until after I came back out for the customary “curtain call,” since “I [couldn’t] get back on while [they’re] getting off” (actual quote). Immediately, one of the girls piped up, “So…what are you saying? That we’re all fat?”
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