Dancing on a Saturday Night.

OK, I did something wrong(?).  For days I have not posted because every time I tried to "SAVE" my draft blog got an error message. Then when moving to another window, lost everything previously written. BUMMER! Now that I am back, hope this 'glitch' is fixed.

What would I have written? 
I. Over a week ago we drove eastbound towards North Raleigh and danced to the Tune Swingers Orchestra - a fabulous 16-pc band playing big band sounds of the 30s, 40s and even 50s. And DH was hot. . . he was hitting every beat and doing steps we had not done for years. Somehow the confluence of energy, wakefulness and the music gave us the spirit to dance for an hour-and-half. Wow! what a night.  Thanks to Catharina & Bob Weaver for keeping us updated on Tune Swingers we had a fabulous dance date.

 

We were finally able to attend because a) it was Saturday evening - TSO usually plays on Thursday evenings; b) we have GPS for directions, otherwise I am not sure we would have ever found the place [St. Lukes on Bayleaf Rd.] and c) the time change gave us an extra hour of sleep for recovery. A perfect confluence of requisite conditions. The outcome was not disappointing, the very first tune was Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" and it just got better and better. And of course who should we see there? None other than Catharina and Bob.

 

II. Next to UNC's Ackland Museum Sunday afternoon (needed the walk), to see "Art and Cultural Exchange Along the Silk Road," the purpose behind my OLLI Class of the same name; a class tour to the Ackland is planned for the last session, Dec. 9th. So far we have had good lectures, some less than average and a couple way above Great. The exhibition is worth seeing, as is a second exhibit on Art Nouveau glass (I'm such a sucker for glassware). Wanted to get a heads-up on the Silk Road exhibition PLUS I have been reading (well, OK Googling really, various aspects about the Silk Road influences in western civilization. Fascinating. If you want to see a truly amazing site about China check out the NY Met's site for:

The Yuan Revolution: Art and Dynastic Change
Through January 9, 2011
Showcasing some 70 Yuan and early Ming works of art, this installation traces the momentous stylistic transformation in painting and calligraphy that began under Mongol rule and culminated in the literati traditions of the early Ming. It has been organized to complement the Museum's major loan exhibition The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty. See the exhibition preview for more information. http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId=%7B959883CC-1D48-485C-B6C2-B01D6D5F6882%7D

III.  My next item of note is:  The Beatles!  " Yea, Yea, I wanna hold your hand."  Apple announced today that an agreement has been reached with iTune and the Beatles corporation to release their songs on iTunes for downloading.  When can I start?

This past weekend we had back-to-back performances:  Memorial Hall's "Music on the Hill" venue  Saturday evening presented the "World Premier" of our friend TJ's composition "In Front of My Eyes: An Obama Celebration." For this ambitious work former poet laureate Robert Pinsky has written the lyrics.  And on Sunday afternoon Playmaker's presented August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winning play, "Fences."  DH enjoyed the play - I wasn't really up to it. In the past few weeks I have read  "White Doves in the Morning,"  "Help," and "Mudbound" giving me a large dose of  'oppressed, poor, abused and Southern.'  I need a break. Something fun to read, like an Agatha Christie.

My most recent book-CD was Frank Bruni's "Born Round, the secret history of a full time eater," the title from his grandmother's admonishment "those who are born round do not die square."  Noted this book because Bruni was in Chapel Hill last week for a seminar on "Eating Disorders" at UNC and for a luncheon at The Lantern. The interesting part of the book was his college years - at UNC/Chapel Hill. Eventually he became the restaurant critic for the NYTimes. Thought about going to the lunch but after listening to the first four discs, decided I had had enough of another person's struggle with weight - like I have not had my own? Just finished the last of 8 CDs in the car and will head back to the library for another book-on-CD. 

Read Nora Ephron's "I Remember Nothing," is about two hours - very fast read. Considering that Nora is just a couple of years older than I, must she admit that she's forgetting everything already? I need an interesting biography, or a historical saga - have been through Donna Leon and Ken Follett recently and need more "up lifting excitement."

Any day now I expect to hear from long-arm quilter Jan Struble who will soon have a quilt finished for me. Plus, Jan does not yet know this but I have another one ready for her. Like the first it is a 'calendar' quilt for a relative's birthday - but we are not saying whose just yet. Hint: the year is 1998.

Reading Bonnie K Hunter's blog found the alert for: Quiltmaker Magazine's second volume of "100 Blocks"  is now on the stands. I missed volume ONE but I want this one. Soon!

Last night was the November DOQ meeting but I am still working on the December 13th meeting. After the October Quilt Show I had the ambition to present all the ribbon winning quilts in a slide show presentation. So I formatted some 93 images and had them in 'order' for the presentation; then copied them to a CD using Roxio. Only the CD images are in A-Z order and I cannot rearrange them. Bummer. What's the point of making up a slide presentation if you cannot maintain the order when copied????

Fortunately the guild meets at Grace Church where their I.T. person is one Ariel. When I finally gave up and called she advised me to put the images in PowerPoint which will compress the files. That way I can get the WHOLE presentation on one CD and get better projection/resolution at the same time.  What's wrong with me? I had begun a PowerPoint layout and then abandoned it for Photoshop. Why? Now I must choose if I can use the same images - most have been 'flattened' in .psd, but I need .jpg's anyway.  What a set-back. I have spent more time on this end-of-year presentation to celebrate the recent quilt show than I would have spend on making a quilt. Well, a small quilt.

And tomorrow is the Day One. We meet at Carolina Meadows to select the lot, the floor plan and what upgrades we want (or can afford).  By tomorrow afternoon I will be making room diagrams and arranging furniture. This is our 2011 Gift to ourselves - a retirement home in the country side of North Carolina. After 12 years in this house [MY house], built to our specs and furnished with my choice collections - it's time to sell and move. 

Tonight's dinner:  Fresh fruit and cheese. Including fresh pineapple that I bought for the tops. Time to plant the tops and get a couple growing so I put them in the pair of blue/white Chinese cache pots for house showing next spring. Need some show-off value for the living room.
Stay tuned, bb