Silvester Abend or New Years Eve

They don´t call it New Years Eve here in Germany but the evening is named after an obscure Saint Silvester. I sang the role of the Herzog von Urbino (Duke) in the Strauss Operetta " A Night in Venice" this evening at the Stadhalle in Bayreuth. The website has an interesting 360 degree picture of the theater and the surroundings. After the operetta there was a buffet dinner and then promptly at midnight, fireworks outside in the courtyard. Shortly before midnight a group of large Bavarians with leather shorts complete with hats and feathers came into the banquet hall of the theater and I discovered they were part of the fireworks display. They carried those short cannons called "Arkbusses" and fired them from the balcony outside of the theater during the fireworks display. They were from a local shooting club. The picture at the bottom is of the Operetta on the stage.

looking back and forward

The year 2006 is quickly winding down and I did send this picture as an email to friends and family. I am standing at the 66th floor of the Chase building in Houston in November of this now waining year. It was a busy year and in all 3 operas, 2 operettas 4 concerts in two different continents, 3 countries, 7 cities/towns. I learned how to speak better text on the stage in both English and German also continuing to polish the memory skills needed for performance.

More important this year was the addition of 2 more grandchildren at the end of August and beginning of September.

I am now moving towards the age of 66 in 2007 with the attendant aches and pains as well as extreme gratefulness for the ability/health and strength to still practice my profession. Each year is an added blessing to a life that has been up to now a great ride with the joys outweighing the regrets. I think a way to view life is to sum up all the wishes you ever had and then see how many came true. That means to really see what happened because it is difficult sometimes to recognize the realization of a dream in actuality. One wants to see a result that is concrete instead of the fantasy. The fantasy is the attained goal not the hard fact.

up to the matterhorn

In the background is the famous Matterhorn near the ski resort Zermatt where I sang a concert on Wednesday last week. The concert was at the 5 star hotel Seiler
I got to this place where I am standing by riding a small train that creeps up the mountain and the views are spectacular.

The Marine Chaplain

James Ammons February 22, 1931 * November 15, 2006

My first recollection of Jim was in 1964 on board a Navy ship in the Carribean as I was making my first cruise as a second lieutenant platoon commander with the Marines. He was then a lieutenant J.G. and was the Navy Protestant chaplain which simply means he was along with the Catholic chaplain, Father Malcolm, an officer who looked after the spiritual well being of the Sailors and Marines through counseling, observing and religious services. I was a music major in college and always looking for an excuse to play music, offered my services as organist to Jim knowing that I would be able to indulge in my hobby. It was the start of a long friendship that came recently to an end with Jim`s passing. We shared the same birthday, ten years to the day, I being born on February 22, in 1941. The first thing I noticed about Jim when he was in uniform was the full chest of campaign ribbons on his chest to which he informed me were World War II, and Korea service medals. He had I believe, if my memory serves me well, enlisted underage at 16 in the Marines in 1946 and was sent to China for postwar operations. He returned to civilian life and joining the army reserve as an engineer. He was called to active duty during the Korean war seeing action there. He returned again to civilian life and became a Baptist minister taking a commission in the Chaplains Corps in the Navy in the early 60`s.

Jim´s first task with me was to try to cure my penchant for using cuss words and it was a valiant attempt that was probably one of Jim´s only failures. I heard him say only one cuss word in all the years I knew him and that as he quoted a toast that he had made to a Colonel nicknamed "Blackjack" at a dinner in Vietnam (I was not present) for battalion commanders. He told me about it and the purpose of the toast was to give a sly jibe to "Blackjack`s" somewhat degenerate life style and the subsequent maladies of the consequences. (Blackjack was our battalion XO on the Carribean cruise and Jim had an opportunity to get to know him well) He (Blackjack) was a great Marine, colorful, and a fighter. Jim`s toast went something like this as he raised his glass to this memorable Marine, " Well Blackjack, here´s to F******g !" Jim told me this story as we were jogging inside the perimeter of Camp JJ Carroll on the DMZ which incidentally was at high noon on a sunny extremely hot day in April. It was good time to work out as it was too hot to do anything else. I would bet there are few Navy Chaplains who would be jogging anywhere at 95 degrees fahrenheit unless they were crazy former Marines.

The Carribean cruise moved along with landings in Puerto Rico and Guantanamo. Jim and I took a walk to inspect "Gitmo" one day and as it would be, me being a hot tempered unseasoned 2d Lt., we were passed by some Seabees who like many sailors had forgotten what saluting is all about. I had a fit and was cussing them out with Jim gently pulling me back telling me to relax and go easy on them thar " bad words".
'
Sundays were the high point of the week back then for me and Jim asked me to get some of the troops together to help with the hymn singing at the services. Jim then mentioned to Lt.Col. "Blackjack" about the church services and the music and I got a call to report to the XO. He commanded me to form a BLT Chorus of Marines and with Jim's help we got a group of songbirds from among the troops. When we arrived at San Juan Puerto Rico, the BLT Chorus toured the area singing Christmas music at various public events. Jim came along to give moral support and offer critique.

I arrived in September of 1966 at An Hoa, Vietnam, a military base 50 miles or so south of Da Nang to begin my tour or duty with the 3rd Battalion, Ninth Marines and the first person to welcome me aboard was Jim Ammons. What a surprise and a pleasure to see him again. He asked me if I would play for services and I agreed but would need the field organ (a sort of harmonium with foot pedals to produce the sound) in the company headquarters or "Hooch". . I was XO of India Company at the time and Captain Navadel, my company commander said I must stay in the rear to write up recommendations for battle awards and look after the office personnel until I completed the drafts for the recommendations for heroism in combat. The field organ was placed to the right of my field desk and I was able to once again indulge in my music hobby.

I often remember many occasions walking with Jim, long conversations and at the time, smoking our pipes. Jim was an avid pipe smoker at that time and I was so impressed, I asked my wife to send me one in a care package. I have included a picture of Jim with his pipe and the situation is rather unusual. We were on patrol and Jim had asked to go along. How many chaplains have ever gone on a combat patrol as observer? We moved through a bush row at an accessible point, first I and then First Sergeant Raymond Rogers. Jim was behind us and stopped. I turned to see why he hadn't followed and pointed to the ground we had just walked over. The first sergeant's mouth opened wide and my eyes took in a trip wire that we had miraculously stepped over without touching it attached to a homemade mine. It was a grenade in a tin can and when pulled out it would explode. The picture shows Jim and in the background which is difficult to see, is the mine.

He had a soft voice and delivered his sermons with a convincing style. He once gave me advice as I was having problems with running a rifle company and that was to try to be ahead of the situation and to not merely react. This was probably the best advice I have ever gotten, something I still am trying to work on. People like Jim tell you things and you never forget them. I still keep on remembering things that he said to me after all these years. Some things are somewhat buried in the back of the mind and then I think about him. It all comes back.

Over the years after completing active duty, I remained in the Marine Corps Reserves and on occasions visited with Jim and his wife Jeannine in Virginia. He had risen in the Chaplain Corps Ranks and was working at the Naval Annex near the Pentagon. He told me a few years later that he had taken up Tai Quan Do martial arts and had broken his back at an martial arts exhibition. He was told in the hospital that he would not be able to be as physically active as before but he came out of the hospital and was as fit as ever. Then there were some years when Jim moved on to other things and we lost contact. He led I believe a Presbterian Congregation and later together with his wife gave inspirational seminars.

I was able again to find Jim a few years ago through Colonel George Navadel, USMC who has in many respects watched over our former rifle company in Vietnam and has been the point of contact for so many of us that served together.

Jim told me that he had been battling cancer for some years and he continued to battle for the next 4 or 5 years during which we were able to correspond through letters, telephone calls and emails. In January of 2006, I talked to his wife Jeannine who said that Jim had come back from the hospital and did not want any more treatment. She said he would be receiving hospice care, a service for people in the end phase of illness. He fought on until this November.


Good bye and Semper Fidelis Jim

Bring home the bacon!

I just discovered this article
in the Times today. I will soon be heading back to Germany on Tuesday and back to the cuisine that I have missed particularly Bread and cheap good Beer and wine something that is missing here. The prices are much higher here compared to Germany and that includes California Wine. I first discovered German belly bacon (bauchspeck) years ago and have used it especially in dishes such as amatriciana (spelling) a sauce for sphagetti.

blast from the past

I couldn´t resist putting this link in to a review I got back in 1985 at City Opera in Puritani

The next day a wag in the chorus at City Opera said they had dug up Mozart and Beethoven to write a few more lines for me!

Driving Miss Daisy in Houston

Actually there is no Miss Daisy but a Red Dodge Caliber that I have rented for the time that I am in Houston. The picture here is probably I-45 or I-10 going past downtown Houston or I-610 or even route 59 and the assumption is that there is smooth sailing past the famous skyline. This is false as the highways are generally packed, slow moving, and totally frustrating. Worse than the Freeways in California if that could be possible and like LA there is not a moment in the 24/7 without TRAFFIC. The side roads are jam packed with workers, shoppers, and football moms driving mostly pickup trucks. It seems every corner on these streets have traffic lights that are programmed to turn red when vehicles are sensed to be moving in their direction and remain red for at least 15 minutes before an obligatory 3 second green light. Here is a traffic map of central area. If you get on one of the main highways you must be aware that traffic moves along faster on the right hand side when you need move right to get off and when you need to move left to avoid getting on to another highway, vice versa...forget it!!! ! I will be glad to get back to the good ol´Autobahn with its tiny narrow lanes, poorly marked and lighted but the fast flow directed to the left and don´t remain there long as a porsch doing 200 miles an hour will be up your tailpipe...

opera in the heights

I have just sung the first of 3 performances of the role of Belmonte in Mozart´s "Abduction from the Seraglio" on Friday at Opera in Heights in Houston, Texas. It was a stretch for me as I have not sung such a lyrical Mozart role since around 1970 so I had to keep it concentrated and not full blown like I normally would sing. Here is a picture of me shortly before making my first entrance

There was a cover soprano named Veronica Olvera with whom I sang most of my rehearsals and she sang the final dress rehearsal with me. A great talent and I wish her the best of success in the future.



Well I finally made it on to NPR in Houston on the local public radio. This was at the studio KUHF shortly before we went on air. For the family, I will send you a cd of the show and anyone else who wants a copy.

Update Houston

Well here I am in Houston making a Tour of the city




That is the famous Houston Skyline in back of me as I pedaled into the city center nearly getting run over in the process. The problem is there are almost no bike riders so you feel as if you are somehow trespassing on the streets, but as always, you can park on the sidewalks in front of wherever you are visiting.

Houston 2

Today is it a bit overcast and around 69 degrees which is cool and normal for this time of the year. The natives or Houstonians say that the period from September to June is wonderful and they love living here. The summer is terrible and no one defends it. What surprised me was all the trees and green foliage my initial thinking that Texas is desert country. A friend wrote an email asking me if there was a lot of cowboys with cowboy hats running around and I had to report in the negative. What also is interesting is the cosmopolitan speech accent which could almost be any city in the country and decidedly very few with a "Bush" style twang. I would have trouble placing peoples accents here as to where they come from. I met a local gal, a Houstonian, who is a singer and has very little accent. I did not know that she was from the area. Enough of accents!

I have been rehearsing mostly in the late afternoons to evenings as a lot of the staff, chorus, etc. have day jobs and only on the weekends can we have full rehearsal days. I am being hosted by a "friend" of the opera who has given the upper floor of her house over to my use and we share the upstairs kitchen. The street I am living on is Bayland Ave and this part is lined with live oaks on each side which spread their leafy arms over the street creating a type of bower. The houses are typical south coast southern types, many being "shot gun houses" (rooms running from front to rear with no wings, something my father in law use to call "railroad houses") found as well in New Orleans, Lousiana in general. A Louisana native told me he felt right at home here in Houston.

Houston Texas

I am now in Houston getting ready for my first rehearsal of the opera "Abduction from the Seraglio" by Mozart. The company is "Opera in the Heights" and is a small ensemble located in the area known as the Heights because it is 3 feet higher than the rest of this flat city. here is a link to the Houston skyline

Beer and Words

We are happily moving towards Oktober with beautiful, sunny and not too cold weather. Several articles struck me this morning in the local newspaper and the first was about genetically engineered plants in regards to the primary ingredients in German beer ( I don´t know what goes into American beer other than carbonation). The German brewers want to make sure that only natural hops and grains go into the making of beer. This is to preserve one of the oldest food laws on the books dating back to 1516 called the "Reinheitsgebot" or purity commandment. Here is a translated link in "Engleutsch" so bear in mind that the computer doesn´t make perfect translations.
The other article concerns the German language and how it has spread throughout the world. There are over 10,000 words in use in places as far away as Japan and of course the USA. Check this link that is translated. Some of the words that are originally German are of course translated but you will get the sense of the article. In Japan Orgasm is Orogasumusu from German Orgasmus and Kaffeepause (coffee break) is Kaffipausii. Wandervogel (person who travels around a lot) is wanderfogeru or rucksack is rukkusakku. We know in the States the words wanderlust, alpen, abseil down (rope climbing down) or to go to the Beergarden, gemütlichkeit, angst, kaputt,schadenfreude, fress (gorge oneself) and so on. Have a gemütlichen day!

this is the last of the plummy letters

Here is the final result of the business with the overflow of fruit. There were a lot more jelly glasses than are shown here but I wanted to make an artistic statement. The gals are shown here doing the yeoman work of pitting the purple orbs and the head cook being me took the picture. They complained something about "slave" labor but I held the whip over them and voila! Beautiful jelly. I don´t want to think about plums till next year

plums on high

today I took the ladder
placed it again under the tree,
plotted where and how
to reach the purple orbs.
of course there were holes
where I the day before
had plucked and pulled down
the sweet and heavy fruit
grown almost overripe and
some with withered faces like
senior members of a race.
the tree is fragile and branches
break off as if it is somehow
weary with making leaves and
bundles of fruit. Perhaps it is
protesting the loss of of almost
a half of its bulk from the burning
flames of a negligent neighbor a few
past summers ago
storing his smoldering grill in the
small tool shed which became
enveloped with flames searing
the tree and ruining the harvest
that year or maybe the strong
winds that had raked the garden
this spring.
I stood at the top of the
aluminum scaffolding looking
at the bright late afternoon sun
through some of the openings
left by the wounded branches
seeing how the flatter sun of this
part of the northern hemisphere
gives a perculiar shadowing to
objects like a dutch master´s
painting. Later I steadied the
ladder for my friend who climbed
high up and I just looked around
happy not to do anything.

harvest time

A sad note I must say was the result of a call I received on Wednesday morning from a funeral director in Bayreuth asking me if I could sing some gospel music for a funeral. I replied in the affirmative and was told the funeral was for a young man of 20 who had committed suicide on September 7th which coincidentally was the date my grandson Samuel was born. The service took place at a small and beautiful cemetery in the town of Weidenberg near Bayreuth in the Fichtelgebirge mountains. Here is a picture of the entrance to the cemetery and a picture of the surrounding countryside













Yesterday I went into the garden and armed with my new aluminum ladder scaling the heights of my venerable plum tree to receive the benefits of the fruits of my labor so to speak..The plums are a small variety in Germany called "Zwetschgen" and are purple in color with a sweet taste. The tree has suffered not only from age but from an idiot neighbor who put his still smoldering grill into his tool house near my tree which hangs a bit over to his side. The fire dept. put the flames out but not before half of the tree was burned and all the plums were ruined. I pruned the tree of the dead branches and it came back to life the next year. This year we had strong winds which further pruned the tree as nature is wont to do. The broken off branches luckily still had bunches of fruit which ripened in spite of the lack of sap from the mother trunk...I now have to figure out what to do with over 25 pounds of fruit.

finally the weather is trying to act like the end of summer

We sailed into September on a cold breath of winter or late fall. The headlines in the local papers read things like "BRRRR" and my tomatoes were at best a light pink-green and those were the ones in my greenhouse. The grass in the garden was verdant and thick as a result of the rainy cold weather and the pumpkins had no problem swelling into basketball sizes.

Last week around Wednesday or Thursday the sun began to shine and I had to open the car windows to cool off without putting on the air conditioner.


I took a long walk with Gudrun on Sunday she in her electric wheelchair and I trying to keep pace with the slightly faster than walking speed machine. We went to a town north of her part of the town named Koeditz to see what the local gastronomy offered. It was a bit of a disappointment as at the late hour of 5 PM hot meals were no longer served and only light fare was offered. The restaurant we picked was tidy and clean but to my chagrin, they only had beer in bottles being as the draft machine was not in order. I really expect in a pub or Gastaette as it is known in Germany to be able to enjoy draft beer. I have bottled beer at home as well as bread and cold cuts in my refrigerator. I ordered the beer and coldcuts anyway because the walk was long. I had worked up a thirst and hunger so had to accept what was given. Here is the town we went to.


The light along the path we took was brilliantly lit from the sun as it can be at times in Hof although the weather is often gray and gloomy. Here is a field that was freshly cut.






Surprisingly in the small town of Koeditz we saw a house pictured below that was more like a small castle. Yes there are rich people even in our area

Lots of things have been happening here in Hof and for me several more important things in the
States. Two events with my children, respectively sons have occurred. The one was the arrival of a new baby girl on 19 August mentioned mentioned in a previous blog and the other was the arrival yesterday of a new boy. see link.




















Kevin working next to his van. Kevin and Veronica


On the Hof front I finally got off my stumps and have begun to do a bit of necessary remodeling for lack of a better word with my apartment. I was touring with my bicycle with friends in a lovely area near Selb, Germany and we stopped a local pub in a small village named "Kaiserhammer". I took a picture with my cell so the quality is not good but it is quite charming and has self made beer which is exactly what one needs on a long ride. While there the owner brought us beer and said," here is your beer" in English which surprised me. I questioned him and he said that of course he learned it in the school but had been using it lately as an Englishman is camped in the area with his mobilvan. I inquired further and was introduced to Kevin a free living spirit and his lovely girlfriend Veronica who is Italian. "mama mia"! He travels around Europe with his van stopping long enough to do a bit of work (he is an excellent carpenter being able to build a house from the ground up). We made plans to meet up during the week in order for him to do some carpentry that I have been putting off in the kitchen.


Later that evening we all went to my garden to enjoy a bit of grilling with vegetables and salad.

the end of summer?

It was a windy, rainy, cold, sometimes half-warm day here in Hof. The temperature was around 53 degrees at its warmest and I saw people wearing jackets as in Autumn weather. The front page of the local paperhad an article that read like this . The word for Brr in German is the same as brr in English. It means the same thing. Remember that it is computer translated German and the last sentence reads that people in the alps area had to have chains for their cars in order to negotiate the roads. The people told me that after the hot July was over the entire August has been cold and unseasonable. I took a quick picture of my garden today as I brought an umbrella to make shade that we really needed in July, in order to sit outside in the sweltering heat and sun. Not today however. The tomatoes are mostly still green including those in the greenhouse but the plums and blackberries are in full array needing only a few days of further ripening before picking. Maya my garden partner has been working the entire summer while I have been away in the States and had two bags full of preserves in jars for me. They consisted of green tomatoes, blackberries, gooseberries, red currants, zucchini, and cucumbers. She picked the first plums including some pretty golden plums that are in a tree near our garden belonging to no one and some fresh cukes that are so tender you don`t need to peel them for salads. We have a brown/green salad growing in the garden since early spring which is starting to shoot but what a great source of salad well into the summer. I recommended that we always plant this type as it doesn`t bolt..

All this seems important but it pales to yesterday`s call from my son Nate that his wife Kellie had delivered a beautiful baby girl named lauren Eva and here is her picture

Here is also a picture of mom and dad with their new baby carriage about a week before the birth.

getting to the end of vacation

It is that time of the summer when I am getting ready to go back to Germany after a long pause here in the States. I traveled over 4000 miles from New Jersey to almost upstate Minnesota.
It is always interesting to come from Germany to see what is happening here and my reactions to what I see and feel. I get a different perspective each time I come here and it is mostly positive.

In Germany we can drive as fast as we want on certain stretches of the Autobahn. We are also able when necessary to drive to some point therefore twice as fast. Here on the Interstate highways there is a steady monotony of speed and it is difficult to cover 60 miles in less than an hour, mostly only 50 miles in an hour. The good part is that I noticed when traveling on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey for example is that thousands of cars are proceeding orderly on 4 to 6 lanes at any given time and there is a surprising lack of accidents. I don´t think I saw more than 2 or 3 fenderbenders in the entire 2 week trip. The truck drivers are more dangerously aggressive here on certain stretches of the interstates, but all in all the roads are a safer way to travel than in Europe. The negative side is the danger of wandering into a small town off the thruways and encountering revenue hungry local speed enforcement police. I mentioned to my travel companion who is from Germany that they are like bandits lurking behind every tree waiting for unsuspecting out of state motorists. This is not the case in Germany where "Blitz" cameras take care of speeders notifying them in the mail after the fact. The police concentrate more on a variety of offenses including east block country thieves trying to shlepp off German cars or trucks with contraband etc. The German police are a national para-military organization much like our state police and not revenue gatherers for the small backwater towns.

update in August

It has been a long time since my last letter but here it goes. I arrived in the States at the end of July and then right down to San Antonio Texas for a Vietnam Vet reunion with my Company brothers that I served with in 'Nam. We stayed at the Menger Hotel and ate good texas Steaks. I will be returning to Texas in October to sing a Mozart opera in Houston
I have visited the family in Columbus and Chillicothe, Ohio and then on to Ken andLillian Rubin in Burlington, Iowa . We took some side trips with Ken and Lillian to Navou Ilinois and Amana Iowa.
At present we are at Brainerd, Minnesota visiting Ross and Dixie Boring and their 2 "Children", the two dogs, Rowdy and the Captain....

It is hot here today for a change

Before I begin to opine about this teutonic land here is a great link with musical, epicurean and teutonic implications "Thus ate Zarathustra"
I know that it was the Fourth of July in the States on Tuesday, but here in Germany the entire country was rivete d to the Game between Italy and Germany at the WM in Düsseldorf. The caption on the picture reads "The dream is gone" but I can tell you that the days coming up to the semi-final game was a heady time with flags flying all over Hof and in cars, peoples bodies, etc. displaying the national colors. This is quite unusual in Germany as patriotism is equated with Nazism. The whole lead up to the disappointing loss had its good side and that for a few weeks and hopefully more into the future the people here as a nation were proud of who they were. Jürgen Klinsmann the trainer is shown comforting the excellent athelete Michael Ballack. ( The women here think he is sooo good looking) Klinsmann a former German National player lives in California and was called the "Ami", short for American because of his residence in the USA. He certainly brought some positive "Ami" thinking to the National Team and we hope that in four years Germany will capture the title.

Saturday`s ride

Click on any of the colored words for links...


I went for a "Spazierfahrt" or bike ride on Saturday the first of July. I joined friends from the nearby village of Marktleuthen. (remember that this is website translation from the original language and sometimes doesn´t make sense) There were two couples and myself. We promptly swung into the saddle so to speak and pedaled in the direction of the Egertal or Eger Valley which is perhaps 10 or 15 kilometers distance from the Czech Border. The Eger Valley is cut out from the river Eger and is seemingly flat or rolling countryside. This is in contrast to Hof where I live which is in the so called Frankenwald or Frankish Forest which is a hilly area and you need a lot of uphill power to negotiate the steep inclines. The day was "herrlich" German for great with brilliant clear skies and that particular light that is seen in northern areas of the world. The sun is low on the horizon silhouetting objects on the ground with a three dimensional intensity that brings to mind the European school of late romantic..This picture was taken on by a stream in a place that is called the "Ewiges Rauschen" or constant murmuring. The tour leader who is a native of the area said that when he was young there were mussels to be found but I could not see any. There was a bench there naturally (Germans love to place benches for people to sit and enjoy the scenery) to rest and listen. The quality of the photo is not too good as it was taken with my cell phone. Click on this link to see a sweeping photo of the Egertal area The entire area in which the egertal is a part is called the "Fichtelgebirge" or fir forest mountains. This link gives many pictures and brief descriptions of the towns and places along with a map.