A Busy Night of Entertainment

On Saturday evening Greg and I zipped down the hill to attend the live broadcast of Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion.  To say we were excited about this would be a major understatement.  We had been wanting to get tickets to A Prairie Home Companion since before we were even married.  We are avid fans, and before we had three kids, we listened absolutely EVERY Saturday night.  Now we aren't able to tune is as much because its an extremely noisy time of day in our house, and we often forget in in the midst of chaos.  

If you missed the live broadcast this week, you can listen online here.  

My favorite thing about actually being there was watching the sound effects man.  He looked EXACTLY like I had pictured him looking in my mind, and he was completely amazing.  He worked fast, and it was really fun to see how he came up with the sounds.  Just watching the acting scripts was so much fun.  It was really neat to see the actors change their personas so quickly with their different voices. But then, I'm an out-of-work speech coach, so I probably admire it more than the average duck.

Immediately upon exciting the auditorium we literally put on our warm mittens (mine are felted wool with fleece interiors) and RAN across the street and parking lot to our car, slammed the door shut, and drove as fast as was legally possible to a church downtown where the St. Olaf Choir was singing.  

I was super duper excited to hear this terrific choir in person, because I'm a choir geek.  They didn't disappoint at all.  I loved watching the well-known conductor.  I loved listening to their beautiful sound.  I appreciated how they sang precisely with the perfect resonant tone (thick, and rich, but still warm).  Best of all, it was so neat how they sang without tension, and how they moved appropriately with the music, not in a choreographed manner.  They seemed so unified in their singing and thinking and moving.  It was beautiful.  I was happy to be there.  

I'm planning another post about a poem set to music in their performance that has been pretty controversial between Dr. Peds and I.  (I loved it.  He didn't.)  Stay tuned.