Rita Dove at Purdue University

Last night we had the pleasure of hearing and seeing Rita Dove at Purdue University. (The picture is awfully dark -- my bad.) Our good friend Karl, who is a student at Purdue, invited us for the evening and it was fantastic. Dove, who I studied back in "Women Writing Poetry" in the English department at USU, is a very accomplished poet, and was actually the U.S. Poet Laureate for a couple of years in the '90s. Last night she read from her new book, Sonata Mullatica, which is a book of poems (including a farcical play somewhere in the middle) that tells the story of George Bridgewater, a mullato violinist to whom Beethoven dedicated a violin sonata. Dove has a wonderful reading voice and stage presence and the reading was just lovely. One of her most interesting comments was about learning to play music and learning to write -- they're very similar, in that one must learn very good technique in order to play/write so that it looks effortless. Very interesting.

We spent a bit of time with Karl in Lafayette, then (thanks to Karl) listened to Neko Case's new album Middle Cyclone on the drive home. I highly recommend the album. The song "This Tornade Loves You" is incredible.

Finally, here's a very cute kitty, keeping me company while I read Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer:

Happy Easter!

It was a windy (but sunny) Easter Sunday in central Illinois.

Choir Concert

For the past few months I've been singing with a choir called the Heritage Singers. It's been fabulous -- the directors and members of the choir are really talented. It's exciting to sing with a group that can pick up a fairly complex piece of music, sight-read it, and have it performance-ready within a couple of rehearsals. The group is made up of graduate students and spouses of graduate students at the University of Illinois and we rehearse at the LDS Institute of Religion. This week we had an Easter concert at St. Matthew Lutheran church in Urbana and it was really great. I don't have any pictures, but our program contained:

• Two motets: "Jubilate Deo" by Mozart and "Regina caeli" by Lotti
• Two hymns of Zion: "Peace Unto Zion," a Shaker hymn, and "Beautiful Zion, Built Above" from the LDS hymnbook
• Three spirituals: "I Wanna Be Ready," "Balm in Gilead," and "Walk Together, Children"
• Two hymns: "Where Can I Turn for Peace" and "Come, Thou Glorious Day of Promise"
• and three new Easter anthems: "Song of Creation and Salvation," "This Is the Christ," and "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need."

The audience was small but appreciative and the choir sounded great in the big, open space of the church's sanctuary.

Where all the cool kids hang out

(found at librarian.net)

Spring Break, Part Deux

Today I baked and frosted a bunch (about 5 dozen) spring sugar cookies. Most of them are to give away, but many are for eating! I think they're super cute:

Pink tulips, yellow chicks, and blue bunnies

Fox Ridge State Park

We had a day off yesterday -- hooray for Spring Break! -- and decided to go somewhere new and do something different. So we made the short drive to Fox Ridge State Park, just south of our home, and explored some of the trails there and had a picnic lunch. It was a fabulous day! The weather was cloudy but warm, the trails were the most interesting and challenging that we've found in central Illinois (though Mike argues they were wimpy compared to Utah trails), and we enjoyed being together. The scenery was not great -- everything is still pretty brown and drab -- but we did see and document some hints of green that whisper, "Spring is here. . ."

We took the rugged route to the Eagles Nest.

This is not an assessment of the park or our little trip. The tree just reminded Mike of a thumbs-down.

Green!

Can you see the ghost trees in this dead forest? They sort of look like quaking aspen, though I don't think they actually are.

This is the first switch-back we've seen in Illinois, and it was so momentous we had to document it.

We made it up to the Eagles Nest! (Yes, I'm wearing my 10-year-old Idaho's Junior Miss t-shirt.)

This tree was interesting. There were some large rocks stuck in the center, splitting the tree into four parts. It made Michael think of a story told by Thomas S. Monson about The Peril of Hidden Wedges.

Here's the river. When we saw it, Mike said, "It's pretty in an ugly sort of way."

Seattle, briefly

Last week I was in Seattle for the ACRL National Conference. (ACRL is the Association of College and Research Libraries.) It was a fantastic trip and conference for many reasons:

1. I stayed with one of my best friends, Heather, who is a high school teacher in the Seattle area. She and her partner, Peter, were the most fantastic and thoughtful hosts! I had a great time catching up with them.
2. I got to spend time with one of my favorite librarians (and people) in the universe, Wendy.
3. I had a poster presentation that went really well. I took 200 handouts with me and came home with just 15, so I know that at least 185 people were interested in the research I'm doing with other U of I librarians.
4. ACRL is a great conference! Highlights included: a keynote address from Sherman Alexie, who was hilarious; thought-provoking presentations from other academic librarians; and introductions to cool tools (like mobile devices for roving reference).
5. Seattle has great food! I ate tapas at Andaluca, pho at Pho 900, and delicious artisan cheese at Beecher's.
6. Seattle has an awesome public library. I was just there for a minute, but had to stop by to see the interesting architecture, inside and out.

P.S. Mike and I saw a fantastic movie this week, which I'd highly recommend: The Visitor. Richard Jenkins got an Oscar nomination for his role. We also saw Duplicity last night (on a double date with some friends) and were very entertained.

P.P.S. What I'm reading: I finally finished Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace and I'm still not sure whether I really liked it (or whether I really got it). It's an interesting idea for a book -- set in the near-future in a hyper-commercial world where years are branded and everyone's addicted to something. But it's a difficult book, not least because of its length (over 1,000 pages). I also just read Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer, an exciting mystery that includes a search for an ancient book, a connection between Superman and Cain & Abel, librarians, Homeland Security, and more. Now I'm reading something totally different, Home by Marilynne Robinson. It's a companion to one of my favorite novels, Gilead, also by Robinson.