Two LoveNerds Celebrate One Year!

I’m back after a few days off from blogging! I needed a little breather after completing the NaBloPoMohttp://missmusicnerd.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=292&message=1&_wp_original_http_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fmissmusicnerd.wordpress.com%2F challenge, and of course McDoc and I had our 1st wedding anniversary to celebrate!!!
We had a lovely, if too brief, getaway in Windsor — where, by the way, everyone else was visiting to watch the Red Bull [...]

Happy May Day and NaBloPoMo!

Okay, so spring is technically over a month old, but the Upper-Mid-West, or Western-Northeast, or whatever you call the region where I currently reside, was slow to get the memo. We crawled gingerly out of our winter funk, only to get a coupla final cold blasts in our faces. But we persevere, and the daytime [...]

Happy Easter!

It’s a very different kind of Easter for me than usual: this is the first Easter in many years that I didn’t play the organ for several church services! I’m on a little sabbatical from church music at the moment, as McDoc and I really wanted our weekends to be flexibile given the heavy demands [...]

A Nerdy Playlist for New Year’s Eve

The end of 2007 is upon us! Hard to believe, isn’t it?
You can find plenty of New Year’s Eve playlists if you search online, and many of them are compilations of the best and/or most popular songs of 2007. (Not necessarily the same thing! )
I wanted to do something more, shall we say, [...]

Holiday Music, Hot off the Presses!

Sigh… Procrastination is so inspiring sometimes…
I was sitting at the piano last night, feeling bored and uninspired, looking for a way to do anything but what I was supposed to be doing. I started noodling around and came up with something that said “holidays” to me. It reminded me of when McDoc and I were [...]

Our Musical Christmas Tree!

We’ve received some lovely ornaments as gifts this year, and some of them are music-themed, which prompted me to take inventory of our musical decorations.
The Tree at McVirgo Manor

Click Mr. Readmore for the specifics!
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Snow Music!

Last night, McDoc asked me for examples of music that make reference to snow — a very timely topic for two Californians experiencing their first Michigan winter!
The first thing I thought of was “The Snow is Dancing,” (audio sample) from The Children’s Corner, a suite of piano pieces by Claude Debussy. There’s also “Des Pas [...]

Music for Hanukkah!

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah — so what about music to go along with it?
The Jewish National and University Library has a great collection of Hanukkah music from a variety of traditions, in both streaming and downloadable form. A couple of examples (links go to streaming audio):

Candle Lighting chant, from the Ashkenazi tradition.
“Ma’oz [...]

Want to hear some excellent holiday music EVERY DAY?? (…til Christmas, that is!)

A writer at one of the other blogs I read put up some links to online Advent calendars. What a cute idea, I thought. You don’t get a piece of chocolate when you open the window for each day, but heck, who needs those extra calories at this time of year, anyway?
The calendar from the [...]

Noel Night in Detroit!

This past Saturday, McDoc and I attended Noel Night, a giant holiday celebration in Detroit’s Cultural Center. (You didn’t think Detroit had a cultural center, did you? Since moving to the area, I’ve been pleased to discover that it’s not nearly as bad as people think!) The museums, churches, and businesses in the area hosted [...]