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Since I've Been Home
Jan. 23rd, 2026 10:51 pmI’ve had a fairly busy couple of weeks since I got home from the New England trip.
Convergence: I am taking a three session class via New Lehrhaus called Convergence in Conversation: Music, Narratives, and History. This is a series of conversations led by Anthony Mordecai Tavi Russell focused on his 2018 recording which blends African-American and Ashkenazi Jewish music. I first learned of him when he appeared in a Pro Musica Hebraica program with Mark Glanville a while back and I was completely blown away by his bass voice. Anyway, Convergence is a remarkable musical accomplishment and each session focuses on some of the tracks and questions about them. For example, the second class talked about poverty and imprisonment and included a Yiddish song about a suffering Yeshiva student questioning why his life is so depressing along with the song “I am a poor wayfaring stranger.” The final class is this coming Tuesday and he sent out questions about lullabies and anthems. It’s interesting to hear his perspective on why he combined particular pieces. And I do highly recommend the album to anybody with an interest in either Yiddish music or American spirituals (or, of course, both).
Needle Felted Penguin: A week ago Thursday I took a two-hour class at a nearby brewpub on Making a Needle Felted Penguin. My friend, Tom, who I know from a knitting group and who loves penguins was also there. I think there were about 20 people total. Anyway, I’ve done wet felting over the years (including making felted slippers) but hadn’t done needle felting before. The class was fun and I came away with this cute little guy.
By the way, I have supplies for at least one more penguin.
Two TCC Activities: Last Saturday was busy with a couple of Travelers’ Century Club things. I’m now co-coordinator of the TCC Book Club and, since Ed was on a plane, I got to run the meeting. We discussed Married to Bhutan by Linda Leaming and I thought things went well. In the evening, I went to a local chapter dinner meeting at a Turkish restaurant in D.C. It was well attended and there was plenty of interesting discussion, focused on money saving travel tips. Alas, the metro was kind of screwed up on my way home, due to a disabled train at Virginia Square, so I got home later than I’d have preferred to.
JGSGW Meeting: Sunday was a Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington meeting. The speaker talked about how she traced one of her ancestors without knowing her name. The talk was okay, but I didn’t feel like I learned anything new.
Run-up to the Women’s Storytelling Festival: The Women’s Storytelling Festival is just about two months away. I have plenty of things to do, starting with editing my notes from our planning meeting on Wednesday night.
The Choral: I went to see the movie, The Choral, on Wednesday, which is old people’s discount day at Cinema Arts Theatre in Fairfax. I thought it was exquisite. The story is set in 1916 and involves the choral society in a small community in Yorkshire that is putting on a production of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. Because of World War I, there are not enough men available and they end up making some changes to the story to suit the circumstances. Ralph Fiennes plays the chorus master, who is disliked for having spent several years in Germany. (And the reason they are doing an Elgar oratorio is to avoid German composers.) The various stories involve the members of the choral society and their relationships, so there is rather a lot going on. The music is spectacular. Two things that struck me were: 1) a quote from Goethe that says a person should hear music, read a poem, and look at a beautiful picture every day and 2) a speech about purgatory given by one of the performers, a soldier who lost an arm in the war. That speech was definitely a two-hanky one. Also, my current ear worm is “A Man Who Would Woo a Fair Maid” (from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard) because they used it in the closing credits.
Stafford Challenge - Week 1: I’ve made it through the first week of writing a poem a day. My major focus is related to the story of the wreck of the Congressional Limited in 1943, which was one of the deadliest train wrecks in U.S. history. I’m interested in it because one of 79 people who died in it was my grandfather’s sister, Mary Lehrman (nee Mariasha Chlebiotskaya). So some of what I wrote this week has to do with introducing some of the characters. Though I did have two unrelated poems - one haiku re: the metro woes of Saturday night and a topical haiku. I won’t include the poems here, but I will list the titles of them.
17 January 2026 - The Train, 1 - Mary wonders about the English language
18 January 2026 - The Train, 2 - Mary shares her daughter’s advice
19 January 2026 - A diversion into Haiku
20 January 2026 - A Haiku For Our Times
21 January 2026 - The boy notices the mysterious soldier
22 January 2026 - A Marine answers the boy
23 January 2026 - Mary sees Lin Yutang
I’m not sure how these fragments will fit together. But, for now, it doesn’t matter.
Convergence: I am taking a three session class via New Lehrhaus called Convergence in Conversation: Music, Narratives, and History. This is a series of conversations led by Anthony Mordecai Tavi Russell focused on his 2018 recording which blends African-American and Ashkenazi Jewish music. I first learned of him when he appeared in a Pro Musica Hebraica program with Mark Glanville a while back and I was completely blown away by his bass voice. Anyway, Convergence is a remarkable musical accomplishment and each session focuses on some of the tracks and questions about them. For example, the second class talked about poverty and imprisonment and included a Yiddish song about a suffering Yeshiva student questioning why his life is so depressing along with the song “I am a poor wayfaring stranger.” The final class is this coming Tuesday and he sent out questions about lullabies and anthems. It’s interesting to hear his perspective on why he combined particular pieces. And I do highly recommend the album to anybody with an interest in either Yiddish music or American spirituals (or, of course, both).
Needle Felted Penguin: A week ago Thursday I took a two-hour class at a nearby brewpub on Making a Needle Felted Penguin. My friend, Tom, who I know from a knitting group and who loves penguins was also there. I think there were about 20 people total. Anyway, I’ve done wet felting over the years (including making felted slippers) but hadn’t done needle felting before. The class was fun and I came away with this cute little guy.
By the way, I have supplies for at least one more penguin.
Two TCC Activities: Last Saturday was busy with a couple of Travelers’ Century Club things. I’m now co-coordinator of the TCC Book Club and, since Ed was on a plane, I got to run the meeting. We discussed Married to Bhutan by Linda Leaming and I thought things went well. In the evening, I went to a local chapter dinner meeting at a Turkish restaurant in D.C. It was well attended and there was plenty of interesting discussion, focused on money saving travel tips. Alas, the metro was kind of screwed up on my way home, due to a disabled train at Virginia Square, so I got home later than I’d have preferred to.
JGSGW Meeting: Sunday was a Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington meeting. The speaker talked about how she traced one of her ancestors without knowing her name. The talk was okay, but I didn’t feel like I learned anything new.
Run-up to the Women’s Storytelling Festival: The Women’s Storytelling Festival is just about two months away. I have plenty of things to do, starting with editing my notes from our planning meeting on Wednesday night.
The Choral: I went to see the movie, The Choral, on Wednesday, which is old people’s discount day at Cinema Arts Theatre in Fairfax. I thought it was exquisite. The story is set in 1916 and involves the choral society in a small community in Yorkshire that is putting on a production of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. Because of World War I, there are not enough men available and they end up making some changes to the story to suit the circumstances. Ralph Fiennes plays the chorus master, who is disliked for having spent several years in Germany. (And the reason they are doing an Elgar oratorio is to avoid German composers.) The various stories involve the members of the choral society and their relationships, so there is rather a lot going on. The music is spectacular. Two things that struck me were: 1) a quote from Goethe that says a person should hear music, read a poem, and look at a beautiful picture every day and 2) a speech about purgatory given by one of the performers, a soldier who lost an arm in the war. That speech was definitely a two-hanky one. Also, my current ear worm is “A Man Who Would Woo a Fair Maid” (from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard) because they used it in the closing credits.
Stafford Challenge - Week 1: I’ve made it through the first week of writing a poem a day. My major focus is related to the story of the wreck of the Congressional Limited in 1943, which was one of the deadliest train wrecks in U.S. history. I’m interested in it because one of 79 people who died in it was my grandfather’s sister, Mary Lehrman (nee Mariasha Chlebiotskaya). So some of what I wrote this week has to do with introducing some of the characters. Though I did have two unrelated poems - one haiku re: the metro woes of Saturday night and a topical haiku. I won’t include the poems here, but I will list the titles of them.
17 January 2026 - The Train, 1 - Mary wonders about the English language
18 January 2026 - The Train, 2 - Mary shares her daughter’s advice
19 January 2026 - A diversion into Haiku
20 January 2026 - A Haiku For Our Times
21 January 2026 - The boy notices the mysterious soldier
22 January 2026 - A Marine answers the boy
23 January 2026 - Mary sees Lin Yutang
I’m not sure how these fragments will fit together. But, for now, it doesn’t matter.
