New Look?

I'm thinking about some changes for 2014, but I'm not sure that I'm ready to embrace this particular look, although I always enjoy seeing what the exuberant model is up to in the narrow display window just before the entrance to Paper Dreams, the locally-owned card, home decor and gift shop next to Village Books.

After buying Wendell Berry's latest poetry collection at Village Books and doing a "big shop" at the Community Food Co-op this morning, I've spent the afternoon cooking -- "banking" some meals ahead -- and drafting the printed program production schedule for the next Whatcom Symphony Orchestra's concert, one of my current volunteer roles. The February 9 concert, "Catch a Rising Star," features 26-year-0ld Norwegian trumpet sensation Tine Thing Helseth, and work on the concert program begins next Monday.

I have a special interest in this concert because when I was in fifth grade (age 10), when many American students take up a musical instrument, I wanted to play trumpet, but in the 1950s -- at least at my New Jersey elementary school -- girls were told their choices were only flute, clarinet, or violin. I chose flute and enjoyed considerable success with it, but always longed for a brass instrument. (Both my daughter and my son elected to play French horn when the time came for them to choose an instrument, so I had that vicarious pleasure.)

Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, one of my favorites, is also on the program, as well as works by Shostakovich, Sibelius, and Verdi. It's going to be a varied and exciting afternoon!