AGO Convention - Detroit, MI

This past week I went on a trip to Detroit for the Region V Convention of the American Guild of Organists. It was technically a business trip, but I really love business trips, so it was kind of a joy for me. Everyone at the office was too busy with the Skinner restoration that we're working on to go, so they sent me. I traveled with a friend, a real organist, and while I am but a lowly choir director, I still got a lot out of the trip. (And, yes, I still did my job!)



We stayed at the Marriott Renaissance Center right on the Detroit River. We were on the 52nd floor overlooking the city, the river, Lake St. Claire and Windsor, ON. The view was amazing, day or night.

I really enjoyed all the concerts on organ and carillon. I can't even describe the feeling that you get when someone who knows what they're doing plays pieces that you've heard many times before. The energy is amazing! It is electrifying! It left me feeling uplifted and very inferior at the same time. The churches and the organs themselves were breathtaking, too.


It was great to meet new people and enjoy their company. My thanks to Dr. Joseph D. Daniel and his committee for such an amazing week. I think that they were putting in 18-20 hour days to make sure that everything ran smoothly.

In two years it will be in Lexington, KY. I really hope that everyone is too busy to go in 2011, so they have to send me again.

The Princess and the Picture

Originally uploaded by Joseph L. Harris (www.jlh-photo.com)

The Princess is not photogenic either, heaven bless her.

Her school picture is awful! I mean really awful. It literally looks like a mug shot. The best part of that picture is that she can have it put on a mug (which I plan to do at some point), then it can be my mug shot mug.

Anyway, this is not the school picture. I asked my brother to take a picture of her. His wife and I held the scrim while he shot this. I think when this shot was taken, we had told her to bring her chin toward Joseph, which she did, by shifting her jaw to the side, and not turning her head. It made us all laugh and this is a picture of her trying hard not to laugh out loud. I kind of wish he had gotten her laughing out loud, because I think she's beautiful when she laughs, but Joseph tells me her eyes disappear when she laughs, and that's no good for a picture.

This is taken along the western wall of my parents' house which faces a plain. I am amazed that she doesn't have ice crystals on her face the wind was so cold. I have to say that I love how the color of the painted stone goes with her hoodie and her hair.

Ist sie nicht schoen? Ja, sie ist sehr schoene!