Open Books Will Present a Memorial Reading for Joan Swift

This morning I visited Open Books in Seattle and left a broadside from the 1995 poetry reading Joan Swift gave for the Distinguished Poet Series.  A reading in memory of Joan Swift is planned at Open Books Tuesday, May 16th in the evening. 

Song Translation Events - 2002 and Now

In my previous post, April 26, 2017, in which I considered events of August, 2002, I discussed a picnic with relatives and the time separately in which I played two 1960 records loud on the turntable and made a recording of them on the tape recorder.  The music also was a part of the yearly Swedish hymn translation of pieces familiar to the original Swedish people at the early version of First Lutheran Church.

At that time the church planned ahead to a 125^th anniversary celebration and there was a yearly hymn performed by the choir in Swedish.  The first hymn was Hela världen frödes Herran – my name was credited as translator (see photo).  I had worked on Song Translations since 1989 and to be able to participate in the church anniversary, even though I attend only part-time, was heartening.  

 

A video in March celebrated the tenth anniversary of my blog, Spice Drawer Mouse.  This video is posted at Facebook.

 

Another video slideshow presented two songs from one of the two 1960 records that I played loud on the turntable to record back in 2002.

Some of the events of August 2017

I saw a car pass over a raccoon.  This was among some diary entries in August 2002, fifteen years ago,  it was dark, or not dark but still early morning.   I had delivered papers every morning since spring of 1999 so  raccoons were out when I was.  The raccoon was on the road, lying down and trying to raise up. 

The Raccoon had the car pass right over him, then he got up and went to the other side from me, without a limp, and headed to a yard between houses where he could recuperate and then go home, probably to the gulch.

It was on a Thursday.  Relatives arrived from California at the weekend, there was a picnic on Vashon Island at Dockton County Park, there is a photograph with two or three tiers of relatives lined up with some trees behind. 

Two weekends later, on a Saturday and Sunday I locate the sessions I found time for with the stereo and the tape recorder, to play the 1960 records by the Tacoma Runeberg Chorus really loud and make a recording of them.

Then I began a yearly Swedish hymn translation of pieces I am convinced were familiar to the original Swedish people at the early versions of First Lutheran Church.  At the end of August 2017, I brought in a first hymn. 

And it was years later that a tape got transferred to the computer.  And recently I located a site on the internet that would turn it into the version that the slideshow app could use as audio.

So the 1962 Runeberg Lodge record become shared has had a slow background.  I was able to share one of the songs on a slideshow on Earth Day 2017.

Concert at the Scottish Rites Cathedral August 1934

A repeated blog entry from an earlier year during the first ten years at Spice Drawer Mouse Refers to An Article From Sunday August 26, 1934 - The venue for the concert described here is discussed by Matt Driscoll in a News Tribune Article.  This is the repeated blog entry:

An interesting article from Sunday, August 26, 1934, tells of the Labor Day Weekend concert planned by Order of Runeberg at the Scottish Rites Cathedral. The program for the event lists a banquet after the Sunday Concert at First Lutheran Church. (In this photo of the Scottish Rites Cathedral Building, which still stands, the spires of Stadium High School appear in the far distance.)
MUSICAL FEAST PROMISED CITY
Order of Runeberg Singing Society Will Meet Here Saturday and Sunday
Next Saturday morning at 9 o'clock, the 10th annual convention of the Order of Runeberg Singing Society will open with registration of the singers and visitors at the Scottish Rite cathedral. The entire morning and most of the afternoon will be spent in rehearsal of the combined choruses. The women of the Tacoma Order of Runeberg have charge of the luncheon to be served for the singers at the Valhalla Temple.

At 9 o'clock Saturday evening the Scottish Rite cathedral will be the scene of the grand ball. Scandinavian dances will be featured, and musci will be furnished by the Gord Orchestra. Mayor Smitley will be present and will give a short address.

The concert, which begins at 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, will also be held at the Scottish Rite cathedral, and it promises to be one of the most outstanding concerts ever given by the grand chorus. Guest artists for the occasion will be Miss Viola Wasterlain, will-known Tacoma violinist; Victor Wickstrom, baritone, of Olympia, and Mrs. Gene Wallin-Sundsten, soprano, of Seattle. Mrs. Sunsten is an accomplished soloist and is very popular among the Runeberg singers. Besides being a member of the Seattle chorus, she has also been soloist at a number of the conventions. The grand chorus will sing one group of American selections, but the majority of the program will be a Swedish. Prof. John Sundsten of Seattle is the present director of the grand chorus. Prof. Sundsten has been associated with the Runberg Singing society for many years, having served as the accompanist at most of the conventions. Last year he was chosen by the society as grand director, and he has proven to be a most able and sympathetic leader. One group of Swedish numbers at the concert will be directed by the honorary past-director, Martin Carlson of Tacoma. Mr. Carlson was director of the grand chorus and the Tacoma chorus from the origin of the society in 1924 until last year, when he resigned on account of ill health.

(Accompanying baritone Victor Wickstrom was Linnea Gord at the piano - Kors Spindeln by Sibelius, and De Tva Grenadörerna by Schubert)

Starting out the program was Modersmålets Sång (Hagfors), Men Liljorna de Växa (Otto Anderson), and March ur Finlands Namn (A. Von Kothen)

Spice Drawer Mouse Is Ten

Spice Drawer Mouse is Ten.  It seems yesterday that the blog was two, and celebrated with the nice cube at left.  At Facebook is a short video to celebrate.

Link To First Blogpost of Spice Drawer Mouse

The first blogpost of Spice Drawer Mouse is dated March 27, 2007.  Soon it will be ten years since the first blogpost of Spice Drawer Mouse. 

Back After Weeks And I Did Read

Weeks since my previous post:  after I finished reading the Sara Paretsky book with the passage I referred to:    I found a meter around the corner from the Star's building on Kinzie and Canal.  One of Global's economizing measures had been to close down the Star's beaux arts building in the Loop and to move the reporting and editorial staff out to the press building along the Chicago River.  Given the four-hundred-million-dollar price tag for Global's corporate headquarters on Wacker, I suppose every penny saved on investigative journalism was essential; through my haze of anger I felt a brief twinge of sympathy for Murray, moved into this dingy building in the shadow of the rail yards and expressways.         (I realized the comment can apply to many who find digital publication brings change, I found this passage to be great .)
I have followed my own advice and re-read another volume in this series, Body Work.  Elements of the plot were in harmony with the Pierce County Reads new selection, Grunt, about the supplies countries provide for military.     I read Louise's Lies by Sarah Shaber, a volume from the Louise Pearlie mysteries - Louise works for a government office, the OSS, which accumulates sensitive and useful data for the use of the war department.  The character show the reader Washington D.C. during World War Two.  Central to the scene in Louise's Lies is the unoccupied German Embassy.