Requiescat in Pace, Kate McGarrigle

Kate McGarrigle, a Canadian folksinger whose sister's lyrics inspired the title of this blog, was lost to cancer earlier this week. In addition to her own fine career (bilingual even) and work with her sister, she gave the music world two blessed and talented children, Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright. Her legacy lives through her music, her children and her philanthropy in the form of a trust at Montreal's McGill University Health Center, where she had been treated for clear cell sarcoma since 2006.

Rest, Kate. Thank you for the beauty.

Guilty Pleasures Pt. 1 - Project Runway

I am not a fashion maven by any stretch of the imagination. My ideal shopping trip consists of logging onto the Land’s End website and finding something nice and comfy in the overstock section, and then buying three or four of it in different neutral colors. I’m a dullard, and I’ll only wear sensible shoes.

But Project Runway – oh, that’s different. For the uninitiated, PR is a reality TV show (a concept I have foresworn to abhor) where sixteen fashion designers are brought together to compete in a series of challenges. Someone (or some two) gets eliminated every week until only three are left standing. They get to go to New York and create a collection of clothing for a real live fashion show. The winner goes on to either fame and glory or obscurity, it depends.

Creativity is not my thing; my grade cards were full of A’s in everything but art and gym class as a kid. Maybe that’s why I get so blown away when other people are good at it. One of the impressive things about the Project Runway contestants is that they are from all over the place. Last year’s three finalists were from Akron, Ohio, Charleston, South Carolina and the third was a NYC type whose parents emigrated from Georgia – the country, not the state – when she was an infant. So, truly, this year’s winner could theoretically hail from Valeda, Kansas or Shell Knob, Missouri. I don’t think it is likely, but am enamored with the idea that it COULD happen.

The show doesn’t start for over an hour, but I’ve already got a favorite. His name is Anthony Williams and he’s a graduate of the University of Alabama. Not only that, but he was in the College where I teach, although, obviously, in Apparel Design, not Consumer Science. So it goes, but everyone around the College is pretty excited. The Dean even had a satellite dish installed so that there could be a watch party for the premiere. Cool!

I can’t talk about Project Runway without mentioning the fabulous Tim Gunn. The calm, cool and always collected Mr. Gunn is the guardian angel of and mentor to the designers. It’s difficult for me to describe my feelings about Tim Gunn. I sure could have used a Tim Gunn when I was writing my dissertation, that’s for sure. But I also like the idea that, maybe, someday, I can be somebody else’s Tim Gunn.

The Chimes rang out at Midnight

Last night, the University of Alabama won the NCAA National Championship Football title by beating the University of Texas in a game that was by turns frustrating, agonizing, exciting, boring, a little too exciting and, finally, euphoric. We watched at the home of a colleague with a bunch of people who know a whole lot more about Bama football than we do, and have a lot of passion for the stuff. It was a great time. Our contribution to the festivities was a crock pot full of Bevo (UT’s bovine mascot) y Queso dip, which was well received.

After five hours of hanging out with fun people and generally having a blast and feeling on top of the world, we couldn’t resist taking a detour through campus on our way home. Okay, so it was like way out of the way, but how often do you get to be in a college town when they’ve just won the national championship in anything, much less the sport for which they are rightfully the best known? There weren’t huge crowds or massive unruliness. No burning cars – the good people of Tuscaloosa, Alabama are far too genteel for that sort of thing. Just people running around, screaming, hugging, standing in line in 20 degree weather for championship t-shirts and creating experiences they will remember forever.

The highlight was hearing the Denny Chimes ring out the midnight hour as we waited in a line of traffic on University Boulevard. The University of Alabama campus is beautiful and the Quad area is one of the most picturesque I’ve seen. The Denny Chimes are housed in a campanile that was built as a memorial to those students who fought in World War I. The chimes ring out the day Westminster style and occasionally host carillon concerts. But early this morning, they rang in the first full day of Alabama’s reign as college football’s national champion. And we were there and it was thrilling and awesome.

Now back to work.

Kyrie Eleison

Tonight I sent in my first attempt at revising my dissertation. It's so hard to predict what will happen next; all I can do at this point is pray and hope I didn't screw too much of it up. It's been a long process and the long version narrative is forthcoming. For now, I'm just pleased to have reached the next milepost. All I can say right now is that my husband is a saint and my employer is incredibly understanding.

I celebrated by following my planned spiritual practice for the day. I've found a wonderful iTunes version of the Daily Office. Since today is Sunday there is only Evening Prayer and Night Prayer. Other days of the week offer an Invitatory Psalm, Daily Prayer and a Daytime Prayer as well as an Office of Readings. The days when I'll be able to listen to all of the podcasts will be few if any. However, if I can manage two or three a day, or even one, I will be pleased. It's a Roman Catholic production, so certain details are different (ok, it was way too Mary-centric for my tastes yesterday) but 1) it's a wonderful resource 2) the music is absolutely first rate and 3) how much easier could it be?

Tomorrow morning will be a challenge - I plan on getting up at the regular weekday time and putting in a full day at the office. We've been pretty lazy over the past couple of weeks about the whole morning routine thing (understatement) so it's going to be a rough start. But I'm rather looking forward to it. Morning Prayer!

Merry New Year!

Anybody else remember Eddie Murphy in "Trading Places"? Taking the train to Philly to bust Mortimer and Randolph on the orange juice thing.

It's a New Year and I'm going to experiment with expressing myself in this medium. Daily posting is not a likelihood, weekly is probably as good as it will get. It will be boring and serious sometimes, but hopefully light and informative others. It's supposed to be fun, right?

A little bit of introduction...I'm middle-aged, newly married, desperately trying to finish a PhD, and just as desperately trying to be good at my new job. I'm an assistant professor at a major state university in the South. All will be obvious enough in good time, but I'll start off by trying to be at least a little bit coy.

Items of importance:

1. My husband is the one true best thing in my life.

2. I'm a Christian of the Episcopal flavor.

3. Politically, I strive to be a radical moderate. This tends to keep me at odds with everybody, but makes it easier to live with myself.

Things I want to achieve this year, other than the usual personal relationship and career stuff:

1. Maintain a daily spiritual practice.

2. Be comfortable with my health. I'm not getting any younger, you know.

3. Make some new friends. Moving 900 miles and experiencing a couple of major life changes has left me feeling rather isolated (with the exception of #1 Item of Importance) and I'd like to change that.

Okay, that's enough for now.

Oh, and the title of the blog is from a song by the McGarrigle Sisters titled "You Tell Me That I'm Falling Down". Maybe someday I'll figure out how to link it here so that others may enjoy it too.