So, for my birthday,
breadandroses and I went up to NYC over the weekend and a very nice busy time. A few notes:
- One of Craig Ferguson's bits in his Saturday show at Radio City included an extended riff on "what it would look like if chocolate actually WAS addictive" which culminated in the question "Have you ever said 'I'll just have one Mounds bar' and woken up three days later on the floor of a Piggly Wiggly with a sore arse and Snickers in your ears?" The name 'Piggly Wiggly' is inherently hilarious to Yankees like me; when a Scotsman says it it's even better. When a MANIC Scotsman says it, it's sublime. The Manic Scotsman principle applies to a lot of Craig Ferguson's comedy; it's not that jokes about Hitler's vegetarianism are original, it's that CF delivers them with such verve.
- It's peculiarly informative to attend back-to-back events at Radio City Music Hall and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The venue designed for nonparticipatory events is more intimate AND has better sightlines. Both, however, have extensive corps of well-trained ushers.
- 300-voice choir? FRICKIN' AWESOME.
- Clergy and servers have got to be in good trim to process around the LARGEST CATHEDRAL IN THE WORLD, particularly because they don't start from the narthex but from the south arm of the crossing to then go BACK to the narthex and down the center aisle.
- "I think Episcopalians are trained to stand in doorways," one assisting priest was complaining as the procession wound back down the south aisle towards the crossing at the end of the service.
- Some popular parenting blogger in NYC needs to get the word out that, while the procession of the animals makes the Feast of St Francis (observed) a particularly engaging service for the small fry, the fact that the procession happens in the last quarter of a service that included (in this instance) four readings, a sermon, several anthems, two dance performances, and communion for, conservatively speaking, a thousand, and lasted nearly two hours, it's a poor choice for a kid who has no prior experience of religious services.
- Given that St. J's was being un-Episcopalian enough to be asking the congregation to raise our hands and sway, kumbaya-style, I feel they might as well have gone whole-hog and put up some jumbotrons so those of us west of the crossing could see what was going on at the altar.
- WE SAW A KANGAROO IN CHURCH A KANGAROO HOPPING UP THE AISLE ON A LEAD CHEERFULLY VEERING FROM SIDE TO SIDE TO INVESTIGATE THE HUNDREDS OF PHONES HELD UP TO TAKE ITS PICTURE.
- Also in the procession of animals: a camel (regal and relaxed), a donkey (trying hard to bolt from its handlers), a number of rabbits of various subspecies snuggling up to their people, a yak (so hairy I could not guess at its mood), a spiky-shelled giant tortise on a small wheeled platform garlanded with flowers, a snake in a terrarium, two black swans, a turkey, a macaw wearing a service animal badge, a fennic fox, a potbellied pig, and several lamas (one very nervous and clearly not having a good time.) And, bringing up the rear, a clean-up crew with a wheelbarrow and a shovel.
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- One of Craig Ferguson's bits in his Saturday show at Radio City included an extended riff on "what it would look like if chocolate actually WAS addictive" which culminated in the question "Have you ever said 'I'll just have one Mounds bar' and woken up three days later on the floor of a Piggly Wiggly with a sore arse and Snickers in your ears?" The name 'Piggly Wiggly' is inherently hilarious to Yankees like me; when a Scotsman says it it's even better. When a MANIC Scotsman says it, it's sublime. The Manic Scotsman principle applies to a lot of Craig Ferguson's comedy; it's not that jokes about Hitler's vegetarianism are original, it's that CF delivers them with such verve.
- It's peculiarly informative to attend back-to-back events at Radio City Music Hall and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The venue designed for nonparticipatory events is more intimate AND has better sightlines. Both, however, have extensive corps of well-trained ushers.
- 300-voice choir? FRICKIN' AWESOME.
- Clergy and servers have got to be in good trim to process around the LARGEST CATHEDRAL IN THE WORLD, particularly because they don't start from the narthex but from the south arm of the crossing to then go BACK to the narthex and down the center aisle.
- "I think Episcopalians are trained to stand in doorways," one assisting priest was complaining as the procession wound back down the south aisle towards the crossing at the end of the service.
- Some popular parenting blogger in NYC needs to get the word out that, while the procession of the animals makes the Feast of St Francis (observed) a particularly engaging service for the small fry, the fact that the procession happens in the last quarter of a service that included (in this instance) four readings, a sermon, several anthems, two dance performances, and communion for, conservatively speaking, a thousand, and lasted nearly two hours, it's a poor choice for a kid who has no prior experience of religious services.
- Given that St. J's was being un-Episcopalian enough to be asking the congregation to raise our hands and sway, kumbaya-style, I feel they might as well have gone whole-hog and put up some jumbotrons so those of us west of the crossing could see what was going on at the altar.
- WE SAW A KANGAROO IN CHURCH A KANGAROO HOPPING UP THE AISLE ON A LEAD CHEERFULLY VEERING FROM SIDE TO SIDE TO INVESTIGATE THE HUNDREDS OF PHONES HELD UP TO TAKE ITS PICTURE.
- Also in the procession of animals: a camel (regal and relaxed), a donkey (trying hard to bolt from its handlers), a number of rabbits of various subspecies snuggling up to their people, a yak (so hairy I could not guess at its mood), a spiky-shelled giant tortise on a small wheeled platform garlanded with flowers, a snake in a terrarium, two black swans, a turkey, a macaw wearing a service animal badge, a fennic fox, a potbellied pig, and several lamas (one very nervous and clearly not having a good time.) And, bringing up the rear, a clean-up crew with a wheelbarrow and a shovel.
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