Quilting, plus a p.s.

Hello faithful reader,

I have an announcement from Melissa, but she doesn't feel like typing.

She wanted to let you know that she's finished her very first quilt! Well, it's not her first quilt, but it's the first quilt that's finished, if you know what I mean. It is a baby quilt for my sister Gail McAdams' upcoming arrival.

Some pictures...







And on a completely different thread (ha, ha), we thought you would be interested to know that the day before yesterday is the commemoration of the independence of Estonia. We had lunch yesterday with a friend of a friend who grew up in the twilight of the Soviet Union.

That's an illustration of one of my favorite (or favourite?) things about living in the U.K.: there's an amazing connection with the rest of the world. They, in turn, are amazed by the isolation of the U.S.; they don't blame us for our isolation, they understand that it's part of our geography. But it's something that I'm not proud of. I'm convinced that 'Americans,* by and large, have absolutely no clue about what the rest of the world is really like. And yet, we consider ourselves the Rome of the new global empire. For the record, I really disagreed with the political philosophy of this Estonian who grew up in the U.S.S.R. But without that manner of conversation, how can I hope to have an educated perspective?

I'll stop before I begin a proper rant, but maybe that's provided some food for thought.

This is moving week for us; we'll have some pictures next week of our new, 2-bedroom flat! We're very excited. Stay tuned...


* Read the following comments for an explanation of this term.

Fun in the Minster

As promised, here's a bit on a really nice concert that took place in the Minster the Saturday before last.



The program was very eclectic, ranging from medieval church music to classical, a tuvan throat-singing group, electronic music... and of course, the indonesian gamelan, which I play in!

The aesthetic of the concert was unique and pleasing. The chairs had been removed from the space, and the audience was encouraged to move around throughout the performance. When one group finished, the next began from a different, unexpected part of the room. The evening culminated with a vocal ensemble that performed a canon whilst meandering around and through the audience! I can't explain the effect of the evening in words, except to say that everything felt... really big. It was really nice. I took a lot of pictures of the gamelan because it was really striking to see an entire small orchestra of instruments from the East juxtaposed against the cathedral background of the West.




On a different subject, I have a new website! www.cmbryan.com There are a few recordings to download, including the first project for my Master's degree. If you want to listen, let me know what you think.

These next few weeks will be all about buckling down and (hopefully) getting a lot of music written. I'll let you know as soon as I hear about my PhD application. Thanks for reading!

Touristing continued...

Is "touristing" a word? Anyway...

Life has been really busy of late, and we have some announcements!

My mother and brother were here visiting last week, which is my excuse for not posting before now. We had a great time showing them around. Andrew bought a sword and took it back with him! I'll just pretend I don't see the bloke with his arm around my wife.




It also gave us a great excuse to hit some pubs...



and even spy on a devil!



Also, we're very excited that Melissa has a new bike!



It's a combined birthday present from both of our parents and myself. Her old one was pretty beat, and this one is shiny new! Hopefully we can keep it that way for a while...


We have some nice pictures of York that haven't found their way into a post yet...




And last (but certainly not least)... we're moving! The place where we're living now has been great, especially because our landlord, Ann, has been more than willing to help us in many ways. However, it's about 5 miles to York and the University, which is a lot on a bicycle every day. Our new place will be a lot closer, but also significantly more expensive. You can pray for us that our finances will work out ok.

Next week I'll share a bit about a concert I just played in with the York gamelan ensemble (the gamelan is a collection of instruments from Indonesia). And in a few weeks I should be able to announce our future plans with regard to my continuing studies.

Until then, take care,

-Chris