A Special Visit

Today is the feast of the Visitation. It reminds us that we, like Mary, should think of others. She traveled quite a distance, like so many of us do, to visit her cousin. Her reason for going was to help her elderly relative through her unplanned late life pregnancy. Her readiness to assist brought great benefits. Not only was she able to share her own unusual pregnancy, but she also witnessed the miraculous naming of John the Baptist.

The child’s father had been struck dumb for his lack of faith by the announcing angel. Upon the birth of his child, his tongue was loosened when he was asked what name he would give the little one. His answer, “John is his name.”

Let us keep the feast by raising a prayer to Mary for all unborn children and their mothers. In a world where unplanned pregnancies are terminated, both women of this story courageously accepted God’s will for them.

Name Dropping

Ara Sevanian dropped many names throughout his interviews for the memoir, Kanon. These were people who recognized his abilities as an Armenian-American Composer. The links presented give insight into the caliber of his fellow artists:

The composer was proud of these associations with the famous men who shared his interests. 

Tolegian presented him with a sketch of “Peaches,” which Ara always pointed out to those who visited his apartment.

http://americangallery.wordpress.com/tag/manuel-j-tolegian/  Manuel Tolegian

Avedik Isahakian (1875-1957) shared his friendship with the composer by writing a poem for him to set to music.

Avedik Isahakian (1875-1957 AD)

A native of Gumri, Avedik Isahakian carried on the poetic traditions of the Armenian troubadors, writing of love and sorrow in his poems - disillusioned love, love for his mother and his homeland, sorrow for those who fell heroically for their homeland. Isahakian's poems are simple, clear, sometimes mystical. They come from the heart of the poet directly to the heart of the reader. The long poem "Abu Lala Mahari" is considered his masterpiece.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54643726@N03/6784962321/

Darvish, who was more difficult to find in the searches for friends had painted two Arabian Nights pictures. They hung on the entryway wall to the composer’s apartment in Van Nuys.

Edvard Mirzoyan was a fellow student along with Tatul Altounian at Yerevan Conservatory. These men decided to stay behind in Armenia during the revolution that took Ara’s father from him. Their success  caused him to admit that he should have returned to Armenia after his grand success in Moscow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Mirzoyan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_srHPWFnO7g Tatul Altounian

The following list of composers includes many of Ara Sevanian’s fellow students of the conservatory, friends, and mentors.

 http://www.mousaler.com/songbook/data/composers.html

Aram Khachaturian became his most important mentor through much of his career. He often played in joint concerts with Sevanian and spoke highly of Ara as deserving a hearing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aram_Khachaturian

Ara also encouraged fellow artists. In later years, Loris Tjeknavorian, his junior, asked Sevanian to write a Concerto for Kanon and orchestra. Ara did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loris_Tjeknavorian

 

Although Dr. Walter Moek has passed away, he performed Sevanian’s Adagio Cantabile in Scottsdale, Arizona. Like Varktag Jordania, he more than appreciated Sevanian’s music. He played it for the American audience, as did Vakhtang. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vakhtang_Jordania

 

The Prayer of the Church

Divine Office http://divineoffice.org/

It was once called the Divine Office. Its current title is the Liturgy of the Hours, and it refers to the Prayer of the Church. Divided into seven time frames, it means for its adherents to pray always.

Four books fill the need to provide for seasonal changes, such as Advent, Christmas time, Lent and the Easter season and Ordinary time. The change from Advent to Ordinary time is easy, because the close of the Christmas season opens with the first week in Ordinary time.

The change from the close of the Easter season to Ordinary time can be confusing, since Easter depends on the first full moon in spring. Hence, the weeks before or after this season isn’t always the same. This year, post Easter Ordinary time begins with the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time.

Confused? Here’s some help: http://www.divineofficefordodos.com/

The seven time frames for saying the Divine Office daily are as follows:

1.     Office of Readings—Intended for the middle of the night

2.     Morning Prayer—six am

3.     Midmorning Prayer—nine am

4.     Midday Prayer—noon

5.     Midafternoon Prayer—three pm

6.     Evening Prayer—six pm

7.     Night Prayer—nine pm

The longest of the prayers is the Office of Readings which contains extended scriptural and non-scriptural readings. Morning and Evening prayers are the hinge of the Office and include reading and general prayers for the church along with the psalmody, making these two prayers long. The shortest of the prayers are midday and night prayer. If the entire Office is recited from start to finish in one sitting, it would take roughly one hour.

The various hours once bore Latin titles like terce, sext, none, compline, etc. But as can be seen, it keeps its faithful praying throughout the day, and even during the night. Those under obligation sometimes combine hours when other duties call. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11219a.htm

Many religious orders require their nuns, brothers, and priests to recite this prayer which is so full of Scriptural references. In fact all priests are bound by its recitation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liturgy_of_the_Hours#Obligation_of_recitation

   

Our Buddy, Lance

 A Branch Just Misses Slide-out

Lance doesn’t do well going down trucker lanes at 55mph. Torn up pavement, bumps, and retreads shake him up too much. And so, as is true for most RV’s, trailers, or hitched up boats, screws loosen, door jambs go askew, and slide-outs stop sliding. Even propane gets choked, tweaked, and leaks.

Lance wasn’t as bad off as his neighbor with the propane problem, but on our latest trip he let us know he would like regular maintenance.  The Memorial Day weekend started with a heavy downpour. Little Lance couldn’t take it. One corner of his slider started to drip water. What went wrong?

I looked under his belly and saw that one track of the slide-out had torn up the rubber gasket that kept him dry. No problem since rain comes down from the sky, not up from the road. Meanwhile, one of the kids inside the Lance trailer piped up, “The curtain is loose.” Ah, I thought; we’ve lost another screw.” I came up from down under, took a look at the culprit curtain stabilizer and noticed the whole window seemed askew.  The slide out was off kilter.

“Lance, how could you?!” I complained, noticing daylight shining through the gap created by the downward shift of the slide-out. No wonder it had rained inside. Tomorrow, it will be off to the Lance factory to schedule service.

Most minor mishaps, like the faulty strike plate on the doorjamb, are easy fixes. It only required a trip to the local hardware store for the right kind of screw puller—a square one, to pull off the plate. The store didn’t carry a new strike plate {we'll have to take  a trip to the RV store), but at least now we could get in and out of Lance again.

We’d like a better stove too. Not that Lance's, with its three burners and full sized oven isn’t superb; but one of the burners keeps igniting in places it shouldn’t. Lance has been playing this game since day one, but we’ve waited too long by trying to fix it with new gaskets.

Yes, it’s been a year since we bought our little guy, so he’s out of warranty already. Oh well, the vagaries of using a camper trailer only three times a year to discover problems. Nevertheless, we love Lance and will address his needs, pronto, so we can go on our next fabulous outing. Maybe we can learn to dry camp, since so many wonderful campsites, both state and federal, make such a splendid show of nature not found at full hook up RV sites.

(Dry Camp: v. to bring along a generator for creating one’s own electricity

to use public campsite bathrooms to conserve RV holding tanks

to camp close to a water source and bring bottled water for basic water

needs)

RTMC, once more

Photos of RTMC area fun make up this entry. Aside from telescopic delights, interesting talks, and access to vendors that sell astronomical gadgets, activities for kids make up a large part of a trip up the hill to Big Bear and Camp Oakes. Take the outreach folks from Arizona who had nine weight scales letting kids discover how heavy they really would be on some of the planets, the sun, and even a white dwarf. Of course Mercury hit it off for the ladies who like feeling thin.

Hiking

It was too cold for swimming or canoeing this year, but just right for a visit to the Big Bear Discovery Center. Less than ten miles from the RTMC camp, the center is close by and free of charge. It offers ranger talks and guided hikes. Here kids can check out florescent rocks, touch furry beasts, and pan for gold (pyrite, of  course).

Touching Furry Things

Panning for Gold

The city has lots of fun things to see and do, like visiting the local zoo, boating, or fishing off the bridge. It also has plenty of shops for tourists (didn't we once call them tourist traps?) But where else can you get that mug with a bear climbing up its side?

Unfortunately, last week's eclipse took a toll on the Camp Oaks gathering of RTMC astronomers. Not only was less than a third of the usual turnout present, leaving campsites veritably empty, but the vendors left early, too. Meade, Celestron and Televue were still on the field, but telescopes weren't.

A Field Devoid of Telescopes and Campers

 In spite of the disappointing turnout, the conferences proved as well prepared as ever. Astrophotography talks, reviews of last week's solar eclipse, and a talk about favorite binocular targets abounded. One well attended event prepared folks for the upcoming Venus transit of the sun. Venus will be skittering across the upper quadrant of the sun around three PM pacific daylight time on June 5. It should be visible in binoculars.
Want to take a picture of it? As Charles Morris (JPL's comet hunter) mentions, the trick with photographing solar events is to get your finger off that shutter button. Most solar view snapshots, even through protective solar filters, tend to be overexposed. Nevertheless, even most the most amateur of amateurs will try to take pictures in the weirdest ways with current easy to use electronic devices like Iphones. Here's my Iphone shot through my binocular. (And yes, I used a solar filter purchased from Rainbow Symphony, Inc.)

Through the Looking Glass

Hopefully next week's Venus transit will prove equally good.

Spicy Sweet n Sour Cucumber

I'm not much of a cook, but sometimes I pick something out of a recipe book just for fun. I don't stick to the ingredients entirely. This time I spiced the basic recipe up with the little hot red pepper flakes I get at the  pizza place. The fennel gives it flavor.

1 large cucumber sliced thin
1/2 fennel bulb sliced thin
1/2 medium onion sliced fine
2 cloves garlic cut in half
2 sprigs fresh dill
1 1/2 c vinegar
1 1/2 c sugar
3 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp red chilli pepper flakes

Rinse and sterilize a glass container large enough to accommodate the dry ingredients.
Combine the vinegar and remaining ingredients in a saucepan.
Boil and pour over the vegetables in the container.
Seal tightly and chill

The basic recipe was taken from an old book called Biblical Cooking

In the News

The real history of a great man in press releases.