{"id":1588,"date":"2012-05-05T21:19:03","date_gmt":"2012-05-06T02:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rockwellblake.com\/blog\/?p=1588"},"modified":"2014-11-27T19:09:39","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T23:09:39","slug":"on-the-road-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/05\/on-the-road-again\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Road Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

On The Road Again, I just can’t avoid getting back on the road again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I can\u2019t stay home.\u00a0 Travel is to work as onions are to cooking.\u00a0 A few miles are OK, like from home to downtown Plattsburgh\u2026 4.5 miles to be exact and I could even say that an hour or two behind the wheel of my little red truck would not set my eyes to tearing, but putting my life in the hands of the travel industry in these days of hyper-drive security showmanship is like being the guy with the knife in charge of all the onions in a kitchen that serves hundreds of hungry Hungarians.\u00a0 Tears anyone?\u00a0 Check out how many recipes<\/a> have no onions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love to eat, and Goulash is on my love list, but my technique for onion avoidance is to be Barry Barbeque shouldering the \u201cburn the meat\u201d responsibility while leaving all the kitchen affairs to my wife Debbie.\u00a0 Of course technique is never a perfect answer to any policy desire and my resistance to the onion effect on my eyes dissolves when Debbie smiles and asks me to chop, slice, dice, peal, crush or otherwise wield the cutlery I keep sharp in our kitchen.\u00a0 Who can say no to a beautiful woman???\u00a0 Not to put it too strongly, but she is the most beautiful girl I ever met.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyway, summer is just beyond the near freezing temperatures we get at night, and the Barbeque<\/a> has been warmed twice already.\u00a0 The rhododendrons and tulips are singing at us from our garden. Just about the time everything else in our garden will be tuned up for the wonderful Summer Symphony <\/strong>out back of our house,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>

Our Secret Garden<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m faced with having to go north to hand in my ticket, my luggage and my life to those performers pretending to protect us from ourselves. I know I would turn and run back to the car, kiss my wife and beg her to drive me home again but for the fact that I cannot say no to that which I see as my calling.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t a beautiful woman.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t even Beautiful Singing\u2026.. No, I am called to promote Great Singing.\u00a0 Garcia is my guide, and I have no way to say no to a request to be the guide I feel called to be.\u00a0 I can try, but over time my resistance always drains away.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like Willie Nelson I love making \u201cmusic with my friends<\/a>\u201d but I will not be singing while spinning wheels on the road to the Airport. First I\u2019m going to Roma:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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For a few days I’ll teach with the help of a young pianist, Rita Lo Giudice. \u00a0She is responsible for inviting me to Italy to do Master Classes in Great Singing which Garcia is all about.\u00a0 After those five days of furious promotion of the best vocal practices, I will move on with Rita to other collaborations she is organizing in Altidona and Firenze.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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When I have the details to publish I will post them. I have a place I must visit if I go to Firenze.\u00a0 Debbie would disavow my duty to bring back a remembrance for my beautiful bride.\u00a0 She is so thrifty these days, but if I get close, I must do that Old Bridge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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July will take me to Romania.\u00a0 Now there is a surprise inside a friendship.\u00a0 I have never been to Romania.\u00a0 I never thought I would get the chance to actually travel there.\u00a0 Because of the suggestion of one of my newest friends, pianist Liora Maurer, I was invited to Romania to do a Master Class.\u00a0 \u00a0Now I have several reasons for my desire to know more about Romania.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in 2003,\u00a0before Miguel Lerin<\/a>\u00a0introduced me to Elena Obraztsova<\/a>, he gave me a chance to sing a duet concert with my only Romanian friend, Nelly Miricioiu<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 I first met Nelly in London when we made a recording<\/a> for Opera Rara<\/a>. \u00a0I had so much fun making that recording that when Miguel asked me to sing with her in the opening concert of the Concurs Francesc\u00a0Vi\u00f1as\u00a0<\/a>I jumped at the chance.\u00a0 We had a wonderful time.\u00a0 We rehearsed in the home of pianist, Marco Evangelisti and\u00a0met Jaime Aragall<\/a>\u00a0who had just finished rehearsing with Mr. Evangelisti.\u00a0 The World is really small, and the World of Music could be depicted as a small drop of water, but it is a rare occasion for two tenors to meet without being contracted to do so.\u00a0 I get off subject here, and I admit I am vulnerable to distraction.\u00a0 Anyway, Nelly told us stories of Romania\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

I also came to know a mechanic living within artillery range of Plattsburgh who comes from Romania.\u00a0 We had some long talks while he did some work on that car you can see me working on in \u201cHow I Started<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0Romania was for him and his family a place from which to escape.\u00a0 Now, in 2012, off I go to invade the place.\u00a0 I bet things have radically changed in Romania since my fellow grease monkey fled Romania for the USA.\u00a0 \u00a0I hope to turn at least one blog page to a report of what I get to see in the new Romania.\u00a0 \u00a0My biggest hope is to find open minded singers with really good instruments.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please come and enjoy some of the new Romania and\/or the old reliable Italy.\u00a0 \u00a0While travel is still fun for you young people, I can recommend it as educational.\u00a0 I also hope you will think of these Master Classes as an opportunity to put me to the test.\u00a0 Do I know what I\u2019m talking about?\u00a0 Come and find out.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On The Road Again, I just can’t avoid getting back on the road again. Yes, I can\u2019t stay home.\u00a0 Travel is to work as onions are to cooking.\u00a0 A few miles are OK, like from home to downtown Plattsburgh\u2026 4.5 miles to be exact and I could even say that an hour or two behind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,53,51,50],"tags":[83,84,82],"class_list":["post-1588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-garcia","category-singing","category-teaching","tag-italy","tag-romania","tag-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/on-the-road-to-lake.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2kj1l-pC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1588"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3583,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions\/3583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}