Month: December 2007

I knew we hadn’t been back in the North End very often, but what really brought it home was calling the phone number at our butcher and finding that it was no longer in service. A quick Google search confirmed the worst: Frank Susi, owner of the Abruzzese Meat Market on Salem Street, had to retire earlier this year and the shop is now closed.

To say this is culinary devastation would be an understatement. As this blog testifies, sausages and pancetta from Frank’s store were major ingredients in our lives for many years. On at least one occasion, I flew the pancetta back to Seattle with me when we were living there. And there will be no fresh cotechino for New Years this year.

At least I’ve learned that Frank’s legacy lives on, literally, in his son, Anthony, who runs Sage (which has apparently moved to the South End). Who knew?

The bonus pic is from National Geographic’s “zip code” visit a few years back to the North End, and captures Frank as I remember him: jovial, and with a very sharp knife in one hand and fresh meat in the other.

You know, I really should stop being surprised when the snow falls continuously. It is Boston in December, after all. But I’m a little bit in awe of the continuous snowfall we’re getting right now on top of the 11 inches we got a week ago and the nice ice storm we got last Sunday. I want to ask, “Is this really necessary?”

The continued snowfall makes something like the Snowscoop, just highlighted today on the Hardware Aisle blog at This Old House, look really attractive to me.

For me, at least. Because we’re driving to New Jersey on Saturday for the Christmas holidays, I frontloaded my concert schedule and finished my personal Pops run last night with two back to back concerts. The 4 pm concert was the better of the two for me personally, and I think for the team as a whole; we were all fresh, having had a day off since our Sunday morning and afternoon concerts, and our concentration was good. The result was a luminous rendition of Rutter’s “What Sweeter Music” (which rises substantially in my estimation with a full string section behind it) and of the Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols. The second show was weaker in the first half—a few minor glitches that threw off the concentration of the chorus—but stronger in the second, where audience response to the Twelve Days medley made a big difference.

Two explanatory notes:

1. There are something like 33 home performances of the Holiday Pops concert, and even if the Tanglewood Festival Chorus were all full time choristers (which we’re not), we couldn’t possibly sing all the shows without developing a mass outbreak of laryngitis and vocal nodules. So we take 250 voices and split them up into five or so teams. I sing on the Purple Team, and we had a run of six or seven shows.
2. The program at Holiday Pops is typically structured with a more serious first half and a more “fun” second half. This year the first half was not only serious but strikingly good from a choral repertoire perspective, with the usual “Holiday Fanfare” (on Hark the Herald Angels Sing) and the “Hallelujah Chorus” being supplemented by the aforementioned Rutter and Vaughan Williams pieces, and by a suite from the sublime Amahl and the Night Visitors. The second half kicks off this year with a massive jazzy, brassy take on Joy to the World, is followed by the indignity that is “Light One Candle,” then “Sleigh Ride,” “Twelve Days,” the traditional Night Before Christmas, the “Santa Medley” (featuring the full-choir arrangement of “Santa Baby” which the Globe review compares to being seduced by a pro wrestler(!)), a singalong, and two encores. All the pieces on the second half benefit from audience feedback, and we know the crowd is going to be good when we hear them reacting to the early jokes in “Twelve Days.” Last night the crowd was clearly primed and had repeat listeners in it, as some joker in the crowd called out “Excellent!” when Keith announced the number—a reference to the appearance of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” made famous to current listeners of course by the “excellent” Wayne’s World movie, in one of the later days.

All in all, I think I had more fun at Pops this year than I’ve had in the past. But I’m still glad it’s done!

I’m posting this on the iPhone from the Uno’s across from Symphony Hall. The morning matinee was well attended considering the weather. I had to shovel about six inches of snow before I could get to the car, and had to take Lisa’s Highlander to get through the mostly unplowed roads.

But now I’m warm and dry, with a concert under my belt, free wifi, and the Patriots. Not too shabby.

I had to take care of sick family this morning, so I went into the office late. I left early on account of the threat of snow, and made my last grocery run on the way home. It was 1 pm when I left the grocery store, and the snow was just starting to come down. By the time I got out of the Trader Joe’s (the last stop), there was a 2-inch snow buildup on my car.

It got deeper from there. When I started the snowblower at 4:45, as the snow seemed to be slackening, we had about 6 inches. I think we’ve gotten another 5 since then.

At least this is nice powdery stuff—though that means it has already drifted our sidewalks… but at least it’s easy to shovel.