Author: Rich McClear

SitkaLeave a comment

Piano Four Hands, Sitka Summer Music Festival, June 2013

Rich McClear

One of the delights of the Sitka in June is the Sitka Summer Music Festival.  We have wonderful performances and we can sit in on some open rehearsals.   Here Natasha Paremski and Navah Perlman Schubert’s Fantasy for Four Hand Piano.  It was fascinating watching them work out body movements so that they don’t collide because they are both very active and expressive players.  They marked up the score as they went and practiced until Natasha cried out “Nailed it!”  And in performance they did. Continue reading Piano Four Hands, Sitka Summer Music Festival, June 2013

SitkaLeave a comment

A 460 Year Old Tree Comes Down, June 2013

Rich McClear

The wind brought down the top of an old Sitka Spruce in Sitka National Park.  The Tree was named Methuselah.  It stood when the Jamestown was founded, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, and when Bering and Cherenkov sailed from Russia to the new world.  The tree was two centuries old when our nation declared independence.   It was two and a half centuries old when Baranof fought the battle of Sitka with the Tlingit near where the tree stood.   Because of the danger the tree posed the National Park Service cut the rest of it down.  An old friend is … Continue reading A 460 Year Old Tree Comes Down, June 2013

Religious, SitkaLeave a comment

St. Michael’s Cathedral, Sitka, Alaska, June 2013

Rich McClear

At noontime we were heading for an organ recital at the Lutheran Church.  We were stopped in our tracks when the bell tower of St. Michael’s erupted in glorious change bell ringing.  I had not heard the bells in years, mostly because we have been out of Sitka for years.  The Lutherans had to wait while we enjoyed the joyous sound.  We arrived at the recital late.  After the recital we noticed a sign on St. Michael’s Cathedral saying that for the first time we could see the altar.  Each time in the past when I had been in the … Continue reading St. Michael’s Cathedral, Sitka, Alaska, June 2013

Georgia, ReligiousLeave a comment

Mtskheta and Jvari Church, Georgia, 2013.

Rich McClear

Jvari (Holy Cross) Church is near Tbilisi, about a three hour walk or half hour drive.  It looms over Mtskheta.  Before Georgia became reasonably prosperous it used to be a full day excursion, now it a common picnic spot for people wanting to get out of town for an hour or two.  It is the spot where the King Mirian, who was converted to Christianity by St. Nino and, in turn made Georgian a Christian nation (Georgia was a “Christian” country before Rome) erected a cross to mark his, and his nation’s conversion.  The church itself was built to shelter … Continue reading Mtskheta and Jvari Church, Georgia, 2013.

GeorgiaLeave a comment

Georgian Road Trip, May, 2013

Rich McClear

Georgia has beautiful countryside.  In spring rolling green fields lead to the still snowcapped Caucasian Mountains.  Flowers and flowering trees are in bloom.  Between towns there are citadels and castles in varying degrees of decay and on hilltops monasteries and churches.  In contract to the countryside Georgian towns can be less than picturesque, with abandoned Soviet factories, an industrial wasteland, on town outskirts oddly punctuated with massive works of Socialist Realism art, including a huge mural of Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space.  Georgian towns, like many former Soviet towns, have utilities above ground, including the pipes … Continue reading Georgian Road Trip, May, 2013