All of the choirs I have heard so far have been excellent. We went to a concert a few nights ago that included a choir from Germany. They had at least 80 men in the group, as well as 80 or more women. The men performed first, and then the women sang a few songs. They never performed together, which I thought was a bit strange. When the men came forward to sing, I was amazed at how many there were. I was expecting them to start singing and to blow me away. Unfortunately, they never quite got there. They were good, but they never produced the amount of sound that I expected. I was a bit disappointed in the women, too. They had a very shallow, immature sound. Oh, if only I could have gotten hold of them for an hour or so!
We went to an instrumental concert last evening. Peter Erskine, a legendary jazz drummer, was going to be performing, and Don wanted to go and hear him. I think we both kind of expected a night of jazz. When we got there, we noticed an orchestra all set up on stage. There was a drum set in front of them in the middle of it all. I thought, Jazz music with an orchestra and a drum set. This is going to be interesting. I sat back and looked forward to some great music.
Well, I'm not sure what we heard. I guess it was music, but it certainly wasn't jazz. While Erskine played with the group, he didn't have any solo licks or anything like that. His own group that is comprised of a bass guitar, an electric guitar, and a saxophone was with him playing along, also. The entire program was comprised of one piece of music. It was entitled "Blood on the Floor." There were around 8 movements, and it probably lasted 80-90 minutes. It was some of the strangest music I have ever heard. Don found it quite fascinating. Don't tell him, but I think I slept through most of it. That's pretty bad -- paying $15 for a ticket to take a nap. Oh, well, it's just money, right?
We took a trip to the Harley Davidson store in Riga the other day. My daughter and her husband are Harley Davidson riders, and we wanted to get them both a HD T-shirt that said Riga or Latvia. The store was way over on the other side of the city, and the scenery was certainly different than it is in Old Town. There were a lot of rundown buildings as well as a lot of graffiti. Graffiti is a real problem over here. I haven't seen much in Old Town, but once you get into Central Riga, you see a lot of it. You know what? Graffiti in Latvian looks about the same as it does in English. It's so sad to see these old buildings that have stood for hundreds of years covered with graffiti.
We visited the second Occupation Museum here in Riga yesterday. We visited the other one a week ago or so. I'm not sure why there are two of them. They have some of the same things, but the one we went to yesterday had a lot more. It's unbelievable what Latvia has gone through to get to this place of independence that it enjoys today. The Germans and the Soviets treated the Latvian people in unimaginable ways. Just this May, the city of Riga opened up a building that had been used by the KGB during the Soviet occupation. For years it had remained closed, because no one wanted to acknowledge the atrocities that took place there. However, the city decided that it was time to open it so that people could see the inside of this horrible, horrible place. During the occupation, if you were taken into that building, chances were high that you would never come out. Don and I have not gone there yet, but we plan to. I think we will come out of there truly appreciating the freedom that we have enjoyed as Americans. Here is a picture of the KGB building. At one time, it was a magnificent building. Now it stands there representing unspeakable evil and terror. If I get some pictures of the inside when we go, I'll make sure and post some of them.
We went and did our laundry again today. We didn't take a taxi this time. We took the bus and then walked home. It saved us a little money that way. We had two loads of dirty clothes, but we crammed everything into one dryer. It cost us less money, which is always a good thing, but when we pulled the clothes from the dryer, everything was wrinkled something awful. Luckily, I had purchased an iron right after we got here, so I spent the evening ironing clothes. Sounds exciting, huh?
Well, I'll go for now. I'll try not to wait so long to blog the next time. May the music of your life lift your heart and soul.
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