In this blog I will touch upon three major points: The people of New York, the food of New York, and the activities in New York. When I think of New Yorkers, I thought of unkind, cold, and rude people who go about their day without giving each other a second glance. Now, comparatively to Iowan hospitality the New Yorker has a lot to learn, but the people were not as bad as I had expected. When it came down to the people on the street, they were often pleasant and it was not as dark and scary a place as movies and T.V. make it out to be. Then again, I was in a pretty nice part of town. People who waited on us in restaurants and served as tour guides were often efficiency focused, but either lacked personality or had a very dry sense of humor. There were a couple instances that broke these stereotypes that I have created; for example, a waitress that was attentive to our request to get our food as quickly as possible. Not only did she get our food out us in a matter of minutes, but she did it with a smile on her face. But I was impressed by the street life of the vendors and entertainers. Like the waiters at the restaurants, the street vendors were efficient but did it with a sense of style and flair. This was necessary for most of these vendors due to the fact that there was one on nearly every street corner. There was even a couple that was parked right beside each other, even though they had nearly the same menu. But I enjoyed the street entertainers that filled Central Park. You could find nearly anything in Central Park; from creepy statue people (she was dressed as a mime fairy and occasionally danced around a bit), acrobatics acts, musical performers, jugglers (my personal favorite, the kid was maybe 10 years old and was juggling 4 balls while spinning around and moved up to six before putting those away. He then moved to bowling pins, and then hopped on a unicycle while juggling those pins. He was a super talented kid.), and comedians. This was the spice of New York that I enjoyed the most.
Moving on to the food, WOW! If any of you decide that you want to go to New York, plan ahead when it comes down to the meals. I often had just too much food for each mean. When we were getting ready for the trip, we were told about the Carnegie Deli and how it was super popular. At this point in time I was expecting a Jimmy John’s style sandwich that had a lot of different combinations. I was very wrong. I had ordered a corned beef sandwich and received a monster. This sandwich could have fed easily three people. I had a hard time eating just one half. I had thought that this may have been the deli’s claim to fame and so I went to a different deli/restaurant the next day for lunch. I ordered a club sandwich and was again surprised by what I received. I will try and reconstruct this Behemoth for you starting from the top: One piece of bread, two slices of tomato, a small head of lettuce (literally looked as if they hollowed out a head of lettuce), a large ball of bacon that was inserted into the center of this lettuce, a piece of bread, a layer of turkey of about two thirds of the size of the top half, and a last piece of bread. Tasted amazing, only ate half of it. Pizzas were absolutely huge as well. I ordered a medium and received close to a Godfather’s Pizza Jumbo size. And how could I talk about food without mentioning the Cheesecake. It was perfect! The taste was amazing, it had just the right consistency, and it was also HUGE!
But I didn’t spend my whole time down there eating (although it felt like I did at some points). There is quite a lot to do in New York City. I had the pleasure of going on the NBC tour and got a closer look as to how their news rooms work, the work behind Saturday Night Live, and a greater history of the company as a whole. Some of us also went on a tour of the Radio City Music Hall. The building has beautiful architecture and quite a bit of history as well. We met a Rockette and were allowed to ask questions and get pictures. We ended the tour in an observation room above the auditorium and got a sneak peak at the new Cirque. The choir went to a Cathedral in town with mind blowing acoustics. We sang a few songs and then were given a show of our own. The director there played a piece on the organ. After hearing a performance of that caliber, I will be pushing to see something like that at “Christmas at Morningside.” We all went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. We all had nose bleed seats, but the show was still mind blowing (as I hear were the ticket prices for floor seats). Again, I had a lot of fun in Central Park. We ended the trip with a night cruise of the bay and got a great view of the Statue of Liberty. It was a lot of fun, but of course we had to do some work too. We had a rehearsal a day to make sure that we were ready for the concert on Saturday. We just did some quick ironing of certain parts, touch ups, and minor tweaking. Then the big day arrived. Walking out on to that stage and seeing the people sitting in a world famous auditorium to hear you, is so exciting. The most powerful moment came at the end of our set though. We were reaching the end of “Ain’t Got Time to Die” and our final soloist was hitting his final notes. The audience couldn’t hold in there applause till the end of the song. It just flooded out of them while we were still finishing up those last notes! I had waves of chills rush over me at that moment. New York has been an amazing journey and quite an experience. I am ready though to finish up these final concerts and return home.
New York was absolutely amazing! It was a fun city to go and visit. I went with a bunch of students to Chinatown, which wasn’t one of our favorite places to visit but it was a really interesting place to go! It was really weird though when everyone on the corner kept asking you if you wanted a handbag or a Rolex. Times square was a really fun place to be! It was always busy and full of people, which being from Iowa was an experience in itself. My favorite place in New York was Central Park. Central park was one of the most beautiful places I had been. The landscape was amazing and it was so nice to walk around and just relax in a really crazy city. We also saw Marry Poppins on Broadway. The dancing in this musical was phenomenal! If anyone gets the chance to go see it I would highly recommend it. The concert at Carnegie hall was just wonderful, it was one of the best experiences a choir could ever have. The sound inside that hall was simply amazing nothing could top that performance!
We have departed New York City for Seville, OH. The Carnegie Hall performance was last night and was an unforgettable experience. The feeling of walking out onto that stage for the first time and gazing at the four balconies covered with gold embellishment is unforgettable. The space is incredible and our chords hung beautifully in the air. Our performance was terrific (although I might be biased) and I am so proud to be a part of this group. To celebrate our accomplishment we got to go on a midnight cruise and see the city at night. That was a very fun ride with food and dancing and amazing views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. However, it was a late night to be followed by an early morning. It made for a very quiet bus ride for the first four hours or so. While I am sad to leave the city, it will be nice to perform in the last two cities. I plan on fully enjoying the last two days of my very last choir tour.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Jordan William Henry Aggen
Post Performance Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York
Gooooooooooooooooooood evening bloggers!!! This is Jordan Aggen coming to you from the city that never sleeps. That’s right, this small town farm boy finally got off his dusty, desolate world of Tatooine and made it to the big city (For all of you non-Star Wars fans out there this is a movie reference…haha). Our performance tonight can be summed up as this, “We blew the roof off that historical landmark, leaving one heck of a notch the belt for good old Morningside College.” Our Pamugun left the crowd giggling, yet wondering…what the heck did they just sing about??? Then shortly thereafter, we made them rise to their feet in shock and awe with Ain’t Got Time to Die. I will say this, receiving a standing ovation inside Carnegie Hall is the most spine-tingling experience any music performer can have after just giving his or her all out on the stage. To close the night, our choir took a cruise on the Hudson River, saw Old Lady Liberty and the flashy Big Apple skyline. This made for an adrenaline- filled day. The morning soon after came too soon for most, no all, of the performers after coming back from the cruse at three in the morning. In all though, I think we left one heck of an impression on the big city street slickers. Maybe, just maybe, the country bumpkin title of Midwesterner can have a slightly different connotation. Only time will tell. Stay classy bloggers!
I want to thank Morningside College, its Music Department, Alumni Relations and you personally for the wonderful experience of this past weekend. I was able to do something that was a dream when I was 8 years old–perform in Carnegie Hall. Needless to say, I had written this childhood wish off my bucket list as, really, performing in Carnegie Hall, that’s not going to happen! Now on to my next big childhood dream–going into space!
Our family really enjoyed the experience. My daughter seemed to especially enjoy every aspect of the weekend from the meal to the concert to the dinner cruise. Gene, I also appreciate your words of encouragement around her pursuing her music. Always good to hear that from someone other than their dumb ol’ parents. I think she was listening. It was also good the way your challenged her thinking on the philosophical aspects of her positions on food. You made her think and did it in a very open ended, non-judgmental and thought provoking way. That was good for her.
I want to thank Dr. Dooley for allowing “super adults” to participate. The Music Department looks to be in good hands. I also appreciated the patience of the folks immediately around me that had to endure my singing. They were kind, courteous and helpful.
Finally, I want to thank Mr. Watson. I really appreciate what he is doing and what he is giving to these young (not yet super adult) minds. The choir was obviously well trained and well prepared for this event. They were also very respectful and appreciate of their leader. That says a lot. But for me the thing that struck me was his leadership and wisdom. His message during rehearsals about this being about enjoying the experience, doing your best and not about doing things perfectly resonated with me. I also really enjoyed as we prepared to go on stage his comments on things happening in your life that are bigger than you realize until later. Boy, ain’t that the truth! His messages really hit home and were spot on. He had the group both prepared yet relaxed enough to be successful. He reminds me of Mr. Spring (Marching Band, Concert Band, and Brass Ensemble) when I was at Morningside. We loved him and would do anything for him because we respected him, were inspired by him, recognized his talent and were able to relate to him.
It was nice to reconnect. Gloria and I have many fond memories of Morningside and many of the experiences live with us daily. Hey, it is where we met and that’s pretty darn important!
Please thank everyone involved in this fantastic experience for the planning that they did. It paid off! This weekend was just terrific.
I’m so thankful that I was able to participate. I was always proud to have graduated from Morningside oh so many years ago and I’m still just as pleased to be a part of this fine School!
As time passes and I rethink the experience, I smile with each memory.
One Last Tour: New York, New York
Andrew Gerodias
In this blog I will touch upon three major points: The people of New York, the food of New York, and the activities in New York. When I think of New Yorkers, I thought of unkind, cold, and rude people who go about their day without giving each other a second glance. Now, comparatively to Iowan hospitality the New Yorker has a lot to learn, but the people were not as bad as I had expected. When it came down to the people on the street, they were often pleasant and it was not as dark and scary a place as movies and T.V. make it out to be. Then again, I was in a pretty nice part of town. People who waited on us in restaurants and served as tour guides were often efficiency focused, but either lacked personality or had a very dry sense of humor. There were a couple instances that broke these stereotypes that I have created; for example, a waitress that was attentive to our request to get our food as quickly as possible. Not only did she get our food out us in a matter of minutes, but she did it with a smile on her face. But I was impressed by the street life of the vendors and entertainers. Like the waiters at the restaurants, the street vendors were efficient but did it with a sense of style and flair. This was necessary for most of these vendors due to the fact that there was one on nearly every street corner. There was even a couple that was parked right beside each other, even though they had nearly the same menu. But I enjoyed the street entertainers that filled Central Park. You could find nearly anything in Central Park; from creepy statue people (she was dressed as a mime fairy and occasionally danced around a bit), acrobatics acts, musical performers, jugglers (my personal favorite, the kid was maybe 10 years old and was juggling 4 balls while spinning around and moved up to six before putting those away. He then moved to bowling pins, and then hopped on a unicycle while juggling those pins. He was a super talented kid.), and comedians. This was the spice of New York that I enjoyed the most.
Moving on to the food, WOW! If any of you decide that you want to go to New York, plan ahead when it comes down to the meals. I often had just too much food for each mean. When we were getting ready for the trip, we were told about the Carnegie Deli and how it was super popular. At this point in time I was expecting a Jimmy John’s style sandwich that had a lot of different combinations. I was very wrong. I had ordered a corned beef sandwich and received a monster. This sandwich could have fed easily three people. I had a hard time eating just one half. I had thought that this may have been the deli’s claim to fame and so I went to a different deli/restaurant the next day for lunch. I ordered a club sandwich and was again surprised by what I received. I will try and reconstruct this Behemoth for you starting from the top: One piece of bread, two slices of tomato, a small head of lettuce (literally looked as if they hollowed out a head of lettuce), a large ball of bacon that was inserted into the center of this lettuce, a piece of bread, a layer of turkey of about two thirds of the size of the top half, and a last piece of bread. Tasted amazing, only ate half of it. Pizzas were absolutely huge as well. I ordered a medium and received close to a Godfather’s Pizza Jumbo size. And how could I talk about food without mentioning the Cheesecake. It was perfect! The taste was amazing, it had just the right consistency, and it was also HUGE!
But I didn’t spend my whole time down there eating (although it felt like I did at some points). There is quite a lot to do in New York City. I had the pleasure of going on the NBC tour and got a closer look as to how their news rooms work, the work behind Saturday Night Live, and a greater history of the company as a whole. Some of us also went on a tour of the Radio City Music Hall. The building has beautiful architecture and quite a bit of history as well. We met a Rockette and were allowed to ask questions and get pictures. We ended the tour in an observation room above the auditorium and got a sneak peak at the new Cirque. The choir went to a Cathedral in town with mind blowing acoustics. We sang a few songs and then were given a show of our own. The director there played a piece on the organ. After hearing a performance of that caliber, I will be pushing to see something like that at “Christmas at Morningside.” We all went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. We all had nose bleed seats, but the show was still mind blowing (as I hear were the ticket prices for floor seats). Again, I had a lot of fun in Central Park. We ended the trip with a night cruise of the bay and got a great view of the Statue of Liberty. It was a lot of fun, but of course we had to do some work too. We had a rehearsal a day to make sure that we were ready for the concert on Saturday. We just did some quick ironing of certain parts, touch ups, and minor tweaking. Then the big day arrived. Walking out on to that stage and seeing the people sitting in a world famous auditorium to hear you, is so exciting. The most powerful moment came at the end of our set though. We were reaching the end of “Ain’t Got Time to Die” and our final soloist was hitting his final notes. The audience couldn’t hold in there applause till the end of the song. It just flooded out of them while we were still finishing up those last notes! I had waves of chills rush over me at that moment. New York has been an amazing journey and quite an experience. I am ready though to finish up these final concerts and return home.
New York was absolutely amazing! It was a fun city to go and visit. I went with a bunch of students to Chinatown, which wasn’t one of our favorite places to visit but it was a really interesting place to go! It was really weird though when everyone on the corner kept asking you if you wanted a handbag or a Rolex. Times square was a really fun place to be! It was always busy and full of people, which being from Iowa was an experience in itself. My favorite place in New York was Central Park. Central park was one of the most beautiful places I had been. The landscape was amazing and it was so nice to walk around and just relax in a really crazy city. We also saw Marry Poppins on Broadway. The dancing in this musical was phenomenal! If anyone gets the chance to go see it I would highly recommend it. The concert at Carnegie hall was just wonderful, it was one of the best experiences a choir could ever have. The sound inside that hall was simply amazing nothing could top that performance!
Chris
5/22/11
We have departed New York City for Seville, OH. The Carnegie Hall performance was last night and was an unforgettable experience. The feeling of walking out onto that stage for the first time and gazing at the four balconies covered with gold embellishment is unforgettable. The space is incredible and our chords hung beautifully in the air. Our performance was terrific (although I might be biased) and I am so proud to be a part of this group. To celebrate our accomplishment we got to go on a midnight cruise and see the city at night. That was a very fun ride with food and dancing and amazing views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. However, it was a late night to be followed by an early morning. It made for a very quiet bus ride for the first four hours or so. While I am sad to leave the city, it will be nice to perform in the last two cities. I plan on fully enjoying the last two days of my very last choir tour.
Brianna
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Jordan William Henry Aggen
Post Performance Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York
Gooooooooooooooooooood evening bloggers!!! This is Jordan Aggen coming to you from the city that never sleeps. That’s right, this small town farm boy finally got off his dusty, desolate world of Tatooine and made it to the big city (For all of you non-Star Wars fans out there this is a movie reference…haha). Our performance tonight can be summed up as this, “We blew the roof off that historical landmark, leaving one heck of a notch the belt for good old Morningside College.” Our Pamugun left the crowd giggling, yet wondering…what the heck did they just sing about??? Then shortly thereafter, we made them rise to their feet in shock and awe with Ain’t Got Time to Die. I will say this, receiving a standing ovation inside Carnegie Hall is the most spine-tingling experience any music performer can have after just giving his or her all out on the stage. To close the night, our choir took a cruise on the Hudson River, saw Old Lady Liberty and the flashy Big Apple skyline. This made for an adrenaline- filled day. The morning soon after came too soon for most, no all, of the performers after coming back from the cruse at three in the morning. In all though, I think we left one heck of an impression on the big city street slickers. Maybe, just maybe, the country bumpkin title of Midwesterner can have a slightly different connotation. Only time will tell. Stay classy bloggers!
Bravo! A magnificent performance! It reminded all over again of how proud I am to be a Morningsider.
Dr. Zean Zurcher
Class of 1956
Gene,
I want to thank Morningside College, its Music Department, Alumni Relations and you personally for the wonderful experience of this past weekend. I was able to do something that was a dream when I was 8 years old–perform in Carnegie Hall. Needless to say, I had written this childhood wish off my bucket list as, really, performing in Carnegie Hall, that’s not going to happen! Now on to my next big childhood dream–going into space!
Our family really enjoyed the experience. My daughter seemed to especially enjoy every aspect of the weekend from the meal to the concert to the dinner cruise. Gene, I also appreciate your words of encouragement around her pursuing her music. Always good to hear that from someone other than their dumb ol’ parents. I think she was listening. It was also good the way your challenged her thinking on the philosophical aspects of her positions on food. You made her think and did it in a very open ended, non-judgmental and thought provoking way. That was good for her.
I want to thank Dr. Dooley for allowing “super adults” to participate. The Music Department looks to be in good hands. I also appreciated the patience of the folks immediately around me that had to endure my singing. They were kind, courteous and helpful.
Finally, I want to thank Mr. Watson. I really appreciate what he is doing and what he is giving to these young (not yet super adult) minds. The choir was obviously well trained and well prepared for this event. They were also very respectful and appreciate of their leader. That says a lot. But for me the thing that struck me was his leadership and wisdom. His message during rehearsals about this being about enjoying the experience, doing your best and not about doing things perfectly resonated with me. I also really enjoyed as we prepared to go on stage his comments on things happening in your life that are bigger than you realize until later. Boy, ain’t that the truth! His messages really hit home and were spot on. He had the group both prepared yet relaxed enough to be successful. He reminds me of Mr. Spring (Marching Band, Concert Band, and Brass Ensemble) when I was at Morningside. We loved him and would do anything for him because we respected him, were inspired by him, recognized his talent and were able to relate to him.
It was nice to reconnect. Gloria and I have many fond memories of Morningside and many of the experiences live with us daily. Hey, it is where we met and that’s pretty darn important!
Again, thanks for everything.
Take care,
Brett
Just wanted to say thanks for everything this weekend. I had a great time and the choir sounded AMAZING! Hope the rest of tour goes well.
Jeffrey Bruning
Please thank everyone involved in this fantastic experience for the planning that they did. It paid off! This weekend was just terrific.
I’m so thankful that I was able to participate. I was always proud to have graduated from Morningside oh so many years ago and I’m still just as pleased to be a part of this fine School!
As time passes and I rethink the experience, I smile with each memory.
Michele Ivener
Class of ’68