chamber vacation

Everybody knows that summer vacations are the most fun when they're paid for. Case in point: the 10 days I spent tooling around the northeast with the University of Texas Chamber Singers. The gigs were relatively light and the free time relatively heavy and, best of all, the vast majority of the trip was on UT's dime.

That being said, I feel as if I should say here that I sometimes feel weird about posting a travelogue here. It's my space to do with what I want but I'm always reminded of that episode of The Simpsons where Patty and Selma make everyone watch their slides from their Recent Trip to Wherever and it's (probably fairly) played as something that is incredibly boring. I remember this whenever I start talking about Where I've Been Recently and it makes me think sometimes that this might come off as bragging but, honestly, seeing new things is something that enriches me as a person and I can't help but be excited about going to places I've never been. I've had a terrible case of wanderlust ever since I was teenager and any time that gets a little stretch it's a great and worthwhile experience.

We started off in the Boston/Cambridge area and, unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of time to see anything; really just a morning. Because of this I decided to camp out in the MIT music library and work on the libretto for this new piece I'm writing for The Singers. It's a heartwrenching text about a man that died in the recent earthquake that struck Haiti and it's told mostly through interviews with his wife so if you can imagine me amongst all the MIT smart people crying by myself at a table then you've probably got it right. The story is truly moving and I'm excited to attempt to do it justice. More on that later.

Once I got that put together I sort of wandered the campus because I knew there was a Frank Gehry building somewhere. I walked around for a bit looking for it and eventually stumbled on what I was looking for. Behold! The Ray and Maria Stata Center.

My architect mother and I get into debates about Gehry's work on a fairly regular basis. I am of the mind that it's interesting to look at and she is of the mind that you can't find your way around inside one of these things. We are both right. I legit got lost inside this building and had to Hansel and Gretel my way out of there. I've had similar experiences inside the other three Gehry buildings I've been in (Walt Disney Hall in LA, the Experience Music Project in Seattle and the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis) but I still love these things.

Here's the venue for our concert in Cambridge. I forget the name...but it's a church. If you've seen one you've seen almost all of them. Nice space to sing in, though.

The next stop on the tour was a very brief stay in New Haven. I think I had maybe 90 minutes of free time so I didn't get to see a damn thing or, more importantly, go to Pepe's. When I told my friend, Andrew Davis (a Yale grad and brilliant composer), that I was headed to New Haven, he got all up in my face about this pizza and how it was sort of a moral imperative that I go there. I guess it was the first pizzeria in the United States or something.

Sadly, I didn't have time. I did, however, make it to another place in New Haven (called simply Bar) that serves--ready for this?--Mashed Potato Pizza. I know that sounds weird but, seriously, that shit was unbelievably good; a perfect crust with garlic butter, garlic mashed potatoes and thick, slab bacon on it. I'm a vegetarian of sorts but I make an exception for both seafood and (just because) bacon and this pizza was unforgettable.

I had wanted to see the two buildings on Yale's campus designed by Louis I. Kahn but, unfortunately, didn't make it so that Gehry business I was just talking about will have to be the sole entry which speaks to my fetish for interesting architecture (of which there is a dearth here at UT...sorry, Longhorns).

After New Haven we took a train to New York City. As a "pleasure tourist" NYC doesn't hold too many new things for me because I've been incredibly lucky to have been there a few times before (all music-oriented trips) and all the major stuff has been taken care of (you can read about the adventures of a much more naive Josh here, here and here). Because of this it can be difficult to find things to do but I was lucky enough to meet up with Michael Kerschner (director of the brilliant Young New Yorkers' Chorus) for dinner at the I Tre Merli Bistro in the West Village. I had this incredible horseradish-encrusted salmon and Michael and I talked about the YNYC's amazing performance at the national ACDA convention in Chicago this past winter. It's on iTunes and the Clare MacLean piece is worth the price of admission for the entire album. Seriously.

After a stop at a hipster bar in Williamsburg called Barcade (they have a shit-ton of old arcade games, you guys!), I witnessed a massive Times Square advertising fail. I'll wager spell check is to blame.

One of the things I realized whilst walking around Manhattan is that I had never been to Central Park so, in that interest, I took about five hours and fixed that situation. I basically just walked the entire southern part of the park and listened to the new Gaga album as well as get my phone call on with Jocelyn Hagen for a solid 45 minutes (with a brief guest appearance by Dan Nass). It was a relaxing--and free--way to spend a morning.

While I was walking around the park I stumbled on a shoot for Law & Order: Criminal Intent but, unfortunately, the pictures I took were too blurry to include here. You'll just have to take my word for it that I awkwardly scrambled up some rocks and took a few pictures of Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe shooting a scene.

Afterwards I was like, "That's a pretty New York thing to see, right?" Then on my way back I saw a sign advertising a soup restaurant and immediately had a craving for soup. It turned out to be the dude who was the inspiration for the Soup Nazi character on Seinfeld.

I had the lobster bisque (it was so good) and was like, "Wow. That's definitely something that's really associated with New York. That's pretty lucky that I saw it."

Then I stopped at the intersection of 53rd & Broadway and noticed I was standing next to Yoko effing Ono.

Now that's some New York shit for you. I didn't want to bother her because (a) she was talking with someone and (b) that's rude. What I did do was hang back and take this creeper picture of Yoko and her companion. I was able to rationalize this act because there is no way in hell that anyone would believe me if I didn't.

So...thank you, New York City. I basically just walked around and ended up in a bunch of situations that most of America would identify with that locale. They all had to do with pop culture but, still, it wasn't not cool (double negative and all).

Here's the venue in NYC. The windows in the church were almost exclusively made by the Louis Tiffany himself (not his studio). Unfortunately I have yet to invest in a good camera so all my pictures of said glass look like crap despite the fact that they were really impressive.

From the church I headed down to Greenwich Village to meet a friend of mine from my summer at Interlochen. We ate good food and drank a lot of good beer at the Blind Pig on 14th Street. Here ist some photographic evidence. I like to call this picture, "Josh + Kristen: You Just Got Sexy-Faced."

I had never been to Washington Square Park. Check it off the list.

Next stop: Washington DC. I sang a gig there back in 2003 with the Luther College Nordic Choir (Go Norse!) but we didn't get very much time to do anything...and it was January (read: winter). Consequently, I only got to see the National Gallery and the National Air and Space Museum (both awesome). This time around I had almost two entire days free to explore the District and I saw a bunch of really cool stuff which partially satisfied my fetish for The West Wing.

Most Americans have been brought up with images of these really iconic places in DC but, honestly, seeing them in person is something which shouldn't be lost on anyone. It was interesting to note the obvious cross-section of US citizens parading through these places which, although they're commonplace in the imagery of America, are best seen in the flesh.

One of the more interesting places I went was the National Museum of the American Indian. This thing was still under construction when I was in DC in 2003 but it has been since completed and is now open for business. The architect is the Canadian Douglas Cardinal who, according to Wikipedia, is a University of Texas alum. Hook 'em!

The impression I got of this place is that it's a museum still very much trying to find its place. There's certainly a huge part of it that's about the history of Native Americans (Does anyone else find it weird that it's called the National Museum of the American Indian?) but there's also a huge portion of the museum dedicated to the current state of those particular cultures...and it's fascinating. One part of the exhibit has a movie being projected on a wall of white feathers which, in person, is beautiful and strangely delicate.

Afterwards, I hit the National Museum of American History. There was an exhibit on the inaugural dresses of all the First Ladies dating back to Mamie Eisenhower and, since I have a mild addiction to presidential trivia, I took a walk-through so I could peep the gowns.

Quick story: here's the official portrait of Lady Bird Johnson or, as composer and friend Paul Marbach likes to call her, the "Patron Saint of Joshua Shank's Heart." He's not wrong. I love this woman like she was my own fierce granny. I can take or leave LBJ himself but his wife was fabulous and amazing.

Since I moved to Austin, Texas I've been rigorously educated on just how much she did for this particular city (they renamed a lake after her) and, subsequently, I went to the LBJ Presidential Library which, coincidentally, is across the street from the music building here at UT. I seriously don't know why I have this mild (very mild) fixation on this particular former First Lady. I guess I just sort of love her name or something (her given name was "Claudia"). During one of the first cab rides I took here in town the cabbie and I talked about Lady Bird. He called her "a mean, old bitch" (he had what could be called "personality") but I refused to believe it.

Nine months later a friend of mine, Brian, visited town for the South by Southwest Music Festival and, upon returning to my apartment after a visit to the LBJ Library, he looked at all the papers strewn in a semi-circle on the floor around my desk chair and said, "You're just like Lady Bird!"

You see, she liked to have a "To Do Pile" on the floor near her desk and the museum goes to great pains to illustrate this. I happen to subscribe to the same method of organization as the former First Lady and, having seen this, Brian declared me to be Lady-Bird-like.

And that is the greatest honor of my life (*stands up and salutes*). You heard it here first, folks.

In any case, whilst in DC, I stumbled upon her inaugural gown at the Smithsonian and, as much as I adore her, it's a bit tragic and fussy (what with the arm-muffs). Here's the picture they had on file of sweet, sweet Lady Bird. She looks like she could easily be Natalie Portman's mother in one of them Star Wars movies.

But enough about her. How about a sculpture of George Washington looking all ripped and Greek and what-not? I like to call this "George Washington: Rad-to-the-Power-of-Kickass." There's a history behind this piece, I know, but irony won't allow me any further than one of the quote-unquote Fathers of Democracy in a toga. That's just ridiculous...and kind of trashy...and I love it.

Also contained within the walls of the museum is an exhibit about transportation in America and, amongst other things, there was this example of a mini-van. When did wood paneling go out of style? The Shank family circa 1989 totally had one of these things and, in a tribute to National Lampoon's Vacation, we called it "The Family Truckster."

Like most tourists who visit DC, I spent the majority of my free time walking around the National Mall. I have a sappy sense of patriotism (in contrast to, say, a militant one...which is useful in a different way) and seeing all these monuments is something I'm glad I had a chance to do. The World War II Memorial was particularly moving what with all the families wading into the pool (which you're sort of not supposed to do).

All of the things in these pictures are, of course, nothing new to people who have spent the majority of their lives in the US. I include them here to say only that I am incredibly grateful that the University of Texas paid for me to come out here and see these things in person. I've seen pictures of these places in textbooks and historical photographs for as long as I can remember but to see them up close is entirely different and inspiring in a way completely devoid of the political divisions that create so much drama and distance between people. That's a pedestrian observation, I know, but I rarely get to rise above my own politics and, for me, that's a special thing.

Unfortunately the Capitol Reflecting Pool was undergoing maintenance but I suppose that just means there's still something left on the Mall I haven't seen yet. Despite that, it still made for a good picture (props to the weather at the time!).

My dad and I are both sort of mutually obsessed with history so I ended up texting him pictures of pretty much everything I was seeing and, by the time I got around to the Lincoln Memorial, all I got back from him was one word: "Jealous."

That night myself and a few of the Chamber Singers went out to see a great show at Twins Jazz. Before the show, I stopped next door at Al Crostino for this incredible salmon filet which, while good, wasn't near as amazing as the grilled vegetables that accompanied it. As a vegetarian who eats fish every now and then (yes, I know that makes me a "pescetarian"...that just feels pretentious when I say it), I'm always impressed when a chef can make something as simple as grilled vegetables taste crazy good. Wow.

The act playing that night was Ramzy & The Brothers Handsome and, as it turned out, they were recording a DVD. If they had more material available on the Web I could show you how amazing they were but, for now, you'll just have to take this abbreviated trailer and my word for it.

After the final concert in DC (an evensong appearance at a local church) we headed to Vapiano in Chinatown for some great Italian food. It's a chain restaurant but one of the singers had a connection which resulted in better seating or something. Nonetheless, it was fresh pasta with made-to-order sauce...which is just about the best thing ever. Seriously.

They also do this rigamarole where they halt you as you walk in the door and hand you this credit-card-looking thingy which is used at every station (pasta bar, pizza bar, booze bar, etc.) to charge you for That Which You Have Consumed but, honestly, the hassle is completely worth it because it was some kickass food. In the end, my favorite thing about Vapiano is that it's a German chain (headquartered in Beethoven's hometown...holla!) specializing in Italian food which the UT Chamber Singers dined at in the capitol of the United States. Try not to have a seizure from the irony all up in that.

At the beginning of this diatribe I talked about how viewing someone's travel slide show can come across as totally boring. That being said, I'd like to take this chance to (a) acknowledge that this might have been the case with this lengthy blog entry and (b) thank you for getting this far (both of you). I'm not nearly as well-traveled as some of my more worldly compositional colleagues (which isn't meant as an indictment) but, as I've said before, I'm incredibly enriched when I'm able to go see new places. This blog is an occasional testament to this fact.

What made this trip even more special is that I got to make it with a group of amazing people who are both unbelievably talented and wonderful to be around. The last time I went on a tour like this was with the aforementioned Nordic Choir in 2003...but that was with, like, 75 singers plus a staff of tour people. The UT Chamber Singers are a tiny insurgency of 20 musicians plus a conductor and, therefore, this trip had way more shared moments that pulled me in closer to some of the best people I've ever met.

I don't have many pictures of us and, in fact, I'll thank Caity Anderson-Patterson here for the use of a few pictures she snapped that are about to show up. Here you've got alto Sam Miller and I posing in Times Square. We had a great time together that day and, since it was Fleet Week, the person on the other side of the camera is a US Marine (Semper Fi!). Sam just adopted a beautiful little girl from Russia (who I still have to meet...Hi, Micah!) and I'm grateful to have been the one who distracted her whilst all the paperwork was going through.

Here's a gaggle of UTCS peeps at a Washington Nationals game at RFK Stadium. The classiest baseball fans in the world!

Finally, here's what Caity dubbed "The Incorrigible Eight" (although three are missing). Our connecting flight from Dallas-Fort Worth was cancelled so the airline routed the 21 of us in the ensemble from Baltimore to Houston to Austin in three separate groups. I was a member of the third group to leave the Houston airport and we were supposed to have close to a 6-hour layover...and it only takes something like 3 hours to drive the distance between Houston and Austin. Taking that into account, the university rented us a bigass passenger van (church camp style!) and we drove it to get back home before Group #2 even touched down at ATX. Here we are in the Enterprise station about to leave for Austin.

Caity's caption says it all: "On our mission trip to Awesome. Fighting transportation adversity at every turn."

I'm truly grateful to have been let into this wonderful ensemble (thanks, Dr. James Morrow!) and then befriended by such awesome and interesting people. Spending 10 days on the road with me couldn't have been easy because, when free time is available, I tend to put on my headphones and march off in whatever direction I want. But travelling with them for the same amount of time was incredibly easy.

To be a musician of any stripe is to be given these occasional opportunities to see the world--oftentimes with a bunch of other people alongside you--and these 10 days will be a cherished memory.

Hook 'em!