Justin's Journey

Happy New Year!

Today is the last day of my holiday break. I have been doing several random stuff around the house during the break: shoveling snow after two snow storms within a week, following the conditioning videos provided by my friends Kit and Olivia from Australia, reading in front of the fire place at home, etc. For the New Year’s Eve, I decided last minute to go to Boston and explored the grown-up events in Boston. The First Night in Boston included lots of activities. Here is what I went for:

• 2pm: A Handel & Haydn Society concert at the Museum of African American History
• 4pm: An organ recital at the First Church of Christ
• 6pm: An ice skating show at the Frog Pond in Boston Common
• 9pm: A Soul concert by Lee Fields & the Expressions at the Jordan Hall

The Handel & Haydn Society choral concert was hunting and beautiful. On January 1st, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln. It proclaimed all those enslaved in Confederate territory to be forever free. The Museum of African American History and the Handel and Haydn Society presented a special concert including selections from H&H’s 1863 performance at the Emancipation Proclamation celebration in Boston. They sang “Hallelujah” from Messiah, which is performed by H&H yearly at the Symphony Hall in Boston. What surprised me is, instead of a group of singers, they only had 9 singers to sign this big piece. However, it still sounded wonderful. Along with the narrator’s story-telling of the history for the Emancipation Proclamation, the final piece “Battle Hymn of the Republic” was sung by an incredible singer, with a rich voice filling the hall. I don’t think there were too many dry-eyes in the house. What a touching concert. It’s a great way to kick off my celebration of the First Night.

I then walked through the Boston Common and headed to the First Church of Chris. It is located across from the Symphony Hall, where Boston Symphony Orchestra performs. I always wanted to check out the church. This is the first time that I sat in the church. The organ is amazingly huge. The organist, with the company of a violinist and a soloist, did a fantastic job of putting together a great program. In addition to several different and interesting pieces of music, the organist certainly showed the power of the fantastic organ in the church!

It’s a lot of walking on the First Night. I walked back again to the Boston Common and checked out the ice skating show. I felt I needed to support my fellow skaters. 🙂 It was presented by the Skating Club of Boston. There were national and internal competitors from this skating club. Although a couple of them are pretty good skaters based on their performances in the competitions, the top skaters got some surprising bad falls. That means, they were not trying to do anything challenging but they fell unexpectedly. I felt bad for them… I do give them a lot of credits of skating in 30F degree temperature. It’s freezing cold! The crowd appreciated the entertainment.

I was walking back toward the Symphony Hall, and ran into the firework right in the Boston Common. It’s pretty cool to see the firework above your head. There were lots of people out in the cold and enjoying the First Night events.

After a quick dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant, I went to my final concert of the night at the Jordan Hall. Opening for Lee Fields was the retro rock and soul of Jenny Dee & The Deelinquents. Combining the girl group groove of the ’60s, with the soul sound of the ’70s, they perform covers and originals in the style of classic Stax and Motown. It’s a lot of fun rocking with them! And, here was Lee Fields. Talking about old school Soul, he put together a great concert full of souls. What a great singer and a great performer. It almost looked and sounded like so easy for him to sing his heart out. The audience absolutely felt him.

What a night! I was out since 10am and ate my lunch in Boston before my journey for the First Night. I stopped by the Club Cafe to say Happy New Year to Janet and Jen before I went to join Craig in Medford for the New Year countdown. When I came home, it’s almost 2am. Bed time. And, Happy New Year!!!