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Stories
Good(s) Piling Up
The deliveries are coming fast and furious now--treasures of books, posters, magazines, and CDs that will be available and displayed at the Festival, starting on Thursday. The biggest, heaviest, and most exciting to me are the cases of Mormon Cinema. Biggest because the boxes and boxes of books are taking up the lion's share of my little apartment; heaviest because at 680 pages, the book is our heftiest offering by far; and most exciting because after 20 years of research, a major publication is seeing the light of day.
The Kindness of Strangers
In addition to the crew of committee members and supportive friends, the Center has been the recipient of some anonymous kindness in preparation for the festival. One of the last checklist items before the festival opens on Thursday was a series of posters and banners to decorate the Italian Academy itself. Printing oversize posters can be expensive. A large poster can be about $200. So I was pretty nervous when I went to my local shop and gave them a flash drive with about 15 posters--some of them to be mounted to foam core.
Sing With Us
Mormons a generation or two ago knew the music of Evan Stephens like the back of their hand. It was everywhere. Nearly two-thirds of the hymns in the early 20th century hymnal were composed by him. Conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, prolific composer of hymns, anthems, oratorios, and operettas, and a master choral teacher: Stephens was easily one of the most influential men of his era in the Church. How did this son of a Welsh coal miner, with almost no musical training become such a force?
On Carnegie Hall
I went by Carnegie Hall today, and I was surprised to see the poster for the Scott Holden recital in the beautiful outside display cases at Carnegie Hall. It was a proud moment, an arrival. When I first arrived in New York as a college student, I would scrape together $9 to buy a ticket on the back row of the balcony.
Our Secret Weapon
I'm not sure I should be revealing this, but we have a trade secret. Far away, in the land of snow-capped mountains and Jell-O, exists the most fantastic company. They do brilliant work. They are fast. They're nice. Their equipment is top-notch, state-of-the-art …
Collaboratives
I don't want to spoil too many of the surprises of the festival, but there are some really fun projects that will bring dozens of artists together to make linked visual images. These are thematically connected, and when you see them, I think you'll immediately understand the concept behind them …