{"id":695,"date":"2011-09-13T11:08:09","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T16:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/?p=695"},"modified":"2011-09-13T16:38:31","modified_gmt":"2011-09-13T21:38:31","slug":"corzoo%e2%80%99s-jig-a-birthday-and-treasure-on-the-emerald-isle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/?p=695","title":{"rendered":"Corzoo\u2019s Jig, A Birthday, and Treasure on the Emerald Isle"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those of you just joining our story, Corzoo is a feisty, precocious, curious little fellow, who happens to be a kazoo that is shaped like a French horn. \u00a0He longs to be a REAL French horn player one day and has finagled and cajoled his way into being taken along on our travels, citing that I am responsible for his development as a musician and human being.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Our stay in Luzerne went by in a flash.\u00a0 What a shame, because it was a beautiful little town, with fresh, cool air, a mountain lake, and nice little shops.\u00a0 Our highlights were watching the swans on the lake and eating Eiskunst ice cream.\u00a0 \u201cDas schmeckt mir gut!\u201d as Corzoo would say.\u00a0 \u201cYummy!\u201d as I would say.<\/p>\n

The day of our travel to Dublin was here, and it was Dave\u2019s birthday.\u00a0 Corzoo was getting in the mood \u2013 both for going to Ireland and<\/em> for Dave\u2019s birthday dinner that night.<\/p>\n

\u201cTop o\u2019 the mornin\u2019 to ya, Mr. O\u2019Bilger!\u00a0 Seems a fine day for a wee birthday party!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed it does, Corzoo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould y\u2019 care to dance a jig with me?\u201d\u00a0 Away he jigged with funny little steps and kicks.<\/p>\n

Dave pretended to consider, then said, \u201cPerhaps later, lad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll dance with you, Corzoo,\u201d I said and joined in.\u00a0 If Dave had any doubt as to whether or not I had lost it, now he knew for sure.<\/p>\n

So off we went to Dublin.\u00a0 Whenever one sees photos of Ireland, it always looks exceedingly green.\u00a0 I had always thought that this was an exaggeration of some kind, or nostalgic memories of displaced Irish for their homeland.\u00a0 But, as it turns out, I could see as we landed that Ireland is very, very green.\u00a0 The weather was chilly and rainy when we arrived, but we ventured out for a walk in the fresh air anyway, hoping to make it to hear one of Dublin\u2019s famed choirs sing Evensong.\u00a0 The choir of Christ Church Cathedral has a storied history and, along with the Choir of St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral, premiered Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em> in 1742.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I had gotten the time wrong, and doors were closing to the church as we arrived.\u00a0 But it was soon time for Dave\u2019s birthday dinner anyway, so we walked around and observed the people and the very active streets.\u00a0 Our cabbie earlier that day had told us that there had been a Gaelic football match that evening, so it was going to be mayhem in town that night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two things we Irish are known for,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cDrinkin\u2019 an\u2019 fightin\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n

We promised him we would try to not get in the middle of anything, though I think Corzoo was hoping to witness some kind of scene.<\/p>\n

We had a delicious birthday meal for Dave, and merrily headed back to our hotel on foot to enjoy the air and to walk off a little of our dinner.\u00a0 Dave was carrying Corzoo in his jacket pocket now, so the little guy could have a change of scenery.\u00a0 As we were walking we came across some street musicians playing dueling marimbas!\u00a0 We stopped and watched for a while. \u00a0A few minutes later we came across two musicians playing a little tune and a young woman happily dancing by herself in the street, completely in her own world \u2013 that is until we<\/em> walked by\u2026.<\/p>\n

Before anybody knew what had happened she grabbed Dave by the lapel and said, \u201cDance with me!\u201d\u00a0 She was so adamant and quick about it that I had no choice but to let go of his hand and allow Dave to dance with her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeeeelp me, St. Paaaaaaadddyyyyyyy!\u201d cried Corzoo as they were both being swept away.\u00a0 But in one of the whooshes and whirls of their dance I heard a buzzy yelp of delight.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t quite a jig, but at least Corzoo got to dance in the streets of Dublin with a real Irish woman!<\/p>\n

\"\"The next morning, the orchestra had a rehearsal at the hall and I thought perhaps today was a good day to go with Dave and listen to a little bit of rehearsal.\u00a0 Corzoo and I happily found an unused corner of the lobby and practiced for a little while, then looked around the inside of the hall.\u00a0 What a pretty space!\u00a0 And of course, it had its share of green embellishments. We listened to the orchestra rehearse Stravinsky\u2019s Song of the Nightingale <\/em>and heard some of Dave\u2019s big solos.\u00a0 What a fun piece to listen to with all of the effects the various instruments make!<\/p>\n

After lunch, our next stop was the Chester Beatty Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been doing a little investigating and have learned some things.\u00a0 Would you like for me to tell you about Mr. Beatty\u2019s history?\u201d Corzoo asked us.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, please do!\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Mr. Chester Beatty was an American who studied to be a mining engineer at Columbia University in New York.\u00a0 He then started working at the bottom of the mine shaft, so to speak, shoveling coal, but worked his way up the ladder and built a fortune for himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWow!\u201d Dave and I exclaimed. \u201cDo go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a man with a great love of books and the history of the written word, and when he could, he started collecting things that interested him.\u00a0 He found and purchased Chinese books made out of jade.\u00a0 Can you imagine books with pages made of precious green stone?\u201d Corzoo said excitedly.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Beatty found ancient manuscripts, many of them religious – illuminated manuscripts of the Bible, for instance.\u00a0 Shall I inform you as to what an \u2018illuminated manuscript\u2019 is?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat wouldn\u2019t hurt.\u00a0 Please refresh our memories, Corzoo,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cIn the Middle Ages, meaning from around the 5th<\/sup> century through the 15th<\/sup> century, monks would carefully copy out passages of the Bible or sometimes prayer books and other religious texts, but they would make them into works of art as well.\u00a0 They would often have elaborate illustrations, and they would always have a fancy first letter to begin each passage.\u00a0 Sometimes they would use pigments of real gold and other precious metals as their ink!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazing!\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd what else did he find?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"He also came to acquire some of the very oldest Christian texts known to exist.\u00a0 Passages from the Gospels \u2013 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John \u2013 from as early as the year 150 A.D. and more from 200 A.D.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is truly incredible!\u201d we replied.\u00a0 We were all very eager to see such ancient texts.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cAnd this is not the oldest thing he found,\u201d continued our young friend.\u00a0 \u201cHe found pages of ancient Egyptian love poems written on papyrus.\u00a0 Do you know what papyrus is?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I think so, but go ahead and tell us again for good measure,\u201d Dave said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPapyrus is like paper, but made from a plant that originated in Egypt.\u00a0 It is very fragile, so it is extremely rare to have in one\u2019s possession Egyptian love poems written on a 3000-year-old piece of papyrus!\u201d<\/p>\n

We asked him if there were any other highlights we that should be sure to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis collection also came to include some of the oldest Korans, Buddhist scriptures from every region, and also, you might be very interested to see his collection of elaborate book bindings throughout history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Book bindings! There<\/em> was something I hadn\u2019t thought of for a while.\u00a0 All the books I own are bound in such an ordinary way.\u00a0 Corzoo went on to tell us that Mr. Beatty retired to Ireland and opened up his collection to the public.\u00a0 He was later named the first honorary citizen of Ireland.<\/p>\n

We thanked Corzoo for doing such great research and proceeded into the library to look at all of the treasures Mr. Chester Beatty had collected during his lifetime.<\/p>\n

It was quite something to lay eyes on writings so ancient, to imagine the person who bent over his desk with a pot of ink — sometimes golden ink! — and so painstakingly penned words and illustrations that had such profound effects on societies and civilizations.<\/p>\n

\"\"In addition to the spiritual texts were humorous prints of social satire.\u00a0 We all laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis woman has even Dallas women beat!\u201d Dave said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunny caricatures of women who desire the biggest and best hair is another thing that is not new<\/em> under the sun, I guess!\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Corzoo looked at me quizzically.\u00a0 Finally something that I could explain to him<\/em>!<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you know the saying, \u2018There is nothing new under the sun.\u2019 The ancient wise man Solomon said those words.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about Kindles and iPads and iPhones?\u201d Corzoo asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a good point,\u201d said Dave.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, yes, yes, you teasers,\u201d I laughed.\u00a0 \u201cBut I think he\u2019s trying to put things into perspective for us. \u00a0 He wants to show us our place in the larger scheme of things, and it is also something we can take comfort in.\u00a0 Everything we feel or experience may show up in a shiny new package or be communicated electronically, but underneath it all, human nature remains the same, and there is nothing we experience that hasn’t been experienced before. \u00a0For instance, there will always be women who want the biggest and most elaborate hairdos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, in any case,\u201d said Corzoo, \u201cthat doesn’t mean that things aren’t new to me<\/em>.\u00a0 Like Edinburgh! \u00a0I\u2019ve never been to Edinburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, lad, what do you say,” Dave asked. \u00a0” Should we take a little jog, as opposed to a jig, across the Irish Sea and into Scotland to visit D\u00f9n \u00c8ideann?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSufferin\u2019 Scot-itash! You already know the Gaelic name for Edinburgh.\u00a0 I was going to stun you with my vast knowledge tomorrow when we got there!\u201d said Corzoo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d I said, \u201cI will have forgotten the Gaelic name by a minute from now, so you can still stun me tomorrow, Corzoo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave went off to play his concert, and we went back to the hotel, feeling like we had seen some treasures, and looking forward to the treasures to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our stay in Luzerne went by in a flash. What a shame, because it was a beautiful little town, with fresh, cool air, a mountain lake, and nice little shops. Our highlights were watching the swans on the lake and eating Eiskunst ice cream. \u201cDas schmeckt mir gut!\u201d as Corzoo would say. \u201cYummy!\u201d as I would say.
\n Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-young-corzoo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":730,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}