Tag Archives: Henco Espag

NY Mysteries May 9, 2020

 

I borrowed this copy of Emily Bronte’s Spellbound from Ben Shepard’s blogspot.

As we all know the Brontes lived and died briefly. We also know that Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights. Her elder sister, Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre.

 Spellbound

“The night is darkening round me,

Patrick Branwell Bronte’s portrait of his sister, Emily

The wild winds coldly blow;

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot, cannot go.”

None of us can go  anywhere.

Shelter in place. 

If you have a place to shelter in.

The homeless can’t shelter in place. 

The plague keeps coming.

The losses, death, losses.

People screaming.

Quietly grieving.

Classmates, 

Teachers, 

Mothers,

A friend’s father, without a goodbye.

The funeral homes filled with bodies.

The morgues at capacity.

Each casket with a story. 

http://benjaminheimshepard.blogspot.com/2020/05/if-i-should-learn-in-some-quite-casual.html

 

Henco Espag, Judson’s Musical Director posted this message on 3/27/20. Working with Henco is heavenly. Grab this opportunity. 

Hallooo Judson,

We are putting together a

to feature creations inspired by our shared social distancing experience both for our virtual services and in a live in-person concert once we are all back together again.

Below is the website link to the contest and the full submission guidelines pasted in as well.  Please share this with everyone!!!!

We already received submissions within 10 minutes of posting.

Thank you!

Henco

https://www.judson.org/quarantine-artbook-contest

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college. 

NY Mysteries May 1, 2020

 

 Remember in the olden days when we went to museums, to dance performances, to the movies, to the opera, to dinner parties, to restaurants? Our isolation reminds me of C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. One of the characters yearns for the days when Narnians were free to mingle, when Narnia wasn’t smothered in snow and ice and the machinations of the evil, frosty queen. 

Some photos of happier times. These are from an exhibit at the Whitney, 

Once upon a time at The Whitney
Once upon a time at The Whitney

 

Henco Espag, Judson’s Musical Director posted this message on 3/27/20. Working with Henco is heavenly. Grab this opportunity. 

Hallooo Judson,

Once upon a time at The Whitney

We are putting together a Judson Quarantine Artbook to feature creations inspired by our shared social distancing experience both for our virtual services and in a live in-person concert once we are all back together again.

Below is the website link to the contest and the full submission guidelines pasted in as well.  Please share this with everyone!!!!

We already received submissions within 10 minutes of posting.

Thank you!

Henco

https://www.judson.org/quarantine-artbook-contest

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college. 

NY Mysteries April 10, 2020 

How to deal with the Coronavirus Pandemic… Jokes? They trip across my email. There are lots of them and they’re funny. Alcohol? Drinking statistics are zooming.  At the Frick Collection  Xavier F. Salomon, the Frick’s Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, discusses Giovanni Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert, Saloman focuses on St. Francis’s love of nature enveloped by his religious beliefs. He recited Francis’s The Canticle of the Creatures.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,

so useful, humble, precious and pure.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,

through whom you brighten up the night.

How beautiful is he, how cheerful!

Full of power and strength.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through our Sister

Mother Earth, who sustains us and governs us,

and produces various fruits with colored flowers

and herbs.

Curator Salomon compared the loveliness of the spring in  Bellini’s 1480 painting with the very beautiful, dangerous, unknown spring we 2020 New Yorkers are living through.

 Back to humor, a friend emailed this Passover email during the time of the Coronus Virus: Commemorating not getting killed by a plague during a plague that you hope you’re not being killed by is probably as Jewish as you can get.  

Let’s say good bye to John Prine with Rev. Micah Busey”s Tiny Prayer :

Thank you for telling us honest stories of ourselves, set to sweet melodies that allow them to sneak into our hearts, comforting us with universality, teasing our follies just enough to invite us to take ourselves a tad less seriously.

Amen

 Henco Espag, Judson’s Musical Director posted this message on 3/27/20. Working with Henco is heavenly. Grab this opportunity. 

Hallooo Judson,

We are putting together a Judson Quarantine Artbook to feature creations inspired by our shared social distancing experience both for our virtual services and in a live in-person concert once we are all back together again.

Below is the website link to the contest and the full submission guidelines pasted in as well.  Please share this with everyone!!!!

We already received submissions within 10 minutes of posting.

Thank you!

Henco

https://www.judson.org/quarantine-artbook-contest

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college. 

NY Mysteries April 4, 2020 

 

Good Morning, Survivors! I went to the liquor store (essential services) on Ave. B and stood outside in a line. I thought I’d fallen into a B movie. The front door was sealed. Someone said behind it What you want?  “The Margarita mix,” I said. Seconds later the voice said $9 and change. I pushed some bills through a crack and the margarita mix was shoved in a bag out the door. Very exciting. So Graham Green in Cuba.  

 Henco Espag, Judson’s Musical Director posted this message on 3/27/20. Working with Henco is heavenly. Grab this opportunity. 

Hallooo Judson,

We are putting together a Judson Quarantine Artbook to feature creations inspired by our shared social distancing experience both for our virtual services and in a live in-person concert once we are all back together again.

Below is the website link to the contest and the full submission guidelines pasted in as well.  Please share this with everyone!!!!

We already received submissions within 10 minutes of posting.

Thank you!

Henco

https://www.judson.org/quarantine-artbook-contest

 

 

 

From a Chinese friend in Shanghai
Squirrel + Muffin
From happier times: Judson Choir directed by Henco Espag

Virtual and Zoom are among the most frequently used words these days.

Judson Memorial Church has a daily meditation service, a Monday evening service and a Sunday service. Rev. Micah Bucey presides over the daily services and participates in the Sunday service with Rev. Donna Schaper and Rev. Valerie Holly.

Last Sunday, Micah shared his poem, A Covenantal Prayer dedicated to his husband, their beagle and the two cats. Here is the beginning:

I begin with three confessions:
I have eaten all the pita chips,
I am nearly out of dog treats,
And I have not cleaned the litter box in five days.

Surely, you all will have noticed these things by the time you hear this prayer.
You will all look at me with eight brutally beautiful eyes, saying:
“You were supposed to take care of this. This was a covenant.

 

 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college. 

NY Mysteries Sept. 20, 2019

 

 The Judson Week End in Deep River, Ct. is a Judson Memorial Church version of a retreat. However, we never stopped talking , drinking, dancing, meditating, skinny dipping, hiking, participating in Pilates, trying facial masks, eating, celebrating present absent members and absent dead members as well as a baptism in the lake. That’s all in two days.

 

Hiking around the Lake
Henco at the keys

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Service

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Florida friend visits NYC for six weeks at this time of year. We never stop! This week alone we saw Slave Play, too long and over rated. We went to Caviat on Clinton Street. It  was packed, as usual. Georgia Brown, a dynamo Australian writer and entrepreneur invented Generation Women. It’s a performance by women of generations between twenty and seventy. Georgia presents a theme. This current one was  women’s bodies. The audience hooted and howled over the various adventures presented by each woman, enlightening and embarrassing. Next night we went to a wonderful performance at the Joyce: Rubberband. 

 Don’t forget the Brooklyn Book Fair where some of us will be hawking books. 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NYMysteries – April 27

 

 

A Judson Easter: music, food, fellowship: It was a zinger this year. Judson Memorial Church has wonderful music, a wonderful choir and a wonderful Music Director, Henco Espag. We had a feast of music. There was an original Easter Cantata by Rev. Micah Bucey and Henco Espag and sung by the choir, The Gardener’s Dance choreographed and performed by  Brandon Kazen-Maddox, traditional hymns including The Old Rugged Cross, The Strife Is O’er, the Battle Done. Afterwards, we had our shared, pot luck feast and lots of reminiscing and greeting old friends.  

 

 

 

Music Director Henco Espag
Brandon Kazen-Maddox performing The Gardener’s Dance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soloist Michelle Thompson and Henco Espag

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite shows is Project Runway. One of my favorite places is F. I. T. Fashion Institute of Technology has great fashion exhibits. So with this in mind, let me present a chic NYC dog who’s sporting sunglasses. 

 

 

 

Fashionable NYC Dog
Fashionable NYC dog doing runway walk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

New York Mysteries Dec. 16 – Dec. 23

A friend and I met at Rosemary’s on Greenwich Avenue. Since I arrived first, I ordered Negronis, his favorite aperitif. Forget that. Rosemary’s serves only beer and wine. But what wine. One of the owners suggested we try Terlaner since we were having some prosciutto and focaccia followed by the linguini with preserved lemon (what’s that?) and for dessert, yummy affogato. A lovely early supper.

 

 

A delicious white wine

Grazie is a cozy, well run restaurant steps away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Getting a dinner reservation near the Met at this time of year is almost impossible. We settled on 5 p.m. so we could have plenty of time to get to The Met’s New York Baroque Incorporated. It was a mostly French evening. It began with the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully, an Italian born composer who worked at Louis XIV’s court. It was followed by Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes and George Frideric Handel’s Suite from Terpsichore. The music was wonderful, the period dancing so-so and the incorrect Met directions frustrating.

Judson Memorial Church is on a roll. It’s thrilling to be in a packed church. One of the main reason is the music. Judson has always had a strong musical tradition and the not so new music director, Henco Espag lives up to the tradition.

Judson Memorial Church

Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-four-year-old widow Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a stabbed and dying man in the school kitchen, deals with the only witness to the stabbing – a troubled nine-year-old, develops a crush on a NYPD detective and her dog dies.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in Singapore? She tells Millie.

Graphic Lessons: Something’s eating at NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek: a failed marriage? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case? It doesn’t matter because he’s relentless.