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Dear Abbey

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Brad

Dear Abbey,

We miss you. Since we took you to see Dr. Hey Saturday our days are filled with firsts. Our first meal without hearing you howl at the back door. Going to bed without taking you out to go potty. Having to tell Juan and Maria why you were not here to great them. These moments are hard but we get through them. You did your best to hang in there until Lauren arrived but we couldn’t let you suffer any longer. Thank you for enriching our lives in so many ways. I told the girls I wanted a dog that was highly intelligent and fiercely obedient. One that would be easy to train and listen when you told it to do something. Big mistake. It turns out you were doing most of the training and we were the ones following orders. Our lack of self-discipline in conforming to your demands resulted in you receiving a reputation for being a bit of a prima donna. Of course we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Love,
Daddy

For Christmas 2001 Lauren Hickman and Amanda Hickman lobbied Linda Hopkins Hickman and me hard for a pet; something that was “not a fish”. After many discussions they were convinced they were getting a hamster. After going to the pet store Linda came home and said “I would rather have a rat terrier then a rat”. So we wrapped up two books for choosing and caring for puppies. After a few weeks research we went to several breeders. When we visited the breeder for shelties Abbey crawled up on Lauren’s lap and went to sleep.

This sheltie was developed to tend the diminutive sheep of the Shetland Islands, whose rugged, stormy shores have produced other small-statured animals such as the Shetland pony. Because she is a British dog we needed a British name. While listening to the Beatles one of the girls said “we should name her Abbey Road”. Twist my arm.

Here Comes the Sun is the opening track from side two of Abbey Road, the final side of the final Beatles album ever recorded. After Abbey’s battle with cancer – her long, cold, lonely winter – she can finally see the sun, sun, sun, here it comes. We will miss her, but the ice is slowly melting, and it won’t be long before we see the smiles returning to our faces.

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Happy Crimble, With Love From Me to You

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Brad

Beatles Catalog Goes on Streaming Services

Happy holidays from the Beatles: As of 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 24, the band’s music will finally be available on streaming services worldwide.

The group announced the news in a 35-second video featuring a medley of its biggest hits that kicks off to the sound of the 1963 single “She Loves You.” An accompanying news release simply said: “Happy Crimble, with love from us to you.”

However, the surviving members of the group, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Universal Music Group, which controls the band’s recorded music, made no statements other than the fact that the Beatles’ catalog — 13 original albums and four compilations — will now be playable on nine subscription streaming music services: Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Amazon Prime Music, Tidal, Deezer, Microsoft Groove, Napster/Rhapsody and Slacker Radio.

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Silent Night. The History of a Famous Carol

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Brad

Christmas Eve 1818. In 1818 the carol “Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht” was heard for the first time in a village church in Oberndorf, Austria. The congregation at that Midnight Mass in St. Nicholas Church listened as the voices of the assistant pastor, Father Joseph Mohr, and the choir director, Franz Xaver Gruber, rang through the church to the accompaniment of Father Mohr’s guitar. On each of the six verses, the choir repeated the last two lines in four-part harmony. On that Christmas Eve, a song was born that would wing its way into the hearts of people throughout the world. Now translated into hundreds of languages, it is sung by untold millions every December from small chapels in the Andes to great cathedrals in Antwerp and Rome.

Though meant for a performance in a church Silent Night was composed for guitar. That is rather unusual for those days. Joseph Mohr’s guitar still can be seen at Hallein’s Franz Gruber Museum

Today books, films and Internet sites are filled with fanciful tales purporting to tell the history of “Silent Night.” Some tell of mice eating the bellows of the organ creating the necessity for a hymn to be accompanied by a guitar. Others claim that Joseph Mohr was forced to write the words to a new carol in haste since the organ would not play. A recent film, created for Austrian television places Oberndorf in the Alps and includes evil railroad barons and a double-dealing priest, while a recent book by a German author places a zither in the hands of Franz Gruber and connects Joseph Mohr with a tragic fire engulfing the city of Salzburg. You can read claims that “Silent Night” was sung on Christmas Eve in 1818 and then forgotten by its creators. Of course, the latter are easily discounted by manuscript arrangements of the carol by both Mohr and Gruber which were produced at various times between 1820 and 1855. In this age of tabloid journalism, it’s not surprising that some feel it necessary to invent frivolous anecdotes and create fables for a story that is quite beautiful in its simplicity.

Father Joseph Mohr. A young priest in Mariapfarr. The German words for the original six stanzas of the carol we know as “Silent Night” were written by Joseph Mohr in 1816, when he was a young priest assigned to a pilgrimage church in Mariapfarr, Austria. His grandfather lived nearby, and it is easy to imagine that he could have come up with the words while walking through the countryside on a visit to his elderly relative. The fact is, we have no idea if any particular event inspired Joseph Mohr to pen his poetic version of the birth of the Christ child. The world is fortunate, however, that he didn’t leave it behind when he was transferred to Oberndorf the following year (1817).

Franz Gruber. On December 24, 1818 Joseph Mohr journeyed to the home of musician-schoolteacher Franz Gruber who lived in an apartment over the schoolhouse in nearby Arnsdorf. He showed his friend the poem and asked him to add a melody and guitar accompaniment so that it could be sung at Midnight Mass. His reason for wanting the new carol is unknown. Some speculate that the organ would not work; others feel that the assistant pastor, who dearly loved guitar music, merely wanted a new carol for Christmas.