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After each ski season, I assemble pictures and videos and we show them at our end-of-year staff party. This is the last chapter of four in the film we presented in April.

It’s titled “. . . Of Which We are a Small Part”, because, well, we are — when viewed  from atop Wheeler or Kachina Peaks.  In addition to my own filming, I shamelessly borrowed other pictures and video, some of which I found on the Internet.

As with Part 1, I think it’s a great way to gear up for the 2013 – 2014 season.  We received another 14 inches of show on Tuesday, with more to come.

Bring it on!

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Film Credits:

• Jay Goebel
• GoPro
• Mark Gordon
• Moby Dickens Bookshop
• Britt Runyon
• Taos Ski Valley, Inc.
• thiago1029
• Peter Walker
• Nate Wixom
  

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• Music by Mars Lasar
  

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Related:

• Are You Ready?  Part 1:  “Our Magical Workplace”

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The post Are You Ready? Part 2 appeared first on BELLAVITÆ.

After each season, I assemble pictures and videos and we show them at our end-of-year staff party. This is the second chapter of four in the film we presented last April.

It’s titled “Our Magical Workplace”, because, well, we are lucky enough to work in such a beautiful place.  In addition to my own filming, I shamelessly borrowed other pictures and video, some of which I found on the Internet.

I watched this chapter the other day and think it’s a great way to gear up for the 2013 – 2014 season.  It’s already snowed five times up here, and we’re expecting up to 10 inches on Tuesday.

Bring it on!

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Film Credits:

• Jay Goebel
• GoPro
• Mark Gordon
• Britt Runyon
• Sky News 13
• Taos Ski Valley, Inc.
• thiago1029
• Peter Walker
• Nate Wixom

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• Music by Rodrigo Y Gabriela

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Related:

• Are You Ready?  Part 2:  “. . . Of Which we are a Small Part”

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The post Are You Ready? Part 1 appeared first on BELLAVITÆ.

New Mexico is famous for its hot air balloons.  I’ve wanted to experience air travel this way since I moved to the state.  This past Saturday, I did just that – along with two of my favorite cousins who were visiting from Arizona.

The Rio Grande Gorge cuts through the high desert mesa west of Taos like a 650 foot-deep miniature Grand Canyon.  The famous Rio Grande River flows through the 70-mile canyon on its way to the Gulf of Mexico.  Gently gliding on the soft desert winds into the Gorge in our purple hot air balloon, with the Sangre de Cristo mountains as our backdrop, we had the premier hot air ballooning experience.

We flew with Pueblo Balloon Company of Taos – Ed was our pilot and Lisa was Crew Chief.  The company does a fine job and I have no hesitation recommending the company.  We loved every moment.

Images in the film are from yours truly and Taos photographer Jared Yankowy.  Music is by Blush.

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Sometimes we need to take ourselves out of the world and transcend to a mental place that provides perspective — and perhaps a little joy — to our lives.  Today, the above video did just that . . . and suddenly, out of nowhere, my day got a little better.

Shot at Plaça de Sant Roc in Sabadell, Spain, a little north of Barcelona, the performance was orchestrated by the financially-challenged Spanish bank, Banco Sabadell.  The bank brought together 100 musicians and singers from the Orchestra Simfonica del Valles, Amics de l’Opera de Sabadell, Coral Belles Arts, and Cor Lieder Camera to perform.

The music, of course, is Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from his Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 (sometimes known simply as “the Choral”).  Among critics, it is almost universally considered to be among Beethoven’s greatest works, and perhaps to be the greatest piece of music ever written.

Beethoven finished the symphony when he was nearly deaf.

The Ninth Symphony premiered on May 7, 1824 in Vienna’s Theater am Kärntnertor.  This was the composer’s first on-stage appearance in 12 years; the hall was packed.

Although the performance was officially directed by Michael Umlauf, the theatre’s Kapellmeister, Beethoven shared the stage with him.  Two years earlier, Umlauf had witnessed the composer’s attempt to conduct a dress rehearsal of his opera Fidelio, which ended in disaster.  So this time, he instructed the singers and musicians to ignore the almost totally deaf Beethoven.  At the beginning of every part, Beethoven, who sat by the stage, gave the tempos.  He was turning the pages of his score and beating time for an orchestra he could not hear.

When the audience applauded, Beethoven was several measures off and still conducting.  Because of that, the contralto Caroline Unger walked over and turned Beethoven around to accept the audience’s cheers and applause.  According to one witness, “the public received the musical hero with the utmost respect and sympathy, listened to his wonderful, gigantic creations with the most absorbed attention and broke out in jubilant applause, often during sections, and repeatedly at the end of them.”  The audience acclaimed him through standing ovations five times; there were handkerchiefs in the air, hats, raised hands, so that Beethoven — who could not hear the applause — could at least see the ovation gestures.

Hearing nothing, but seeing the tumultuous applause of the audience, Beethoven wept.

The words are sung during the final movement by four vocal soloists and a chorus.  They were taken from the “Ode to Joy”, a poem written by Friedrich Schiller in 1785 and revised in 1803, with additions made by Beethoven.

Those words written specifically by Beethoven (rather than Schiller) are shown in italics.

Beethoven composed the world’s most famous symphony, which he could not hear.  What personal limitations could you overcome to achieve greatness?

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I’ve been gardening since I was a kid in Nebraska.  A few years after planting my first seed – a Lima bean I had plucked from a sack in our pantry and stuck it in the ground – I asked my dad if we could clear some bushes and trees in our back yard to make way for a sunny garden plot.  He agreed and I’ve been gardening ever since.

During the off season here in Taos Ski Valley, we only operate Café Naranja for breakfast and lunch four days a week.  That gives me time to tend to the beautiful gardens that surround the Edelweiss Lodge & Spa.

The Lodge is nestled within the heart of Taos Ski Valley on Sutton Place.  The crystal mountain waters of Rio Hondo meander through the north side of the property; these gardens we keep largely in their natural state.  To the south and east, we offer a more cultivated expression of our microclimate – our terroir.

Our terroir presents unique gardening benefits – and challenges, but this is my second year, so I think I’m getting the hang of it.

Friends and family have asked that I send pictures of my handiwork, so here they are, both for them and for folks that only come to Taos Ski Valley in the winter.

I spend many hours working the gardens, and do so with great pleasure.  My favorite time of day is near dusk, after perhaps a few hours of huffing and puffing in the thin dry mountain air:  tilling, planting, watering.  At sunset the light turns warm, the breeze becomes soft, and I feel close to God.

The music is the favorite of my grandma – Alice Hopp – to whom I dedicate this short film.

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“Via Con Me”

Paolo Conte live — Arena Di Verona

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