What I’m Into, September 2016

As it often does, September flew by, full of back-to-school activity, rehearsals starting up for different groups, auditions and meetings filling days and nights. I’m always so grateful for Leigh Kramer’s link up to remind me to reflect on the previous month.

Books

Every once in a while I read a page turner like Flight Behavior: A Novel to remind myself what it is like to rush home to a book. Barbara Kingsolver’s combination of unique, descriptive prose and love of the natural world really speak to me, and this novel drew me in as all of her other’s have too.

Next up was Misframing Men: The Politics of Contemporary Masculinities, which was, needless to say, a shift. My professional goals this year included some reading on masculinity, and I really enjoy the work of Michael Kimmel. This was the only one I could get delivered to my local branch from the Boston Public Library, so I gave it a whirl. It’s a great collection of essays on a wide range of topics relating back to the way we understand masculinity and how it damages men, women, families, and society.

Currently Reading

Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood is another read that I hope will enlighten my work with young men. Parts of it feel a little dated (it came out in 1999), but I can see why it was so revolutionary then. More thoughts to come next month! (That’s my way of committing to finish it in the next 31 days!)

Loyola Press’s Daily Inspiration for Women is still part of my daily practice. Recommend!

Performance

With a lot of travel this month I wasn’t able to do many shows, but I got a call at the very end of the month to sing the national anthem at Fenway Park for one of David Ortiz’s last games. Tanglewood Festival Chorus sang during a lovely but rainy pre-game ceremony. I took a bunch of snaps, but this one from the professional photographer is unsurprisingly superior.

Music

I’ve been really into Muse lately, and especially love their video for Aftermath.

Travel

Not only was I able to celebrate the marriage of a dear friend in Durham, NC this month, I was able to check out Durham and nearby Chapel Hill. We went to choral evensong at Duke which was a real treat, and I achieved one of my greatest hair-controlling triumphs, as evidenced on Instagram.

Armed with nothing but a curling iron, our intrepid church singer brings order to chaos. #bighair

A photo posted by Margaret Felice (@margaretfelice1) on Sep 24, 2016 at 10:58am PDT

 

Running
I ran the Surftown Half-Marathon, and it was not entirely terrible, and that’s all I’m going to say about that. Next up: Hartford Half-Marathon, my old friend. Pardon the back to back spousal selfies.

Writing

The latest instance of Trump’s misogyny to come to light triggered a quick and emotional response about fat shaming and eating, so last week I wrote about being a woman who likes to eat. (Spoiler alert: It’s not a bad thing)

I also had an article published in Classical Singer Magazine about Social Media Basics for Singers. I went through the top platforms and discussed their usefulness for singers of all ages, and concluded with a few case-studies in best practices.

Random and shallow

Is it truly shallow to post about nail polish? Probably not, but it makes me feel funny. Still, I’m so in love with essie Gel Couture Nail Color Plus Top Coat that I can’t help myself from recommending it. It actually stays on for more than a few days!

And I’m still loving Snapchat!

What have you been into this month?

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