Mission from Earth Hour:

“On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people, organizations, corporations and governments around the world will come together to make a bold statement about their concern for climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. In the U.S. where we are already feeling the impacts of climate change, Earth Hour sends a clear message that Americans care about this issue and want to turn the lights out on dirty air, dangerous dependency on foreign oil and costly climate change impacts, and make the switch to cleaner air, a strong economic future and a more secure nation.

Participation is easy. By flipping off your lights on March 27th at 8:30 p.m. local time you will be making the switch to a cleaner, more secure nation and prosperous America. View the toolkits, to find out what else you can do to get involved including leading the Earth Hour movement in your community.”

Earth Hour has captured the world’s imagination for the past three years, and in 2009 nearly one billion people turned out their lights from 4,100 cities in 87 countries on seven continents.

Check out this wonderful Video:

Dear President Barack Obama,

When I first followed you, the Illinois State Senator, you were about to give a speech at the 2004 democratic convention. I listened to your hopeful, inspiring message and knew then, you’d aspire to great things. I had a feeling then that if anyone could sail this ship through tough waters it would be you.

Now you’re the President of the United States. I’m proud to say that I voted for you, and I couldn’t be prouder of my fellow citizens for changing the course of history. But the people our country are suffering now, and you need to listen closely to small business owners like myself.

2009 was the worst year I’ve had so far since establishing my business 16 years ago and it’s now March of 2010 and it is starting to look even worse than 2009. I suffered but managed to climb back even after September 11th, and this is worse than the months that followed that attack to our nation and my neighborhood. I wasn’t sure that I would survive then, and I’m not sure I can survive now.

The banks are tight with lending, the credit lines are running slim, and the job prospects are few and far between.

If I’m just one, in many small businesses, how are we going to survive? What can you do to help me?

I hope that you will do all that I hoped for when I voted for you, which is CHANGE Washington D.C! If you cannot get the republicans to agree, then you have the majority, so just get us what we need. Pass health care reform, help small businesses all that you can. Get the banks to open the channels of lending till we get this economy moving again. We’re waiting and hoping…

Susan

I’m wondering if the “designer” is lazy and not interested in converting the images or just doesn’t know any better. The reason I’ve put the word “designer” in quotes is because perhaps the person building the InDesign file is just an office worker or someone who learned the InDesign and Photoshop programs, but just doesn’t know what’s correct.

So, my first question is, when the files are sent to the printer, does the printer contact the “designer” and say some of the images are in the wrong format, or is he lazy also, and just prints the document.

If you’re going to print something, a jpg or gif file is the wrong format and probably the wrong resolution as well. One of the reasons people may send jpgs or gifs or even pdfs is because they are perfect for emailing and posting on a website, but they must be converted once received, not only into a print format (cmyk) but the resolution must be correct (300 dpi or higher in some cases).

Below is a little chart to follow just for formatting imagery:

Unlike rain, which we cannot do anything with, except get really wet when we don’t want to be, snow is something we enjoy being out in. We don’t even have to wait until it’s finished to hop on that sled, make an angel, or create a snow person.

It’s only when it starts to melt and get all slushy, and in spots, yellow, that we’ve had enough. For now, though, I’ll grab another cup of coffee and watch it pile up.

Okay it’s Friday, the 26th and it’s still snowing! We have at least a foot or more out there and I will be going out there later to be in it!

I have taken some more photos and started a gallery, click here to see them.

First up was Con Vivo Chamber Music. I’ve been hearing about this emsemble and have been wanting to see them. They play free concerts around Jersey City, and last night was their Hoboken debut. I absolutely love Bach and was thrilled to hear them play, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major. The musicians playing were, Jan-Piet Knijff, harpsicord; Kelli Kathman, flute; Salley Koo, violin; Rachel Golub, violin; Ralph Allen, violin; Amelia Hollander Ames, viola; and Carolyn Jeselsohn, cello. Each of these musicians is incredibly gifted and the concerto has wonderful solos for flute, violin, and harpsicord with volin, viola, cello and basso continuo support.

They were so marvelous, they played an encore!

From the program it says about ConVivo: “Con Vivo brings the communal spirit of chamber music to the vibrant and unique setting of Jersey City…” If you want to see them, their next concert is Saturday, February 27, at 8PM, Grace Church Van Vorst, 39 Erie Street in Jersey City.

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Next the United Synagogue of Hoboken Choir walked to the platform. Directed by Rabbi Robert Scheinberg, with 15 members they sang most of their pieces, A cappella. A very nice mix of sopranos, altos, tenors and basses. They sang, Hall’luhu (Psalm 150), Al Kol Elech, Haleli Nafshi et Adonai (Psalm 146), Liqrat Aviv/Qumi Lakh (Song of Songs), and Havah Nagilah (Let us rejoice). In the past I can remember this choir singing with the accompaniment of a guitar and other instruments but found it quite interesting to hear their voices fill the room and the audience responded with clapping and occasionally singing along.

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The final ensemble was Cantigas Women’s Choir, directed by Joan Isaacs Litman. I have followed Cantigas around for many years. Two of my friends are in the choir, Florence Pape and Mary Jo Rhodes. There were 57 women on the platform and when they sang, the harmony was a joyous celebration indeed. Last night they sang some pieces with the accompaniment of a fidula, played by Patricio Diaz, and percussion, played by Mathias Kunzli, and some of the pieces with Erasmia Voukelatos at the piano. They played some really interesting music from different regions of the world, always impressing us and challenging the members of the choir with new languages to learn. Their program was as follows: Durme, Durme, Los Kaminoz de Sirkeci, Komplas de Purim, Nigra Sum, Eliyahu HaNavi, and Psalm Trilogy. Just amazing, if you haven’t yet seen them, you must.

The evening ended with the United Synagogue of Hoboken Choir joining Cantigas and together they sang, Salaam (Od Yavo Shalom).

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Afterward, my friends and I walked up to Washington Street to eat, drink, and talk about the glorious evening out.

Cantigas Women's Choir at United Synagogue of Hoboken. Photograph by John Crittenden.