So, here it is December 20 and I still have tons of Christmas presents to buy. Usually, I have everything in hand and most of it wrapped by now. But this time around was different. My day job (stinkin’ work) has been unusually busy the last few months; I waaaay overcommitted my spare time for music gigs and directing a play for a local theater company; a lung infection slowed me down for two months; and the Folk School, where I do some work and am on their Board of Directors, has been in the process of moving to a new space with all of the attendant lunacy and headaches. Not that I’m complaining or making excuses!! Most of the stuff I’ve been involved in (well, except for the lung thing and stinkin’ work) has been a lot of fun. And it has had some terrific side effects and benefits. But it has gotten in the way of my taking part in the crazy seasonal consumerism. Which, now that I look at it, may actually be another one of the benefits.
Now time is short and I’m stumped. Presents for wife Amy and daughter China are pretty easy to decide on. I know their likes and needs pretty well. My brothers and sister and I don’t much exchange gifts anymore. We just get together to celebrate the day – Mom’s birthday is also December 25 – so there’s a lot to celebrate.
But then there’s the stumper: What to get for my musician friends? A new fiddle or guitar is a little out of my price range. Flat picks, even the hand carved specialty numbers, seem like they’d be too chintzy. Instructional books or DVDs might send the wrong message. I don’t know what CDs they already have on their shelves.
So I guess a trip to my local music shop is in order. Maybe I can even sneak over there on my lunch hour today. I just hope I don’t come home with more goodies for me than presents for others!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Christmas Winds and a House Party
Friday night was music start to finish. I can't think of a better way to spend it.
I started out going to a concert by the St. Louis Wind Symphony at St. Anthony of Padua church on the south side of town. A friend plays flute with the symphony and I always enjoy supporting her. The church is beautiful. Huge, high ceilings. A very impressive altar area. Lots of statues of religious figures, paintings of Bible scenes on the walls and ceilings. It’s a great place to hear music. Though the acoustics aren’t the best.
The concert started out with a few vocal numbers by the Carondolet Sisters. They’re all nuns from the nunnery that adjoins the church, though for tonight they were all dressed in holiday style with red sweaters and jackets. All singing their hearts out.
Then the wind symphony took over and played a dozen or so pieces of holiday themed music. Nice big sounding stuff. And my friend Andrea had some good moments to show off her piccolo playing.
After the concert, Andrea’s husband Bob and I headed over to a moving out house party given by my friend and fellow fiddler, Megan. She’s moving to another state to be with her fella. Good for her! Seeing as she had moved all of her furniture already, she invited friends and acquaintances in for a final party at the house. It was pretty great! A hot session going in the dining room and square dancing in the adjoining living room. I played a lot of tunes (some of which I’d even played before!) for hours. Some of the highlights of the session were playing tunes with a Japanese fella, Aki (sp?) who’s visiting St. Louis for a while. He’s a fine fiddler and plays a lot of squirrelly, crooked tunes. Which, of course, I can never get enough of. As well as Aki, some of the best old-time players in town were there. What a pleasure to play with those folks.
Good-natured ribbing was the order of the evening, too. In honor of Aki’s nationality, we changed the names of tunes to “Whale [Ham] Beats All Meat” and “Whale [Squirrel] Hunters”.
Later on a cute young lady sat down next to me with her cello and played for an hour or so. The sound of a cello in an old-time string band setting is a beautiful thing. It did cause me to wonder why at any old-time music gathering, there always seems to be an over-abundance of good looking women and funny-looking men. Just the way of the world, I suppose.
When my fingers wore out around 1:00 AM, I managed to wander around the other rooms of the house and run into many friends and acquaintances; catch up with their news and have some laughs (as well as some beer, whiskey, and a truly historic egg nog! All in moderation, of course.). By the end of it, as I was driving home and the snow was starting to flurry, I had really gotten the old Christmas spirit. It doesn’t get much better.
I've got to start taking my camera with me more often so I can share pictures of this stuff with all of you.
I started out going to a concert by the St. Louis Wind Symphony at St. Anthony of Padua church on the south side of town. A friend plays flute with the symphony and I always enjoy supporting her. The church is beautiful. Huge, high ceilings. A very impressive altar area. Lots of statues of religious figures, paintings of Bible scenes on the walls and ceilings. It’s a great place to hear music. Though the acoustics aren’t the best.
The concert started out with a few vocal numbers by the Carondolet Sisters. They’re all nuns from the nunnery that adjoins the church, though for tonight they were all dressed in holiday style with red sweaters and jackets. All singing their hearts out.
Then the wind symphony took over and played a dozen or so pieces of holiday themed music. Nice big sounding stuff. And my friend Andrea had some good moments to show off her piccolo playing.
After the concert, Andrea’s husband Bob and I headed over to a moving out house party given by my friend and fellow fiddler, Megan. She’s moving to another state to be with her fella. Good for her! Seeing as she had moved all of her furniture already, she invited friends and acquaintances in for a final party at the house. It was pretty great! A hot session going in the dining room and square dancing in the adjoining living room. I played a lot of tunes (some of which I’d even played before!) for hours. Some of the highlights of the session were playing tunes with a Japanese fella, Aki (sp?) who’s visiting St. Louis for a while. He’s a fine fiddler and plays a lot of squirrelly, crooked tunes. Which, of course, I can never get enough of. As well as Aki, some of the best old-time players in town were there. What a pleasure to play with those folks.
Good-natured ribbing was the order of the evening, too. In honor of Aki’s nationality, we changed the names of tunes to “Whale [Ham] Beats All Meat” and “Whale [Squirrel] Hunters”.
Later on a cute young lady sat down next to me with her cello and played for an hour or so. The sound of a cello in an old-time string band setting is a beautiful thing. It did cause me to wonder why at any old-time music gathering, there always seems to be an over-abundance of good looking women and funny-looking men. Just the way of the world, I suppose.
When my fingers wore out around 1:00 AM, I managed to wander around the other rooms of the house and run into many friends and acquaintances; catch up with their news and have some laughs (as well as some beer, whiskey, and a truly historic egg nog! All in moderation, of course.). By the end of it, as I was driving home and the snow was starting to flurry, I had really gotten the old Christmas spirit. It doesn’t get much better.
I've got to start taking my camera with me more often so I can share pictures of this stuff with all of you.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Five Rules for Happiness
I have a printed card stuck in the mirror in the room where I meditate in the morning. The mirror is over the shelf onto which I dump everything out of my pockets at the end of the day. So, even mornings when I don't find the time to meditate (which seems like every morning lately -- must do something about that), I see the card and read what's printed on it. I also that I think about what's on the card frequently even when I'm not looking at it. Maybe it's become kind of a mantra for me. Certainly it's become a touchstone.
I can't take credit for this. The card was given to me by John Grimaud, who helped me a lot in getting through a very rough patch a while back. He said something like "Follow these rules and you'll always be happy." I'm was pretty skeptical at the time, but on reflection, it has seemed to work pretty well for me. See what you think.
Grimaud's Five Rules for Happiness:
1. Don't sweat the small stuff.
2. It's all small stuff.
3. You can't always get what you want. (Jagger's theorem)
4. Nothing lasts forever.
5. Nothing is as bad as it seems. (Dad's Rule)
I can't take credit for this. The card was given to me by John Grimaud, who helped me a lot in getting through a very rough patch a while back. He said something like "Follow these rules and you'll always be happy." I'm was pretty skeptical at the time, but on reflection, it has seemed to work pretty well for me. See what you think.
Grimaud's Five Rules for Happiness:
1. Don't sweat the small stuff.
2. It's all small stuff.
3. You can't always get what you want. (Jagger's theorem)
4. Nothing lasts forever.
5. Nothing is as bad as it seems. (Dad's Rule)
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Thoughts The Weekend Brought With It
A couple of days ago, I was exchanging emails with a good friend. During the course of the conversation, she mentioned that she had always wanted to put together a cabaret act and perform it here in town, but that other commitments like raising two kids and a husband, having a day job, and the rest of life have got in the way of doing the work on the act. Now, she's a terrific actress and singer. And a cabaret act would seem like a natural thing for her to do.
I wrote back saying so and offered to help out with putting it together or filling a director's role when it was ready for that, or whatever. I even suggested that a group I work with has been talking about a fundraiser and maybe this would be a good opportunity for her to perform an evening of cabaret to raise money for them. Mostly, as soon as I read that she'd been wanting to do it, I wanted to hear it. Suddenly, though, with the prospect of actually having a place to do the act and some help pulling it together -- as vague as the deadline(sometime) and the offer of help (whatever) were -- this possibility became frightening. And I can see what she means. This is something important to her that she's been nurturing the idea of for a long time.
When you're acting, there's that sort of invisible fourth wall that the playwright builds between you and the audience. No matter how raw or exposed you may seem to be on the stage, there's always that thin, invisible barrier to hide behind. But in a cabaret act, you're right there with the audience mere feet away. And you have to relate directly to them. And what if they don't like you or the songs aren't any good, or the voice isn't as good as you thought it was, or... or... or...
Yesterday afternoon, I went to hear Ellis Paul at a club here in St. Louis. Bear with me, here. I'm actually going to make a point soon.
Anyway, I went to hear Ellis Paul at a club here in St. Louis. Now I'm not much of a fan of singer-songwriters, preferring my folk music to be played on fiddles and banjos and to be a hundred or so years old. But Ellis is one of those few singer-songwriters that I really enjoy. I do my best to catch him whenever he plays here in St. Louis. His songs are generally uplifting, even when they're about loss or sorrow. I go to his live shows and always come away feeling better. There's just such an exuberance and energy that fills the stage when Ellis is up there. For me, anyway, one of his concerts is a way for me to get my reserves of happiness and hopefulness refilled.
So, I'm sitting there watching this guy up on the stage smiling and singing at the top of his voice, strumming the guitar like this may be his last chance to do it and he wants to enjoy every chord. And a light bulb clicked on in my head for me. If people walked around with thought ballons over ther heads like in the comics, right then, mine would have had a light bulb in it with wiggly lines radiating from it to show how bright it was. I mean, this was one of those real "light bulb: moments you hear about. I thought,
"This is what it's about. This guy is standing up on a stage and singing about such personal stuff with such a positive attitiude. He's in front of a whole crowd of people he doesn't know, doing something that could be hugely embarrassing. But he's fearless. He's having the time of his life."
And you know what? So were all the people in the audience.
And I knew at that moment that there really aren't any excuses. We're all meant to be having a good time and doing what we love; trying things we usually only think about. Sure, stuff gets in the way. Yeah, we might not be good at it the first time out. We probably will have to put some sweat and time into it. But when you get there.... when it finally happens for you... Wow.
Doesn't matter if it's learning the fiddle in middle age, or playing in a really good old-time dance band. Or acting, or writing poetry or that novel you know you have in you. If it's painting still lifes or pictures of tree tops and clouds in the sky, starting a garden in the back yard, losing weight, making new friends, learning to tap dance or to do magic tricks. And keeping at it until it feels right and you know you're good at it.
Or putting that cabaret act together, rehearsing it, and taking it out in front of people.
Whatever it is that you know you need to do to let you be the happiest person in the room, it's time right now to do it. As one of Ellis Paul's songs goes,
I wrote back saying so and offered to help out with putting it together or filling a director's role when it was ready for that, or whatever. I even suggested that a group I work with has been talking about a fundraiser and maybe this would be a good opportunity for her to perform an evening of cabaret to raise money for them. Mostly, as soon as I read that she'd been wanting to do it, I wanted to hear it. Suddenly, though, with the prospect of actually having a place to do the act and some help pulling it together -- as vague as the deadline(sometime) and the offer of help (whatever) were -- this possibility became frightening. And I can see what she means. This is something important to her that she's been nurturing the idea of for a long time.
When you're acting, there's that sort of invisible fourth wall that the playwright builds between you and the audience. No matter how raw or exposed you may seem to be on the stage, there's always that thin, invisible barrier to hide behind. But in a cabaret act, you're right there with the audience mere feet away. And you have to relate directly to them. And what if they don't like you or the songs aren't any good, or the voice isn't as good as you thought it was, or... or... or...
Yesterday afternoon, I went to hear Ellis Paul at a club here in St. Louis. Bear with me, here. I'm actually going to make a point soon.
Anyway, I went to hear Ellis Paul at a club here in St. Louis. Now I'm not much of a fan of singer-songwriters, preferring my folk music to be played on fiddles and banjos and to be a hundred or so years old. But Ellis is one of those few singer-songwriters that I really enjoy. I do my best to catch him whenever he plays here in St. Louis. His songs are generally uplifting, even when they're about loss or sorrow. I go to his live shows and always come away feeling better. There's just such an exuberance and energy that fills the stage when Ellis is up there. For me, anyway, one of his concerts is a way for me to get my reserves of happiness and hopefulness refilled.
So, I'm sitting there watching this guy up on the stage smiling and singing at the top of his voice, strumming the guitar like this may be his last chance to do it and he wants to enjoy every chord. And a light bulb clicked on in my head for me. If people walked around with thought ballons over ther heads like in the comics, right then, mine would have had a light bulb in it with wiggly lines radiating from it to show how bright it was. I mean, this was one of those real "light bulb: moments you hear about. I thought,
"This is what it's about. This guy is standing up on a stage and singing about such personal stuff with such a positive attitiude. He's in front of a whole crowd of people he doesn't know, doing something that could be hugely embarrassing. But he's fearless. He's having the time of his life."
And you know what? So were all the people in the audience.
And I knew at that moment that there really aren't any excuses. We're all meant to be having a good time and doing what we love; trying things we usually only think about. Sure, stuff gets in the way. Yeah, we might not be good at it the first time out. We probably will have to put some sweat and time into it. But when you get there.... when it finally happens for you... Wow.
Doesn't matter if it's learning the fiddle in middle age, or playing in a really good old-time dance band. Or acting, or writing poetry or that novel you know you have in you. If it's painting still lifes or pictures of tree tops and clouds in the sky, starting a garden in the back yard, losing weight, making new friends, learning to tap dance or to do magic tricks. And keeping at it until it feels right and you know you're good at it.
Or putting that cabaret act together, rehearsing it, and taking it out in front of people.
Whatever it is that you know you need to do to let you be the happiest person in the room, it's time right now to do it. As one of Ellis Paul's songs goes,
"You gotta get going,
Hey, the world ain't slowin' down
For no one."
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