Music

My piano’s big birthday

~ MaryG ~ 10 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?
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My piano is turning 50 this year and I still use it—maybe not daily, but weekly during the church year. I use it mostly to learn and practice my choir music.

Thanks to this prompt, I looked in my piano bench and discovered paperwork documenting that my parents purchased the piano on September 10, 1974. I was nine. They bought it so that my sister and I could take lessons. I took lessons for about six years with a couple of different teachers. I really liked playing the piano. I think I enjoyed it more after I stopped taking lessons. Then I could play what I wanted and nobody was nagging me to practice. I liked playing pop songs and singing along.

When my husband and I bought our first house, my parents gave me the piano because I was the only one who played it. They paid real piano movers to bring it to my house. My daughter took lessons on it.

When we moved to our second house, I had regular movers take the piano with the rest of our stuff and it got slightly damaged, but nothing major. My daughter took several more years of lessons on it after the move.

So here’s to you old friend. I promise to get you tuned for your birthday.

A well-used book of sheet music – nearly as old as the piano. I’m not sure who the “Do Not Remove” was directed at, but I guess it worked.

Outdoor swimming season

~ MaryG ~ 3 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite season of year? Why?
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This is an easy one for me. I’ve been at the outdoor pool every day that it’s been open since Memorial Day weekend. Starting this week, it’s open every day. The lifeguards are mostly high school students and the seniors are out for summer. Woo hoo!

That’s “my” lap lane in the foreground of the photo.

Related post:

Summer is our glory

Summer

The JCC Pool

Oases for all

It’s my birthday and I will not be going to the grocery store.

~ MaryG ~ 10 Comments
Daily writing prompt
If humans had taglines, what would yours be?
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That’s my tagline for today. This is the last birthday of my fifties. My sixtieth year—my sixth decade—starts now.

That’s right, GenX is gonna be hitting 60 in 2025. I found a couple of very 80s concert outfit pics from 1982ish. I saw both the Go-Go’s and the B-52’s live in Boston. I can’t remember which outfit was for which.

Unplugged

~ MaryG ~ 10 Comments
Daily writing prompt
How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?
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What does “unplugged” even mean anymore?

I read library books on Libby or Kindle, I swim with my Apple Watch, I meet with faraway friends on Zoom, I go for walks with my phone and AirPods. People even meditate online now.

If the power (and therefore the WiFi) gets knocked out by a storm, I just switch to cell phone data and charge my phone in the car.

If I’m truly unplugged (without electricity and cell coverage), something bad has happened. I’m scrambling for D batteries to put in my boombox, which also gets AM/FM radio. We’re bringing in firewood from the garage and heating water on a camp stove.

In the olden days, “unplugged” simply meant that a band did a set with acoustic instruments, instead of electric. The results were mixed. This one was cool: The Cure’s unplugged “Just Like Heaven” from 1991.

The love you leave behind when you’re done

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What is the legacy you want to leave behind?
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The question of legacy always reminds me of the song “Everything Possible” by Fred Small. I knew Fred when he was my minister in the early 2000s. I heard him perform this lullaby on several occasions and each time it made me cry.

It was especially meaningful during the battle for marriage equality in Massachusetts. We were the very first state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004 (20 years ago), but it was a protracted legal and legislative fight. Though it had been written in 1983, “Everything Possible” struck a chord during that time. In our church, Fred took a stand and stopped performing all marriages, until marriage was legal for same-sex couples too. The song became a highly emotional signature anthem for the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.

Recently, Fred tweaked the lyrics to be more inclusive of non-binary people and created a children’s book to accompany the song and further spread the message of love and acceptance.

The chorus is the most beautiful part.

You can be anybody you want to be,
You can love whomever you will
You can travel any country where your heart leads
And know that I will love you still
You can live by yourself, you can gather friends around,
You can choose one special one
And the only measure of your words and your deeds
Will be the love you leave behind when you’re done.

Here’s a beautiful live performance of the song by the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.

And here’s Fred himself singing the new version of “Everything Possible.”

I’ll definitely be buying this book for my granddaughter, when she’s old enough.

I’d like to be remembered for the love I leave behind when I’m done.

Rev. Fred Small having a chat with a group of children in my church around 2004—the year when marriage equality became law in Massachusetts

The music of Prince Edward Island (Canada)

~ MaryG ~ 11 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What was the last live performance you saw?
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There’s nothing quite like live music and theater performances.

The most recent concert I attended was Emma’s Revolution last weekend. I wrote about it on Sunday for a different prompt: A unique brand

A couple weeks before that, we saw an amazing fiddler from Prince Edward Island—Cynthia Macleod. She performed with Gordon Belsher— a PEI-based guitar player. They were fantastic together. So fun and SO good. It was impossible to sit still while they played.

Between songs, they told stories of PEI, especially the “kitchen parties.” On PEI, in the cold months (which is most of them), people gather in the warmest room of the house (the kitchen) and sing, play, stomp and clap til all hours.

One of the best parts of the night was seeing the joy on the faces of the two musicians. They were working really hard, but you could tell that they absolutely loved what they were doing. The audience could feel their joy and reflected it back to them. The energy created by the interplay was undeniable. That’s the magic of live performance.

Cynthia Macleod and Gordon Belsher
Believe it or not, they can play even faster than this, but you get the idea.

A unique brand

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments

What are your favorite brands and why?

I got to see Emma’s Revolution perform live last night. They’re a duo (Pat Humphries and Sandy O) with a long history of combining performance and activism for various causes particularly anti-war movements, climate and environment, and women’s and LGBTQ rights. Last night they were performing with two other women (about ten years older than them) who are also folk music icons: Claudia Schmidt and Sally Rogers. They all sounded great. It was a powerful quartet. Their songs are poignant, yet hopeful. We (the audience) learned that a documentary is currently in production about Emma’s Revolution. I can’t wait to see it. Pat Humphries is a tremendous songwriter and last night she played the song that “changed everything” for them—Swimming to the Other Side.

They sell their own merchandise at intermission and have no obvious corporate sponsorships or affiliations of any kind. They perform mostly in Unitarian churches, coffeehouses, and small nonprofit venues.

So, what’s their “brand”?

I don’t really know (just trying to bring it back to the prompt).

Clearly, they’re on the left politically.

They’re white and so is their audience (mostly), but they frequently reference icons of the civil rights movement like John Lewis and nonwhite immigration/refugee activists.

They’re acoustic (although they come with a lot of amps and sound equipment).

They’re good. Like really good. They’re total pros. They sing and play beautifully. They make it look easy, but it’s not. In addition to playing songs, folk musicians build a true rapport with their live audiences. They tell personal stories and anecdotes while they tune their instruments between songs. Again, not easy.

That’s all I got. Go see them on their next tour, if you can. Actually, you can see them tonight (from Schenectady) if you buy a ticket to the livestream.

Zeitgeist

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What topics do you like to discuss?
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I like talking about the zeitgeist—current events and popular culture (especially movies and TV). I also love talking about books with my book group and music with my choir peeps. I enjoy hearing about people’s travels (to a point). I’m not a big sports fan, but if a Boston team is in the playoffs, I like to know what’s happening with that. Go Celtics ☘️! (and Bruins, I guess)

And as anyone who follows my blog knows, I despise Trump with a deep, burning, crimson hatred I’ve never felt for any other public figure in my lifetime, so I’m always up for any conversation which involves trashing him.

Am I the only one with a sign like this on display in my kitchen for the past 8 years?

Billy Joel

~ MaryG ~ 9 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why?
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I have nothing for this prompt. I mean, I’d never want to visit a war zone, or someplace similarly unsafe. I admire all the brave journalists, like Clarissa Ward, who are willing to bring us news from dangerous places around the world.

Totally unrelated, did anyone happen to see Billy Joel performing his 100th concert in Madison Square Garden on CBS Sunday night? He still sounds great—both voice & piano. After telling the audience he didn’t know what was going to happen on the high notes in “Innocent Man” (and giving them permission to grimace), he nailed it. He’s 74 years old. At one point, Sting (fit and ageless at 69) waltzed out in a perfectly tailored shiny suit and they did a jazz number, backed by the amazing band. It had the feeling of a GenX “rat pack” reunion. The audience (me included) sang along with all the songs, including the new one, but especially with the last one.

Sing us a song, you’re the Piano Man.

Related post:

I’d rather laugh with the sinners