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First off, I have to say again how lovely today has turned out to be. I have an even greater appreciation because I spent most of it indoors at the Orchard.
The demands of family life forced a colleague to offer a shift - and before I realized it I was missing all Memorial Day action.
This was the first time in over 23 years that I have missed some kind of participation in or witnessing of such a civic event.
I love a good parade - have done my share as a director and as a performer. This wasn't an occasion for sadness - it was an occasion for reflection.
RIght now it's very windy; bright sunshine is streams from a cloudless sky. I'm at the NorthStar for tango night, taking some time to get caught up. A lot of new opportunities have descended on me.
The last week or so has seen an increase in my time at the Orchard - part of this is going in to teach more lessons - part of this is taking up shifts to help my friends out. I've finished a new tango for a friend's birthday - it seems like the kind of piece I've been trying to write for quite some time now. There may be some adumbrations in earlier work but this, this piece seems to work more easily, its emotional expression is more facile, than any other piece I've written before.
Friday night it was little more than a shattered phrase over a chord progression and a shiftefelli rhythm. I had tried to force it to work as a bellydance/tango and had no luck.
But there were four good measures in it.
Sometimes that's all you come up with despite a long tonne of work. I've learned that you take what you're given and you're grateful for it. Four measures of good music out of a mound of crap is still four measures you can use.
With that done - or more precisely, having acknowledged my meagre victory - I went to work, ending my day at the Gazebo at the Eastern Promenade overlooking Casco Bay.
There was a wedding waiting for us - I had been afraid that some kind of legally-registered event would ace us out of the Gazebo and it happened.
I admit to feeling sunk and morose, taking it all personally. I hate thinking that I failed to be organized or cognizant of all the possibilities. It's one thing to make a mistake - it's quite another to not go as far as you could in organizing an event of some kind.
Actually the wedding seemed quite nice, if a little mundane for my taste. It was a bit of a shock to see a cake leave the back of a car and make its way to the Gazebo. The "reception" lasted only 30 minutes of so - we were dancing shortly after sunset.
The evening was lovely, just cool enough. Quite a crowd came along, including Javier Rochwanger and his girlfriend Chieko.
It was a lot of good dancing.
I left it in the hands of others - Saturday was a work day, both at the Orchard and my piano. More writing on the the new piece. Took the thing out back of the toolshed and put it out of my misery. But those four measures - oh, those four measures were fecund seeds.
Sunday I got off. Did a good bike ride around the city. The "season" is on for fair - even though I couldn't (and still really can't) get my head around the idea that Memorial Day was arriving. Just seemed only days ago we were watching the last snowpiles fade into the gutters of the streets.
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There were ferry boats crammed full of people heading out to the islands - along with their cars. The bars were all full at 11 in the morning - breakfast at the local Hilton - my one indulgence - was accompanied by a pasty-skinned, pale crowd in shorts, Hawaiian shirts and long-lensed cameras.
I'd forgotten how scary they could be as well.
Along the train right-of-way I found a single blossom overlooking the entrance to Back Cove, by the ruins of the old Grand Trunk bridge. It was odd to see only one white flower blooming so strongly against a wall of rich green, but there it was.
A couple of boats rotated in the estuary. Lobster and sail - work and pleasure, both in the same place.
I felt a kindred energy on account of both writing and work at the Orchard. There are times when it's hard to tell the two apart.
I like that. It's a new place to be - the warmth of the day, the challenges of work - all of them seem more real, more worthwhile.
We went to go see Star Trek at the drive-in last night. It was fun to sit in lawn chairs watching on a slightly-stained screen and munching popcorn (I did a great job on the popcorn).
Finally today was busy. Covering a shift left me inside on the best parade day of the year.
Still, it was worth it. Not the least of which was seeing the Lindt Chocolate Bunny Car up close and personal. That was strange but worthwhile.
It's in the late afternoon - which would be stone dead dark on this date in December - that the shadows begin to reclaim the ground. They are etched strongly into the grass by the strength of the light. The trees are whipped in the wind.
Brian is teaching the lesson right now - only a couple of people are taking it - either the raw beginners are all out cooking hotdogs (likely) or with Valerie's tango class being finished all the folks with a modicum of training are waiting for the D.J. and the TML parts of the evening to arrive.
Either way it's a nice way to end a day full of thought and incident.
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