I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
September 25, 2014 - 12:00 p.m.
I know what I'm writing about today, yesterday I went on an expedition. I trekked up to high arctic, Hudson NY, to see the first Crooked Still show in three years. Kevin and I somehow managed to not hear about the show until Saturday when we saw Aoife so we couldn't get reservations for a table but we didn't let that stop us. We've stood for Crooked Still before. I took the 
to the Upper East Side where he lives and he then drove us to Club Helsinki. the subway took an hour and thanks to traffic the drive was two and a half hours but it was well worth it.
We got there early enough to snag one of the few seats that was not at a table. Thanks to Jessica we knew about them. She came down from Troy for the show. When we got there we said hi to her and then she pointed out where the seats were. They were up front and off to the side. We were even able to order dinner there. We just had to eat with plates on our laps. I had a burger and peanut butter pie!
Jess sat with us till her food arrived. Ours actually arrived first. I don't know what that's about. I am pretty sure that Jess and Kevin are the two biggest Crooked Still fans of my friends. Never could understand why more of my friends weren't devoted to them.
When Crooked Still went on hiatus I made them each swear to me that they'd get back together. It was supposed to be one year off, it grew into three. But they played so now their oath is fulfilled. And there's been advantages to the hiatus. Brittany, Aoife, and Greg, have given some of the greatest shows I've seen the last three years. So I've seen more great shows than if they hadn't gone on hiatus. But I haven't seen Corey or Tristan and I haven't seen them all together and them all together is something special.
From the first notes I was in heaven. You'd have never guessed that they haven't played together for three years and had just one day of practice. There's an advantage to being a not just a great natural musician but a highly trained great natural musician.
I wish I could describe they music better. People who don't know bluegrass would say bluegrass as Greg plays banjo. They certainly incorporate elements of it especially them each taking turns with the lead on the same song. But it isn't bluegrass. There are elements of what Brittany does in her projects of a classical chamber ensemble playing folk melodies, but it's not that either. There's instrumental and vocal virtuosity. There's energy. There's fun and silliness. I know the genre, greatness.
After the show I of course talked to the band. By pure chance I talked to them in the order of how much I've talked to them since the hiatus. First I ran into Brittany. I think I've talked to her the most. It could be Aoife, so of course I saw her second. Then Greg who I've seen only a few times. Finally it was Corey then Tristan who I haven't talked to in three years. This time I made them promise to play in New York. I want to see their current projects. I also talked to Jess and we decided to meet at Helsinki when band we both love plays there.
Then came the drive down back to New York. Kevin was nice enough to drive me all the way back to Brooklyn! So I got home at no that unreasonable hour, around 12:30.
Wow I had such a busy day and didn't write that much I'm not going to stretch this though or put in extraneous material.
I had outdoor plans today but it's raining. Let's give that a big boo. I'm working on calling an audible. I'll let you know how that goes.
OK time for something extraneous. When I was in college I took Music Appreciation. It�s the first time I heard Smetana's "The Moldau." I said to the teacher that the main theme is the same as "Hatikvah" the Israeli national anthem. He said "maybe it's similar." I sang that in the Hebrew school choir. I knew it was the same. Right now it's playing on WQXR and Elliott Forrest (I have to remember to just double every letter that can be doubled) introduced it by saying that "Hatikvah" is based on it. It still feels good to get the affirmation. Not that I hold a grudge.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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Horvendile September 25, 2014
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