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 ...
October 21, 2013 - 12:28 p.m.
My live is going to be quite crowded with the WFUV pledge drive coming up. Today I have class to 2:15 then therapy at Union Square at 3:30. The second I finish Jim is going to pick me up and we are going to drive to the Bronx for a WFUV supervisor's dinner. Then I head back to the City to see Rebecca Loebe and Raina Rose at Rockwood at 10 PM. I might wimp out and miss that. I don't want to but I have to get up at 4 AM on Thursday so I should start moving my internal clock in that direction.
Yesterday I didn't do any of the things I had to do but went out last night to see Julie Gold at Anna Dagmar's house. There is pretty much no chance that I'm going to miss seeing one of my favorite piano-player singer friends at the home of another. I was the very first person to sign up for it. Anna is not just a great performer but a great house concert host. She knows how to do it. I got there a bit early but that was no problem. I went right up and there were a few others there before me. She gave plenty of time before the music for socializing. That's part of what makes house concerts special. I knew a lot of people there, perhaps most of them. There were plenty of chicks with dip and I've known Julie forever. But what makes a party work is meeting new people and the person I spent the most time talking to before the show was Jeremy, the man that rebuilt Anna's Steinway piano. It's the kind of job that you know exists but do you know anyone who does anything like that? Skilled craftsman are pretty much always worth talking to. Till modern times they are the most common type of what Terry Pratchett calls a magical person; someone that knows things other than the things that everybody knows. I got his life history, how he trained, and discovered that he lives near where I used to in Briarwood. I knew he was my people. I even remember his name. That's the miracle.
Here's an attempted run down of my friends who were there. I'll put in the usual disclaimer of that if I leave you out it isn't because I don't love you it's because I don't have a brain.
Anna and John, well duh, it was their house, Meg, Carolann, Allisons S and T, Joe husband of T, David, and Lisa. Notice how I finished with David and Lisa as a nod to Keir Dullea and Janet Margolin. I know I'm leaving people out. Oh well.
Anna was the opening act. She only did one song but it was a good one. That's another Well duh. I sat with Julie during Anna's song and with Anna the rest of the time. Why? Because I grabbed a seat down front.
I have seen Julie a zillion times over the years and never tire of them. Her shows are unlike anyone else's. She always tears down the barrier between the performer and the audience. Her most famous songs, are sentimental; she wrote "From a Distance." But that's not the feel of the shows at all. At least that's not all there is to the show. She's a funny, weird, sometimes naughty brilliant woman talking to her friends. I asked her about that. When I first saw her she wasn't funny. I wanted to know where that came from. I wasn't sure if it was from gaining confidence and being more herself or maybe osmosis from Christine Lavin. I know Julie through Chris. But no, I was totally wrong. It's about insecurity and thinking that she has to do something to entertain people. In any event it works. To me it's all about being exactly the same on the stage as off. She can pull off "From a Distance" because she believes it. And fitting in with what I wrote about last time she knows how lucky she is. Fate smiled on her and it didn't have to. That's a lesson too many successful people never learn. Think every Mitt Romney supporter.
Julie is not a polished singer and that ends up being part of her charm. She is a brilliant songwriter, she can always find exactly the right word, launching the lightning, not the lightning bug. When she is funny you laugh out loud. Who else is going to write a song about Roscoe the bed bug sniffing dog? Who else can be silly, a liberal, and unapologetically patriotic? I always want to take her home with me.
I of course couldn't make a quick getaway. I feel guilty because I didn't let Allison and Joe make one either. I'm sorry but they shouldn't be so interesting if they want me to stop talking to them.
That's also a sing of a great house concert. People didn't run away. I wasn't the only one staying to socialize. I actually did get out of there before a lot of my friends. I had one of the longer trip homes. It was nice that I could take just one train home.
When I got home I remembered to do something I NEVER remember to do. I made myself a peanut butter sandwich and put it in a sandwich bag and brought it with me. That's why I have time to finish this. I don't have to run to grab lunch before class. I have to squeeze in time to buy bread later. I used it all up. I need milk too. I might have to end up skipping Raina and Rebecca. That will be sad.
OK I have to post this and enter quiz grades before class.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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Horvendile October 21, 2013
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