Somehow, I have a pretty full life. I’m generally resistant to adding to the agenda. But sometimes, I capitulate.
ITEM: Friday/Saturday, March 27/28. Baby sister Marcia calls on Friday to suggest that we should send flowers to sister Leslie, who is singing at a show in the San Diego area Saturday night. This sounded like a good idea.
But to whom shall I send them? They could show up before she arrives. I called her accompanist, and he suggested calling the club. But I reached the club owner, who was in the midst of the evening rush (5:30 pm PDT). So I opted for sending them to the accompanist.
However, on Saturday, the guy running the show called me at c. 11:30 a.m. PDT and said I could send them to him. That was nice.
I did the I-800-FLOWERS thing. I wrote: “Congratulations on the new era in your career.” While she still sings in church choirs and takes a solo here and there, this would be a more substantial presentation with a setlist, like when she sang in Binghamton in the 1970s or Puerto Rico in the 1980s.
Leslie brought the flowers to her church the next day, which pleased me.
Protest
ITEM: Saturday, March 28 – Some folks at my church were meeting to make signs for the No Kings rally at the NYS Capitol in Albany. I didn’t have the bandwidth for that. Also, I’m a lousy signmaker. I mean, notoriously bad. But I would, and did attend the rally. I’m the guy in the orange hat, which looks red in the WRGB screenshot.
The best speech was by Lieutenant Governor Anthony Delgado, who knew how to preach love.
Something from Bethlehem Invisible, I’m having a REALLY difficult time discerning.
“The most dangerous thing that could happen after [No Kings Day rallies] is that millions of people go home feeling like they did their part… and wait to see what happens next… That’s how the people counting on your exhaustion win. The rally is the IGNITION. NOT THE ENGINE. The engine is what you build AFTER YOU LEAVE.
“Pick one target and stay on it. Not twenty issues. ONE. One representative. One school board seat. One ballot measure. One race where the margin is close enough that your effort changes the outcome.
This is REALLY difficult for me. There’s voter registration, Walkable Albany, the library budget, and the library board candidates (three slots), just to name a few. Then there’s the next item:
ITEM: Monday, March 30. I attended a presentation of the local League of Women Voters about Ranked Choice Voting, which was very compelling. I signed a petition to try to bring the process to the city of Albany.
Stories
ITEM: Tuesday, March 31. 518 Stories hosted an Open Mic Stories and Spoken Word Poetry event at the nearby Madison Theater. There was a decent-sized crowd, including at least three people I knew, two from church. I told a story in five minutes about my Civil War ancestor, James Archer. They’re doing it again on Tuesday, April 28. Will I do it again? Peut-être.
ITEM: Of course, there were church services on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, PLUS rehearsals after each.
ITEM: The Times Union ran a story, Want to be in ‘The Gilded Age’? Now’s your chance, Capital Region residents. Because the series was actually filmed in front of our church for the Season 2 premiere, which was cool, I gave it serious consideration.
“New York City-based talent agency Grant Wilfley Casting is seeking Black actors ages 18 and older to portray ‘event guests,’ according to a casting call posted on casting platform Backstage.” Oh, “Tentative Shoot Dates: June 9-10 in Troy, NY; fitting required prior to work.”
I’m leaning against it, but I could change my mind.
ITEM: I had to watch the launch of the Artemis II rocket on Wednesday, April 1. Should one go into space on April Fools Day? I know some folks are not interested. See Dan Lewis, who hints of “more macro societal concerns” needing to have priority, among other issues. For me, maybe it’s, in part, having a woman, a black man, and a Canadian (!) being able to see the dark side of the moon; they are an affable quartet, even though the toilet’s not always working.
ITEM: I never see that I need a haircut. It never gets that long. Conversely, my beard can become a scruffy mess. During COVID, my wife would cut it; getting a beard trim while wearing a mask is a no-go. I needed to go to the barbershop on Good Friday.
Here’s my dad’s cousin Ruth (R) with two of her children. My sister Leslie and I saw her in October 2022 at the church we all grew up in, Trinity AME Zion in Binghamton, NY. She pointed out a room that used to be a Sunday school classroom where my paternal grandmother Agatha Green used to teach Sunday school to me and a bunch of other kids. It is now a room of noted members of the Trinity family, and she asked us for large photos of our parents for the wall, which we still need to get for her.
In July 2024, sister Leslie was in Binghamton for her high school reunion. She went to see Cousin Ruth. Ruth gave her a whole bunch of information about the genealogy of the Walker clan. Ruth’s father was Earl; Earl was my paternal grandmother’s brother, so Ruth was my father’s first cousin. She was over a dozen years younger than him, so she didn’t know all the early stories about my father, but she knew him like a big brother.