singing Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Adding to the agenda

No Kings

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.

Thanksgiving time

Naps!

It’s Thanksgiving time. What am I thankful for? Gertrude Stein once said, “Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.” It’s the usual stuff. I’m thankful for my wife, daughter, church community, and old friends (I mean OLD, for 50 or 65 years, some of them). Also, I’m thankful for reasonably good health, my knee notwithstanding, having Social Security, health insurance, and Medicare so far, and a primary care physician who hasn’t retired yet.

I was thinking about what I wanted to write for the holiday, and then I napped. I’m thankful for naps. Naps are wonderful.

After church earlier in the month, I told one of the choir members about a friend I used to work with at the NY SBDC library. They had been there longer than I had. I asked them how to use a particular database, and they said, “Oh, that’s easy.” It irritated me because, having been friends before I worked there, I felt she was dismissing the value of her skills and wisdom.

After I woke up from my nap, I realized that I needed to be thankful for the things about myself that I tend to take for granted. Yes, it feels slightly boastful.

Where’s the grape juice?

I’m thankful that I get to serve communion fairly regularly at church. I like it; it’s a low-stress gig that involves setting up before the church, serving during the service, and cleaning up afterward.

A person recently was preparing communion and had not done it very often, and they specifically asked me how to do the gig. I HOPE I did not say, “Oh, it’s easy.” Instead, I showed them how the table should be set up, where the bread and juice were, and whatnot. I felt thankful that I could be useful.

I’ve spent a lot of time, particularly this calendar year, fretting about all the things I’m unable to accomplish in the world without embracing the fact that I know how to do some stuff, and it’s not nothing.

I’m thankful that how I sing, apparently with great enthusiasm, gives some folks joy. According to total strangers who were at our church recently for a baptism, I sing with gusto, whoever gusto is. It used to embarrass me vaguely, but now I’m trying to embrace it.

So basically, I’m thankful that I can be a little bit kinder to myself and have value to others in little ways and maybe in a manner that I don’t even know. If that’s a weird Thanksgiving message, then so be it.

NFL

Oh, and since it’s Thanksgiving, which is my official day to begin caring about the National Football League, I am happy to note that my rooting interests for the Super Bowl, the Buffalo Bills (9-2), and the Detroit Lions (10-1), are doing quite well. However, Kelly’s point on the topic is valid; I don’t want either to lose. BTW, Buffalo is much closer to Detroit than New York City.

December Questions for Sunday Stealing

french revolution

Here are some December Questions for Sunday Stealing.

1. My plans for December

I’m happy that the church choir is singing in person again regularly. We did sing in late 2021, but it was sporadic; half the choir sang one week, then just the soloists, then the other half, then the soloists. It wasn’t easy to get a musical rhythm. We all did sing on Christmas Eve.

2. How energized I feel at this point in the year.

It’s cold, and it’s darker for longer. But it’s not awful.

3. The best things about the holiday season

Music. Singing it, listening to it. BTW, my bud fillyjonk linked to a great piece by the Monkees!

4. Something that changed my perspective on life

The whole year has been a series of Plan B moments.

5. What I seem to get the most comments about

Evidently, I am a very expressive singer. Even strangers have commented on it.

6. The changes I’ve made to my style

I have no style. Or, more correctly, I don’t care about style to be concerned enough to change it.

7. What gets in the way of my success

Overcommitting

The fourth estate

8. News sources I trust the most

I look at LOTS of sources, even ones I don’t particularly trust. It helps inform me how people with different, even, IMO bizarre, thoughts about the world get their ideas.

9. Fictional characters that would easily fit into my life

I thought that certain iterations of Peter Parker, the seeming schlub who is unappreciated, would be a friend.

10. My relationship with spirituality

You’re almost certainly wrong if you think you’ve got it figured out. Mainline churches have liturgies that repeat every three years because one should be taking something new from the stories.

Of course, in my Bible group, we often comment that we’d like to see our pastors tackle some particularly odious passages. We’re in the middle of 2 Kings, some ferocious stuff.

11. How I feel when I’m being retrospective

Depends. Sometimes it is with great appreciation that I have good friends, some of whom I’ve known for half a century or longer. Other times it is with regret that I didn’t deal with someone better.

Artificial intelligence

12. My thoughts on AI technology

I went to DeepAI and used the prompt, “The french revolution was good.” Here’s the result:

the french revolution was good, I wish I could have played," says the former striker. "You don't go into Spain believing you can go there and play there but I think maybe that was the case.

"The pressure is intense at training because you've got to do everything you can to be successful, because in Spain these days a lot of people do that work and do everything you can to get yourself in top form. So I don't know why we haven't worked hard for some time but definitely the feeling has changed for me.

"The pressure on you in training is intense. I have to go out there and play every minute of any game and try to stay mentally sharp. It's nice to be back at home and feel calm in training or off in the dressing room after all these years."

I find some AI art interesting, but other pieces are rather creepy.

This gets into a whole series of philosophical questions about intellectual property. Plus, what is… knowledge/art/writing/creativity?

13. The odd/weird things I do when nobody else is around

I don’t think it’s all that odd. I talk to myself, especially when I’m writing. It helps me think.

14. What do I do when I can’t sleep

Get up and play Wordle. Read newspapers.

15. The winter/holiday season tasks I enjoy

I like buying presents for people who are easy to buy for, such as my daughter. Conversely, my wife is terrible to shop for because she doesn’t hint well.

Albany County is in COVID yellow

The power of the Session

After months in COVID red, or orange, as the CDC seemingly now designates it, Albany County was designated in COVID yellow as of November 3. Other counties in the metro area, such as Schenectady and Saratoga, have been yellow or green during most of that time.

It was frustrating. “As of November 3, 2022, there are 78 (2.0%) counties, districts, or territories with a high COVID-19 Community Level, 614 (20.1%) counties with a medium Community Level, and 2,525 (77.5%) counties with a low Community Level.” So MOST of the country is in green. There are a few patches of red in eastern Montana and western North Dakota and a few other clusters. Why have my county’s numbers run so stubbornly high?

As we were rehearsing in the choir masked one week ago, one of the basses got a message on his phone indicating the change. There was an audible cheer as about 75% of the masks immediately came off. Fist-pumping may have taken place. While singing with masks is better than not singing at all, it still rather sucks.

The Session did it

My church’s Session met to update the orange/red COVID guidelines just the day before. As my wife is in the Session, I can attest that the online meeting was LONG. Among the new policies, choir members and soloists may take a COVID test on Sunday morning and, if they are negative, remove their masks for the service. The choir was THRILLED by this.

“In addition, Session voted to allow masked congregational singing in the orange/red level.” This is great because the church sounds dispirited without it.

The fact that the FPC Session hashed out these new guidelines with the huge assistance of an ad hoc practically ASSURED that Albany County would finally move to yellow. It’s the power of Presbyterians operating in good and decent order.

So if/when Albany sinks back to orange/red – which COULD happen again as early as 8 pm tonight – the church will have a new, somewhat less restrictive procedure. I still have a few COVID tests gathering dust.

Maladies Melodies Allergies

my second COVID booster

There’s a Paul Simon song that starts Maladies Melodies Allergies. I so relate.

My allergies to pollen and the like have been quite severe this season, the worst in years. They were so awful that every time my head hit the pillow at night, within five minutes, I would start to cough uncontrollably. Even trying to sleep with my head propped up wasn’t sufficient. One night I woke up four times, after about 90 minutes each time.

Finally, I started taking the generic version of Nyquil just so I could sleep for six hours in a row. It has a cough suppressant and a nasal decongestant. Likewise, my daughter suffers from seasonal allergies which affect her sleep. She actually stayed home from school a day last week, from sheer fatigue.

I decided that we should each take a home COVID test. As I expected, they were both negative. The other motivation for mine was that I was scheduled to get a second COVID booster. I understand that getting the booster while you actually have COVID is contraindicated. Incidentally, I had no bad reaction, as usual, as long as I didn’t lean my arm on the injection site.

We now have several COVID test kits, some from that time not so long ago when they were a bit difficult to come by. Now they are practically ubiquitous, which is good since I’ve used them a total of thrice in a week. The CDC guidelines in Albany County changed this past Thursday from GREEN to YELLOW, which means masking is no longer optional in church. So before Maundy Thursday and Easter Sunday, I took a rapid test.

Expiry

I was curious about the fact that all the tests we currently own have an expiration date of June 30. This article from Health News Hub states: “The Food and Drug Administration countered Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance by extending their expiration dates. The FDA says it’s OK to add three months to any expiration date printed on a test kit box. (The BinaxNow test kit received FDA approval for an extended shelf life after tests showed the kit components were effective for up to 15 months.)

“Beyond the extended expiration date, results are not reliable.”

Also: “Most manufacturers of at-home tests recommend storing the kits between 35 degrees and 86 degrees. The greatest threat now is delivery during the cold winter months. A test kit left for a day or more in your mailbox at frigid temperatures could freeze the liquid reagent inside a cartridge that comes with the kit, invalidating the test results.”

So, if you see me going into a coughing jag, it’s unlikely that I am spreading COVID, only hay fever. It’s because I’m going to be getting used to sticking a cotton swab up my nose for a while.

Oh, yeah, that Paul Simon song.