Got a text that V-safe check in will be ending June thirtieth. Signed up for that with my first COVID-19 vax and it’s made me feel like a tiny part of the solution for something.
PS – Yesterday I found out – oops zero hashtags have been arriving here at masto, so wtf is up with that? No doubt something like my theme got updated and overwrote the changes I’d made… ratz. hate that when that happens! Will now attempt to fix.
This morning I squeezed in a little time with a couple fountain pens. One, the Pineider Avatar TTT needed cleaning so I could move it from blue to red ink (Diamine Poppy Red) and the other, my Sailor Pro Gear – Stellar Black Hole needed a refill. All successful and writing well and minimal mess!
Then I put on “real” clothes after some reinforcing coffee and breakfast and picked up Mom for an afternoon concert at Troy Music Hall.
The program was “Music for Peace in a Time of War” with two pieces. The first was Franz Joseph Haydn’s Missa in Tempore Belli, which was written in 1796 in the period of war in Europe following the French revolution. I found it interesting to have parts of a mass in waltz time but it did make for very lyrical parts. After intermission the baritone soloist Philip Lima read a poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri, Peace is Fire! Then “Dona Nobis Pacem” by Ralph Vaughn Williams began.
Afterwards I looked up what had been mentioned, that Williams had served in World War One (in his 40’s!) and then was very affected when the signs of a second world war were apparent. This was written and first performed in 1936. It is written around three Walt Whitman poems, a mass, the bible and a political speech.
Both pieces were well received by the audience who gave a standing ovation at the end.
Afterwards Mom and I took ourselves to Dinosaur BBQ for a delicious dinner. Brought her home, came home myself to the delightful music of Paul Simon:
Peace like a river ran through the city
Long past the midnight curfew
We sat starry-eyed
Oh, we were satisfiedAnd I remember
Misinformation followed us like a plague
Nobody knew from time to time
If the plans were changed
Oh, if the plans were changedYou can beat us with wires
You can beat us with chains
You can run out your rules
But you know you can’t outrun the history train
I‘ve seen a glorious dayFour in the morning
I woke up from out of my dreams
Nowhere to go but back to sleep
But I’m reconciled
Oh, oh, oh, I’m gonna be up for a while
Oh, oh, oh, I’m gonna be up for a while
Oh, oh, oh, I’m gonna be up for a while
— Paul Simon
still a little damp and unflat, but it will get there:
But seriously folks – Paul Simon…
…One and one-half wandering JewsReturned to their natural coasts
To resume old acquaintances
And step out occasionally
And speculate who had been damaged the most
Easy time will determine if these consolations
Will be their reward
The arc of a love affairWaiting to be restored
You take two bodies and you twirl them into one
Their hearts and their bones
And they won’t come undone
Hearts and bones
Hearts and bones
Hearts and bones
Feeling a little jet-lagged but I only lost sleep because Mom and I got up to start watching the coronation. Coverage started at 5 am. It was worth doing from a historical-I-might-not-get-to=see-this-again point of view. By the time it was over, we were BOTH starving and I made a full English breakfast with all the goodies. Turned out pretty darn good if I do say so and mom scarfed it up too.
Dug up some stuff in the front yard – by the time I sat down to do a quick paint, I was pooped.
Did a little grocery shop for Mom and me basics and some festive breakfast things for Saturday’s doings. Came home and scuffled the ground a bit but no plants arrived that needed planting and the ground is really too wet to work if not needed.
Stole this from the flurry of May the fourth memes that went by today. Not only did I steal it, but I printed it out and found a little frame to put it in and put a nail in a wall near my bathroom mirror and hung it there!
Did a late night paint of a scene a couple miles from here.
Got the wet on wet one less wet but still pretty juicy. The other one is cool looking but nothing in it really speaks landscape to me. I am thinking it’s so dark it may need gouache to paint on top of it.
The quality of our lives depends not on whether or not we have conflicts, but on how we respond to them.
