Life goes on full of its comings and goings. A week ago Lizzy and Josh came into town for the weekend. Saturday they were at a party on Long Island, then they spent Sunday with us. We did a barbecue and had a fun time hanging out outside. Monday I went to the Bronx Zoo with Lizzy and Josh. That was a fun time too. It’s a big zoo and it took most of the day, but we saw pretty much everything. Lots of birds and reptiles. Did the monorail and the elephant was out to see. Lots of other big mammals: giraffes, rhinos, bears, tigers, lions, gorillas, gazelle and zebras to name a few. Afterwards I took them to the airport. Their flight was delayed, which worked out well because we had extra time at the zoo. However, traffic was terrible because it was rush hour, and the computer routed us on a strange route thru street-level Queens.
This last weekend Jeannie and went up to Westerlo to visit Kathleen and the kids. On Friday, her friend and neighbor John, who is the drummer for the band Martin was in, the East Berne Band, had a backyard party barbecue jam session, and invited me to sit in. He sent me a setlist so I spent a few days listening and learning the songs. Some were pretty basic bar band songs, while other were interesting and quirky. The sound was centered on groups like The Band, The J. Giles Band, and the E. Street Band with lots of extra keyboards and horns. In fact when I got there, there was another keyboard player and another horn player sitting in, so it was a big sound. Off to one side of the stage we a row of people in golf carts, who I dubbed the rolling VIP section.
The bass player Dan and drummer John are co-lead singers, and alot of the songs feature harmonies. Dan is good at directing the group from the middle of the stage, and keeping everything from devolving into chaos. So it was a good jam and a good party, and it was great to catch up with those guys. Only problem was midway thru the second set the skies turned dark and the threat of a downpour was imminent. So we had to pack up in hurry. Funny thing, but by the time we were packed up the rain was lightening up, but there was no way we were going to set everything up again. Ah well, it was a good time even if it was cut a little bit short.
That evening we hung out and played videogames with Charlie and Matthew and Abbie. Charlie amazed me by speed running sixteen stars in Super Mario 46 in about twenty minutes. He did all kinds of circuitous shortcuts and side paths and huge wall jumps, and all kinds of leaps and jumps, even plummeting from great heights land on a hidden ledge, and made it all look super easy.
The next day there was a Renaissance Faire in one of the nearby towns so we went to check that out. There was a bunch of booths selling things like jewelry, chainmail, and metal goods, boots, corsets and leather goods, wooden swords, maces and battle axes, foam swords, maces and battle axes, and even real swords, maces and battle axes. The real attraction was the cosplayers. There were tons of them, and most were very good. They ranged from authentic-ish to totally fantastic. I had no idea elves and fairies were such an important part of the Renaissance! It was a nice summer day for walking around. My only criticism is they should have had more performers. Apparently there was a joust but we missed it cuz we were having lunch, and the next show wasn’t for another three hours. Ah well.
Sunday Jeannie and I got back on the local bike path. I did twenty-two miles in a hundred minutes. Jeannie did fifteen miles, a season’s best for both of us. Tomorrow I will pass six hundred total miles for the year, on track to make twelve hundred by the end of the year.
In my recording project, I’ve laid down the lead and harmony vocals for A Sailor’s Saga, and am in the process of mixing them. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m using a touch of Auto-Tune to make them sound a bit more in tune.
