Currently listening to…

Live: An Evening with the Mel Brown Quartet
Tony Pacini —Piano
Dan Balmer—Guitar
Ed Bennett—Bass
Mel Brown—Drums

This is a quartet that communicates well. I really enjoy the combination of standards and originals that work like standards. Tony has really matured as a player. He always had chops, but is beginning to understand the art of under-statement. Dan Balmer has always been one of my favorite players from his time with Tom Grant and stints as leader and side-man. Ed and Mel are solid as always.

On a side-note: One of the great thrills of my musical career was trading fours with the great Mel Brown. That was something I'll never forget.

Connectivity

I joined Facebook on Wednesday morning so I could view a friend's photo album. Since then I've been connecting with old friends at a break-neck pace. I feel I haven't even scratched the surface. Every time I scan through a friend's list of friends I see faces that I remember, and the flood-gates of memory open up.

I remember the conclusion of a night of high stakes pinochle when we discovered that Nathan had parked his car in the middle of a frozen puddle. After 20 minutes of pushing, Brian and I were about ready to give up on him and make him walk home (even if he froze to death on the way—what on earth was he thinking when he parked there?) when Nathan said cheerfully, "Hey dudes, maybe I should take the parking brake off."

Then there was the time that Krista and I hijacked Jane's stuffed animal and left a ransom note with the following message: "We have your whale and you’re not getting it back! Leave $1,000,000,000 dollars in unmarked bills in a suitcase in the bandstand in Central Park, (take a left by the ducks), and don’t look back. Don’t contact the police. We are too clever to be caught...so don’t even try...Yours sincerely, Alan and Krista"

In this process of discovery, I have made two major realizations:

1. I am so blessed to have had wonderful friends in every chapter of my life.
2. My mistake has been to close the previous chapters of my life too readily.

I have always enjoyed new challenges and new horizons. I just need to savour more richly the friendships that I have in each chapter and keep them alive until the last chapter (and have them correctly indexed in the appendix).

3:42

Trying to find that stillness
In the watches of the night,
The light evades; there is no peace.
Some things can't be found by searching,
They can only be found by waiting.
Be still and know.
Be still.

Advent is past (or is it?). Lent is almost upon us, but I'm still waiting for Advent. And as Inigo Montoya says, "I hate waiting."

Public health announcement

" 'Hullo, Clarence,' said Gally. 'How are you feeling now? I've been thinking about that cold of yours, and I'll tell you the stuff to give it. You want to take a deep breath and hold it as long as you possibly can. This traps the germs in your interior, and not being able to get fresh air, they suffocate. When you finally exhale, the little sons of guns come out as dead as doornails and all you have to do is buy a black tie and attend the funeral. But what profits it to get rid of germs,' he went on, a grave note creeping into his voice, 'when at any moment you are going to have a super-bacillus like Connie at your throat?'

'Eh?'

'That's what I came to tell you. I think you will be receiving a visit from Connie shortly.'

'Oh, dash it!'

' I know just how you feel.'

'She's back then?'

'With her hair in a braid. And they tell me she is considerably hotted up. I haven't seen her myself, but Beach, who had an extended interview with her, describes her as resembling a gorilla roaring and beating its chest and preparing to rip the stuffing out of the citizenry.' "

Pigs Have Wings
P.G. Wodehouse

So I had one of those short-lived bugs that comes on quick and departs just as fast. I felt miserable for 24 hours or so, but after a couple of days of gradual improvement I'm doing fine, (at least as fine as is possible under the circumstances). I still have the occasional sneeze of monumental proportions, but that is nothing to go by. That's really an inherited trait. My father could stop milk production in neighboring counties when he sneezed. Cows would just stop in their tracks at the sound of distant thunder and refuse to move until the storm had passed.

Currently reading…

"'Income tax!' cried Lord Emsworth, staring like a war horse at the sound of the bugle. Pigs and income tax were the only two subjects that really stirred him. 'Let me tell you—'

'I haven't time to listen,' said Lady Constance, and swept from the room. These chats with the head of the family nearly always ended in her sweeping from the room. Unless, of course, they took place out of doors, when she merely swept away.

Left alone, Lord Emsworth sat for a while savouring that delicious sense of peace which comes to men of quiet tastes when their womenfolk have had their say and departed."

Pigs Have Wings
P.G. Wodehouse

I can always rely on Plum to bring a smile to my face. I just got a collection of the complete Mulliner stories at Powell's Books, (the best bookstore in the world), and I'm looking forward to have that as a backup to my main book for the evening reading.

Currently reading …

' "Old habits die hard. I will not promise to reform altogether. I shall, with your permission, continue to propose to you, at decently regulated intervals—as a birthday treat, and on Guy Fawkes Day and on the Anniversary of the King's Accession. But consider it, if you will, as a pure formality. You need not pay the smallest attention to it."

"Peter, it's foolish to go on like this."

"And, of course, on the Feast of All Fools." '

Dorothy Sayers
Gaudy Night

Dorothy Sayers is in my personal top 10, (along with P.G. Wodehouse, Gerald Durrell, Beverley Nichols and the aforementioned Josephine Tey). I actually would be hard put to it to provide anyone with a finite top 10, but these 5 writers would definitely make the cut.

It's been a surprisingly long time since I've read this book. Somehow I had subconsciously convinced myself that it was more recent. Perhaps that has to do with the superficial plot resemblance to Josephine Tey's Miss Pym Disposes, which I have read relatively recently. Actually the plots are dissimilar, but the settings are reminiscent.

The quoted section above is wonderful piffle, but it's more than that. It purports to say nothing, while saying a great deal beneath the surface. That's characteristic of Sayer's work. It is richly layered. It is wonderful to discover new angles every time you come back to a story.

McManus in Love

One of my nieces (when she was much younger) was helping her mom and Grandma in the kitchen. She had been chattering cheerfully away and then for a time subsided into thoughtful reflection watching them work. Eventually she completed her deliberation and whispered to her mom, "Grandma is being so nice. Do you think we can give her a little treat?"

This past week, I'd had one of those weeks and was ready for a treat? You know the kind of week I mean. A couple of days I got up late and then spent most of the day wondering why I'd bothered to get out of bed at all. So Friday night I had a special dinner and went and saw McManus in Love.

The show is based on the humorous short stories of Patrick McManus. I often have one of his books beside the bed and I'll dip into a story or two to supplement whatever else I'm reading. I am not particularly interested in fishing and hunting, but his descriptions and characterizations are so hilarious that I'm captivated.

McManus in Love is one of four shows that McManus has written for the actor Tim Behrens. Tim plays all the parts, from McManus himself to Crazy Eddie Muldoon, to Rancid Crabtree and many others. One of my favorite moments was actually after the show at the curtain call when he returned to the stage and talked off the cuff for about 10 minutes. As Tim explained, he lives in Spokane and about halfway across the state on the way to the show, remembered that he had forgotten the programs. He called his wife to tell her and she responded by asking what exactly he wanted her to do about it.

"Do you want me to drive all the way over there and deliver the programs or should I do an emergency shipment and try to get the programs to you that way?"

"No honey. Of course not!"

This, as he explained to the guys, was the correct answer in the circumstances. Marriage depends on such answers. He went on to catch us up with the current projects that Patrick McManus is working on. He also described how they met. Patrick was his advisor in a graduate level writing course, and as Tim was preparing to walk the aisle for graduation, Patrick told him he should really stick to acting. Despite this, they became great friends. At the conclusion of the talk, he explained that all of this would have been in the program, but of course we didn't have programs. What fun!