This is going to start with a lot of complaining but then switch to a celebration of wonderful things. You can skip down to that if you want to. It starts after the horizontal line.
I had a frustrating day; my plan was to go over to Jane’s house and try and get the internet and TV working, neither was when I went to check on it last week. The realtor disconnected the TV set and it wasn’t easy to find the input cable from Fios or even an outlet where I could plug the TV in. I had no idea why the internet didn’t work. I wanted to have plenty of daylight to figure these things out. To make things worse neither overhead light in the living room worked when I last visited. I got one of them working but not the other.
Getting there should not be a problem but the MTA hates me. Once again it took two hours. Then when I arrived the one overhead light I fixed no longer worked and I couldn’t get it working. The nearest floor lamp didn’t work. I found one floor lamp that worked and put the brightest bulb I could find in it.
I figured out what was wrong with the internet. The upstairs circuit breaker had tripped. That happened before when the air conditioner was plugged in. It wasn’t plugged in this time. I unplugged everything from every outlet and still couldn’t turn the breaker on. I ended up running a long extension cord from upstairs, where the router is connected, to downstairs. It took many trips up and down the stairs to get to that point. I got the router on but it didn’t get internet.
The real estate agent came over with a cable to connect the FIOS box to the TV but I still had to find the cable in It took me a long time but maneuvered the TV set to a place where one cable could reach. It still didn’t work. Now I’m wondering if we aren’t getting a signal form Verizon. The bill is played but I have to check on that. I worked hard to not act annoyed at the real estate agent even though I was. I succeeded. She took no responsibility for anything. Everything was working fine when Jane left. She knows she disconnected the TV but didn’t apologize for that, she made excuses.
She did give me a ride to the Pelham Bay train station where I could get the Bx12 but which I take to the D train. One problem. I got to the D train and found there was a half hour wait. The train never runs that infrequently. I had to get out and take another bus.
Now on to better things, no more bitterness and frustration. Clearly I’m not going to talk about politics. Yesterday I wrote about David Wright, today I turn to Jean Rohe
I’m listening to an advance copy of her new album Sisterly as I write this. O what a brave new world that has such music in it. I have heard most of the songs on it in concert, so I already knew it was great. This just confirms that this is the best album of the year, it’s a masterpiece. It’s been years since her last album, which was also the best album of the year. It’s been years because of the scope of the ambition. There is so much content that it will take me may listens to unpack. Far too much for me to write a full-fledged review on one listen. The title track is a one song opera on sexual violence, a subject that is unfortunately relevant. What’s more unfortunate is that it’s always relevant, it’s just not always in the news.
The first track, Live is a complex song disguised as dance pop. The disguise is so good that I can see it being a crossover hit. I thought that from the first time I heard it and it’s even more true now that I hear the produced recorded version.
I worry about what Jean thinks of me. I can’t help it, I’m effusive in my praise. I throw around words like genius. I’m not sure I can help it. It’s what I feel and the feelings want to get out. Even if I can help it, I don’t want to. My eyes are doing the glowing thing, but not as an old testament prophet but heralding the arrival of a treasure. It’s what I do. I did it for David Wright. I do it for Terry Pratchett. The difference is I don’t know them. I am amazed that I know Jean and other incredibly talented people. I am not in awe of the people. They are friends I can have fun with. Friends I can be silly with. Friend I can tease. There’s a line in Dune Messiah where Paul thinks of Stilgar, “I lost a friend and gained an acolyte.” I never want to be an acolyte. I never want to lose sight that no matter how much greatness there is person is still a person. That means someone that will still act like an idiot at times. You might have noticed that even I do that. I might be doing that right now. I feel a foot going deeper and deeper into my mouth. I better change the subject.
I wanted to post the brand-new video of Live but it’s still not public. I’ll post this old video of Sisterly instead.
Wise Madness 