Today I’m going to write about the best thing in the world, Love? No. Health? No. Music? No. Family? Try again. Come on this is easy. That’s right, chocolate. Yesterday was Skyler and Shirley’s annual chocolate party. They appreciate chocolate; when they got married neither one of them wanted to change their last name so they both took the same middle name, Chocolate. As Skyler proudly says, “It’s on my passport.” These are my people. I told this to someone at the party and they thought I was joking. Skyler had to tell her himself.
I hope that nobody thought that I would go to a room filled with other people eating chocolate. I’m much to conscientious about COVID-19 to do that and so are Skyler and Shirley. This year the party was virtual. They used an app that creates a virtual room. You are given an icon that you can guide around the room. You only interact with those that are near you. When you are close enough they essentially enter your zoomspace. You can see and talk to each other. That way you can get 50 people together and still interact with just a few at a time like in real life. They had something similar at Folk Alliance, but I didn’t use it. Now I regret it. The avatars have names on them so you can look for your friends and walk over to them.
But wait? This is a chocolate party, were we just looking at pictures of chocolate? No, our generous hosts sent each of us a package of home-made chocolates. I got this in advance and didn’t eat one until the party. I was a little disappointed that other people didn’t want to talk about the chocolate as much as I did. My technique was to reach into the bag and pick one at random. Here’s what was offered. I didn’t get any of the dishes that weren’t chocolate or had nuts or alcohol.
Damn, I just realized I needed to explicitly say I can’t eat tree nuts, but I can eat peanuts, I didn’t get the peanut butter fudge. It’s chocolate and peanut butter together. Peanut butter is one of the few things that can compare with chocolate. Combined they are better than either alone.
The party worked well socially, perhaps better for me than it usually does in real life. I had some friends there, Skyler, Scott, Barbara & Gordon, and Chris. Is that it? We broke off into groups that included some friends and some strangers, and I had a great time talking. Like at a real party when the conversation drifted away from my interests I’d join another group. One thing I did differently than in real life was make an Irish goodbye. I didn’t make the round saying goodbye to people, I just quietly left. The whole idea works, and I think would be excellent practice for people with social anxiety.
When the party was over I was supposed to record my first hour-long Gord’s Gold for Folk Music Notebook. I had it programmed before the party, but I had to prepare the host segments. That meant dividing it up into sets and figuring out what I was going to say. I had to do some research. I had programmed the show as a Windows Media Player playlist. I then had to type it into a spreadsheet and insert the host segments so Ron could put everything in the right order to broadcast. I ended up playing 52 minutes of music and talking for a little over 5 minutes. That was a good ratio. I made a few jokes and told a few stories. I recorded everything without scripts just notes. That worked fine. It’s easy to talk for a minute at a time with much of that time being simply naming songs and artists.
I have a head start on next week’s show as there is a set I’ve planned since the start of the year that I had wanted to put into the first show and will go into the second. That means a third of next week’s show is already programmed. What I’m spending the most time is tracking down music. I’ve talked many times about losing my music collection. I have not replaced most of it, instead I subscribe to Amazon streaming. The problem with that is I can’t play it on the air. I’m now writing artists and record labels asking digital copies. If anyone has a good digital collection and would be willing to help me out I’d appreciate it. Lots of what comes in is not in mp3 but wav. I have to convert those. Wav files don’t include the metadata, so I then have to add that by either relying on a CD database or entering it by hand. I have a tip for artists, when you send music send both wav or mp3 or ask which the recipient prefers. Including a one sheet on the album is extremely helpful. My favorites are when I get a code to download from Bandcamp.
My neighbors gave a loud part and left their door open so the entire floor could hear it. I can’t record with that going on. When I left my apartment to ask them to close the door I didn’t get two steps before my neighbor saw me. The party spilled into the hallway. She knew I was going to ask her to close the door and offered before I said a word. Unfortunately, her friend was standing in the hallway smoking a joint. When I asked her to please not smoke all I got was a look. That’s smoker’s privilege. Today when I went out the hallway was freezing, why? A smoker had left the window open. This happens all the time.
Today I sent my first report to the Folk DJ list. When you see lists of the top folk albums, that’s what it’s based on. It requires a specific format that I have to learn. I cribbed from the website this time. One thing I needed that I didn’t have is record label. What I submitted was what was played in February, not the new show. I’ll report that after it is aired. For now on, I’ll look to put the label into the metadata. I’m not sure if you can do that. I might have to research each song. This is one reason one-sheets are useful.
I should talk a little bit more about my vaccination, everyone wants to hear about that. My arm was sore a few hours after the shot and the next day, but that is it. It in no way restricted my activity. The second shot is often worse; I’ll let you know how it goes with me. So many of my friends are being vaccinated now. The system is far from ideal but it’s getting done. It’s going into arms as fast as it can be manufactured. That’s all we can ask for. Is everyone vaccinated? Are most people vaccinated? No but that’s inevitable. We need hundreds of millions of doses, everyone can’t go first. That doesn’t make it unfair. If you want to complain that groups that don’t include you are being underserved, that’s good. There are underserved communities. But the fact that you haven’t been vaccinated doesn’t mean the system doesn’t work. It didn’t work for me, until it did. As more vaccines get approved things will go faster. The biggest injustice is to the poor countries. Those that could afford to understandably bought up all they could for their own people. That leaves the poor to do without. That’s false economy as it gives places for the virus to thrive and mutate, and perhaps be altered enough to leave the rich countries susceptible again.
I’ll get off my soapbox and make dinner tonight. I am not cooking just defrosting and reheating in the microwave.
Wise Madness 