Yesterday was an excellent social contact day. I got a phone call shortly into my Donut Walk™. I was going to say that my phone rang but it didn’t. I was listening to Don Giovanni and all of a sudden the music stopped. I went to look at my phone to see what went wrong and saw my friend’s name on it. I have the phone set to automatically answer when I have my earbuds in. That’s for my therapist, and I should change that setting when I’m not expecting a call. I should but I won’t. Talking made the walk go very quickly. The only problem was that it’s so noisy on Fordham Road where Krispy Kreme is. I started looking for someplace quieter to talk when I saw people were on the Fordham campus. I was wearing my WFUV cap and was hoping the guard would let me walk in, he did. I walked away from Fordham Road until I got to this nice grassy area that didn’t just have benches but chairs with armrests and high backs. I know the campus inside and out and never noticed the chairs. It is remarkably pleasurable talking with a good friend while sitting outside in beautiful weather on a beautiful campus. My original plan was to stop at Checkers for dinner; it is right next to Krispy Kreme. I downloaded the app because they give you a free sandwich when you do. How pleasurable was that conversation? Enough for me to choose it over free food. I don’t want to lose my reputation as a sensualist, so I’ll let you know that there aren’t many people that I’d choose over a Free Classic Mother Cruncher.
We talked until I had to head home for my second social engagement, our Zoom Seder. I look forward to our Seder all year, it’s one of the main events that mark the passing of time for me. I’m an atheist but I love the people and the tradition. I had to rush to eat before the Seder, so I had something very appropriate, peanut butter on matzoh. Someone at the Seder said that it wasn’t kosher for Pesach. I never accepted that logic, why are peanuts like leavened bread? They aren’t. That’s an Ashkenazi rule so I said that I’m Sephardic. Ashkenazi/Sephardic split is by ancestry, but I let myself convert. Someone else at the Seder said that Reform Ashkenazi now allow legumes and the other weird stuff that the Ashkenazi proscribe for Passover so perhaps I should say that the synagogue I don’t go to is Reform instead of Conservative. For the benefit for the two people that are reading this and don’t know me, I’m an atheist of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage.
Every year I tell everyone that our Seders are the best Seders. We go through the entire Haggadah but it’s one cobbled together by Sylvia and Louis our hosts. Sylvia was my sister Alison’s college roommate and Louis Alison’s friend from high school. Some of what we say is traditional, other parts have a strong social justice component; that is appropriate for a holiday that celebration of being freed from slavery. And advantage of a Zoom seder is that my nephew Max, his wife Caila, and daughter Joannie (Joanie?) could attend from California. Not only that but Alison was visiting them. Hurray for being fully vaccinated. My liberation day is Thursday, that will be two weeks after my second shot. The eclectic group at the Seder is my once-a-year family. We had three Canadian families, and one from Atlanta. Not everyone is Jewish. Everyone is intelligent and fun. We had real live children to sing the four questions. We also celebrated Sylvia’s birthday. Even though it’s impossible we sang happy birthday and some of the Pesach songs together. It’s total chaos. That is to commemorate the chaos of the chaos when the Children of Israel were talking at once while trying gather all their thing and flee Egypt.
I couldn’t record Gord’s Gold after the Seder for hours as it was too noisy. I should have been smart and prepared all the files to send to Folk Music Notebook. This is a bit scary, but I don’t remember what I did do until things quieted down. I finally went to my bedroom where things are quieter to record. It was the smoothest recording session I’ve had. There wasn’t much editing needed, things just flowed. There was one segment I had to unsalvageable that I had to rerecord in its entirety. I consider it a learning experience and I’m going to save you from having to learn this lesson the hard way and tell you what I did. If you do any sort of recording, singing or spoken word, you should write this tip down. It’s highly technical but invaluable. When speaking or singing into the mic, sing into the front, not the back. When moving the mic into my bedroom I had rotated the pop filter 180º. I just look at that when identifying the front of the mic. “A pop filter, pop shield or pop screen is a noise protection filter for microphones, typically used in a recording studio. It serves to reduce or eliminate popping sounds caused by the mechanical impact of fast-moving air on the microphone from plosives during recorded speech and singing.” – Wikipedia. TL:DR I’m an idiot.
My goal is to send the show in as early as possible. It isn’t due until Sunday, but I always end up recording on Saturday. I would love to finish early but I haven’t yet finished before 1AM, which is technically Sunday. Last night I sent it in at 1:04 AM. I will keep trying to send it in earlier. As I so often quote, “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp/Or what’s a heaven for?” – Robert Browning.
The plan for today was to go to Aldi but last time I looked out the window it was raining. Now I’m sitting here listening and watching Brodsky to a livestream of all baseball songs. I’m going to be playing one of them on Tuesday night. He is one of the great songwriters, I wish he played in the Northeast more. I would love for him to play Falcon Ridge. He’d get a sure The Budgiedome invite. He just finished. I should finish writing this and see if it is still raining. My weather app says no rain for two hours. I guess that means I’m shopping. I will not be getting a donut today or taking a walk. Thanks to walking and talking I walked 4.77 miles yesterday. That’s great. I like to walk 4 miles but I’ve been averaging about 3.5. I don’t feel bad not walking in foul weather.
Wise Madness 