Month: May 2006

ME: Right this very second Finney is curled up and warm on my lap, as I drink my coffee and Echo.

My Friend Cricket: Right this very second Bean is curled up and warm on my lap, as I drink my coffee and Echo.

ME: Prove it. I want pictures. [So she sent me a picture of the most adorable Bean.]

So I had to send her a picture of the most adorable Finney. Note that Cricket is wearing a blue tshirt and I am wearing a pink!

Finney’s favorite new spot — where the air conditioner was. It’s coming back soon, though. It’s just getting cleaned. I’m sorry Finney!

Meanwhile, as some of you know, I run an online BBS-type place called Echo. We’re upgrading to a new machine, and as always happens, things are not working quite right. I can’t go anywhere in the meantime while the wonderful people working on it continue to tinker and try to fix all the bugs.

So I will be inside again all day today (we started yesterday) going a little nuts. More voices of the dead. Is there anything really great on TV today? Oh! How is Barbaro (the favorite for the Preakness who was injured right at the start)?? I was crying and crying. Please tell me Barbaro is going to be okay.

I’ve started listening to tapes of the Duke Parapsychology Lab scientists I’m going to be writing about. They were made 30 years ago by Sy Mauskopf and Michael McVaugh who wrote a history of parapsychology called The Elusive Science.

These tapes are a godsend. All of these people are dead now, so they’re great for getting some sense of their personalities. But listening to them is maddening at times. Mauskopf and McVaugh were after very different information than I am (not a better or worse thing). Something will come up and I’ll be screaming, “Yes! Ask them more about that!” And Mauskopf and McVaugh will let it drop and go off in another direction.

While it rained and thundered and stormed all day yesterday, I stayed inside and listened to the voices of the dead.

Bizarrely, that reminds me, I didn’t post about our choir’s performance of Elijah. It was one of the best experiences of my choir life. What can I say, we were just on. And when you hear how good you sound it’s so exciting you try even harder and it keeps spiraling upward, getting better and better and better. I cried twice during the performance it felt so great. The audience jumped to its feet the second we stopped. The soloists, who were great in the dress rehearsal the night before, were sublime.

Robert Gardner, the baritone who sang the part of Elijah, sang “It is enough” with such apparent genuine emotion it was like he was channeling all the world’s grace in the face of despair. He sent us the nicest letter. I don’t know if a soloist who has ever done this before. Here is his picture (which, by the way, doesn’t do him justice — I don’t think I exaggerate when I say every man and woman in the choir had a crush on him — you had to have been there, you would have developed a crush on him too, trust me).

Here is the letter he wrote:

Dear John,

Thanks for this opportunity to bring Mendelssohn’s Elijah to life yet once again. Every time I revisit this piece it grows and develops. However, I can’t imagine this getting much better than the reading we gave it Friday night.

The crowd energy, by its sheer mass, but also by the attention we received from every individual from the back aisle standing room to those seated on the floor in front of us made it an incomparable night to remember and cherish. Elijah munched on their energy!

The chorus’s preparations were truly, truly world class (“evident” doesn’t even come close!). There is no question that, after singing with some of the best choruses in the world, that this Choral Society of yours on Friday night ranked among the best in the world in its tonal quality, conviction, clarity, versatility and strength. Every sung note until the very last was exactly as it should have been, giving the community you serve something tangible and honest. In so doing, we all have achieved that which any musician sets out to do. We served. Most choral environments are not able to give this piece its due attention, and your success in this is duly noted and has already been commented on in other circles. The Choral Society of Grace Church is invariably an environment where the world’s musical masterworks can be clearly heard without dishonest affectation or impedance. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for that.

All my very best to you and the Choral Society,
Robert Gardner

My preparations for my BIG birthday coming up:

– Thorough Spring cleaning, including getting the windows washed. Done.

– Go through all my clothes and donate everything I no longer wear. Done. I love how pared down and ordered my closet is, with only the things I actually wear, or need to wear for certain occasions.

– Do all my yearly doctor appointments, check-ups, etc. Done.

– Schedule facial and pedicure and dentist appointment. Done.

– Take cats for check-up and dental work. Done. (They need to get spruced-up, too.)

– Do all the things you’ve been putting off. This includes upgrading the blog software I use to do this, in fact, all sorts of software upgrades, AND, making a decision about my air conditioner. I had a guy come in to take a look and tell me if I need to get a new one. The one I have is 10 years old, and don’t they make them better these days? He said I actually have a great unit, even if it is old, and he suggested I just clean it. So he took it with him to clean.

I LOVE having the air conditioner out of the window. Having the window all clear with nothing in it blocking the view makes the whole place seem lighter and more open. I wish I could live without the air conditioner. One thing — the guy said they can take it out and store it during the winter and I am definitely going to do that from now on.

For most of the year I’ll have this light open view. The next snowfall, I will have this view. (Ha! Check out Finney luxuriating in the down comforter.)

Within seconds of the air conditioner guy leaving, Finney was up inspecting the new view and a new windowsill to sit on.

And here are Aly, Jeff and me, friends for 30 years so far.

Incidentally! Someone didn’t believe my story below about all the guys having sex in the warehouse on the Hudson. These are the guys who were with me and I asked if they remembered it. Aly said “yes,” Jeff said, “vaguely.”