Author: Stacy Horn

There aren’t as many Halloween decorations up yet in the West Village. I hope that changes. My neighborhood usually has the best decorations, so good I’m convinced that the people who put them up must be professionals of some kind, like set designers, or something. But here is the first I saw. Not a bad start.

An astounding work of art on Park Avenue. There were a bunch of them up and down the avenue. She looks so real it’s kinda scary. This reminds me, the pool I’ve been swimming in for years, the city pool at the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, still hasn’t re-opened since the pandemic. They’ve been doing renovations. Sigh. I miss swimming.

Some people collect, some people purge. I like to pare down my possessions. It’s feels great, liberating, and it brings peace. In my most recent de-cluttering I looked at the drum I bought when I was regularly drumming with an all-percussion band called Manhattan Samba (who are still around and always great to hear). I haven’t touched it in more than ten years and I do not feel any longing to drum again. It was a fabulous chapter in my life, but it is over. So I thought I’d give it to Manhattan Samba to give to someone else who might be able to use it.

Oh god! This is me with Manhattan Samba in 2007, drumming … I don’t remember where. Sixteen years ago, which is not all that long a time. I was 51. I look so much older now, but still younger than my grandmother did when she was only 40. What was up with people then??

Came across while walking downtown along the Hudson River. Could be a fun job, no? But maybe it’s mostly hard work. Probably. But I saw the drawing of the helmet and thought, walking along the river bottom sounds nice.

Speaking of all the music in the city, I went to this on Saturday. I had intended to be one of the singers, but work on the book has taken over! I was treating myself to a day off by going.

“English composer Jonathan Dove and librettist Alasdair Middleton collaborate on this beautiful piece specially commissioned by Lincoln Center—a sweeping choral work exploring the emotional toll of climate change and our hope for a better future ahead. Search for Spring is sung by hundreds of community voices, coming together to create a unique, spectacular performance. Simon Halsey conducts and leads a team of six exceptional New York City conductors. This performance continues Lincoln Center’s history of highly acclaimed choral commissions and outdoor world premieres including John Luther Adams’s In the Name of the Earth (2018) and David Lang’s the public domain (2016).”

That’s the Metropolitan Opera in the background, if you couldn’t tell by the sign.

The Young People’s Chorus of New York joined in at the end from one of the balconies.

Spotted at Search for Spring, the assistant conducter for my choir, The Choral Society of Grace Church, Hannah Nacheman.