Stacy Horn

I’ve been worried about Alzheimers recently and there was a piece in the Times with a link to these standardized tests. I took the first one, but they said it doesn’t matter which one you take. Each is different but they all test the same things. I did so badly on two of the questions I’m taking it to my doctor to discuss my results. There isn’t an answer sheet, because they aren’t so much about right and wrong, but if you try one of the tests you’ll see how each question would indicate if there’s a problem.

Art on a fence on 11th Street. I was wondering yesterday why I don’t paint, just for fun. Because it is fun. I’m more drawn to pottery though. I’ve never gotten over the dazzling affect of what happens when you paint a pot, put it into a kiln, and out comes this magical, shiny, brilliant and colorful treasure.

Nothing like singing in the streets. About death. Today I took part in what was called the first “synchronized headphone choir.” Each voice part started out at in a different part of the city, and we headed towards Battery Park, singing our part. It was a beautiful piece written by composer Pete M. Wyer, who also conceived of this whole thing.

Everyone downloaded an app and we counted down and hit play at the same time. Except I don’t have a smartphone, so I was using an old ipod which I actually had to abandon, because I wasn’t synced up with everyone else.

It was a little tricky singing and walking at the same time, because you couldn’t walk in rhythm to what you were singing. It felt great anyway.

We’re at Canal and Spring, waiting to cross the street. People took pictures of us as we passed by.

That’s the finished One World Trade Center in the distance.

When we met up with the other parts and sang together, it was glorious. I immediately moved from my spot within the sopranos and stood next to the altos. My choir sings with the voice parts all mixed up and that’s what I prefer now. It’s more fun to sing that way, with different voice parts all around you. You feel the harmony more, and you can also hear the piece as a whole.

I didn’t get a shot of the entire choir singing because it felt so good I didn’t want to sacrifice a single second of it to take a picture. That is Pete Wyer with the guitar though, afterwards.

Thank you Pete Wyer and company, and Make Music New York! I had a fabulous time.

Bleecker joins a long line of wonderful cats who have sat in this window, staring at birds, longing to kill them. Don’t worry bird. Sorry Bleeck.

I’m going to the second one, only because it begins near me, and they’re doing something unusual. I really wish I could go to both. The first one is part of the Make Music New York festival and the second is part of that festival and the River to River festival.

I’m really sorry to miss this first one because it’s an open sing of contemporary choral composers, something I want to explore. “The reading session will be led by Fahad Siadat, director of See-A-Dot Music Publishing and C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, a professional new music chorus, and reinforced by a string quartet that will accompany the reading session. Gathered singers will rehearse and perform six pieces over the course of an hour.”

The second one is titled And Death Shall Have No Dominion, a participatory singing event for a synchronized headphone choir, conceived and composed by Pete M. Wyer, with accompaniment by the Asphalt Orchestra.

The four different voice parts are going to meet at different parts of the city and start singing and walking. “Little by little, as routes converge, the song is revealed in its fullness until eventually, everyone assembles together for a grand choral finale at the gazebo in Rockefeller Park.”

I just looked at the score, it’s definitely written so that anyone who can sing can do it. The sopranos are starting one block away from where I live! Except you have to have a smartphone, which I don’t have because I am poor. But I’m going to walk along and film them and listen. Oh, I see that people without iphones can download the audio files. Except my iPod is broken (and I can’t fix it because, blah, blah, blah). I might have an old one that still works though. I’m listening to the bass part now, it’s beautiful!! Actually, this piece is simple enough, I don’t need to hear it to be able to sing it. Well, I’m going in any case. What a great idea, I love that all the different parts will be walking along singing, and then come together.

Sad sign. I hope Lila was found. Also sad is the fact that she is declawed according to the sign. Declawing is actually amputation, they remove the last bone of each toe! It’s an incredibly barbaric and cruel practice. Keep their nails trimmed instead! Also, I’ve always had good luck with the Felix Scratching Post. I’ve never had a cat who didn’t love it and use it. Seriously, how is this cat going to defend itself now? What if you lose your cat during a the zombie apocalypse?? Never declaw!

New York City is full of blooming roses all over the place. Turns out, it’s hard to get a picture of roses that shows the beauty of the roses and isn’t a snore. I think I failed. I started with this. in the East Village …

Then I took the one below over by me in the West Village. By the way, that’s the “emergency department” we’re getting in place of St. Vincent’s Hospital, which was torn down. (Thanks a heap Bloomberg and everyone else who was responsible.) Even though heart disease is the number one killer in the United States, guess which problems this “medical center” is not prepared to treat? Yeah. Heart attack, stroke and major trauma victims would be stabilized and transferred, which is better than nothing, but guess what would be even better? The hospital that was torn down.

It’s called the Lenox Hill Healthplex and it opens at the end of this month.

So, I started by photographing the roses, but then I pulled back to get the clouds. I mean, look at them!