Stacy Horn

I saw you in the dead boy’s room
You were wearing the traditional black guitar.

In the spring of 2001, Aly asked me to write these liner notes because Aly, David, and Robin were thinking again about the Leisure Units music, and trying to get a CD together based on the master tapes.

Like so many other things in the Leisure world, this didn’t happen. But now that Aly is gone too, really, it should. When I dug the CD out from under the pile of my 7 year old daughter’s Jonas Brothers/Hannah Montana/Avril Lavigne collection and played it for her, she was soon dancing wildly around, singing, CaCaCaCaroline!

That’s got to be worth something.

On the way over to the memorial gathering for Aly, I remembered an extended joke from the Leisure era. It was a comic marketing ploy–I don’t remember whose idea it was originally, but I remember hysterically laughing at it (OK, maybe there were other things involved in the laughter, I don’t recall).

It was when things were falling apart (the first time), and it was an idea for a late-night infomercial of the kind you might see on the USA Network: A clear blue sky, a small plane spinning downward out of control, a crash, then headshots of Michael, Aly, David floating above the flames. A sepulchral voice (Michael’s of course) intones: You never got to know them in life! Now, after their tragic death, you can learn to love their music!

It seemed hilarious at the time. Now, with Aly gone too, it seems funny/sad. Sort of like life.

RIP Aly.

We miss you.

SP
2008

(Pictures of Aly as a boy and then a young man courtesy of Rachel de Cordova.)

I’m talking to the weather there.  It’s been threatening rain all day. So, I was downtown, helping with the tours of the WTC site. As always, I took a few shots.  Here are people inside the Winter Garden, looking out onto the site.

But if you turn around, you see this!  You can’t quite tell but it’s strands and strands of lights. Very pretty.

Another view.

The last stop on the tour is the memorial American Express installed for the 11 employees they lost on 9/11.  Water drops intermittently from the ceiling, representing tears.  (It’s called Eleven Tears.)

I just opened my “At-A-Glance” appointment book, (I still use an appointment book) and I’ve got a week full of lunches, dinners and parties.   What does next week look like??  Less crowded. Three parties. I hope I have enough outfits to cover all these events.  Who am I kidding??  I’ll wear my nice jeans, and dress up whatever shirt I wear with a pretty necklace and I’m good to go.

I should be okay.  Tim Gunn is not expected anywhere I’m going to be.  I’d document my outfits, but I’ve never figured out how to get decent self-portraits with these point and shoots. I’ll try.

And here is, yes, yet another cat shot.  What can I say?  They are always there and very cute (to me). 

I felt so awful yesterday morning, I’m not sure what it was about exactly. I think a combination of the holidays, “women’s” stuff [details omitted to spare fragile male readers, but really, you guys should thank the universe every day, and speaking of which, it’s just not fair, please tell me you’re going through some male equivalent of this, and I’m speaking to the men of a certain age here].  I had to make myself shower, run errands, etc.

But then there was our second choir performance.  Both performances were sold out!

Here’s from the altar, before they opened the doors.

Singing is pretty much a never-fail mood elevator.  And nice friends were there (and I had family and friends there the night before).  So, I was feeling good again when I headed out to Long Island.  Here’s the thing about Long Island, where I grew up.  

First, being on the Long Island Railroad always fills me with complete and utter despair.  I think the only person who might understand this is my friend Chris Hegarty.  We used to sneak into the city every chance we got growing up, where we’d invariably get into some little bit of trouble, then we’d miss the train home and have to spend time in the most depressing place in New York (Penn Station) at the worst hour of the night, waiting for the next train, which was always hours later.  Plus, we were going home which just added to the misery.  All I wanted was to live in New York City and having to head back out to Long Island just made me sad.  (No offense to Long Island, especially where I grew up which is very pretty.)

Then, for some reason, just being on the train makes me more than ever aware of the passage of time.  I sit and watch towns and stations going by that I have watched go by for decades, and I remember looking out these windows when I was five years old, then as an adolescent, then a teenager, a college girl, etc.  Same towns, same buildings, same cemeteries, lots of crumbling, some growth. And I can’t help but be aware that in the not too distant future these trains will continue chugging along long after I am gone.  Then I think about the people who are, in fact, gone.

Lovely, right?  But I had a fantastic time at my sister-in-law Karen’s birthday party!!  (Karen, you looked great by the way, I meant to say.  That was a good shirt for you, both color and style.)  Man did my brothers marry great women and have great kids.  I so lucked out.  Speaking of which, my father’s second wife Arlene (both my parents had great second marriages) is also fantastic.  

I had such a fun time re-living the joy of Obama’s election with one of my nephews and with my stepmother’s sister.  We kept smiling and smiling and going over all the details, just relishing and sharing our hope for the future. This was my nephew’s first election.  Can you imagine?  Then I had the enormous pleasure of learning that one of my relatives, who I believe has always voted republican, voted for Obama (don’t want to say who because I don’t know how he feels about making such a thing public).  I just kept hugging him.  As he went over his reasons I just kept hugging him.

Here is the board listing the departure times and tracks for the Trains of Doom.

I just found this picture. I think it’s my favorite Grace Church picture ever. I hope the photographer doesn’t mind. His name is Alex Espinoza and I found it here.

There’s another performance of our holiday concert today, so yay!  Sing choirs of angels!  Sing in exultation! (Is that blasphemous?)

Parts I like from what we’re singing:

“Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things that thine eyes have seen (and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life …”

“Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth.”  Heed those words people who behaved shamefully this past election.  You know who you are. At least I hope you know who you are, because then there’s the possibility that you might be a better person in the future.