Tornado Season

You didn’t know we have tornadoes in Saranac Lake? Sure we do.

Every Spring – when Easter arrives, every school presents its musical, every theatre opens a show, community groups start their concert season, and high school musicians participate in solo and ensemble festival. All in the same month or so.

And those are just the things I was/am involved with, each of them a big project in its own right.

However, we’re winding down. Saranac Lake made an awesome showing with very high scores in both vocal and instrumental music (as usual). The school musicals have sung their last until next year. Easter music has been prepped and presented. The pipe organ project is wrapped up and the Organ Geniuses have gone home. Remaining – The whopper of a production of the musical Chicago is in its final weeks of rehearsal, and I have an orchestra concert in June.

Next year – less stuff. I enjoy all these things, or I wouldn’t be doing them in the first place. But each is very, very, time-consuming. It’s too much. There were a few weeks that had me at my own rehearsal in the morning, a different  rehearsal late afternoon, and straight to another rehearsal late into the evening. Three or four times, I didn’t have the time to eat lunch or dinner, and I was still late to the next rehearsal. My April calendar had a total of two days without performing or rehearsals. Any-hoo. A good time was had (and is being had) by all. For the most part. That I cannot deny. But next year – less stuff. Far less.

Based on this year’s experiences, I have a new system – Work comes first, and that’s a pleasure. If I am needed, the high school kids’ solo and ensemble accompaniment ranks high as well. Anything else (and only if it’s easily manageable) comes third. Nothing comes fourth, and the places in which I’ve found myself feeling insulted or taken for granted have been filed in the Never Again folder. (It happens.)

But we can smile. The next month is going to be awesome. I get to spend time with a few good musician artsy-fart friends (that I adore) in the next few weeks. The Organ Geniuses did a fantastic job with the pipe organ – it sings like an angel. (A big one.) And that Nook Color tablet computer you’ve heard me talk so much about? I typed about half of this blog post on it, read a part of a new book on it yesterday, and played Angry Birds on it half of last night.

You see, now that I have a bit of spare time, I like to unwind by shooting angry birds at egg-stealing pigs who live in little wooden … oh, never mind.

The Water is Wide

And I can’t get o’er.

Saranac Lake flooding. All of the tertiary bridges and walks are closed. Hell, the main bridge around to Kiwassa Road is closed too.

I took a walk this morning to survey the flooding in Saranac Lake, which was bad enough before we had an all-night thunderstorm. I noticed as I drove down Lake Flower Ave on Tuesday that the water up-river on the lake side was up and over its banks. Of course, I assumed that if-and-when they opened the gates at the dam, then the down-river side would be up and over its banks. So now, we’re all up and over our banks.

A few photos from this morning.

The Dew Drop Inn, now has water completely up to the windows.

A manhole on Olive Street spouts water like a fountain.

Park benches and signs are sticking up out of the river.

The “bank parking lot” side of the riverwalk flooded.

The Dorsey Street side – Now that’s what I call a “Riverwalk.”

It’s tough. I’m only here two years and it’s tough. Most of the village is fine, and a lot of us sit up on the hills. But the back half of the business district runs along the river. Even as a noob, I know three business owners with flooded shops. I walked by to check on a friend’s store this morning. It’s sad to see all the parks underwater, especially since most people know water does real damage.

We’ll see. Hang in there Dorsey Street and lower Woodruff folks. We’re thinking of you, and I know folks are down there helping to sandbag.

Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most

I find that nearly everyone gets Spring Fever. Perhaps when the weather begins to change, with the hint of something to come, we especially long for warm weather and smiles. Perhaps memories are unlocked as the seasons change. For whatever the reason, I notice that many folks have a more melancholy time of it, here on the cusp.

Let’s do some time travelling. On this day two years ago, I took this photo. That’s our New York City hallway. On this day, we’re getting ready to move to the North Country. I’ve just taken the pictures down, the nails are pulled, and the plaster is scraped. Paint sits in cans on the floor, waiting to touch up walls that have held our favorite photos for … what? Seven years? Even the old house is held in a suspended state of anticipation. Does it know that it’s early Spring?

I remember what the suddenly empty hallways and rooms felt like. I remember thinking that it was almost sickening that so many years of one’s like could be seemingly erased just by clearing a room.

During that Spring of 2009, we left New York City, and moved into the RV and cabin on our little patch of land, not knowing much more than the fact that we would have a roof over our heads, albeit flat and metal. On just about this date in 2010, I posted about the same sort of feeling – that something should be happening, but it just quite isn’t.

And here we are in a new home, with the very same parallel post for Early Spring of 2011. I’d have thought that after two years in the Saranac Lake area, we’d have figured things out; that we’d have pulled  the whole Here’s Your New Life package together. We have not. Of course, security and safety concerns continue to come together – We have jobs that we like. We have incredible co-workers, among the best human beings we’ve ever known. We have a beautiful home. We now have a decent car. Hell, we even have a fancy new Hannaford.

One thing we do not have is peers. Nearly none. Would it trouble you to know that one of us has gone all the way to Plattsburgh in search of youngish like-minded adults? That the other has sat in the library thinking, “In this whole building full of words, how is there not one single other person in my peer group?”

There’s a conspicuous dearth of 20-something to 40-something adults in this area to begin with, let alone members of that age group from the world of Arts and Letters. The few that I do know and feel a kinship with, of course, plan to eventually leave the area.

It’s a problem. A big one.

And Your Little Dog Too

This week’s project is Holy Week and Easter services, with Les Miz on the burner, and Chicago simmering.

Next week is Les Miz, with Chicago on the burner, and NYSMA (state music adjudications for the high school – I accompany the classical instrumentals) simmering.

The week after that is NYSMA with Chicago coming to a slow boil. The week after that is Chicago performances, with arrangement-writing for two Bach preludes and a concert simmering. (Although my friend Sean kindly pointed out that there are two weeks between NYSMA and Chicago. Big deal.)

The week after that is the orchestra concert, with a desire to do nothing all Summer on the burner, and my brain simmering.

A lot of rehearsals. The house has Spring music and accoutrements hanging, sitting, and laying all over the place. Honestly, three rehearsals in a day pretty frequent.

Wanting to ride my bike to school in the afternoons, I couldn’t very well carry my music on my head. I needed a basket. I went down to the bicycle store on Main Street, and oddly enough, the bicycle store doesn’t carry bicycle baskets. (I don’t begrudge them their stock space, but I think it’s a little weird.) We trucked it over to Placid Planet before rehearsal last night, and they were very nice. Liked the folks a lot, and they had three (four if you count the ones with flowers on them) baskets to choose from.

This is about what the place looks like around here this week. Bicycles in front of pianos. Music on the floor. Different bags full of music for different rehearsals. Spare Organist robes on the doors. It must be Spring!

You have a great day too!

Swoosh

I’ve been in the market for a new computer-like device.

Funny how that extremely expensive laptop was the bees knees five years ago, right? Ah, well. Time for something new. And I’m on the bandwagon. Tablet computer. About ninety-eight percent of the time, I’m not really doing much more than writing emails, doing the Facebook thing, and most of the time, reading. So there we are. I’ve talked myself into it. I’ve always been a confirmed Mac person, but this time, I’m going with Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color. Why? I’ll tell you.

Fully functional, as far as Phill is concerned.

Can I type letters or create a spreadsheet or type my thesis on it? No. But I don’t do those things anyway. It has an internet connection, it reads PDFs, it has a Pandora app, it has a Facebook app, it is probably the best eReader, and B&N is rolling out the full compliment of Android driven features this month. Perfect.

I don’t care about 3G.

The Nook Color has a WiFi connection, but not 3G. WiFi is wireless in like, your house or the library or Starbucks. 3G gets the signal from like, space. I don’t need internet from space. I’m not a person that suddenly and urgently needs to spontaneously download a book right now or check my email immediately. Having a WiFi connection every twenty feet as I walk down the street is plenty.

It’s one of the lightest tablets. 

I read in bed. Laptops get hot and they’re heavy. I didn’t think I cared much about how light the thing ended up being, but when I went around testing and picking them up, I found the iPad and NetBook a little heavy. Yes, the Nook is a little small, but it’s right for me otherwise.

I want an LCD touch screen.

The more I get used to typing without a keyboard, the better. Honestly. I have a touch of piano-player-tendonitis, and if I type too much at the end of a day, it acts up. And also I hate computer keys (or rather, the crud that gets between them). I can clean the screen off. But mostly I want it because it’s like The Jetsons.

I don’t care if you can’t read LCD screens outside.

My laptop has an LCD screen and I don’t think I’ve ever had a need to take it outside. I’m sure there are people that take their computers outside, but I’m not one of them. As for the “What if you want to read a book outside?” part, I don’t own a lake house or beachfront, and I probably never will. In fact, for that matter, I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book outside. I don’t think I have.

I visit big cities and go to libraries. 

Will we probably ever have eBooks on loan in the Saranac Lake library? No. Probably not. (The libraries have to pay for the service, of course.) But, I do visit cities like New York and Philadelphia. Kindles and iPads don’t support the ePub format. Libraries use ePub. Free books.

I’m a serious note-taker. 

I’m one of those people that likes to remember passages from books, tell other reader friends about them, highlight, save recipes, that sort of thing. On the Nook, swipe over it with your finger and highlight it, send it to Facebook, look up a word or concept on Wikipedia or internet search for it, whatever. Simple as a swipe.

I can put it on a piano music stand. Swoosh.

I already get a lot of piano music online in PDF form. We’re actually a pretty paperless household. Now imagine if I had the music PDF on my tablet, and could set the tablet on the music stand of a piano. I could turn the pages by just swooshing the screen. No more page turning. No more pages flipping back and piano panic.

And that’s what I know about that. Of course, I’m going to go to store to see one in person again. Meanwhile, I’m keeping my eyes open for the release of that Android update.

You have a great day too.

All Pachelbel and No Play Makes Phill a Dull Pianist

Not the Canon, mercifully, but there is some Pachelbel in the “On Deck” folder.

Not today though. I played a lot yesterday, had choir at night, and had been at it a good chunk of each day this week, every day, into the evenings. So I’m enforcing no playing today, only rehearsal tonight. Tendonitis in the thumb area. It’s a piano player thing. I’m gonna see the Doc about it soon. But for today, I started No Play Day with a 7 o’clock bike ride.

At the first stop – the river was a little high!

That green sign in the bottom photo says, “No Swimming.” I don’t want to get on the wrong side of the law, but I’m wondering if wading counts?

You have a great day too!

 

Not Exactly Westminster

One day last week while it was pouring rain, I thought it would be fun to play “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” on the church bells/carillon.

My clever friend Doug suggested I video it, and then suggested it would be fun to do a “Tuesdays at Ten” sort of thing with the church bells, ongoing. Nifty, no? I like playing fun songs out over the rooftops anyway. Spread some church luv. I figure the bells are there for people to enjoy, and fun songs are allowed. For your inspection, I proudly present today’s chapter, celebrating the arrival of Spring.

You have a great day too!