Back again
After a long absence (well over a month) it's time to make another appearance. October, strangely enough, was pretty depressing. Usually it's one of my favorite times of the year. Late in September my beloved ex Willem arrived from Holland for a 10 days' visit. We have known each other now since 1973; we were a couple for a bit over 10 years, from '73 to '84, and there is a powerful, an unbreakable bond between us. There always will be that bond. Much of it has to do with our both being musicians. We spent a lot of our time together listening to music during this visit. At one point Wim turned to me and said "listening to music with you is always so wonderful". I feel the same way as he does. There is something about sharing a piece of music by listening to it together that intensifies and augments the experience so greatly beyond what one feels listening to that same piece alone. But I think thar it only really happens when both of the listeners have a deep understanding of the music. Wim's and my combined backgrounds in performance, musicology, the mechanics of the human voice, and a few other things are only part of it, though....there is also our deep and loving friendship of more than 30 years.
None of this affects my relationship with Bill. I feel very fortunate to have two people in my life whom I can love in very different ways.
...but I suppose that my feeling low for a few weeks after Wim's departure was not entirely surprising. There is no one in this country with whom I really have this kind of musical relationship, and music is such a fundamental part of my existence, even though I seldom perform professionally any more.
My landscaper has finished the first stage of the remodeling of our garden. All three perennial beds have been reduced to a dark brown, deeply cultivated tabula rasa, awaiting next spring's complete replanting. The holes for the fruit trees are ready, the bed for the raspberries has been dug, ditto for the asparagus and currants, and four raised beds are ready for vegetables and cutting flowers....
I found a grafted tree of my favorite apple, Schone van Boskoop, at the local Ciderfest this past weekend and I have heeled it in, awaiting planting in a few months.
A few beautiful men have floated across my field of vision, but I still think that most of the Boston locals are hideous. The institutionalization of the 'bear culture' has produced a small army of out of shape men who think that they can balance it all with a goatee and a piercing or two. Sorry, guys....it's not about being fat, it's about not buying into the blond, hairless, boy-worshipping commercial gay culture...but what am I saying? The bear thing has become commercialized too. O Amerika, was bist Du wunderlich.......
Having a lovely time working on "Dichterliebe" with my pianist Geoff.
Have put up 12 jars of peach preserves, 10 jars of crabapple jelly, 10 of damson preserves, and canned several quarts of applesauce....the harvest marches on.
None of this affects my relationship with Bill. I feel very fortunate to have two people in my life whom I can love in very different ways.
...but I suppose that my feeling low for a few weeks after Wim's departure was not entirely surprising. There is no one in this country with whom I really have this kind of musical relationship, and music is such a fundamental part of my existence, even though I seldom perform professionally any more.
My landscaper has finished the first stage of the remodeling of our garden. All three perennial beds have been reduced to a dark brown, deeply cultivated tabula rasa, awaiting next spring's complete replanting. The holes for the fruit trees are ready, the bed for the raspberries has been dug, ditto for the asparagus and currants, and four raised beds are ready for vegetables and cutting flowers....
I found a grafted tree of my favorite apple, Schone van Boskoop, at the local Ciderfest this past weekend and I have heeled it in, awaiting planting in a few months.
A few beautiful men have floated across my field of vision, but I still think that most of the Boston locals are hideous. The institutionalization of the 'bear culture' has produced a small army of out of shape men who think that they can balance it all with a goatee and a piercing or two. Sorry, guys....it's not about being fat, it's about not buying into the blond, hairless, boy-worshipping commercial gay culture...but what am I saying? The bear thing has become commercialized too. O Amerika, was bist Du wunderlich.......
Having a lovely time working on "Dichterliebe" with my pianist Geoff.
Have put up 12 jars of peach preserves, 10 jars of crabapple jelly, 10 of damson preserves, and canned several quarts of applesauce....the harvest marches on.