Now our song is jazz. Agitated, hectic jazz is our music. And the hot, crazed, lunatic song through which the drum rushes along, catty and scratching. And sometimes once again the old sentimental soldiers’ bawling, with which they drowned out adversity and rejected their mothers . . . Our whooping and our music are a dance above the abyss that gapes at us . . . Because our hearts and our brains have the same rhythm of hot and cold: agitated, crazed, and hectic, uninhibited. And our girls have the same hot pulse in hands and hips. And their laughter is hoarse and brittle and clarinet-hard. And their hair that crackles like phosphorus. That burns. And their hearts beating in syncophation, wistfully wild.
an excerpt from This is Our Manifesto, by Wolfgang Borchert, p. 95 of Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945 – 1955
For her “four colors or more” post, she will focus on food presentation! Maybe that’s because in her current read, A Woman in Berlin, food is front and center on every page. It’s April 1945, and the citizens of Berlin are starving.
As she reads, self is constantly reminded how lucky she is, despite everything.
During her most recent visit to San Luis Obispo, a few months ago, she decided to look for an old favorite: Thai–rrific on Higuera. She was so happy to find that it had survived!
Summer concerts in Stafford Park were a quintessential part of self’s summer for over 30 years. Then, the pandemic happened. This year, the concerts came back! YES! And with them, a taco truck. Self tried the lengua taco. Dee-lish!
Here’s what host Travel Words says about the colours selected for the November Life in Colour challenge:
This month we will be looking for Black or Grey. Black is not a colour at all. Theoretically it is the absence of all colour. Yet black is distinctive. Lines are bolder, shadows deeper, colours brighter against a black background.
Two nights ago, she and a friend attended a free concert in Stafford Park. The series was suspended last year, this year it’s back with a vengeance. The day before, a mask mandate had been issued for all San Francisco Bay Area counties, whether you were vaccinated or un-vaccinated. No one was thinking of that — it was summer, people were dancing to “September” and other Motown hits. The weather was perfect, the Optimist Club was there, selling hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and soda. The energy was infectious.
The latest issue of Pembroke Magazine is a beauty. Cover art is Creative Work Cow by Indian artist Chhavi Sharma. Self has a story in this issue: “Sand.” The editor asked if self could pose with a copy of the issue, preferably in a tropical setting (since her story’s set in the Philippines). She promised a beach picture. Watch this space!
Cheap Thrills is a vintage vinyl store on Higuera in downtown San Luis Obispo. Recommended by a friend who is very into vintage vinyl. This was such a great find. Look at that great storefront!
Not sure how old she was here: perhaps in her 40s?
Self’s desktop this month is Dearest Mum, wearing traditional Filipino formal attire (the scoop back, the butterfly sleeves) at her beloved piano.
Her name was NENA DEL ROSARIO. A graduate of Curtis Music Institute in Philadelphia (which she entered at 11), she won the New York Times International Piano Competition at 14, played twice at Carnegie Hall, passed away 4 June 2021. Long, hard fight: she got covid in Manila in March.
A friend brought these from her garden when she heard about Dearest Mum.
I’m also posting for Cee Neuner’s Flower of the Day (FOTD) Challenge.
Three years after her first appearance in Carnegie Hall, Dearest Mum played there again, for the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concert, Main Hall, 5 January 1952. She was just 16.
It’s been almost a year since the world stopped, plans got thrown out the window, and nothing will ever be the same.
Self thought she’d take a moment to celebrate the things that got her through the past year:
Of course, gardening. Her garden has never looked so great. Every day she watches the oxalis in her backyard get higher and higher. And she just loves it.
Second, books, and her fantastic local library and their curbside pick-up system. She’s been using it since June (Before that, she ordered many books from Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino, which is equally fantastic). Also, self would like to thank the AUTHORS of these wonderful books. When self needed to be transported to another place and time, these authors delivered:
Self would also like to thank FREE CONCERTS. The week after everything shut down, St. Bride’s in London began streaming everything. And so did St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, which used to hold free noontime concerts every Tuesday.
She would also like to thank Cal Shakes, whose summertime Shakespeare was a high point of her summer, as long as she was home in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Her first Cal Shakes was Romeo and Juliet. ADAM SCOTT PLAYED ROMEO. Sold!!!) A few days ago, she got a message that they would mount ONE live production this summer (Dates to be announced), with appropriate social distancing, of course: Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.
Also, FaceTime. Self has actually learned to FaceTime with Dearest Mum. It’s been so great.
And The Economist, which managed to come every week (every two weeks lately, since DeJoy destroyed the USPS)
Finally, she’d like to thank her favorite TV shows, because she’d never have gotten through without them: The Expanse (closing with Season 6), Peaky Blinders (closing with Season 6), The Crown.
A big hand also for Trader Joe’s, for being most sanitary of all the different supermarkets she’s shopped in.
Her favorite musical guests from last night’s Inauguration Concert: the original cast of Rent; The Foo Fighters; John Legend; Demi Lovato; Tim McGraw; Jon Bon Jovi.
The sentence of the day is as follows:
If you are promoting a culture of candor on your team, you have to get rid of the jerks.
— No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention, by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer, p. 34
Corollary, or Sentence # 2: Jerks are likely to rip your organization apart from the inside.
Kanlaon 