Roger O Green

Yes, it snows in Albany in March

Reading in the dark

Some folks became distraught when the forecast suggested a four-letter word starting with S on Saturday. But it snows in Albany in March, even after the vernal equinox. We got maybe three or four inches, c. 8 cm. It wasn’t a big deal because we had received less than two feet all season. OR SO I THOUGHT.

Some folks north of Albany, and especially in Vermont, got hammered with from a foot to close to three feet. THEY can complain!

My initial annoyance was that there was virtually no snow, just rain. Because of an error in construction, our sidewalk puddles greatly. Walking past our house, one needed waders. Did you ever try to shovel rain?

Fortunately, the precipitation turned to snow, and I was able to shovel the heavy mess. I am very good at removing snow; I do not create a shovelwidth-wide path.

That’s the night the lights went out in Albany

More inconvenient was that the power went out shortly after 5 pm. I discovered that my bedroom is the best place to read before dark. Not only does it have a western exposure, but the backyard is sufficiently large.

So I did what I do too infrequently: I finished the last 30 pages of one book and read the first 30 pages of another.

Several years ago, I purchased Eco-I-Lite, a “rechargeable & ready emergency flashlight… for when the power goes out.” For some reason, someone had unplugged it, and the parts—the plug and flashlight—disappeared into two different boxes. Fortunately, I found both sections in late February and plugged them into the wall. It was handy.

Kellogg’s CEO recently opined that poor families should eat cold cereal for dinner. This comment rightly received a lot of pushback, as “cereal prices have risen 28% over the last four years.” That night, I DID have cereal for dinner, but it was the combo of General Mills and Post cereals. My wife chose cold pizza instead. Dinner by candlelight; how romantic.

The power returned at 9:26 p.m. I know this because the DVR started recording the figure skating my wife wanted to watch.

And then

The next day, the sidewalk was akin to an ice rink as the temperature plummeted overnight. I had to use rock salt, or whatever it is that they make for this purpose. Scraping off my wife’s car was onerous. Then she noticed this:

The severed part of the tree, fortunately, fell onto another tree rather than the house behind it, or our car, which was parked under the tree. The temperature was 20F.

After church, we checked out the arboreal destruction in Washington Park, which was extensive. Along State Street, we saw this minor example:

I theorize that the rapid temperature changes caused the water to freeze on the trees, making them vulnerable, especially the evergreens.

Now it was 35F, above freezing. As my wife drove us home, the ice that had adhered to our car roof was dislodged and rushed onto our front windshield. At the next red light, I jumped out of the car and cleared the icebergs.

The other unfortunate outcome of the weather variations was a sudden plethora of potholes in places that were not problems two days earlier. Some of them were pretty large.

So, even a four-inch snowstorm CAN be a PITA.

Sunday Stealing: after the vernal equinox

Asking Superman

The first Sunday Stealing after the vernal equinox is another WTIT: The Blog presentation.

1. If you could witness any event from history, what would it be?

The end of World War II in 1945. I’ve seen/read enough science fiction to want to make sure I don’t muck up history.

2. What do you think about conspiracy theories?

Most of them have no basis, and some are utterly absurd. So those that I consider plausible, such as JFK’s assassination, make me really uncomfortable.

3. Do you like cartoons? Do you have /had a favorite one?

I have always loved cartoons. Popeye got to eat spinach. When I was five and a half, I remember having a bloody nose so severe that I was admitted to the hospital; it was great because I got to see the Hanna-Barbera cartoons such as Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear. Later, I watched The Flinstones and the Jetsons, then the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner stable. For a few years, I watched The Simpsons. If I had to pick one, it’d be Rocky and Bullwinkle. And this doesn’t even touch on print cartoons such as Doonesbury, Nancy, and many more.

4. What did you most dislike in school times?

In grade school, the teachers checked our fingernails to ensure they were clean. Mine were rarely clean. They might have been when I left the house, but not by the time they were checked. At the time, I thought it was stupid. In retrospect, it was stupid.

Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream

5. What sounds are, in your opinion, relaxing? The sound of the sea? Traffic? Vacuum cleaner? Combine harvester on the field? Some kind of music? Birds singing?

White noise, vacuum cleaner.

6. What was the last thing you read?

Today’s newspaper.

7. What is one thing that has stumped you so hard you won’t ever forget it?

When I was eleven, give or take, I was walking down the street when something cracked the lens of my glasses. What WAS that? Nothing hit me, such as a pellet from a BB gun. My eye was unharmed.

8. What are you interested in that most people aren’t?

The US Secretaries of State who became President: Jefferson was Secretary of State under Washington, Madison under Jefferson, Monroe under Madison, JQ Adams under Monroe, Van Buren under Jackson, Buchanan under Polk, and H. Clinton under Obama—wait, that last one didn’t happen.

9. What’s something you really resent paying for?

I think the American method of tipping is weird, and I wish the workers were better paid. I’d rather pay more for the service.

10. If you could choose a different time period and place to be born, when and where would it be?

I have no magical “better time” in mind. I think of technological and medical advances that I appreciate.

Man of Steel

11. What’s one question you would ask Superman?

Why don’t you end the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, et al?

12. What’s your favorite smell? What’s your least favorite smell?

I love lilacs. I hate rotten eggs.

13. How do you feel about cars becoming fully autonomous and having no steering wheel, breaks, or accelerators?

I’m in favor of the idea. The technology is not there yet.

14. What are your favorite books and authors?

I have a whole bunch of Marvel Masterworks, many from the 1960s. So Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Stan Lee. (I’ve answered this question a few times, and I’m trying to give a new response.)

15. Have you had a reading or palm reading done?

Probably, but it was not anything I put any stock into.

The obscure Supremes albums

inroads

I started thinking about the obscure Supremes albums partly because Diana Ross is turning 80 on March 26, and the late Mary Wilson would have turned 80 on March 6.

By obscure, I mean the albums that didn’t contain the hits. These recordings, at least early on, were designed to showcase the broad commercial range of the group. Yet some of the LPs did well.

I used to own many of them before they were stolen from my grandmother’s house c. 1972.

Meet The Supremes (1962) – this was obscure because they weren’t that popular yet. I didn’t buy it until after the reissue cover was used in 1965. Your Heart Belongs To Me. Did not chart pop or RB.

Where Did Our Love Go (1964) – NOT obscure, as it had three #1 hits. #2 for four weeks pop, #1 RB.

A Bit of Liverpool (1964) – It contains five Lennon-McCartney songs. You Can’t Do That is probably the best. #21 pop, #5 RB.

The Supremes Sing Country, Western, and Pop (1965) I rather liked this one. It starts with Willie Nelson’s Funny How Time Slips Away. #79 pop.

We Remember Sam Cooke (1965) – It’s one of the better-themed albums. (Ain’t That) Good News, with the late Florence Ballard on lead vocals.#75 pop, #5 RB.

More Hits by The Supremes (1965) – with two #1 hits, not obscure. #6 pop, ##2 for six weeks RB.

Merry Christmas (1965) – I never owned this album, but tracks appeared on Motown compilation albums. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Me. #6 Xmas

Live!

The Supremes at the Copa (1965) – a live album. “Playing the club was seen by Motown CEO Berry Gordy as an in-roads into the conservative white middle-America market.” It wasn’t my cuppa. Put on a Happy Face. #11 pop, #2 RB.

I Hear a Symphony (1966) – While a hit-laden album, it also contained standards such as Stranger In Paradise.

The Supremes A’ Go-Go (1966) – the album went to #1 pop for two weeks, the first album by an all-female group to reach number one on the Billboard 200 album charts. #1 for four weeks RB.

The Supremes Sing Holland–Dozier–Holland (1967). – a silly title in that they sang a lot of H-D-H at the time. It contains two of my favorite non-hit tracks by the group, Remove This Doubt and Going Down For The Third Time. #6 pop, #1 for three weeks RB

The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart (1967) – When my albums were stolen, this one survived. Perhaps it was dropped. I learned to appreciate the composers’ work and its import because I initially heard those songs here. Mountain Greenery.#20 pop, #3 RB.

Diana Ross and the…

At this point, Florence Ballard left the group, Cindy Birdsong joined, and Diana Ross got top billing.

Reflections (1968). #18 pop, #3 RB.

Diana Ross & the Supremes Sing and Perform “Funny Girl” (1968). This album, which I never owned, was a commercial failure.#150 pop, #45 RB.

Live at London’s Talk of the Town (1968) – released the same day as Funny Girl, with a combination of standards and Supremes hits. This is not THE recording of You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You, but it has elements. #57 pop, #22 RB.

Diana Ross & the Supremes Join the Temptations (1968) – this worked, with a #2 hit. The first song is Try It, Baby, a Berry Gordy song originally performed by Marvin Gaye. #2 pop, #1 for four weeks RB.

Love Child (1968) Increasingly, Mary and Cindy were supplanted by Motown session singers The Andantes. #14 pop, #3 RB.

Let the Sunshine In (1969) – the commercial and artistic decline. #24 pop, #7 RB.

Together (with The Temptations) (1969) – I own the LP, but nothing sticks out in my mind. #28 pop, #6 RB.

Cream of the Crop (1969) – didn’t buy. #33 pop, #3 RB

G.I.T. on Broadway (1969) – a TV special with Temptation. Eh. #38 pop, #4 RB.

Farewell (1970) – the live farewell at a Las Vegas club, where Jean Terrell was introduced as Diana’s replacement as DR went solo. It’s a good place to stop. #46 pop, #31 RB.

Why do we remember some things but not others?

Photographs and memories

My friend asked a question on Facebook that was very interesting to me:

Why do we remember some things but not others? I often pull up memories of my growing up but not memories of my life as an adult. It’s not as though I don’t remember things about my adulthood at all. It’s just that my memories of growing up seem more colorful and formative and stand out more. What do you think? I am looking for your insight. How is it for you?

I had this photo album when I was a kid. It was red. I would put pictures of my family and friends in it. It’s why I “remember” going to the Catskill Game Farm when I was three and a half. In truth, I don’t recall it at all, but I remember the picture.

I was in Cub Scouts when I was about eight. Photos remind me that Bill D. and David D. were in my group. I remember that Ray was there, but that was easy because his mom was our den mother.

But that red book is long gone. I have few pictures of my classmates and me in elementary school, except for a handful my old friends have shared.

JFK

Do I remember November 22, 1963, because it was so traumatizing or because my friends and I reminded each other with stories? I misremembered that my friend Karen was in that classroom, maybe because she was almost ALWAYS there.

My sister Leslie and I were involved in an altercation when I was 11, and she was 10, give or take two years. But she misremembered that it was between her and our baby sister Marcia, who was five years younger than I. She held on to this belief until a couple of years ago.

I remember high school better than elementary school, partly because of high school yearbook photos. I was also student government president, so there were a few memorable events.

As indicated in this blog, 1972 was a memorable year for me. So were 1974, 1977 (living in four different cities) and 1978. The same is true of later years. The year 1990, when I quit Empire Blue Cross, worked the Census, and started library school, is embossed in my mind.

In 1998, I took a vacation and appeared on JEOPARDY, among other highlights. I got married in 1999, and our daughter was born in 2004. Those things and events around it, I remember.

The blog as a memory aid

What’s helped me since 2005 is this here blog. Writing it down has helped in a manner that tweeting or a quick Facebook post does not. It’s not that I always remember stuff; after about seven thousand posts, I’ve noticed that I can even forget that I blogged about something. (This is why I usually write about people on their 70th birthday instead of their 58th so that I won’t replicate my efforts.)

In general, I remember things that I attach to numbers. I know I went to the Lucy-Desi Museum, the Pro Football, and the Rock and Roll Halls of Fame in 2016 because the international Olin family reunions have been in years ending in 1 and 6.

Conversely, something that seems ephemeral dashes right out of my head. I remember three items I needed at the grocery store but not four. This is why Allah created the shopping list.

Like many people, keeping track of dates has been mucked up by COVID-19. Things are before COVID or after COVID.

What do you tend to remember, and what will you forget?

The 25th annual sweat seasons

Sweat at Cap Rep and more

My wife and I saw a play, a musical, and a concert in eight days.

March 9: The drama Sweat at Capital Rep in Albany. ” This stunning Pulitzer Prize-winning play exposes the devastating impact of the loss of work in America’s Rust Belt circa 2000. Based on interviews with residents of Reading, Pennsylvania, Lynn Nottage brings her breathtaking storytelling to characters and situations that have become far too recognizable in the heart of de-industrialized America. “

From Nottage’s page: “Her play moved to Broadway [in 2017] after a sold-out run at The Public Theater… Inspired by her research on Sweat, Nottage developed This is Reading, a performance installation based on two years of interviews at the Franklin Street, Reading Railroad Station in Reading, PA, in July 2017.”

The Times Union’s Steve Barnes loved it. “The nine-member cast, under the accomplished direction of Margaret E. Hall, connects so intimately with their characters and the audience that we’re ground down alongside them, albeit with the remove of fiction, as financial turmoil ruins life, family bonds, and decades-long friendships in Rust Belt America while the Bush-Gore 2000 election unfolds.”

Sweat is about labor and the threat of exported jobs, ethnic bias, and the good old days. It’s playing through March 31 and is well worth your while.

Can you spell…

March 10: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was performed at Albany High School. The musical has been around for almost two decades, yet I had never seen it in any iteration.

As the Wikipedia page notes, “An unusual aspect of the show is that four real audience members are invited on stage to compete in the spelling bee alongside the six young characters.”

It was hilarious but also touching, especially as the number of spellers was winnowed down and the kids acknowledged the stress of the bee. There were only three performances, and we caught the final performance.

The Albany school district page noted that “some of the show’s content may not be suitable for young children.” Probably true.

We had to go because one of our church attendees was a speller, and also Jesus. Albany High often has high-quality productions, and this continued the trend.

Here’s the Broadway cast album of the musical.

Bermel

March 16: That day, my wife and I picked up our daughter from college for spring break, then promptly abandoned her so that we could attend the Albany Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductor David Alan Miller. It took place at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.

We got the tickets from a woman at church and her husband who had another engagement. The first surprise: they have box seats! They’re kind of neat. Among other things, I can see that the music for the strings stage right of the conductor was mostly traditional, but two of them used electronic devices.

The first piece was Murmurations by Derek Bermel. The composer explained that a murmuration is a noun plural for a flock of starlings, which sometimes fly in unison and at other times move independent of the group. And the music does the same. Here’s the Gathering at Gretna Gardens and Gliding Over Algiers and Swarming Rome, recorded six years ago.

Esmail

The second piece is The History of Red by Reena Esmail. She says: “The first time I heard Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, it changed my life. I was fourteen years old, and as I sat under the stars at the beautiful Ford Theater on a summer night in in Los Angeles with my parents, I completely identified with the voice of the child who narrates the text of the piece – so aware of the huge, complex world that I was seeing, even through young eyes. Just trying to parse it all. I can pinpoint that one performance as a pivotal moment in my decision to be a musician. I just wanted be someone who could create that kind of beauty.

“The History of Red is borne from the same bones as Knoxville: it is also a large-scale work for soprano and chamber orchestra (intentionally written for the same instrumentation), where the singer grapples with the world around her. And yet it is different — Linda Hogan’s beautiful text is clearly the voice of an adult woman, aware not only of her own current world, but of the entire, complex history of her ancestors. Perhaps that is why her words instantly grabbed me — at this time in the world, when we are each grappling with our own complicated, intertwined histories, her journey felt so resonant to me.”

The soprano at ASO was Molly Netter. Here’s Kathryn Mueller singing from 2021. It may take another listen for me to really warm up to it.

Vivaldi

In the pre-concert talk, David Alan Miller made an interesting parallel. He and the orchestra work closely with so many living composers, working through the best way to actualize the intent of composer and musicians. But, he claims, it happens with dead musicians as well. It’s almost like seance.

It helped that they were able to access older bows and traditional strings. Four young violinists each played a season of Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: Ravenna Lipchuk, Amelia Sie, Shelby Yamin, and Edson Scheid. The musical dialogue between solo violins and cellist were wonderful; at least one fiddler turned to face the cellist, like I’ve seen a couple rock guitarists do. It may an old chestnut, but it was a good one, and it’s better live.

Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons. Voices of Music, Freivogel, Moore, Youssefian.