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maeve66The second is the random topic; the first is what was crossing my mind. If Diwali/Deepavali is November 13-17th this year, why are all the Bay Area Diwali melas already over AS OF TODAY? WTF? That's not fair. Even though I feel like Whitey McWhite attending one, I can in some years get past that feeling, and enjoy wandering the food booths/craft sales part of it, or watching kids' dance troupes dance on flimsy stages, from 4 year olds to nervous middle schoolers to apparently blasé high schoolers.
As for playing the recorder as a child. I did. I never got incredibly good at it, and I didn't keep up with it, though I had vague thoughts of trying again -- with an alto recorder this time -- when I moved out to Oakland, during my first three years of pretty much solitude. It still didn't take, though.
My mom was really into me playing the recorder*, and there is a photo of me doing so with a Dorothy Hamill haircut she literally forced me to get, around age 12. I hated that haircut so much I refused to go to school the Monday afterwards. Luckily, the shorter my hair is, the curlier it gets, so it defeated Dorothy Hamill in fairly short order. I wonder if I can find and scan that photo?
*I think because she and her younger star brother Peter played, too, and there was always this subtle "Maeve66 is like her dead uncle Peter" myth; they both love French and majored in it in college; they both loved history as taught by Marxists, and took it in grad school; they both read and enjoyed Molière; they both played recorder! None of which I knew until way, way later as an adult. Peter offed himself when I was two. Bi-Polar, as they say now. Not diagnosed. Not on meds. A fucking shame; he sounded like a very cool person.
As for playing the recorder as a child. I did. I never got incredibly good at it, and I didn't keep up with it, though I had vague thoughts of trying again -- with an alto recorder this time -- when I moved out to Oakland, during my first three years of pretty much solitude. It still didn't take, though.
My mom was really into me playing the recorder*, and there is a photo of me doing so with a Dorothy Hamill haircut she literally forced me to get, around age 12. I hated that haircut so much I refused to go to school the Monday afterwards. Luckily, the shorter my hair is, the curlier it gets, so it defeated Dorothy Hamill in fairly short order. I wonder if I can find and scan that photo?
*I think because she and her younger star brother Peter played, too, and there was always this subtle "Maeve66 is like her dead uncle Peter" myth; they both love French and majored in it in college; they both loved history as taught by Marxists, and took it in grad school; they both read and enjoyed Molière; they both played recorder! None of which I knew until way, way later as an adult. Peter offed himself when I was two. Bi-Polar, as they say now. Not diagnosed. Not on meds. A fucking shame; he sounded like a very cool person.