Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Magic and Mystery


I can't believe it has been so long since I wrote here! I have been keeping busy and by the time free time comes around, well, I fall asleep. So, today is the first chance that I've had during daylight hours to take some time to update.

It snowed a bit New Year's Eve Day but had stopped in time to get most of the roads and walkways cleaned up for Rockport's New Year celebration. I did my usual volunteering at our church, which was listed as venue number 8 of 15. Each location was host to 3 double performances. The first two sets at the church were the Bullock Brothers, a super gospel group. I was secretly hoping that they would perform His Eye Is On The Sparrow. The first 45 minute set finished up with no Sparrow. Oh well, I supposed that I could have requested it. Then after a half hour of the second set... they sang it! Magic. As the Bullock Brothers finished up, I noticed some rather strangely dressed folks waiting near the door behind me. Oh, they must be the next act, The Jolly Rogues. Yep, as the Bullock Brothers packed up The Jolly Rogues set up. I stayed for most of the first set. Quite good, but not my thing. Three pre-teen girls sitting with their grandmother (possibly) looked thoroughly bored. I headed for another location in town to hear the Maple Sugar Jazz Band. 45 minutes of Dixieland and Big Band jazz. That's when he appeared. Taking a seat nearly in front of me was a tall, very white-haired gentleman. He wore a long dark woolen overcoat and had a knit, piano keyboard scarf around his neck. He sat quietly appreciating the music of the band, paying particular attention to solo parts of the piano player. After the set was finished, he walked up front to chat with the band members. I know this man from somewhere but I can't figure it out. Who is that mystery man? As best as I can think of, it could be a customer. I'm not sure.

I finished my evening back at our church with two wonderful sets performed by Stambandet, a Scandanavian vocal ensemble, who's twelve members sang traditional holiday music in Swedish, Finnish, and Latin.

That's how I finished off 2009. And now it's on to 2010. A dangerous year at least in number. 1809 was the last year and we won't have another like it until 2211.

6 comments:

mary said...

And in your "spare" time you have been shoveling!

Glad you got to go to another venue on New Year's Eve and maybe you'll see the mystery man around town. I love that he had a scarf with a keyboard design. I'll be on the lookout and if I see someone with such a scarf, I'll ask him to identify himself!

Bernard said...

I thought you may have gone away for a rest or to visit relations...or beavering away downstairs on the piano player.
Hey, I like the idea of a knitted piano keyboard scarf. Where do we get one?

deb said...

Well, yes shoveling and also I've reorganized the shop. I got a nice, heavy duty shelving unit for Christmas and liked it so much I went out and bought two more. That then meant taking apart all those old, spare, piano and player actions (guts) and boxing up the parts, labeling them and then neatly shelving all the boxes. Which then led to reorganizing the already boxed stuff, and on and on.

There is a catalog of all music stuff and I'm sure the scarves are available there. I can't remember the catalog name, though. I was thinking that I should get one for next year. Then if I saw Mr. Distinguishedpianoplayer I could start the conversation about his scarf influence and maybe find out just who he is!

deb said...

Oh yeah, forgot to add - I've been around, blog reading, just not any time for writing or commenting.

dickiebo said...

You've got us all at it, Deb! Using our 'contacts' to try and discover the identity of Mr.Wonderful. He, he, he!
Probably a redundant pianny tech! lol.

deb said...

Well, I don't know about wonderful.

Just one of those things that bugs the daylight out of me.