![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblog...and in the middle, a pot of coffee. I saw this note next to it after I got out to the kitchen at 7-something this morning; Eleanor had made the pot, taken a sip, decided, nope, and went back to sleep:
I replied, when she did reappear, that if that hadn't been next to the coffee, I might have mistaken it for pure existentialism. That has long been an interest of mine, after all:
Sorry about that.
----
Anyway, the look back comes after I posted memories, from me and a very old friend, about last week marking 40 years since Harry Chapin died. Another friend, who I've known almost as long, also posted about it this morning. Mark Rust was a regular folk performer in Ithaca when I lived there, and after moving back downstate after we both moved on, he's still come back there, and even here, in the years since and we've reconnected. I did not remember that he'd done a song not long after Chapin's 1981 passing called "I Remember Harry," but somebody at the BBC did. Mark's tribute was the first song heard on this extended Radio Three programme that aired over the weekend. This is a realtime recording, including "travel" reports, and the Harry portion begins with Mark's song at 1:04 or so of the audio, but it runs for almost the entire remaining hour of the show. It includes many of Harry's full-length songs with context around them from archive recordings of the singer and from an extended interview with his brother Tom. It also promotes the documentary I mentioned the other day, as well as a livestream tonight from City Winery that Tom, Jen and other members of the Chapin family are doing as a benefit for WHYHUNGER, the cause he made his life's work up to literally the moment of his death.
Alas, I will miss that stream, because I'm going to be going across the imaginary border for the final time tonight....
----
That's the message left on the third base dugout from the Blue Jays, who tonight begin their final series as castaways here on Buffalo's Island. The Canadian government announced last week that they were approving the team's return to their home and native land as of their next scheduled home series beginning July 30. That set in motion a number of plans. The final two sets of games, the previous three against Texas and the remaining three against the Red Sox, would be the final ones played here. Then the Bisons need a few weeks to de-Torontoify the grounds. It's not just the signage but the conversion of temporary visiting clubhouse and other back-area facilities to AAA use. The bigger improvements to the field, the lighting and the home club facilities will happily remain. Then our usual home team, which has played a schizophrenic existence all year- as the "Trenton Thunder" in Joisey for home games and in their Buffalo Bison greys on the road- will resume their home schedule at home in August.
I'd picked and purchased for tonight's Toronto-Boston game as soon as this homestand went on sale, and had an extra ticket in hopes my college roommate might be able to make it here. Instead, I'm treating our neighbor Glenn, a New England transplant (by way of other places) who has been an immense help in guiding Eleanor through a lot of the renovation process. When the walls are done, he will be completely on the job helping with the floor work, but this is just my thank you to him for the ideas and encouragement. Unlike my previous visit where Jays fans were clearly in the plurality, everybody expects the Yahd to be full of Red Sox Nation-als tonight, with the occasional neutral Mets fan mixed in. I'll be in orange and blue gear, trying one more time to find the poutine and Conehead, and warming up my pipes for an eighth inning serenade of "Sweet Caroline." Weather looks good, and it better stay that way, because a rainoot means not a future game here or Up North but just a refund of the tickets.
How existential would THAT be?
I replied, when she did reappear, that if that hadn't been next to the coffee, I might have mistaken it for pure existentialism. That has long been an interest of mine, after all:
Sorry about that.
----
Anyway, the look back comes after I posted memories, from me and a very old friend, about last week marking 40 years since Harry Chapin died. Another friend, who I've known almost as long, also posted about it this morning. Mark Rust was a regular folk performer in Ithaca when I lived there, and after moving back downstate after we both moved on, he's still come back there, and even here, in the years since and we've reconnected. I did not remember that he'd done a song not long after Chapin's 1981 passing called "I Remember Harry," but somebody at the BBC did. Mark's tribute was the first song heard on this extended Radio Three programme that aired over the weekend. This is a realtime recording, including "travel" reports, and the Harry portion begins with Mark's song at 1:04 or so of the audio, but it runs for almost the entire remaining hour of the show. It includes many of Harry's full-length songs with context around them from archive recordings of the singer and from an extended interview with his brother Tom. It also promotes the documentary I mentioned the other day, as well as a livestream tonight from City Winery that Tom, Jen and other members of the Chapin family are doing as a benefit for WHYHUNGER, the cause he made his life's work up to literally the moment of his death.
Alas, I will miss that stream, because I'm going to be going across the imaginary border for the final time tonight....
----
That's the message left on the third base dugout from the Blue Jays, who tonight begin their final series as castaways here on Buffalo's Island. The Canadian government announced last week that they were approving the team's return to their home and native land as of their next scheduled home series beginning July 30. That set in motion a number of plans. The final two sets of games, the previous three against Texas and the remaining three against the Red Sox, would be the final ones played here. Then the Bisons need a few weeks to de-Torontoify the grounds. It's not just the signage but the conversion of temporary visiting clubhouse and other back-area facilities to AAA use. The bigger improvements to the field, the lighting and the home club facilities will happily remain. Then our usual home team, which has played a schizophrenic existence all year- as the "Trenton Thunder" in Joisey for home games and in their Buffalo Bison greys on the road- will resume their home schedule at home in August.
I'd picked and purchased for tonight's Toronto-Boston game as soon as this homestand went on sale, and had an extra ticket in hopes my college roommate might be able to make it here. Instead, I'm treating our neighbor Glenn, a New England transplant (by way of other places) who has been an immense help in guiding Eleanor through a lot of the renovation process. When the walls are done, he will be completely on the job helping with the floor work, but this is just my thank you to him for the ideas and encouragement. Unlike my previous visit where Jays fans were clearly in the plurality, everybody expects the Yahd to be full of Red Sox Nation-als tonight, with the occasional neutral Mets fan mixed in. I'll be in orange and blue gear, trying one more time to find the poutine and Conehead, and warming up my pipes for an eighth inning serenade of "Sweet Caroline." Weather looks good, and it better stay that way, because a rainoot means not a future game here or Up North but just a refund of the tickets.
How existential would THAT be?
Oh my, oh my...
Date: 2021-07-20 09:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-20 02:34 pm (UTC)