Ear Protection Season

One of our neighbors converts his mower/tractor to a leaf picker upper in the Fall. He sucks up the leaves and makes an incredible racket but he complains about his neighbor who takes every opportunity to get out there with his gas powered leaf blower to keep his lawn spotless while surrounded by woods. And there I am up on the roof with our electric blower. I wear headphones with no cords coming out of them to cancel the noise. They pretty much silence the world except the ringing in my ears.

Pete Monacelli is my favorite drummer in Rochester. He has a gentle touch and he is at home on just a snare if need be. He plays three times a week in three different groups but his favorite gig is the one he does on Sunday evenings at the Beale. This guitar-less quartet plays standards and swing. Ethan Lyons plays tenor, Mike Patric plays bass and Gian Carbone from John Coles Blues Band plays piano. We stopped by last night with Jeff and Mary Kaye and ordered three servings of collard greens . They came with pork in them and Peggi and were the only ones who would eat that. I brought the rest home but it didn’t look too good this morning. The band sounded really great and Custom Brew Craft’s IPA was nice.

At nine we checked out the Compline at Christ Church. I had never heard the word compline before but I trusted Jeff’s intuition that this might be good. The compline was originated in the fourth century as a monastic custom of devotion before retiring and it is now described as a service to the community where art and liturgy are seamlessly interwoven. With all of the beautiful reverb in this hall I would say the art easily outweighed the liturgy. OK, I did recognize the English language Lord’s Prayer but the rest was something beyond words. The candle light service was about forty five minutes long and was closer to meditation than performance. The choral group, made up of parishioners as well as faculty and students of the Eastman School of Music, specialize in Renaissance and Baroque music so the weekly program changes. This could become a habit for us.

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