Man With Sign, September 5, 02024

It's very pleasant here this Thursday morning — cool but not cold, sunny but not glaring, breezy but not gusty. And I'm tired but pleasantly so as I walk up to Roosevelt Circle at 7:31, greet Craige, set up my big sign, and hold up THINK IN EONS — ACT NOW for the temporal edification of the morning commute.

Do they like it? Do they care? Mostly I don't know, because I'm leaning on the guardrail with my sign, eyes either fully or mostly closed. Yesterday I taught the first class of the semester, and really pushed myself pretty hard...and then followed it with a performance at the NEC faculty showcase. So I can be forgiven for not paying too much attention to the drivers of the day.

I'm not practicing Jaijaivanti either, as the past two days were essentially preparation for yesterday evening. Instead I generate a four-note pattern starting with the leap of a fourth: SMRG, RPGM, GDMP, etc., reversing for the descent: SPND, NMDP, DGPM, etc. Most Hindustani melody is built from adjacent tones or skips, so the leap makes for a good technical workout.

Equally important is the (mostly internal) application of sargam. Keeping the note-names uppermost in my mind while singing the pattern in an open vowel helps solidify the relationships, and certain of the cells are — for wholly mysterious reasons — more "accident-prone" than others. The descending G-N fourth, for example. Why this one? Damfino.

I sing the patterns up and down from the bottom C, going as high as the B almost three octaves above, but mostly peaking at the A. I'm not using a metronome, preferring instead to allow the line to breathe a bit. Tomorrow — my musical masochism demanding it — I'll turn on the click and regiment the hell outta this thing, but today it's just relaxed, speeding up and slowing down as the moment suggests.

At 8:22 I make my video, then retune the tamboura and walk back to stand with Craige as we do an almost completely error-free version of "How Can I Keep From Singing?" His voice is clear and steady, and mine is a little raspy but focused. Neither of us forgets any words or botches anything significant. Yay us. We're done, it's 8:29, and I return to my post and wind up for the day.

Today is an easier day, with a few students and a small woodworking job on the agenda — a nice break in the routine. Of course, when there's free time, I'll fill it with postcards and letters, with the usual daily work of someone who apparently doesn't really know how to slow down. At least until Election Day. I remember 2016, and we are not gonna let that happen again, are we?

See you tomorrow.

Man With Sign