Bringing back the music

Jewish tradition recognizes the period following the loss of a close relative as a time for introspection and separation from many of the ordinary little joys of life. Following the initial week of shiva, the length of the period depends on the relative in question and is traditionally defined as one month for siblings, spouses, and children, and one year for parents. These days, when many of us will live to become grandparents and even great grandparents, this may seem a bit counterintuitive. To our sensibilities, the loss of a child seems far more painful than the loss of an aging parent. But maybe that is just the point: a parent never really does stop mourning the loss of a child.

I mention this only because Barry just completed the year of mourning following the death of his mother, so we are once again able to surround ourselves with the music we so enjoy. We stopped for drinks and a little jazz a couple of nights ago, and on Sunday we went to a concert at the Merkin Concert Hall, a small venue that is part of the Kaufman Music Center on the Upper West Side. We ordered the tickets on the phone to make sure we were purchasing accessible seats, and although the web site seemed to suggest otherwise, the person on the phone insisted that “all seats in the auditorium are accessible.”  Turned out this was not true. Fortunately, perhaps because of the weather, there were a number of empty seats in what were in fact accessible rows, and we were able to take two of these just before the concert began. I have sent a letter to the venue to suggest that they need to be careful to provide more accurate information to their audience.

There were three pieces, none of them familiar to us, each introduced by one of the musicians with clear enthusiasm for the works.

MAURER  -  Concertante for Four Violins
RAVEL  -  Piano Trio
BRAHMS  -  Piano Quartet in C minor

The web site describes it well:

“An Ensembles concert provides an intimate connection between musician and audience. Hear the individual talents that make up the orchestra. Experience the passion and personality of the performers. And see how a small setting can make for a huge musical event.”

This weekend, we also saw the movie “Paterson.”  This is a touching story about a young man, Paterson (Adam Driver) who is impossible to categorize: he is a city bus driver in Paterson, New Jersey, who shuns modern conveniences and writes poetry in a small notebook. The poetry tends to be about rather mundane topics, including one about a box of matches:

Currently, our favorite brand is Ohio Blue Tip (which come in) boxes with dark and light blue and white labels (each with a) one-and-a-half-inch soft pine stem

Somehow, Paterson makes this sound almost spiritual. His girlfriend, Laura (Golshifteh Farahani) is an artistic free spirit who paints, bakes and decorates cupcakes, and is learning to play the guitar. It is a quiet and thoughtful movie, nothing earth-shattering but soothing and enjoyable.

We stopped yesterday at a local optician so that I could fill a new eyeglass prescription. We parked behind a car with this rather odd license plate:

Hopefully this is a reference to the car rather than the driver! Either way, it is a bit disconcerting to think about what possessed the owner to order this particular specialty plate. We do not have a specialty plate, but just by luck we have a license number that we can remember because, although just a string of numbers, 617473, if said just right it tells our story:

6/17 (Barry’s birthday) 4 (for) ’73 (the year we were married)

Clever, huh?

Love,

Rebecca