Why they are here

Yesterday was the last class on female singer-songwriters, with the subject being Carole King. This session really drove home to me the significant age range in the group: I am 10-20 years younger than all the other students. So although they were somewhat familiar with the more well-known material, none of them shared my passion for or knowledge of Carole King. After discussing her long career as a songwriter and her reluctant transition to performer, the instructor focused on her best-known album, “Tapestry,” with brief mention her earlier albums, “The City” and “Writer.” He then moved on to the next two albums, “Music” and “Rhymes and Reasons.”

Since he had lectured on Joni Mitchell last week, it was natural to compare and contrast the two. Joni Mitchell’s songs tend to be serious, with more complex music and lyrics. Carole King exudes joy, generosity of spirit, and warmth. No one could describe her music or lyrics as complex or ambiguous. The two women also took rather different roads in their careers. One of the criticisms that people often have of aging pop stars is that they just keep doing the same thing year after year, song after song. Joni Mitchell tried to branch out in other directions, but this did not serve her career well, and she never again received the attention she achieved in her early career. Carole King, on the other hand, is criticized for doing essentially the same thing over and over again. This is true of James Taylor as well, and in fact at a concert Barry and I attended a few years ago, he introduced a song by saying “here’s a new song, sounds pretty much like all the old songs,” which clearly resonated with his audience. He never expressed this better than in “That’s Why I’m Here,” when he sang

Oh, fortune and fame’s such a curious game,

Perfect strangers can call you by name,

Pay good money to hear “Fire and Rain”

Again and again and again.

Some are like summer, coming back every year.

Got your baby, got your blanket, got your bucket of beer.

I break into a grin from ear to ear

And suddenly it’s perfectly clear:

That’s why I’m here,

Singin’ tonight, tomorrow, and every day,

That’s why I’m standing here,

That’s why I’m here.

I may be old and boring but as far as I can tell, when someone does something as well as Carole or James do, there is just no need to change it! I am happy to continue to fill my life with their music as long as they are able to keep it coming.

Love,

Rebecca

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Our Global Kitchen Now Open

A very busy few days

We have needed some down time the last couple of days following a very hectic week. We were supposed to go up to Sharon but Barry had caught my cold and we ended up spending a very quiet weekend holed up in our Riverdale home. We played some Rummikub during Sabbath afternoon, and Barry actually won two out of three games. This may not seem particularly noteworthy, but I was actually very happy about it because it proves to me that he is no longer just letting me win, something he has consistently denied despite my doubts.

When I last left off here, Ella was about to head off with her parents to the American Girl Doll Store in Manhattan, while Barry and I were headed to Citi Field (formerly known as Shea Stadium). They had a blast! Here is Ella with her two dolls, Julie and Dahlia, taken when they were seated for lunch. Her smile tells the whole story. Next time I will definitely go with her. The reason I went to the ball game instead was that we had purchased accessible seats, so I really had to go to that.

Meanwhile, Joshua, Barry and I sat through a two hour – yes, two hour – rain delay at Citi Field. The Mets were losing and it didn’t look hopeful, so we headed out to the car during the ninth inning, as it was approaching midnight. We intended to watch the fireworks from there and then leave before the crowds, but Joshua was exhausted and asked us to just go home, so we did. We had all seen incredible fireworks at Disney World so this was not a big deal.

I may have forgotten to write about what we did on Monday. Barry and Aaron were both working, and the weather did not look too good, so Dina and I took the children to the Museum of Natural History. Of course the skies opened up to a torrential downpour just as we parked the car a few blocks away, so we spent most of the day soaking wet. But we had a great time, and we especially enjoyed the exhibit called “Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture.”

Thursday was July 4^th, and finally the weather cooperated!  Because we had gotten home from the ball game so late, we did not get off to quite as early a start as we would have liked, but we packed up a lunch and some beach towels and the six of us headed off to Jones Beach. By the time we arrived at 9:30 am, the Lot 6, the area we wanted, was full. Lot 6 has the best accommodations for handicapped visitors, including rental of beach wheelchairs. We were a bit concerned about how much walking I might have to do. But fortunately, the area where we ended up had a sort of walkway they have put along to the beach and Barry was able to push my wheelchair along that, so that I did not have to walk very far. When we arrived the beach was still not very crowded, but when we left around 1 pm it was pretty much packed and people were still pouring in – I cannot imagine where all of them squeezed in. For us, 3½ hours was more than enough of the heat and the sun. But it really was a lot of fun, and Barry has been reading about some other beaches we might try to check out on less crowded days during the coming weeks, perhaps on our drives to and from Sharon. Suggestions welcome!

We barbequed dinner and everyone went to sleep early.  Dina and Aaron left early with the children to stop at a couple of sites in southeastern Connecticut.

Meanwhile, Simmie and family have returned from two weeks in Israel. We spoke briefly last evening and we look forward to seeing them this weekend and hearing of all their adventures!

Tomorrow is my last music class, and we will be discussing Carole King. I am looking forward to this one.

Have a good week, and if you are in the northeast, try to stay cool!

Love,

Rebecca

A couple of pictures that speak a thousand words

We had a thoroughly enjoyable last few days with Joshua and Gabriella and their parents. Time does not allow me to fill in all the details right now, but these pictures tell the whole story far better than any prose I can pen. I’ll fill in with more later, but meanwhile, have a wonderful weekend.

Love,

Rebecca

The magic of music

After two weeks of missing my Tuesday evening classes, the first when we were at Disney World and the second when I was recovering from the trip, I finally made it back yesterday. I felt badly leaving Dina, Joshua, and Gabriella, but there were only two sessions left and I knew he would be covering the female singer/songwriters from the 1960s so I did not want to miss these last lectures. Dina, Joshua, and Gabriella had a fun day in The City, visiting the Central Park Zoo and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), and taking a pedicab ride near Times Square. We met for dinner at Noi Due, their first time at our favorite Upper West Side hangout. They thoroughly enjoyed it! Even Ella, who has quite discriminating taste in food, loved everything she tried. The rain held off until later in the evening, so it all worked out well.

The female singer/songwriters class was devoted entirely to the early career of Joni Mitchell. If you were born before 1960 or so you are probably quite familiar with her music. She wrote complex tunes and lyrics and sang them in a beautifully clear soprano voice while playing a guitar or dulcimer. She wrote and recorded a number of songs which were popularized by others, such as “Both Sides Now” (Judy Collins), and “Woodstock” (Crosby Stills Nash and Young). In the late 1960s and early 1970s when she was at the peak of her popularity, I enjoyed her music and owned a few albums but was never a major devotee.

Sitting in that class, brought nearly to tears hearing “Both Sides Now,” I wondered why. I am sure I struggled with her complex lyrics and melodies. I have heard her recordings often over the years but she just never “clicked” for me. But hearing them now, I found tremendous resonance. Carole King, who is the topic of the last class next week, and who has for forty some years been a central component of the music in my life, is a much simpler songwriter: a lot of good feeling, nothing too deep or mysterious. It took a long, dark, road to bring me to a place where I could finally appreciate and connect to Joni Mitchell.

Our dear friend, jazz pianist Leslie Pintchik, often thanks her audience for “lending their ears.” But we in the audience bring so much more than our ears to the music. I was never particularly fond of jazz but Leslie does something with that piano and her music that reaches out and resonates in me. The events of this past year have helped me to find new meaning in the long familiar. It is not just about our ears, but about our hearts and our souls.

We spent a lovely day with Dina and the children at the Botanical Garden. Aaron is now headed to New York, and he will be going with Dina and Ella to the American Girl store for dinner this evening. Barry and I hope to take Joshua to a Mets Game: we have the tickets but it has been raining during the past half hour. Hopefully we have seen the last of the precipitation.

If the weather holds out for tomorrow, we are hoping to do something outdoors. All my best for a happy and safe July 4^th to all!

Love,

Rebecca

A major milestone

Today is Barry’s and my fortieth wedding anniversary. When we entered our fortieth year of marriage last summer, it was not clear that we would make it to this milestone. But here we are, and I have to say it’s pretty cool.

Thinking about this, the statistician in me kicked in, and I wondered how many couples stay married for 40 years these days. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), 2008 Panel, Wave 2 Topical Module (for information on sampling and non-sampling error, see www.census.gov/sipp/sourceac/S&A08_W1toW3(S&A-12).pdf), 50% of women and 60% of men who married between 1960 and 1964 made it to their 40^th  anniversaries. More recent data is not yet available, and it is not clear whether the couples divorced before the milestone anniversary or simply did not live long enough to reach it.  Either way, since the percentage of couples making it to various milestone years appears to be decreasing over time, getting to 40 years seems to be a reasonably significant accomplishment.

Of course none of this addresses the quality of marriages. People stay together for lots of reasons: financial considerations, children, social pressures, convenience. But Barry and I have been truly blessed to be content together for these forty years. If anything, the events of this tumultuous past year have driven this point home to us more strongly than we could have ever imagined.

When my brother Joe and his wife Judy celebrated their 40^th wedding anniversary a couple of months ago, I learned that the traditional gift for that milestone is rubies, and we gave them a red crystal Waterford bud vase. Barry must have kept that in mind, and this morning he handed me a small box with a beautiful pair of ruby earrings. After he gave them to me, he told me a funny story. He shopped for this gift on one of the days he spent in his office. Barry and I share credit cards, so to keep this from me he paid cash for the earrings. The proprietor of the little Upper East Side jewelry shop was clearly unaccustomed to patrons paying with cash, and after a bit of banter Barry realized that she almost assuredly thought that he was not buying the earrings for his wife! After all, how many smart, generous, good-looking guys on the Upper East Side of Manhattan have been married to the same woman for forty years?

As we pass this milestone, we are fortunate to have our younger daughter and her children staying with us for a few fun-filled days in New York City, and grateful for the blessings bestowed upon us. Let’s hope we can make it to the half-century mark!

Love,

Rebecca