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Man With Sign, January 10, 02024
Big contrast from yesterday, I must say. It's raining with enough force that I leave behind the foam-core signs and just bring my big wood CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL to Roosevelt Circle, where I arrive at 7:31, apparently a soloist. Even more significant is that the temperature has increased over thirty degrees in the past day; it's 52 F out here.
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https://youtu.be/LhxBL6dv6OI
#ClimateChaos #ClimateChange #CitizenActivism #HindustaniMusic
So...no long underwear, no chemical heat packets, a single layer of socks, and — most appreciated — the fragile skin around my eyes is not taking a beating from the conditions. I love doing these vigils, but winter wind, cold, and sun have taken a toll on my face.
The drivers are friendly, save for the get-a-job guy, whose perfunctory advice is as regular as it is unhelpful.
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I'm feeling a little sluggish and stupid at the beginning of the hour, and content myself with singing scales and long tones as my brain gradually comes awake. It isn't until around 8 o'clock that I undertake anything more than measured warm-ups, but for the next half-hour the bandish flows pretty well.
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Gradually I have arrived at a more nuanced understanding of the appropriate position of taankari in the bandish rendition. The default position is that these fast melodic passages are meant to push the music to a climax, showcasing virtuosity, speed, and one's vocal flexibility. Over the past several years I am less and less satisfied with this approach.
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Now when I sing taan sequences I am only intermittently concerned with creating strong forward momentum; often I seem more interested in allowing the fast passages to add detail and filigree to slower, grander, more patient conceptions. The quick melismata are no longer an end in themselves, but are becoming a way of evoking subtle qualities in the song.
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I don't know where this will lead, but I'm enjoying it. I make a video at 8:26, then sing through the rest of the hour. Although the rain slowed and stopped during the vigil, there is water everywhere as I walk home; a storm drain is disgorging hundreds of liters onto the street, and people's yards look like rivers.
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This is yet another face of climate change; the rapid and unpredictable shifts in temperature and precipitation. Last night our sleep was disrupted by the huge grinding noises of snow accumulation shifting and falling off the roof. Not to belabor the metaphor, but I hope our media establishment wakes up to the situation in time to make a difference.
Okay, see you tomorrow.
Man With Sign
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