Man With Sign, September 11, 02024

Wednesday morning finds me waking of my own accord a few minutes ahead of the alarm, scarfing down a cup of coffee and two (!) slices of toast, and heading out to Roosevelt Circle, arriving at 7:29, a soloist again. Today I'm holding up the by-now-outdated 2021 IPCC REPORT: "CODE RED" FOR HUMANITY, which I always fear is too nerdy for this audience.

But it seems to be doing just fine with the drivers. I get a lot of friendly waves and smiles; a guy on a motorcycle honks, then gives me a thumbs-up. Eventually the get-a-job guy goes by and I can hear him grumbling even after he passes...but his is the only negative opinion this morning. I'm comfortable in the cool weather, enjoying the open air.

Today I take the 1-4-2-3 exercise and elide the third syllable of each cell in the exercise. This means there is a melisma covering a melodic third in the descending direction for ascending lines, in the ascending direction for descending lines. I begin with about ten minutes in free tempo, then turn the metronome on to 80 bpm and sing quarter notes for about twenty minutes before doubling up.

At around 8 AM I switch to 8th-notes, with the click on the offbeat. But because of the placement of the melisma within each cell, it has the effect of turning the beat around, and I have to keep my attention steadily focused on the rhythmic flow of the exercise. When this fails (as indeed it does, pretty often at first), the entire line collapses.

Gradually, of course, it all comes together. By 8:15 or so it's pretty accurate and consistent, and I'm finding ways to keep that internal third coherent in my mind's ear as I sing. I make a video at 8:24, then sing freely for a few minutes until the hour is finished. Shut down, pack up, go home, start the day.

My mood yesterday at 10 minutes to 9 ET was pretty different from my mood half an hour later. If you've been paying attention you know that Vice-President Harris was absolutely superb in her handling of wannabe-dictator Trump, firing off zinger after zinger while keeping him rattled and ranting. It was an outstanding performance and my initial jitters were replaced by fist-pumping laughs and cheers.

See you tomorrow.

Man With Sign