Journal entry, 1 May 1999
Beltane, 1 May 1999
Happy Beltane, or May Day, everybody! I have just finished a very busy
weekend of seasonal celebration, starting with Steer Roast on Friday
night, then the annual May Day Maypole at dawn Saturday morning at
Harvard, then Cauldron Farm's Beltane celebration. I had a great time
drumming at the fire with Carla & Rodger (old friends from EDC days),
what a blast! Other people around the fire applauded us and gave us
back rubs and treats. It's really nice to be appreciated. Good weekend
all around, although the black flies made outdoor taiji difficult.
Professional news
School work has been very intense. I have sent out my thesis proposal
to the thesis committee, and it looks like everybody will be able to
make a meeting next week to comment on it, and hopefully I'll get it
signed fairly soon. I really want to get it signed and done with, it
seems like I've spent so long talking about the work I want to do that
I've almost forgotten what it's like to actually do it!
I have also just submitted the paper for Eurospeech (Budapest in
September). This paper will be published in the conference proceedings.
I put copies of the paper on my MIT web site for anyone
who's interested. This was a high pressure effort to meet the deadline,
which I'm not eager to repeat, but at least it's done. This is my first
published paper (not just a talk or poster) at a major conference, and
it will be my first visit to the European continent too. Also my first
experience paying a bill in Euros (conference registration)! I still
have to plan my hotel and travel arrangements, and prepare the poster
for presentation at the conference.
Extracurricular activities
Soundstage 7 is still
missing a bass, we haven't managed to have any auditions yet. In the
meantime, we had a whirlwind of gigs over the last weekend of March.
Friday night we performed at the Palace in Saugus, which bills itself as
the biggest nightclub in the world. Could be, there are at least a
dozen halls in it, and plenty of smaller bars and things here and there,
at least one with male strippers, I saw some passing by. The whole
scene is very lounge lizard, and our room was smoky and dim. After a
lot of fuss over getting our sound hooked up into the DJ's mixer, we had
a good set, at least making a change from the tuxedo combo who shared
our stage. Packing the equipment out afterwards was wild! The place
was jammed with young people (most not of drinking age) dressed to
impress, metal detectors at the door, and VERY loud thumpa thumpa dance
music! It's been a long time since I'd been in a nightclub, what a
cultural dislocation.
Saturday morning we sang for an hour at Faneuil Hall, for a very
appreciative audience. Then that night we participated in A Cappella
Gold, a showcase with nine bands (each gets 15 minutes). That was a lot
of fun, and some of us got together at a local pub for beers afterwards,
and I had a fine time, especially with 10fm, six ladies from New York
City.
Since then we've been retrenched, working on auditions and bookings. I
have used the time to do some maintenance on our sound system, cleaned
the mixer and redoing the rack setup for portability.
Personal stuff
Despite being so busy, I have been to several good concerts. 3 April
was the Residents, a very bizarre show, as promised! The Nylons, Five
O'Clock Shadow, and Rockapella were all the week after that, good shows
all. I saw The Steward of Christendom (Huntington Theatre) and the
Alvin Ailey dance performance (Wang Center) and enjoyed them very much.
I haven't been able to maintain my fitness goals. I have had a series
of muscle spasms in my back and neck, and even in my jaw (TMJ or tempero
mandibular joint). I think this is mostly a result of the stress I've
been under, and hopefully it will be better now. I do intend to keep up
the rowing and calisthenics to gain strength, and I want to start
martial arts classes again.
Today I shaved my head again, anticipating the hot weather, and with the
intention of cleansing the stress of the last several months. Although
it's a fairly high maintenance style (I need to shave my face daily to
avoid looking like a convict, and I usually shave the head every two
weeks or so), I do like the way it looks, political overtones be damned.
Chani is happy now that she can go outside and hunt. She's already
gotten at least one starling. I wish she wouldn't bring them indoors to
play with them, though, it gets pretty messy!
Hope you all are healthy and happy!
Wil