This morning I got up, went out for bagels and coffee with John and then got on the subway and headed for Penn station. I am in such poor physical shape that I’m practically dead from carrying a suitcase that has stuff for a four-day weekend in it. Good grief.
It was quite a walk, but I did find the NJ transit area of Penn station eventually – seemed like it was as far away as you could get from where I got off the subway, but at least there was an elevator. And the man I rode up the elevator with was going to NJ transit, which probably saved me a lot of wandering around time.
It was an uneventful trip to Morris Plains, and I can’t say I grasp the relationship between Morris Plains and Parsippany, which is where we are. When I got off the train there was another woman, Laurie, carrying a harp, so when we called the Hilton for pickup, we asked them to come around the back of the station. This meant we didn’t have to cart our stuff downstairs and upstairs again, or so we thought, but when he came, he parked out in front and walked up and down the stairs over to the side where we were standing. We asked him if he could drive around, but he just picked up my suitcase and carried it. I carried Laurie’s carryon bag and she dragged her harp and suitcase.
The harp world seems to be pretty small. One of the women on the Hilton Shuttle knows Aileen because she’s in therapeutic harping.
We got here at about 10 to 1, checked into the room, and I managed to then get my registration and my loaner harp and made it just a little late to the 1 p.m. class. The first class was taught by Kim Robertson who is a wonderful player and has a lot of information to impart, much of it very interesting about making arrangements, and cool things to do with the left hand. She teaches like I think I might if I had her expertise, which is to say, she starts one thought, doesn’t finish it, jumps to another and two minutes later you can kind of see what her train of thought was, but it’s confusing to follow at the moment. On the other hand, she gave very detailed handouts and the ideas I could follow were very useful.
The second class I went to was with Sue Richards, who taught us a couple of pieces and the “click” that makes a strathspey sound right. We learned one strathspey and one piece called Wee Willie Winkie which includes the strathspey “click” in it. She has a method for calling a dotted eighth and sixteenth a DIE dle, and a 16th and dotted eighth a B’dum. Then another for a triplet, which I can’t remember. I still have a bit of jet lag. Tonight there will be a concert (actually every night there will be a concert). I’m looking forward to that. It’s not too incredibly cold here at the hotel, thank god, but I’m wearing a long sleeved shirt and a sweater. The only not too good thing is that you have to turn in the loaner harp at the end of the day which means no jamming unless I make special arrangements. And the loaner harp, being a wood harp, is HEAVY. I have gotten spoiled with my Delight. There are a number of carbon fiber harps here, since they are so easy to transport.
I met some nice people at dinner who invited me to sit with them. They were all from around Philly. We had a good time, then went on to what I’m sure is the first of a number of fabulous concerts.
It’s now Saturday, and I have a rare moment of freedom.
To update, I have been to two great concerts, all harp-oriented, of course, but including Chinese harp, a couple of early music people (the Early Harp Symposium is running concurrently here) , Kim Robertson, Sue Richards, a couple called Tapestry, and other interesting people whose names I didn’t know before I got here and hence have already forgotten. A really nice range of music, though. '
I've taken some great classes here: various improvisation/theory classes with Kim Robertson, Ray Pool and Sunita Stanislaw, Scottish music with Sue Richards, dance and early Spanish music with Nancy Hurrell.
And, I have bought another harp. I finally bought the Fisher harp I’ve been lusting after for 5 or 6 years. It is just the most beautiful wood, and the sound is resonant and luscious. Now I will have to sell my Dusty Strings, but they are a known quantity, and mine is a nice size for therapy work, so it shouldn’t be too hard. (Fingers crossed.) Turns out Larry Fisher, builder of the harp of my dreams, spent time as a youth in Sacramento where his father was stationed at Mather. I’m a little confused about why he lives in Canada, though.
It's now Saturday night. As usual, I'm exhausted but not sleepy even though it's about 1:30 and I have to be at a class at 9 a.m. Another great concert tonight, including our own John Mentras from Sonoma. He was the belle of the ball with his cross-strung harp.
Tonight there was a Renaissance ball. I made a great costume out of a bedsheet and a vest I got at the Goodwill. It cost me about $6 and about 2 hours. And I don't have to schlepp it home with me. I'm leaving it here, because it's half of the suitcase.
When I wrote about the Fisher harp earlier, I had a lock on the koa wood harp he brought to the event, which he was planning to send me after I got home. Then Grainne Hambly came in from Ireland and wanted that very harp so he sold it to her. He says he has more of the same wood and is going to make me one, but it will be a bit longer before I get it now. Oh, well, that's life. I'm still happy. As long as it's there and played in by our November concert, I'll be okay. When I went back with Laura and he told me this, the first words out of her mouth were "So you'll give her free shipping" And he immediately said yes. Saved me $450. I understand that when a shmo and a performer both want the same instrument, the performer is going to get it, so I'm only slightly disappointed. And I have a harp just like Grainne Hambly stole from me, which makes a great story.
Tomorrow I'm taking one more class with Ray Pool called Lever Aerobics. I realize this has been really disjointed, because I've written it over several days, and then tried to upload pictures that always get mixed up. And then while I was working on the blog, it wouldn't save and I lost about half of what I had writte. So, if you made it to here, congratulations.
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