Honorable Menschen

Saturday evening I went to Honorable Menschen concert at the Tremont St. shul. Not surprisingly, I had a good time.

The set started off with havdalah, since it was just after Shabbat. The rest of the songs were:

1. "Joshua," the traditional song (Did it start as a spiritual? I don't know), arranged by the guy I first knew in the group. (*wave* if he's reading this). I couldn't help but giggle as one of the group couldn't do the miming of instruments without cracking up, I think because of his guest (brother?) in the audience laughing about it.
   
2. "Kah Ribon Olam," using just the refrain of the traditional Shabbat zemer (song).
   
3. "Hinei Ma Tov," a very very very cool version, using both the Hebrew and the Luganda, the language of the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda.
   
4. "Eli, Eli," the famous poem by Hannah Szenes and set to music by David Zehavi. It's always moving.
   
5. "Hora," the Eurovision version from the 80s, familiar to me from many weddings. Also, featuring Chanaleh as the soloist.
   
6. "David's Lamentation," a song composed by William Billings in the late 1700s about David's lament for his son Absalom, slain in the midst of revolt. I'd never heard this song, and it was beautiful.
   
7. "By the Rivers of Babylon," based on Psalm 137 (mostly), another song I'd not heard before, though I was familiar with the words with this one.
   
8. "Na'ar Hayiti," the familiar tune from the end of bentching (grace after meals).
   
9. "Lecha Dodi," a very funky version (using three verses and the refrain) of the song from Kabbalat Shabbat, very jazzy and with innuendo...
   and
   
10. (Bonus non-song track) Ongoing skitlets of "Frum Eye for the Trayf Guy," with our five intrepid consultants getting this guy ready for his religious girlfriend's parent's seder. Very cute.

Residents of the very finite porch

Currently, I have

• 6 spinach plants
  
• 6 "Asian green" plants (looks like pac choi or possibly a bok choi variant)
  
• 6 red leaf lettuces
  
• 6 red leaf romaine lettuces
  
• 4 pots-worth of arugula (it looked like multiple plants/pot)
  
• a ginger plant*
  
• 7 basil plants
  
• a middling pot of chives*
  
• many many fledgling morning glories*
  
• rosemary*
  
• French lavender*
  
• common thyme*
  
• 4 olive tomato plants (supposed to be similar to grape tomatoes)

* overwintered or reseeded itself

I've transplanted everything that needed to be, and didn't quite run out of pots (though I may have to get some larger ones later in the season) or potting soil. I still have to figure out how to arrange them a bit more aesthetically, which would mean having room to sit on the porch as well.
( more gardening musings )

Not-so-confidential to Bbbsg: let's figure out when you can pick up the other two tomato plants.
____

Second thunderstorm of the day- how wonderful!

Weekend recap

Friday night featured dinner and Cities and Knights. I ended up being too lazy to make the green salad I'd planned, but the rest of the menu turned out fine: grape juice, challah rolls, quiche (made with farmer cheese and scallions), sweet potatoes, sauteed mushrooms (white, crimini, and oyster) with spinach, and brownies brought in for dessert (plus blueberry strudelettes). It's been a long time since I've played with more than four players; I kept forgetting about the supplemental build round.

Shabbat morning I walked in to Brookline to see some visiting (elderly) California cousins. The word I'd heard is that it's likely their last visit to this coast, so I was particularly glad to have the chance to see them. He's rather frail, and his hearing not so good, but he's still got that wonderful look in his eye, that listening engaged look (not surprising, since it's what he did professionally). She's more active, and talkative, and we meandered through the important topics: food, health, and family :-). .

The day was cool (hovering around 50) and overcast, perfect weather for walking, so I was glad I'd had a reason to get me out of the house. I passed someone wearing a backpack and towing a large wheeled suitcase, and thought about how often travel is incredibly wearing, more than I usually anticipate. And the inverse of that is how walking on Shabbat unencumbered with anything at all (the eruv being down, plus I was going outside the eruv borders anyway) can feel incredibly freeing, letting me move and enjoy the movement, focus on how my muscles act in concert to achieve this easy, sustainable pace. Plus I tend to feel less rushed, giving me more time to look at the interesting things I find en route, the little pocket gardens that so many houses around Cambridge do so well.

After the morning downpour Sunday, Queue and I went out for a bike ride. Not a long one, but it was still good to get out and about. I'm still looking for more roads that are reasonably smooth, since with the skinny tires on my bike it's a lot more of a pain to go over even some of the lesser potholes/patches. [Suggestions very welcome.]

The day was taken up with a class on mosaics. I'll admit it, I couldn't resist taking a class that included the word "tesserae" in the description, after reading Sailing to Sarantium and its sequel. It was a lot of fun. We got to make a square mosaic (about 9 inches square), which gave us the chance to design a piece, cut tesserae out of ceramics (tile, old plates, etc) and glass (all sorts of colors, plus mirror), glue them down, then grout them after they'd dried some. We learned a bit about good designs, and possible variations (not only in tessera materials, but glues and finishes, for outdoor pieces). I was impressed with the pieces people made, especially a bird made in celadon, tan, and beige ceramics, which was gorgeous. I made a non-representational piece, with lots of blue and some mirror. Now that it's had another day to dry, I have to get the rest of the excess grout off.
And maybe I'll end up doing mosaic on something else, too (more opportunities to buy interesting tools and materials....).

And then the weekend ended as it began, bracketed in games of Cities and Knights. A longish 6-player game, so there wasn't time for a second one.