While my wife swam, I had her drop me off at nearby Exchange Park. I took a walk down the nature trail. I noticed I had a small wooden glockenspiel mallet in my pocket from a morning recording frivolity. Thanks to
androkles, I bought a few years ago Ros Bandt's wonderful album "stacks", in which she makes elegant experimental music playing percussion on a huge municipal utility pipe. I began to play the bridges, park benches, railings and other objects (the woodeen flat benches were surprisingly like a marimba, which my late mother in her extreme youth once played in a big beat jazz ensemble on a weekly small town radio show). I love the sound of resonating metal, an interesting contrast from the slide whistle with which I grappled this morning. A fellow wrote me a kind note on garageband.com, proclaiming himself a "fan", which was fun and intriguing, although I do not make music (or write or practice law or play chess or what have you) to obtain fans, but rather enjoy the communion of saints and the dispensation of the Comforter arising from shared fellowship.We went to the Collin County Democratic Party for their annual picnic at Towne Lake Park in McKinney. I am not a joiner, though I'm definitely a Democrat, and usually vote, give money, and think great thoughts. But this week I find myself angry enough to require more than those remote efforts, so I went to meet other Democrats.
Our friends Scott and Donna are very active in this group, a fledgling bunch in one of the most Republican districts in the country.
An aspiring AG candidate, an east Texas populist with the nasal whine that only residents in a line from Monroe to Longview can master, gave a long speech which said in clear words what so many of us are thinking about the recent events. I'm not going to do some political rant here, but I'm glad I went to the picnic, though we stayed too long. It's always good to see Scott and Donna, who head to visit relatives in Baton Rouge soon.
My wife called up that Justice Rehnquist died. I have many thoughts on this, and may write a post about the time I got to hear him speak. What a sea change our country underwent since his appointment. The smell of changing tide salts the air now. Things move so quickly now.