A night not at the opera

Prepare to have your minds blown, any readers whose minds are easily blown. Last night I actually did in activity...in Astoria! I should say I spend many evenings in the neighborhood, but they are so often spent in less than blog-worthy ways (hiding summer squash in various foods, listening through the door in horror at the Darth Vader like sounds emitted by my neighbor's elderly pug, staring into my computer screen hoping that sheer force of will will make words appear on it, etc). It's not that there aren't a constant barrage of fun and fascinating activities in Astoria at any give time, it's that I'm too lazy/tired/busy/forgetful to actually do them.

Not so, last night! At Socrates Sculpture Park, a mere two blocks from one of my first apartments in Astoria, the Metropolitan Opera was having a showcase of arias in the park to drum up business for their new season. The park is about a 15 minute walk from my current apartment, and is essentially the walk I used to make to the train every day when I lived out there. However, now that I've grown spoiled by living close to public transportation, it seemed much farther than I remembered. However, the park borders the water, so it received a nice summer breeze, and--once we installed ourselves on a picnic blanket and poured some cups of water--it was quiet pleasant.

The performers were very talented, and mostly stuck to crowd-pleasers from Mozart and Rossini. It was just nice to enjoy a free evening in the park on a summer evening listening to music. Also, unrelated, being in Socrates Sculpture Park brought to my attention the inordinate number of puggles living in this neighborhood. It's like every other dog you see! There are a lot of events at Socrates in the summers ranging from classes in urban chicken raising to documentary film nights. I'll try to get over my mental block about trodding the path I walked every day for a year my first year in New York and attend a few more of them.

Naturally, my photographer captured a few shots of the evening:

The view from the park. Of the sky. Captions aren't really necessary for these probably.

The pluck of the Irish

There are so many reasons to appreciate the month of March. The weather is finally starting to come around and be a bit more forgiving. Piles of trash snow are a thing of February. Crocuses are starting to poke up any place that isn't paved. More importantly, March is the month of St. Patrick's Day. You'd think it's just a day, but you would be incorrect. At least if you live in New York City.

Every card shop I go in (I have been in them a lot lately as I know a lot of March birthdays), has wiped the shelves clean of Valentines Cards and put up their St. Patrick's Day offerings. I didn't realize people sent St. Patrick's Day cards, as I myself am lucky enough to get out the Christmas ones. But they make wholes shelves of them, so surely somebody must be on their game. Either that or the greeting card companies just haven't figured out a way to pimp Lent yet.

In New York City, St. Patrick's Day kicks off two weekends before when everyone piles onto the PATH train and heads to Hoboken to get drunk in the day time. Much like the Times Square at Midnight thing, Hoboken at St. Patrick's Day is a tradition I'm willing to forgo. Both involve far too much waiting around in huge crowds of drunk people without proper bathroom receptacles. A few weeks later on the actual day itself, there is the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Apparently this parade is the oldest (the first one was marched 14 years before the Declaration of Indepdence) and longest parade in the world. I've never actually gone to it because since I've lived here St. Patrick's Day has fallen on a weekday. That and I'm not much for parades, so the long-ness of this one really wouldn't be a draw.

So why do I like St. Paddy's Day? So much so, in fact, that I spent the last one enjoying the greenery in Dublin? It isn't a particular affinity for green beer, but rather an irrepressible love of Irish music. I don't know if I've mentioned it on my blog before, but I've been learning the penny whistle for the last year or so at the Irish Arts Center. I'd love to learn the fiddle too, but alas those are more expensive and can't be dropped in one's purse for ease and portability.
Also appreciated is the opportunity to wear silly hats.

I also enjoy Irish dance a lot, but I realized a lot of what I enjoy about it is the music and the way it works with the music. There are so many patterns to Irish music that eventually you start to feel a familiarity when you hear a song, like you're remembering it from your childhood, when you've never actually heard it before. The other day I was practicing before class at the Center and a fiddle player came up and started playing along with me, just learning it by ear. Granted, that's probably because he's a more talented musician than I am, but still I credit the wonderful ease of Irish jigs and reels to be able to sound good in casual groups. He was even able to make me sound good.

I'm actually of German descent, but enjoy being mistaken for Irish sometimes. (It helps that I have curly, lightish hair, but really anyone who isn't blatantly Asian will get mistaken for Irish at the Irish Arts Center.) In the month of March, we all get the chance to be a little more Irish.