We were hoping to coordinate the tour with Musikfest and our high school reunion in Bethlehem, Pa. However, due to a scheduling conflict, we are unable to travel to the reunion next weekend. So to all my dear friends from the Class of '72, we are sorry to miss the fun but are looking forward to photos ....
En route to PA we followed in the family footprints down memory lane, reliving soccer games we attended at fields we passed; model rockets launched on local farmland; and of course passing the spot fondly called No. 1 Son's Memorial Vomitorium, where many years ago on a dare he drank a liter bottle of Orange Fanta and had to hop out of the car to barf.
Anyway, I like to wing it at Musikfest, meaning just show up and sample whatever music is going on at the time. This year's highlight for me was the performance of Cast In Bronze on carillon bells, a medieval-looking set of 23 ringers of different sizes rigged to levers on a keyboard with pedals. The carillon artist sat at the keyboard and played, sometimes accompanied by drums or recorded music and on some tunes unaccompanied.
Wearing a black tunic and trousers, knee-high lace-up black boots, and gold mask in the shape of a flying bird, the carillon master looked like an executioner from the French Revolution. Fortunately his executions took place on the keyboard, where he thrilled a throng of festi-goers with a unique sound rarely heard these days outside of, er, wherever he is performing.
Here are two pics to save me 1,800 more words:
... I also like to browse the vendors at Musikfest, because I love earrings made of dichroic glass and know there's a certain vendor who always books the festival. I didn't buy any earrings this year, but I did get two black T-shirts painted with music motifs using drumsticks. Maybe you have seen them on the summer concert or county fair circuits.
The problem is I bought two T-shirts for three kids. I don't know what I was thinking. So I need to come up with some 'explanation' how I didn't really overlook one kid even though that's exactly what I did.
Look, according to the Rocket Scientist I am a medal contender when it comes to thinking up excuses. In fact, years ago he encouraged me to start a website called excuses.com, where folks could browse an inventory by category and find a match to an appropriate excuse. (Naturally I had plenty of excuses why that wouldn't work ....)
So here is a quickie Top 10 List of How to Whine or Bluster Your Way Out Of Being Short One T-Shirt:
10. They didn't have another one in your size.
9. I didn't know which design you'd like.
8. I bought three T-shirts, but one of them broke.
7. One T-shirt fell into the Lehigh River following a rogue wind gust as we walked across the Hill to Hill Bridge.
6. We gave one to the carillon musician after a bird crapped on him.
5. Some rank amateur musician spilled sour notes all over one T-shirt and we couldn't get them off and they smelled really bad too.
4. I thought two of you would prefer to share.
3. I figured somebody wouldn't want one.
2. I thought we'd deconstruct these two Extra Larges and reassemble them into three Mediums.
And the Number 1 Way to Whine Or Bluster Your Way Out Of Being Short One T-Shirt:
1. 'Hey kids, we got you each two-thirds of a T-shirt.'
If you have any additional excuses I'd love to hear them. Or you could start a website .... (Sorry, but the excuses.com domain name is already taken ....)
... Our return trip was truly harrowing through New York state as we passed through a massive, vicious thunderstorm. Twice. Rinse and repeat, right? Fortunately we got back in plenty of time for the Rocket Scientist to watch the 'Seven Minutes of Terror' online, meaning the Mars Curiosity rover landing. I decided to forgo the seven minutes of terror since I had just survived 77 minutes of terror driving through New York.
So I'm off to unpack until next weekend. Maybe I should withhold the T-shirts and in the meantime order a third one online. I guess the lesson learned from this post is that even if you can count down from 10, that doesn't necessarily mean you can count up to 3.
That's my excuse anyway ....
Here's a link to Cast In Bronze:
http://www.castinbronze.com/
Also, a link to Musikfest:
http://musikfest.org/
Hope to see you there next year!
Pass it along and remember, It's all (c)opyrighted(c)2012(c)(c)
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