JULY!!!

Well, the season has finally arrived. June is waving a fond farewell, taking with her the glorious morning mists so spuriously called JUNE GLOOM around here. I guess that means we are about to experience JULY FRY. Get out your flip flops!

It has been a while since my last report. Spring was just squeaking in. And a lovely on it was too. A joyous reunion with the amazing Ann Hampton Callaway, the 21st Century’s answer to Ella Fitzgerald. We (Michele Brourman and I) met at her home in the Hudson River Valley and gorged on music for 72 hours straight putting together a duo concert, our first in many years.

I love working with her, writing with her, listening to her amazing gifts…and all in pajamas! I remember one time a few years back, when she was in pajamas at my house, handing her a lyric. She immediately marched out to my music studio, coffee in hand, sat down at the piano, and proceeded to create a gorgeous song out of it (called ALMOST) in one pass! We will be performing it in this concert for the Barrington Stage in Pittsfield MA, end of July! Yippee!

And then to London for two weeks at the divine boite, Crazy Coq’s. We filled the room, killed the people, made pigs of ourselves at all the divine Indian restaurants. We were even taken on a private tour of Eton College AND Windsor Castle! (Nice little weekend getaway the Queen has there!)

I do believe if I had to live in a city again, it would have to be London. SO exciting…one foot in the past, one foot definitely planted in the future!

Then to Scotland to visit our wonderful pals Desmond Carrington (the voice of BBC2 radio for the past 50 years!) and his partner in music and life, David Aylott, to celebrate Desmond’s 90th birthday. AND the fact that he commissioned me, Michele B, and my honey George to record several Broadway show tunes for him to play throughout the summer on his program! SO we will be warbling through the airwaves of Britain throughout the summer. (I modestly say my SEND IN THE CLOWNS is pretty damned wonderful.)

Then home to hearth, home, and American politics. Two out of three were wonderful. The third is an astounding and appalling circus. (When I was in London I kept introducing myself to people as Canadian.) What a strange world it is these days. I remember long ago, in the 60’s…yes, I remember the 60’s…when everyone was predicting the dawning of the Age of Aquarius and saying the world would be going through troubling times on the way to enlightenment, I had no idea they would be THIS troubling. I find each morning’s challenge is to wake in gratitude and NOT succumb to the devil’s whisper of cynicism and despair. I think THAT is the work of a grown up, which I am trying to become.

So now I am facing the prospect of recording my next CD (MUCH NEEDED) through the auspices of crowd funding…joining the ranks of Indie Gogo and Kickstarter. It is a big old challenge for me. To learn the whole process, and then to implement, after choosing the right source. The songs I know already and am very excited to bring out of the closet and into the world. Some are brand new, some are old, all are my favorite stories. They deserve to be heard. So if you see me knocking on your computer screen, don’t be alarmed. Or obligated. Just know I am attempting to bring a little more musical light into the world.

Here are my culture corner picks:

Music: The score of HAMILTON (an absolute work of genius! I bow. I bow.)
Book: ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE (gorgeous!)
I thought I would share with you my poem for July, based on the truly hilarious event that is the Ojai 4th of July Parade.

THE CHAIRS OF SUMMER *
It starts with just one chair
Alone…aloof…
Astride a busy corner
By a bus stop
Under a dusty oak

From Costco or Target,
Viet Nam or Taiwan
Worn white plastic
Ragged rainbow webbed
A solitary chair appears
Suddenly, surprisingly
Like the face of Mary
In a taco
A miracle of
The mundane
Tomorrow it will multiply
Magically into four…
Fourteen…forty-five
By week’s end
Four hundred plus
Bound together by bungee cords
Of anticipation

Waiting for the large pink people
Waving small bright flags
Who will plant themselves
Like sunburned petunias
Listening for that first squeal
Of high school clarinet
That rat-a-tat of
Snare drum
The buzz of fifty
Kindergarten kazoos
Flinging John Phillip Sousa
To the summer skies.
The fire truck will pass by

The flatbed filled
With princesses
Representing various
Vegetables
Pious folk on hay bales
With banjos
A float or two of bunting
And bed sheets
All will wave and cheer
Rise and go

Leaving the chairs
To sit in silence
As the sun dips
Behind the crisping hill
The sky explodes above
The football field
Then one by four by forty
They will disappear
Back to garages, closets
Invisibility
The annual migration
Complete

Until next July
Calls them out once more
To unveil their
True selves,
Their sacred
Purpose
To be
The chairs
Of summer

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Have a safe and happy summer!
Love, Amanda

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!