Nov 22, '23

Today is your dad’s birthday, little sweetheart.
 

Because of the pandemic, I haven’t seen your mom or your dad in almost three years. I sure do miss them. We text one another quite a bit and talk on the phone occasionally. I’ll call you dad after I write this, I already texted him this morning.

I like being with your parents any time, little sweetheart, but it’s always been nice to be with them on their birthdays so I can bake them a cake. I usually make a chocolate one for your dad and a lemon one with vanilla frosting for your mom. When I can’t be there, I send them one! So, that’s what I did for today. There’s a lovely service, actually based here in New York, where you can order a cake and have it delivered anywhere in there country. They pack it in dry ice and send it overnight express via UPS. I’ll keep checking on the tracking all day probably to make sure it arrives safely.

Your mom and dad are both so dear to me, little sweetheart and I suppose unsurprisingly, I see so much of you in them.

With all my love forever…

On Max's show

We’re always excited, little sweetheart, when the great Max Reinhardt - BBC Radio 3/Soho Radio - plays us on his show... and he has again this week! 

As Christmas nears, he featured one of my favorites from our album Til Morning Is Nigh - "Milles Anges Divins". It’s a French carol that Sylvia suggested for the album. I learned and re-arranged it and wrote out all the French in phonetics so I could sing it properly! Ha! I also play melodica on it! 

This particular episode of Max’s show is not available on the MixCloud archive but here’s a link to the track on Bandcamp and below is the video we did for it. 

Love you forever!

Remember November, November 13th!

 Happy Birthday, little sweetheart! Love you forever! 

 

Boston Memories...

I find myself thinking of our time together in Boston, today, little sweetheart. 

I arrived a few days before your birthday, so that we could spend it together. I took the Bolt Bus up. President Obama had just been elected and there was a wonderful electricity of promise in the air. You met me at South Station and we took the “T” back to the lovely little apartment the theatre had put you up in. 

What a wonderful week it was! We had snow the very first night! It was crazy cold but I went for a run everyday in my cold weather gear down one bank of the Charles River, across a bridge and back across a second one returning to your apartment. I went to the show with you every night and got used to our little route to and from the theatre. They had a nice grocery store, sort of reminiscent of Whole Foods, along the way and we’d go shopping together so that I could plan and cook our meals in your sweet little kitchen. 

I went back on my own to get things for your birthday dinner so that it would be a surprise. I made turkey croquettes and salad and baked you a birthday cake. 

One night we went out with everybody after the show to a late night resturant and bar. We had the backroom almost entirely to ourselves and when we all walked back to the apartment buildings - it was all housing for graduate students at Boston University - it was freezing! It was kind of lovely as each of us peeled off to adjacent buildings and apartments along the lovely tree-lined block and said goodnight. 

Outside of you having the show each night, we mostly kept to ourselves, nice and cozy in your little apartment, listening to music - DCfC and Goldfrapp both in heavy rotation - and watching shows on my laptop. 

One night we were offered tickets to a benefit for the Boston Film Society, so we hoped the “T” over to Cambridge and turned up at a semi-swanky event in a hotel ballroom. We felt a little under-dressed but everyone was super nice and we got to meet the event’s honoree, Willem Dafoe. The food was so good we took some home. Ha! They insisted! 

Mostly, we just clung to one another - or, if I’m completely honest, I clung to you. They were the happiest days of my life. God, how I loved you! How I still do! How I always will! 

With all my love, forever…

CAMP Radio Show #12

The new edition of our show for France’s CAMP Radio aired yesterday, little sweetheart, and is now archived online here. 

Thinking of you, always, some of the artists include a really wonderful Detroit-based electronic musician named Swartz et, a sound collage artist named Ave Grave and the great Delia Derbyshire... 

Hey, little sweetheart - you're on the radio!

 

 

Nov 2 - All Soul's Day

Today is All Soul’s Day, little sweetheart. The twin of yesterday’s observation of All Saint’s Day. 

Both because of the pandemic and because of other changes in leadership, I don’t really have a church to go to in person to observe the day. But I have found some very beautiful and meaningful services online. 

I think my favorites are those from Trinity Church all the way down at the bottom of the island, near the World Trade Center memorial. Trinity Wall Street, it’s sometimes called. It’s one of the oldest churches in New York and has really thoughtful, beautiful services. An old friend of mine from DC actually works as a church administrator there, so perhaps I’ll go in person, someday. 

And I’ve just begun to know of a much smaller little church, somewhat closer to home - in the East 60’s - called the du Saint-Esprit, a French church where they hold Taize services. Taize is that French traditional candlelight meditation service that I used to attend at West End. Saint-Esprit holds Taize on Thursdays and I think I may go to one soon. 

Regardless, my little sweetheart, I am in prayer and meditation today, thinking of and longing for you with all my heart and soul.  

Nov 1 - All Saint's Day

You probably remember, little sweetheart, that one of the first things I liked to do after arriving in London was get up the next morning, go for a run on Hampstead Heath, then shower and change and head down to Embankment, walking over one bridge, then along the south bank before crossing back and going to St Paul’s for Evensong. It so resonated with me that I began attending services here in New York at St Thomas and then later, still, after your tragic passing, at West End Collegiate. 

Some of the Christian feast days and holidays I didn’t know about before have become sort of lovely new traditions to observe in quiet thought, prayer and contemplation. Today is one of them. 

Today is All Saint’s Day. There’s belief that the spiritual bond between the living and the departed grows stronger - as the moon, perhaps draws nearer to the earth on a particular day of its orbit - and we should listen even more intently to hear. 

I will be ever mindful today and tomorrow, little sweetheart, to listen to your call. With all my love forever…