Photos from recent days as spectacular October weather has settled in over northern Vermont:
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Notes from the last week [cont'd. from yesterday's entry]
Lunch. At the home of an old friend, D., in a small town off I-89, New Hampshire. D. trained as a vocalist. Classical music/opera. In the course of conversation, she mentioned that a musician friend of hers was in town for his annual two-month stay. Another musician, a keyboard player. With many years experience, someone with whom D. has a history of collaboration. She sings, he plays, songs from the classical repertoire and music of a more new-age bent, composed by him. D. says singing with him is an experience. He prefers not to, er, over-prepare the classical pieces. He prefers not to polish them, would rather let the music speak to him in the moment, which D. says leads to some distressingly loose performances. He prefers, apparently, to play his own music. All of which seems to produce mixed experiences for D. when they collaborate.
While he's in residence in this small town, he plays at a local church, a church that apparently gets mired in politics and its own brand of small-scale bureaucracy. Going through the channels it takes to arrange a recital there would take a while, enough that it's possible his two months in the town would come and go before he could get a slot scheduled in. Which led him to do a kind of end-run, arranging to use the space after a weekly 10 a.m. prayer group, whose members -- middle aged and elderly women -- all stay to listen to him play for an hour. Him and D. A little classical, a lot of his stuff. Every week during his stay in the town.
And here's the thing: he's a cross-dresser. A married, 72-year-old cross-dresser, playing for a group of older small-town women, once a week for an hour. In a nice blouse and long skirt, with make-up and earrings, maybe a scarf, low-heeled shoes. D. says he takes great care in how he presents himself. He takes pride in the product, likes to be told how good he looks. And apparently he passes, as an elderly, conservatively-dressed, matronly type. Playing self-penned new-age tunes once a week for church women.
Honest to god, I love this life.
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A teeny linkfest:
Stealth disco!
Going wild with elmo!
And "I feel your pain" goes high-tech.
rws 5:10 PM [+]