Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
At first we couldn't figure out why there would be mounted Boston police in front of the Omni Parker House on Tremont Street, especially in company of city officials and Mounties in dress uniform. Then we couldn't figure out why Boston Common was covered with crowds and corporate sponsors and considerably more in the way of security. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spatch confirmed that it was Saint Andrew's Day, which maybe accounted for all the pipers, but maybe not. The penny finally dropped that we were attending the annual lighting of the Boston Christmas tree, this year commemorating the centenary of the Halifax Explosion and the aid Boston extended, in recompense for which the province of Nova Scotia gifted the city of Boston a significant tree for Christmas in 1918 and has continued the tradition every year since 1971. We watched the ceremony open with a performance by American and Canadian pipers and then there was a lot of Christmas pop and smokers behind us wherever we went and there seemed an insufficient percentage of CanCon in the festivities (I would have led with both national anthems, not just ours—it's an international event, come on) and the tree-lighting itself was an hour and half away and Rob got tired of me shouting "Just sing 'Northwest Passage'!" so we caught the Red Line from Park Street and fed the cats as soon as we got home and made biscuits for ourselves with milk gravy and the ground goat we had bought earlier that evening at the public market, a life decision I can enthusiastically recommend. And maybe there was more from Nova Scotia and less from Boston later on, but I think we would have needed to plan to spend the evening on Boston Common to find out. Here is Nathan Rogers singing "Northwest Passage" with Dry Bones in 2014. I hope people in this city remember the origins of their tree.
spatch confirmed that it was Saint Andrew's Day, which maybe accounted for all the pipers, but maybe not. The penny finally dropped that we were attending the annual lighting of the Boston Christmas tree, this year commemorating the centenary of the Halifax Explosion and the aid Boston extended, in recompense for which the province of Nova Scotia gifted the city of Boston a significant tree for Christmas in 1918 and has continued the tradition every year since 1971. We watched the ceremony open with a performance by American and Canadian pipers and then there was a lot of Christmas pop and smokers behind us wherever we went and there seemed an insufficient percentage of CanCon in the festivities (I would have led with both national anthems, not just ours—it's an international event, come on) and the tree-lighting itself was an hour and half away and Rob got tired of me shouting "Just sing 'Northwest Passage'!" so we caught the Red Line from Park Street and fed the cats as soon as we got home and made biscuits for ourselves with milk gravy and the ground goat we had bought earlier that evening at the public market, a life decision I can enthusiastically recommend. And maybe there was more from Nova Scotia and less from Boston later on, but I think we would have needed to plan to spend the evening on Boston Common to find out. Here is Nathan Rogers singing "Northwest Passage" with Dry Bones in 2014. I hope people in this city remember the origins of their tree.
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I sometimes have to revert to music with no lyrics, but generally I can. Sometimes a particular form of concentration dictates NO MUSIC.
I'm getting three ancient out-of-print stories ready to be reissued in a self-published collection. We were just going to do "Owlswater," which is closely connected to the new novel; but it's so short, only about 15,000 words, that it was hard to get a price for the POD edition that was fair both to us and to readers. I don't write much short fiction, but providentially realized that of the available material, every single story was based on a song. So that's enough connection for a collection, the length is much more respectable, we are very happy. But it's had to be scanned afresh since the stories are so old (and, I guess, my backup strategies inadequate) that the files had gotten corrupted. Hence the fiddliness. I'll also have to be going over the finished new book in the fairly near future.
Oh, that's a dynamite version; I really like that.
I will just beam quietly here.
P.
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Speaking of things sung by Stan Rogers!
I'll also have to be going over the finished new book in the fairly near future.
That sounds wonderful and I look forward to it.
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Indeed!
Thanks! I am of course very nervous about it given the huge amount of time it's all taken. I'll be posting about all this on DW as soon as things are firmed up a bit.
P.