8-August-99 Newton Center Green Sunday night
.
.
.
I'm going to be jet lagged for a few more days, I can tell. I didn't do much except get rudimentary journal entries logged in.
I did get out the musical instruments I brought back. The doudouk isn't hard to get a nice tone from. I haven't worked the fingering out yet to play any tunes, but it has a lot of potential and a nice mellow distinctive sound. The zourna needs a lot of air pressure and is very tiring to play. I just get a few shrill squeaks from it at a time and run out of energy before I can explore the fingering. I'm going to need some coaching from an oboe teacher before I can do much with it. Both instruments need to have their reeds wet or licked for a while before you can play them
In the evening we walked down to Newton Center for the last in the series of Sunday evening music festivals on the green. Some years they have had several performing groups representing some ethnic group in Newton -- the Asian festivals had Chinese and Philipino dance groups as well as musicians, for instance -- but more recently there has just been one musical group. Tonight there was a five-piece Haitian band, keyboard, vocalist, percussion, guitar, and bass. Like gospel music, the pieces kept going and going, the tunes gradually changing from one motif to another and the beat getting gradually faster and then relaxing. It was a very pleasant ambience but I didn't find the music engrossing.
There have sometimes been food crafts booths at these events. Tonight there were just two food booths, but one of them was my favorite anyway -- Guyanese cuisine. I got a plate of half vegetable curry and half red beans and rice, and Arlene got a portion of fried plantain. Love that vegetable curry!
Katherine came over later to ask for Arlene's help with a picture and collage she was putting together for a present for a co-worker, and Sue came along and had me tell her about my trip.
 | ||||