June 10, 2012

A possible 2-roda day, and there is a bit of sun in the sky as I wake up so it looks like the outdoor roda @ Praca Sao Salvador will happen. I pack up my bandolim, amp, music, stand, etc. and grab a taxi over. Sure enough everyone is just setting up, and they’re really glad to welcome me back. It’s been a long while since I played here, and realizing that I am struck by how much better my fixed knee is working. Readers of my blog longterm will remember it’s just a year since I got my knee replaced– damaged in a car accident in my youth. At the time they said that recovery would be 3-months to crutch/cane-free, 6-months to normal walking, and then a year until I didn’t think about it any more. The surgery plus the statewide shape-up program I participated in from mid-February through mid-May has me back in Rio leaner and fitter than ever before. And that adds to my stmina for fun. We play music, trying to ignore the light rain as it begins, as we are sheltered by a tree. A friend plops his Flamengo baseball hat on my head (question– is it still a baseball hat if it’s for a futebol team?) to protect me. But soon we have to run for cover. But not to despair– the husband of the event organizer, Ana, arrives with a tent and soon, fortified by a caipirinha break, we begin again. Afterwards I stop at home to drop off my amp and take the metro to Ipanema for the Forte Copacabana roda, a set group of musicians that I am always welcome to join. I get to hear Romulo playing his new baritone sax for the first time, and trade melodies with the marvelous Bia on her clarinet. Afterwards we go out for pizza and a beer in an oceanside cafe. I am hopeful that the “red skies at night sailors’ delight” motto is true, and holds out hope for a rain-free day tomorrow.

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Written by mairmusic

June 11, 2012 at 11:17 am

Posted in June, Rio

6 Responses

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So far this trip seems to be going well…lots of creative energy in the air…along with rain. :-)

slpmartin

June 11, 2012 at 5:41 pm

Reply
- Rain and creativity– could be worse (:
  
  mairmusic
  
  June 12, 2012 at 12:02 am
  
  Reply
the shot with palm trees is fabulous marilynn. seems you are enjoying the trip, keep having fun :)

Sharmishtha

June 12, 2012 at 2:22 am

Reply
- Thanks. yes, all is happy in my Rio world.
  
  mairmusic
  
  June 13, 2012 at 10:35 am
  
  Reply
Sounds like it’s raining music along with the water … glad to hear about the knee and have always wondered how successful – or not – those surgeries are. Reassuring.

Glad you are having fun ….

Jamie Dedes

June 13, 2012 at 9:44 am

Reply
- Yes, fun! And the knee is wonderful– just a couple of quirks, but v.stable and versatile.
  
  mairmusic
  
  June 13, 2012 at 10:33 am
  
  Reply

Who am I?

A mandolinist, a bandolimist, a writer, a photographer, a wannabe Brasileira. Check my webpage for information on my music and my sometimes life in Rio.

What is this?

I have made a plan for this year, beginning on my birthday- October 16, 2008 - to keep creativity in focus in my daily life, spontaneously, reflectively, and with intention, by setting in motion several series of small events. Every day I will take a photo and record a thought. Every week I will write a sonnet and photograph myself in the context of my life. And I will post it all here. Maybe not every day, but I will maintain the schedule of each series and post as often as I can. I think this will be fun, may be interesting, and will result in a considered year of small moments stolen from a busy life and strung together to make... who knows? At this point it's just a plan. Wish me luck~ here goes!

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“Year 2″ begins– so what’s changing?

I have completed a year of this blog-- amazing! And I've decided to continue on, because this document has become a treasured reflective spot in my life. There will be some changes for "Year 2," beginning on my birthday, October 16, 2009. I'll expand the options for my weekly poem beyond sonnet to add some other forms-- rondeau or triolet, possibly villanelle. I just added the decima in late January. And in August I am adding the pantoum. Definitions will appear below as the forms enter this page. I'll continue to post a photo daily, but I may post several pictures taken on one day over the course of a week if I have an interesting series. I may even post an old photo if I'm writing about something I'm thinking back to. I'll continue to have fun with this project & I hope you will too. Thanks for reading!

“Year 3″

For Year 3 I tried some changes, including other people in the self-portraits that accompany my poems, adding "Musical Sundays" to post mp3s of my music, but these petered out in a few months. This is simply a place for my daily thoughts & photos, and weekly poems in the forms I love. Onward...!

The material on these pages belongs to me

Everything published here was created especially for this project and is owned and copyright by me. When the project is complete I may do something concrete with some of it. So enjoy, but please, if you want to share more than a quote or two send people here, don't displace my work from its context or authorship.

What’s a sonnet?

A sonnet is a 14-line iambic pentameter poem with a unique and characteristic rhyme scheme. They have been written in Europe and England for centuries, and usually combine viewpoint and reflection in a personal yet universal way. I call mine blank-verse sonnets and try for a simple casual scan that observes yet obscures the form. Inspirations are the American sonnets of e. e. cummings and Edna "Vince" Millay.

What’s a villanelle?

A villanelle is an early French form with 19 lines using only 2 rhymes, traditionally broken into 6 verses. It's kind of obsessive, with lines 1 & 3 repeating alternately, the 4th time as lines 18 & 19. The lines can be any length, but don't seem to vary within a poem, and subjects include love, loss and challenge. Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop and Sylvia Plath all wrote them, and from the minute I typed villanelle in "Year 2 begins" I was itching to try it out because I've never written one. My first appear in Weeks 53 & 56. I've run some verses together, as many modern writers have done, for continuity and a cleaner line.

What’s a rondeau?

A rondeau is a form of medieval poetry that pre-dates the villanelle and also uses only 2 rhymes. The earliest come from an 8-line song form with 2 lines of music that repeat-- line 1 as 4 & 7, and line 2 as 8, rhyming the rest in a characteristic pattern. The result is a sturdy little poem that makes its point thoughtfully, and less obsessively than the villanelle, perhaps because the generating couplet is unrhymed, and the lines don't need to be the same length, just able to be sung or spoken in the same amount of time. The first ones appear in weeks 55 & 57. Sometimes the poetic form, sans music, is called a triolet.

What’s a decima?

A decima is an early 10-line Spanish poetic form, with a distinct break after the first 4. It uses an 8-syllable line and has an unusual but characteristic rhyme scheme. It's also a 19th-century form of improvised Cuban song so I thought it would work well in this blog format. My first appear in weeks 66 & 69.

What’s a pantoum?

A Malaysian form from the 15th century-- how exotic! It's a series of quatrains, w/ lines 2 & 4 repeating as lines 1 & 3 in the next. The last quatrain also uses lines 1 & 3 from the first quatrain, with the first line ending the poem. So every line is used twice. My first one is week 95.

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