...musical interlude...

...so, i know it seems strange, as I was in a choir for...oh, perhaps a cumulative decade.... with many kiwanis, Maytime Melodies, concerts at Massey Hall and other Recital-type performances.... but there have only been two, count 'em... one... two... times that I have felt good singing in public.

The first one I was on a huge gorgeous deck, late at night, with all my friends... and my friends all happen to be musically inclined. The range of guitarists, bassists, drummers and singers is astonishing.... as is their collected talent.... and we were rocking out after a few too many.... and I had, we'll say, some 'inspiration'.... but i have to say, in that moment, my voice really melded with everyone elses... the harmonies were amazing and we created a symphonic cacophony that I can recall with crystal clarity to this day....

...The second, I am not gonna lie, I was loaded.... I was 20 and waiting in line at LeSwimming, a bar that I have been mourning the closing of for a year now. The thing about the line at Swimming was that, since the bar was on the third floor there was this long narrow stairwell and a hallway out into the street for people to stand in, outside of the frigid Montreal winter.... well, at the bottom of the stairwell, I was swaying in place, keeping my head out of the spins by listening to the resident homeless guitarist do his thang.... playing all the classics by bon jovi, acdc, aerosmith et al.... and when he turned to me (chuckling at two decades of drunken giggles poured into heels) and asked me what I wanted to hear I was overcome by my request.... and I not only asked for, but sang along to "Black Water' by the Doobie Brothers.... I have no illusions about this one... I must have been AWFUL.... karaoke without the benefit of crackling speakers and echoing backup music.... just me, hobo and his guitar... But it was AWESOME!!!! I was so into it, and the line got into it too, and by the end I had all the Montreal hipsters rockin' out southern style..... that kicked ass.....

I thought about that as I had to fight with myself not to sing along to Black Water this morning on the streetcar, when it cam on my ipod..... Somehow I thought..... the 8am work crowd just wouldn't get riled up the same way....

..... My musical failures.... that's fodder for ten other posts. I recal several bad renditions of Bacch's minuet in G on the piano.... and an echoing 'CHAW" yelled for emphasis at the wrong moment, into total silence, during a high school choir performance... and that's just off the top of my head.