Last night was the ninth Boston Secular Solstice (2023,
2022,
2019,
2018).
This is not counting the
2020 one
which was everywhere nearly simultaneously, with carefully calibrated
delay. Skyler continued as lead organizer, with me coordinating music
and Taymon helping in a bunch of ways.
If you were there, it would be great if you could fill out the survey so we
can make it better next year!
For the first time since 2017 we were in a real venue, Connexion in East Somerville.
They donated the space, because they want to support this kind of
thing, which was really generous of them. If they'd charged us normal
rates it would have been ~$10/person, and if you'd like to make a
contribution to the venue you can do that here.
Not being in my living room had pluses and minuses. Reconfiguring the
house for maximum capacity had been a lot of work, where last year I
spent about six hours on setup and teardown. We also had more people
this year—I counted 52—which is more than would have fit
in our house anyway. On the other hand, it wasn't as good a space for
kids: at home we have separate areas where kids can hang out,
including putting them to bed before its over. This time no one else
brought their kids, and we hired a babysitter to stay home with our
younger two. We also didn't attend the afterparty, when we would
have had it been in our living room. Overall, though, I'm very happy
switching back to a space built for this purpose.
I again prepared two sets of slides (audience,
musicians).
Next time I want to include placeholders for the speeches on the
musician slides, so it's easier to follow along.
I don't have audio for this one because the recording shut off for
some reason. My guess is that the cable jiggled and it briefly lost
the connection, which it doesn't recover from. USB-C is not as sturdy
as USB-A, especially with adapters giving extra leverage on the port.
Regardless, I think this is the one where my piano playing was worst,
so I don't mind having missed it too much!
It took me a long time to figure out a way of playing Gather Round
that I was happy with, but I'm decently happy with where I ended up.
The main thing that made it tricky is that it uses very few chords:
almost the whole song just wants to be over a C chord.
A song about the expanding moral circle that I like a lot. We did
make a few tweaks to it this year:
We merged the "bring the stranger in" and "bring the far ones in"
verses, since both of them cover expanding the circle to include all
of humanity:
And will we bring the stranger in,
Circle, grow and grow.
every state and speech and skin?
Circle, grow and grow.
For the hands you'll never hold,
for the names you'll never learn,
for all far-off hearts that yearn,
let compassion boundless roll!
Circle, circle grow and grow.
Julia reworked the last
verse, with some help from Claude, to
be less ominous while still expanding the circle to the far future:
And will we bring the future in?
Circle, grow and grow.
Every soul that might begin
Circle, grow and grow.
From Earth's cradle, shining bright
Spreading through the starry deep
Lights unborn, for you we keep
will and hope, though dark the night
Circle, circle grow and grow.
Mostly straightforward, with a tricky bridge ("some
other folks might be..."). I do like the bridge, but in this context
it didn't work so we decided to cut it.
A very difficult song melodically, but we've now been doing it
long enough that we have a good range of people who can carry the
tune. I like how it sounded this year.
Our first time doing this song. It fit thematically and isn't too
hard to pick up; you can hear over the course of the song as more and
more people figure it out and start singing confidently.
We've done this several times and it's often on-theme, but it's a bit
hard to fit in energy-wise because it starts somber and ends
incongruously happily. This time we did it in the second half, but I
think I like it better in the lighter part of the program?
The original is for two voices and has some complex sections. Julia
put together a version with a single melodic line, drawing from the Bernadette
Peters version. We did keep the "people make mistakes" bridge,
even though it's tricky, because the song really needs it.
This time we turned on the house lights in parallel with lighting the
audience candles. I now think it would have been better to just light
the candles and leave the house lights for later in the program. Some
of this is that I really like the feeling of the room when it's just
lots of people with candles, and no electric lights.
I like that we have a tradition of ending with Old Devil Time each
year.
It was fun working with Skyler, Julia, Alex, Charlie, and Lily on the
music! There were three songs I didn't play or sing on, which is more
three more than we've had in years, and is great. Looking forward to
next year!
Last night was the ninth Boston Secular Solstice ( 2023, 2022, 2019, 2018). This is not counting the 2020 one which was everywhere nearly simultaneously, with carefully calibrated delay. Skyler continued as lead organizer, with me coordinating music and Taymon helping in a bunch of ways.
If you were there, it would be great if you could fill out the survey so we can make it better next year!
For the first time since 2017 we were in a real venue, Connexion in East Somerville. They donated the space, because they want to support this kind of thing, which was really generous of them. If they'd charged us normal rates it would have been ~$10/person, and if you'd like to make a contribution to the venue you can do that here.
Not being in my living room had pluses and minuses. Reconfiguring the house for maximum capacity had been a lot of work, where last year I spent about six hours on setup and teardown. We also had more people this year—I counted 52—which is more than would have fit in our house anyway. On the other hand, it wasn't as good a space for kids: at home we have separate areas where kids can hang out, including putting them to bed before its over. This time no one else brought their kids, and we hired a babysitter to stay home with our younger two. We also didn't attend the afterparty, when we would have had it been in our living room. Overall, though, I'm very happy switching back to a space built for this purpose.
I again prepared two sets of slides (audience, musicians). Next time I want to include placeholders for the speeches on the musician slides, so it's easier to follow along.
Here are the songs we did this year:
I don't have audio for this one because the recording shut off for some reason. My guess is that the cable jiggled and it briefly lost the connection, which it doesn't recover from. USB-C is not as sturdy as USB-A, especially with adapters giving extra leverage on the port. Regardless, I think this is the one where my piano playing was worst, so I don't mind having missed it too much!
(mp3)
It took me a long time to figure out a way of playing Gather Round that I was happy with, but I'm decently happy with where I ended up. The main thing that made it tricky is that it uses very few chords: almost the whole song just wants to be over a C chord.
(mp3)
A song about the expanding moral circle that I like a lot. We did make a few tweaks to it this year:
We merged the "bring the stranger in" and "bring the far ones in" verses, since both of them cover expanding the circle to include all of humanity:
Julia reworked the last verse, with some help from Claude, to be less ominous while still expanding the circle to the far future:
(mp3)
Mostly straightforward, with a tricky bridge ("some other folks might be..."). I do like the bridge, but in this context it didn't work so we decided to cut it.
(mp3)
Easy to pick up, good feeling.
(mp3)
A very difficult song melodically, but we've now been doing it long enough that we have a good range of people who can carry the tune. I like how it sounded this year.
(mp3)
Our first time doing this song. It fit thematically and isn't too hard to pick up; you can hear over the course of the song as more and more people figure it out and start singing confidently.
(mp3)
We've done this several times and it's often on-theme, but it's a bit hard to fit in energy-wise because it starts somber and ends incongruously happily. This time we did it in the second half, but I think I like it better in the lighter part of the program?
(mp3)
I learned this at the initial 2011 solstice, and it's a good fit for group singing.
(mp3)
We cut this down two four verses, since seven is quite long. In retrospect I think five would have been moderately better.
(mp3)
The original is for two voices and has some complex sections. Julia put together a version with a single melodic line, drawing from the Bernadette Peters version. We did keep the "people make mistakes" bridge, even though it's tricky, because the song really needs it.
(mp3)
Boston version, as always.
This time we turned on the house lights in parallel with lighting the audience candles. I now think it would have been better to just light the candles and leave the house lights for later in the program. Some of this is that I really like the feeling of the room when it's just lots of people with candles, and no electric lights.
(mp3)
Possibly this is when the house lights could have come on?
I edited the song slightly for length, removing some of the more repetitive sections.
(mp3)
I asked Lily if she wanted to lead a song at solstice this year, and of the ones Skyler had picked out this was the clear best choice.
(mp3)
Songs that people already know the melody to are ideal.
(mp3)
I like that we have a tradition of ending with Old Devil Time each year.
It was fun working with Skyler, Julia, Alex, Charlie, and Lily on the music! There were three songs I didn't play or sing on, which is more three more than we've had in years, and is great. Looking forward to next year!