cholla (pronounced choy-yah -- which is a type of mean little cactus plant that grows in the arid arizona and does not at all represent our wonderful and giving friend and co-op mate) is moving to phoenix. and friday she turned 50. so the house has had july 20 marked on the calendar as a party day for a few months. she decided early spring not to make the eastern move until after her birthday so that she could be surrounded by friends and loved ones.
so saturday (the day after her birthday and the actual birthday of current co-op mate michael) finally rolled around and we did our part to clean the house and take the tables outside to line them up for a big feast. out came the christmas lights and the candles and the old-converted-stand-alone fireplace we use for outdoor parties. and in came former housemates from outta town. and friends. and then more and more friends. some with tri-tip to cook up and cakes to eat and bottles and bottles of wine.
it was one of those surprising events that blossomed into both an old-friend reunion and a new friend introduction. interesting happy people, great food, perfect weather etc etc etc.
and finally we got that geggy tah house concert that i mentioned last summer. tommy (who is the tah) and two friends (one in gt, the other not), quietly set up their microphones and seats. and somewhere around 11:30 we got a very intimate and sweet living room show. it started with them coming into the living room via a very long hallway, unbeknownst to us. slowly we began to hear the horns and the makeshift drums (a steve austin 6 million dollar man metal lunch box and an "elite" plastic playmate). this segued into the guys taking their seats (tommy's seat was an upended, opened, old-style suitcase attached to kick pedals of a drum kit -- so he sat on the suitcase and used it as a drum at the same time) and the songs beginning.
they played new stuff, using us as a practice hall. at one point they asked for poems or bits and peices of writing we had done that they would turn into a song on the spot, so i offered up a verse i'd written while my grandmother was so very sick a few weeks ago.
it was great and it lasted for hours. and intimate. we were all so close to each other and tommy would just look at you for almost entire songs while he sang. billy and lewis played almost the whole time with their eyes shut. and there were stories between the songs and we even had a heckler (that would by a wee bit past sobriety miss maya, practicing her version of beligerant and onery (sp?) and then flashing the smile that commands forgiveness, all in a mere one-second time frame).
the house (audience) was transfixed. we soaked it up. we pinched ourselves. we laughed at the stories. we made tea when theirs ran out. we dimmed lights. we shouted out requests. and we memorized the mood and the sound and the allaroundness of it for our inner memory scrap books.
this morning tommy was still here as were the former housemates and friendsweethearts. we talked in the den for more and more hours, almost missing breakfast. not minding missing the paper. sipping coffee and chatting about everything from heather's brush with ickyness while living in new zealand (scary stalker stories) to jan's new life in tajikistan to custom-designed swimming pools to living in italy to favorite books and movies and the other whatnots of the house. slowly around noon we meandered to the park to watch ryan practice capoeira then to the palm for a matinee of lovely and amazing.
overall a fabulous twenty-four hours.
plus i got some song writing tips from tommy (make sure your songs have hips, which i may explain later). i did get to play one of my songs with tommy, and played two others while on the deck before the livingroom concert began. and ryan busted out his beedybow (how do you spell that? brazilian one-string instrument you play with a finger and a rock) for an impromptu capoeira call and repeat.
now the house is napping and later we will venture for sushi to see if we can prolong the magic just a few more hours.
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