striding on, or thanks, life!

well, against my internal tuggings, my soul seems to be striding on..........

after moping about for part of the day, i finally get my butt in gear to busk in the 96th street subway. my first subway busqing expidition, it proved interesting and about as lucrative as the street. funny how quickly i feel a connection to my "audience", and beholden to them to continue providing lively, engaging music.

after making enough $$/running out of time, i headed up to symphony space for the bulgarian women's choir concert (yasnavoices.org). in line i fortuitously met a dude who organizes world music concerts on the upper west side, and in the row in front of me a charming, talkative and delightfully dorky oud/jembush player. the concert was lovely. here's an excerpt from the program:

"From the Soul of the Village to the Cries of the City" includes many songs from the repertoire of legendary Bulgarian vocalist Kremena Stancheva. Yasna Voices worked with Ms. Stancheva last summer, after recieving a grant from the Trust of Mutual Understanding to study in Bulgaria. Assembling in Kremena's birthplace, the small village of Kovachevtsi, we were introduced to songs from Ms. Stancheva's repertoire, many of which she has known since her childhood. Many of the women of Kovachevtski chimed in, singing these song with us; at the town square, in their own kitchens, or while visiting Kremena's front yard.

the program was a mixture of the straight up traditional village-style tunes, as well as their own new arrangements of these haunting, lyrical melodies. They all had traditional Bulgarian dress, giant flowers in their hair, and beautiful smiles. they even brought out their teacher, Kremena Stancheva for a number of tunes. Her voice was amazingly intense---sonourous and almost buzzy, it cut through the prettier voices of the other women transporting us back to her small Bulgarian Village. i think my favorite aspect of the show was how these women were so clearly enjoying the music and each other, and were just delighted to be able to bring it to a wider audience. very inspiring.

after the show, mr. oud player swept me along with his gorgeous british friend for a drink, which turned into bar hopping, and you know where that leads.... we started off at a french restaurant, drinking red wine and sharing beets and fries. they were both quick witted, engaging, hilarious and very kind. The conversation ranged from belly dance contest judging in Hungary to life on the commune at Twin Oaks, to the perils of online dating. although at times it was all i could do to follow the conversation, it was very delightful and i couldn't help dissolve into giggles a few times when their pace and sheer volume of hilarious witticisms washed over me in a tidal wave of sparkling humur.

this delightfully unexpected evening seems to have succesfully turned my dark mood around, although i do have a bit of a hangover this morning!