Happy New Year!

 (Caveat: much like my recent sessions, the following post is disjointed, tangential, and wordy. 

And with lots of visuals.)

As a result of my openmindedness and having grown up around a lot of different kinds of faiths and traditions, I happily celebrate New Year not once, but three times.

First is the Winter Solstice, which ends the cycle of days getting shorter and nights getting longer. It is the shortest day of all, and from that point on every day will lengthen. It has been celebrated for millennia: the Romans had Saturnalia and Sol Invictus, the Northern Europeans had/have Yule, East Asians have Dōng Zhì, and I think of it as the solar new year, although that isn't accurate cosmologically speaking.

Second is the calendar New Year, the one where they drop the ball in Times Square and all that. As it's not based on a planetary or celestial phenomenon, this date means the least to me. Not that it's a big nothing, but it just doesn't have the same rite-of-passage feeling for me. The thing of most importance about January First is that it's my aunt Linda's birthday, which makes it very special indeed.

Third is the Lunar New Year, which this year began on Monday, January 23rd. I don't call it Lunar New Year to be more politically correct than by saying Chinese New Year, especially because at least five Asian countries celebrate the same day; I call it the Lunar New Year because the holiday begins on the first New Moon of the new (Gregorian) calendar year, i.e. it's the first new moon after January 1st, 2012. (I'd go into lunisolar calendars with you, but really I'm not in the mood. I'm trying to tell a story about my NEW YEAR.)



   
And this is where the story really starts:

Bass players who died in 2011

Last year, 2011, was a year with a lot of pain. My friend Steve got shot to death. My friend Susan died after a very protracted fight with brain cancer. Two other women from my musical neighbourhood died as well. Also, because I spent so much of the year attending Susan, I missed a lot of appointments, neglected my own health commitments, and passed up a lot of social interaction situations such as my friends' bands playing. (This was so important to me that, after I mentioned my regret at missing my friend Josh's last show of the year, my therapist suggested I make a solid commitment to see his first show of 2012.)

When the Winter Solstice came around, I really had the sense of the year of sorrows being finished, to make room for a year of joy. It also felt like an end to a year of endings, and the beginning of a year of beginnings.

Jimmy "Guns" Adams

My friend Jimmy convinced me to be in a band again. He'd contribute three songs, I'd bring three, and we'd do two covers; that would be enough for the first performance. Easy. When he said I'd sing lead on my three songs, I told him how difficult I found it to sing lead. He replied, "We're none of us getting any younger. So when exactly were you planning to sing lead? What are you waiting for? If not now, when?"

New Year's Eve I stayed home, didn't go to any of the shows I had a slight interest in seeing, and just hung out in the house. I realised this was another missed social opportunity, but I was not in the mood to be around revelling imbibers; I'd worked at the nightclub on too many New Year's Eves to want to go out on that night.

Josh Lozano in Man's Gin

During the first week of January, true to my New Year's Resolution, I saw Josh's band's first performance of the New Year. Two days later I saw his second. The following week I saw his third gig, plus the first show of the year with his other band, and then a couple of days after that I saw his bass player perform an ambient set in a bar in Williamsburg. I also caught a show of a bunch of Jimmy's friends' bands, which gave me confidence I could perform at their level easily, no matter how self-conscious or unsure I felt. I couldn't possibly be worse than some of the musicians I'd seen that night, who nevertheless had the gumption to get up on stage and play.

photo:eBay   translation: me

Lunar New Year was yesterday, and as is typical for Mondays I went to therapy, where my teacher noticed I was wearing a Guan Yin pendant. We got into a discussion about spirituality, and I couldn't pinpoint the first time that I'd begun chanting with a mala. Gave me food for thought for my journey home. I came in and practised the bass for a little while on my already sore fingers, had some supper and the obligatory TV time, and said Om Mane Padme Hum 108 times before finally falling to sleep with the mala around my wrist.

 

  And this is where the story really starts:

On this, the second day of the Year of the Yang Water Dragon, I woke up easily and had the notion to do something I haven't done in a long, long time: I went out into the living room and sat quietly, concentrating on my breathing and posture. One, two, in, out, and adjusting and tweaking myself along the way: shoulders back and down, ribcage up, stomach in, rotate that right shoulder again, one, two, and so forth. My mind was very busy, and I had a lot to do to get my focus on my breath. Last night's music keeps playing in my head--One, two. Gotta get out to Long Island and pick up the laptop--In, out. Stupid Ed--ONE, TWO.

Didn't felt like I got much done, but to my surprise, when I looked at the clock on the cable box I'd been sitting there for forty minutes. Wow. Then I had another new notion: why not go outside? Put clothes on, grabbed some library books, and out I went. On the way out I saw the UPS truck. Considering the thefts we've had and the fact that my next-door neighbour gets a lot of stuff delivered, I asked the courier if there was anything for my building. Sure enough there was, but it was for someone on the fourth floor. My usual thing is to keep the packages and then call to give a heads-up and say pick it up when you get home. This time I decided to do my fearless neighbour thing and go knock on the stranger's door. Success! He was home, we were introduced, and he got his package safely.

Back down I went, four flights and out of the house. Went to the library, decided to move my car to the good side of the street but not before driving a few blocks to keep the battery happy, and then had the idea to check out the kids playing on the new skate ramps installed in the southern part of my local park. The ramps are right by the parking lot, so I parked, and proceeded to walk past the skaters to the walking path that rings around the track oval. Then I found myself walking on the track, being supported by the springier surface of the track. I walked around a couple of laps, singing Mozart and Gilbert & Sullivan to exercise my voice and lungs, and then made it back to my car just as a blister announced itself on my right arch.

All this is to say that, without SHOULDs or MUSTs or any other kind of finger-waggling, and without having made any resolutions at all except for the seeing Josh's band one, I found myself celebrating the New Year by doing things I'd been wanting to do for a year but hadn't been able to do. I was waiting to become motivated, trying to be motivated, trying to make it happen, and this morning it happened without any particular effort or even thought on my part. Happy New Year to me!

And this is where the story really starts... .