Someone offered/gave tickets to a harp
concert that they were unable to attend. It was last night, but Leroy was not
feeling well. The second person I asked was able to come. Because it was at the
nearby college, I walked and she met me there. She is well into her eighties
and on the way out of the building she commented that she was a bit unsteady on
her feet. I stayed close as she navigated the steps out of the building and
walked her to her car. There is a lot of light, but it is still not like
sunlight. She insisted that she could give me a ride home. Even though I like
to walk I could not come up with a convincing enough reason to just walk home.
I got the impression that she enjoyed the time visiting. She lives alone, but
goes out frequently, maybe even especially at night since she often goes to
many of the musical offerings in Cedar Rapids. I hope I am as gutsy as she is
when I get about 16 more years down the road. I do like living in a small city
as I believe it is more comfortable to get around and not so dangerous for
older drivers with not so much other traffic to contend with.
The harp was played by a young woman
in her late twenties who had study classical harp and played with symphonies in
England. She now has an electric harp which has a mike on each of the 47
strings as well as two on the sounding board. She brought a speaker and a
looper (whatever that is). The sounds were like nothing I would have expected a
harp to produce. It was quite amazing. She stopped between each piece and
explained what she was doing with some of her equipment. Many of the students
were in the audience. They were quite enthusiastic. She now lives in the USA
and works in the film industry. Some of the sounds were quite other worldly or
maybe like the ocean. The looper allowed her to record some of her sounds and
use them as the percussion for her piece. I am glad that I went and was exposed
to this totally new, for me, way of approaching the harp.
She had a Q&A session
afterward. I learned that her harp was made in France and costs about what a
car costs.
Paula
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