Tag: Winter

How to really play a Strauss waltz

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Most conductors try to make it melodious and strictly in time, constrained by starched shirts and gowns. Seated audiences typically go for that tuneful approach, not that humming along is approved.

What I find more compelling and exciting, though, is when the performance is filled with bubbles, like champagne, and a tad tipsy. One dance partner stepping on the other’s toes. Even better, when there’s some tension between, say, the brass and the strings, with a hint of freedom within the beats, the way one dance partner is a hair ahead or behind the other. Yeah, a little swing, if you will. And a little playful unpredictability.

Well, here we go, in the air approaching another new year.

Oh, grunt

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 2 Comments

I’ve said it before and I know I’m not the only one.

Changing our clocks back an hour is the real beginning of winter. Everyone will be out of sorts for the next week and have no idea why. It really takes us that long, internally, to readjust.

Even those of us who are officially “retired.”

When we’re havin’ a heat wave

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

When the temperatures around here start inching into the 60s, the locals complain of a heat wave. Seriously.

Well, maybe complain is too negative, but they are vocal.

Convertibles will have been cruising around with their tops down for some time, at least when it’s not raining. Or maybe not.

I even saw some tables on the Old Sow restaurant’s outdoor deck blithely occupied at night when the temps sat in the lower 40s.

I won’t even mention the guys who go around all winter in shorts.

This definitely ain’t California, Texas, or ‘specially Florida.

How does seasonal change kick in where you are?