Snow and Show

So. Interesting weekend.

I had planned to lay low on Saturday, sleep in, do laundry, knit a little. Because it was supposed to be raunchy cold and rainy. And I’d just started my spring buzz and didn’t want to blow it with a final tantrum from winter. As of about noon, the weather report was, well, we may have a few snow flakes around the Metroplex . . . Uhm, wrong! Around 8 I was at a friend’s house for dinner, and she looks at the window and says, “Man, it really looks like it’s coming down out there. At 10:30 when I left, I had to use my window brush to scrape about 2 inches off the window. By Sunday morning, it was 5 inches of icky-wet snow. “Wubba-wubba a few flakes.” Bull. How do you people keep your jobs? TV meteorologists. People who weren’t smart enough to work for NASA.

Anyway. I live in a part of town with excellent snow & ice removal, so I wasn’t too bogged down and managed to get a few things done on Sunday. In time to go to –

My usher gig at the Soweto Gospel Choir. Sooooo amazing. Okay. I totally acknowledge the irony of a happy agnostic feeling the spirit at a gospel show. I was singing Oh, Happy Day along with the rest of the crowd by the end of the show. What can I tell you? I love the South African sound. Ever since I was introduced by Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mabazo (the coolest Lifesavers jingle ever), and hunted through stacks at record stores (yes, record stores, back when you actually had to leave your house to buy music from long-haired guys in flannel shirts and Captain Beefheart t-shirts) for anything by Johnny Clegg. And the SGC didn’t disappoint. The harmonies in South African music are as tight as anything Motown ever put out, and they have a blend of traditional music and dance, ecstatic rhythms and pure showmanship that is heart-racingly fun to watch. I admit that I was the tiniest bit devastated that they didn’t do the South African national anthem, which I would really like to hear performed live someday. But it was a fantastic show, and I saw a lot of smiling, no grinning, faces on the way out the door.

I'm actually sad that I'm approaching the end of my TV hiatus. I've had such a good time at the performing arts center. Perhaps a good reason to curtail my TV viewing permanently.