Arts First and Mothers’ Day

This weekend, as she likes to do, Mom came to visit for Arts First, the annual arts festival here at Harvard. Mom arrived on Friday around noon while I was busy cleaning up the G&S office. We had lunch at Cambridge, 1., a sort of gourmet pizza restaurant on Church Street. I was in my paint pants and a t-shirt—Mom wasn’t excited about my outfit. From there we headed to Metropolitan Moving & Storage, which is where we store things for HRG&SP. Any boardie will tell you that going to storage is lots of fun—the building is huge and old and brick and (as it tells you in huge painted letters on its side) FIRE PROOF. Mom got the fella behind the front desk to give us a little tour where they keep the keys, which was interesting, and something I’d never seen before. From there it was back to Dunster, for email checking (for Mom) and talking on the phone with a certain friend who is in Serbia (you know who you are).

After that, it was time for a Mothers’ Day treat: a pedicure… for me. It’s what she wanted! (My feet did need it. She got a manicure herself.) From the salon, we headed to Daedalus, where we met up with Charlie (who, you will remember, directed my show this spring), his blockmate Bindy, and Blake, Phyllis’s fiance. Dinner was great—we learned the story of Bindy’s name (his given name is Frederic, but before he was born, his sister decided that he should be called Bindebar), and we got to tell the engagement story one more time (because Bindy and Charlie hadn’t heard it). Then, all of us went to Sanders Theater, where we met up with another G&S boardie, Casey, to watch the combined Holden Choruses perform Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. One hundred fifty voices, plus a full orchestra: it was amazing. Afterward, Mom, Blake, and I went to Finale for dessert, where we got to hear more about what Blake is up to these days.

On Saturday, the three of us met up again for breakfast, this time joined by Lawson Fite, a friend of Phyllis and Blake’s who is at the Law School. From there, we went Downtown, where Mom and I shopped for an outfit for the HRG&SP Board Dinner, and Blake went to a bookstore. Then it was back to Cambridge for lunch at the Border Cafe and the Arts First performance fair. The G&S portion was fantastic: Charlie and Sam Gale were hilarious (though I think I thought they were funnier than anyone else did—my laughter was conspicuous), and all the returning cast members were great. Then, a good chunk of the board (plus Mom!) saw Caroline in her a cappella group, VoxJazz, which was excellent, and so not like the twenty bazillion other a cappella groups at Harvard (for one thing, they had one person for each voice part: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone, Bass, and a Percussionist—that’s it). Then, mom and I went back to Memorial Church (where G&S had been) where we heard an organ concert, and then heard Celia sing in a performance of Benjamin Britten’s “Rejoice in the Lamb.” Let me tell you, that’s one weird piece of music. But I loved it. Here’s an example lyric:

TREBLE SOLO: For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For he knows that God is his Saviour.
For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.
For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.
For I am possessed of a cat, surpassing in beauty, from whom I take occasion to bless Almighty God.

ALTO SOLO: For the Mouse is a creature of great personal valour.
For - this a true case - Cat takes female mouse - male mouse will not depart, but stands threat’ning and daring.
If you will let her go, I will engage you, as prodigious a creature as you are.
For the Mouse is a creature of great personal valour
For the Mouse is of an hospitable disposition.

After this, we looked at Mike Lynch’s senior thesis exhibit in the Carpenter Center, and then Mom went to New Hampshire with the Ebels while I stayed at Harvard to work.

On Sunday, we nearly missed each other at Mass (we figured out that we must have come in from different doors at almost exactly the same time because neither one was sitting when we each entered), but then had a very nice Mothers’ Day brunch at Harvest, having tried to see Jess’s klezmer band who were supposed to be playing at noon (unbeknownst to us, it was cancelled due to rain). Then, Mom came back to Dunster with me, where she helped me pack a suitcase of things to go home. After packing, time for a quick picture:

and then she was off!