Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Onativia Church Music Series

One of the best kept secrets in the local music scene has been the First Friday concerts at this lovely little white church just off Route 20 in Lafayette, NY. If you’ve read me before, I’ve written about several folks we’ve heard play there. The acoustics in the church are amazing and the talent brought in never fails to provide top notch entertainment. Sherrie and Opie (the brains behind this operation) work very hard to make the experience welcoming and pleasant…..and the homemade desserts for sale during intermission are pretty darn tasty, too!

What great news to find out they were expanding their series to include other Friday nights! Here are shows scheduled for future Fridays, beginning at 7 PM:

July 9th - Diamond Someday
July 23rd – Butternut Creek
August 6th – Donna Colton and the Troublemaker (that’s Sam, of course)
September 10th – Dana Klipp (Northwater)
October 1st – Folkstrings
October 22nd – Larry Hoyt and the Good Acoustics
November 5th – Joe Davoli and Harvey Nussbaum
November 19th – Joanne Perry and the Unstoppables
December 3rd – Donna Colton and Sam’s Holiday Performance
March 11th – Mark Zane and Friends (yes….Sherrie’s booked folks all the way into 2011)

We had the absolute pleasure to catch Mikey Powell and Dusty Pascal (or is it Pas’cal…..I never know if I should put that apostrophe in or not….sorry, Dusty, if I got it wrong) at the beginning of the month. We knew it would be a good show; the way hubby is feeling these days after his knee replacement surgery, we do not venture too far away from home or camp for much of anything. It was so much more than GOOD though. It was magnificent. Such talented singer-songwriters who absolutely love bringing their tales to an audience didn’t even have to break a sweat to please this crowd. What a pleasure it was to sit back and watch them perform. Everyone in the audience was attentive. That’s what’s so great about going to one of these gigs at Onativia….you can sit back and truly listen to what’s being played and hear the mastery of the artist. Mikey and Dusty gave us a lot to remember, tunes that stuck in our heads as we drove back home.

Work it into your calendar to get over to Onativia Church, just off Route 20 at the corner of Dodge Road and Apulia Road. Music starts at 7:00 PM and they’ll pass the collection plates around at some point to pay the musicians. Be generous. You’ll be in for a special treat.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Neighbors

I’m blessed….and cursed.

Coming home with a belly full of spaghetti and meatballs courtesy of Mary Ellen who cooked for us tonight, knowing we’d come home from the camper and had doctor appointments and nothing in our refrigerator here…..she is so wonderful…..I was accosted by my neighbor in the back who accused me of messing with the clothes she had in the washing machine today.

Right. I’ve got all sorts of time for that kind of stuff in my life these days. Actually, SHE took MY clothes out of the washer to put her clothes in AND opened the dryer door so my clothes in there didn’t dry….but she had an “issue” with my messing with her clothes. This woman just came home from the hospital with a newborn baby (we did not know she was pregnant even) and has a less-than-two-year-old underfoot who must think his name is “Jesus Christ” because that’s what she’s hollering at him all the time. She said to me tonight, “I know I’m a loud mouth….” and I had to bite my lip to say “yes and you should be arrested for some of the things you say to your children.

She jumped on me the minute we returned from a nice dinner at Mary Ellen’s, complete with a couple glasses of wine. I almost wish I’d had a third glass of wine; I might not have held my tongue. I may be sporting a black eye as I type this now, but it might have been worth it. Life had not been kind to us lately, and it just didn’t feel right that this woman should beat up on me either.

But, I’m really not going to let her. Instead I’m going to be content to know I have wonderful friends who know I’m going through a rough spell and cook dinner for me and don’t yell at me. They are priceless. The she-beast who lives in the back apartment of this house will probably never know such friends. I pity her. She may need them someday.