Year End Compendium: Dec. Late 2012 - WaynesWord2: A Saratoga Blog By Wayne Perras

A serious series of Saratoga-area snowfalls have hit at last, as this momentous year turns toward a grand finale. First of all, congratulations to us for having survived the transition to the aftermath of the Mayans’ 13th b’ak’tun cycle, which concluded on exactly the morning of the winter solstice, December 21st, purportedly at 6:11 a.m. I am glad nothing climactic happened, as I had a closing scheduled that very day for a couple who had worked long and hard to arrange teir purchase, and they were coming back from a vacation just in time to close the deal before most business shut down due to the long Christmas weekend this year.

During the week before that, I had contemplated a blog column on how many Doomsdays, Apocalypses, Armageddon dates, Nuclear War Scares, and Catastrophic Scenarios my contemporaries & I have now survived in our lifetimes, but decided that was too cliche these days, what with everyone else already proclaiming either the levity or gravity of the situation. Internet reporting certainly illustrated more mass-paranoia in other countries that I ever found in evidence here. It was old news by the afternoon of the 21st: the SKY DIDN’T FALL, despite the irony of the hit movie of the month being SkyFall, just before the fated occasion. Oy; we are still here–on we go. There were some pundits, however, who never thought the prophecy was about the end of he world, but the beginning of a new cycle, and I am OK with seizing upon that train of thought, a transformation the world badly needs. I personally feel more focused and efficient than before the world was supposed to end, so maybe another Apocalypse is and was motivational after all.

The first significant snowfall of the season this year came on Christmas eve, like in a movie. Bare lawns and drab trees were transformed in time for the “magic” that Santa-loving children crave– it was “just a dusting” but still scenic, after our almost-2-year drought of real snow. Then, two days after Christmas, we received a mini-blizzard– with an overnight & half-day-long blow that resulted in 8-12 inches of lovely white stuff on that Thursday. Skiers were delighted; my college-age boys and I were actually happy to do some shoveling together– manual-method, like the olden days– such was the novelty of it. Then two days after that, as I began writing this blog– Saturday the 29th — a Saturday, we had one of those gentle snow-globe-like events where it comes down slow and steady all day and makes you feel like you’re in a Swiss Alps resort setting. Beautiful. Instead of watching college bowl games or hoop tournaments on the tube, I just read and wrote and puttered around the house cooking and getting organized for the coming New Year– a great, relaxed feeling. My wife and daughter spent a marathon day tending to our gorgeous 5-month old niece (shout out to Mallory Finn!) at my brother-in-law’s house while the rest of his family ventured to NYC for the day, so there were no heavy demands or plans on the homefront. I think this is what we miss in the Northeast when we go so long without “normal winter weather” due to global warming– we are programmed since childhood to have snowdays to just goof off and play and have fun, and we felt gypped last year that there was virtually ZERO snow up here between October and March of last winter. But now as I look out at a fluffy foot-plus of white stuff– that drought is officially OVER. And now our upstate scenery seems in accord with the classic memories of the holiday season that we northern natives have stored in our brains and DNA, and for the time being, despite recent horrific tragedies both nationally and abroad, all seems right with the world. Peace.

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WHAT’S TO COME!!

To recap 2012– just in terms of the topics I like to address in this blog– would take more of your time (and mine) than either of us has to spare, so let me just say that I have greatly enjoyed this new forum on this phenomenal “saratoga.com” website, and I hope some of you look back to my proto-blogs when I started in April of this past year by detailing what drew me to Saratoga Springs, the Home of Health, History, and Horses, as well as SPAC, Broadway, Skidmore College, music clubs, hiking at the State Park, and over a hundred great places to dine, drink, dance, converse, listen, people-watch, and carouse….

The next best chance to experience Saratoga’s full breadth of charm and musical intrigue will occur the day after I post this: its now-famous, 17th Annual FIRST NIGHT SARATOGA Celebration, which will entail 35 separate music & art venues, including, events and performances for kids of all ages in a family-friendly atmosphere downtown…. in advance of the hard-core partyers taking over after midnight. This event will typically draw 10,000-15,000 people to swarm the streets in the core of the City, and is one of this town’s Top 10 events of the year, along with the recurring
Hat’s Off Festivals at the beginning and end of Track Season, the Victorian Streetwalk that kicks off the Holiday shopping season, and what used to be called The Caroline Street Block Party, held each year in May.

My family and I have skipped the mob-scene and the cold the last couple of years, but this time around I am more in the mood to be part of it all– and to see two particular musical acts in particular. The first is an amazing local singer who has slowly captivated me via some demo tunes that have aired on WEXT (97.7 FM) as I’ve mentioned earlier this year: Maryleigh Roohan, of the group Maryleigh and The Fauvres, who will be appearing at the City Convention Center’s First Fest, partially sponsored by our favorite radio station. Her most distinctive song that I’m aware of is the haunting ballad “Baby You Should Know” which is in regular-rotation on WEXT locally, and features the full range of her angelic voice. I have somehow missed all of the area performances of her band all over the Capital District and at The Putnam Den in town so far, but am determined not to miss her in person on this occasion.

A long-term friend and fellow music buff Dave Casner is also appearing on First Night
with his talented collaborator Crispin Catricala, at The Arts Center (the old Library, at the corner of Broadway and Spring Street, for those with memories that go back over a decade…). Dave plays vibes and Crispin is a master guitarist who teaches music at Ballston Spa HS, just down the road. The two of them will perform originals sprinkled with a couple of familiar covers (The Beatles’ “Blackbird”, and Sting’s “Fragile” among them) from a CD that they’ve just produced at Charlie Eble’s Woodsend Studio on Middle Grove Road, not far from where I live. Their CD features a clean, serene kind of sound that is reminiscent of Gary Burton and Chick Corea’s work together on ECM recordings, if Corea was replaced by Ralph Towner,with a Latin tinge. The brand new disc is called “GEO BEAT”, a spin-off perhaps of the name of their former group, Pangaea. It will be for sale at the performance on New Year’s Eve, when the songs are performed in a quartet setting, with Crispin’s son Leonardo on bass, along with a drummer.

Since there are a total of 70 performing acts I will not attempt to detail them here, but will mention that Alex Torres Big Band is always worth seeking out as well. I was a bit disappointed to find out that the online information for Saratoga Arts Council was still showing last year’s schedule, not this year’s, as of this morning.
Local newspapers The Saratogian and Saratoga Today (our local weekly) will no doubt have more complete scheduling information for those who seek it out. Hope to see your smiling faces out in the cold on or near Broadway that evening, or better yet, inside, where the music will be.

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One last coda to the year, on a musical note, is to send some heavy kudos to WEXT
once again for an ambitious project they engaged in during the pre-holiday week,
which was their compilation of The Top 977 Songs in Rock History, which was concluded on the solstice, December 21st, and gave me another good reason to root for the world not ending that morning. I will devote another entire blog to my reactions to that list, and all the musical memories it triggered, good and bad, in January, I swear. Till then I commend that great station (a spin-off from WMHT’s public radio enterprise, which went on air in 2007) for its ongoing efforts in the non-commercial radio world, an invaluable resource to our area’s cultural life. Chris Wienk, Dave Michaels, and KTG were the dj’s who delivered most of the countdown, and the other on-air people like Aja, Joyce Jackey, Wayne Henning, Josh Nourek, and Laura from Hello Pretty City should also be mentioned as providing stellar FM programming for us all year long. Among the syndicated shows David Dye’s World Cafe, and John Diliberto’s Echoes have both become indispensable staples of my daily routine, morning and night. I will continue to blog about their efforts and revelations as time goes on…and thank them for what they do.

Will also be giving reactions and observations to First Night and First Fest, tres soon.
Take care and thanks for paying attention!

Happy New Year to come!

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