i adore Dar Williams.
i saw her tonight at the Me & Thee Coffeehouse/Unitarian Universalist Church in Marblehead, and she was... phenomenal. she did my two favorite songs, the ones that always make me cry. The Babysitter Song and When I Was a Boy, both off the Honesty Room. the Honesty Room is her first album, which my mom purchased for one of my birthdays in high school after hearing the Babysitter Song on Minnesota Public Radio's Morning Show [god, i miss MPR], and so that song always makes me eminently homesick. i like homesickness, at least the mild yearning type that i experience, not the sad, bereft type that depresses people. it actually makes me feel less bereft, really. anyway, seeing Dar in such a wonderful intimate setting was fabulous. and it was a gorgeous day to drive out to the North Shore. almost too warm, really. it's like we had one day of spring, yesterday, and today was nearly full blown summer. i hate summer. but the evening was perfect.
well, except for the woman sitting behind me who kept making hissy whispered catty comments to the woman she was with -- during the music! she didn't do it to Dar so much [thank goodness... for the benefit of her own health, really] but she kept distracting me from the opener, Ann(e?) Weisz(sp?), who, while not Dar, was quite enjoyable, i thought.
but i actually [for once] succeeded in mostly ignoring her and not letting her ruin my show. often during shows, someone in the audience will annoying me by talking or whatever, and i'll fume and them and it'll practically ruin my whole evening. but not tonight. i'm getting better at this open-minded stuff. and besides, she could've been alot worse.
i feel very warm and happy and content tonight. and the night was beautiful, with stars, and trees making stark silhoettes, and a pure breeze from the ocean, and room full of people who sing beautifully and with joy during sing alongs. and i got to have a lovely talk with one of my housemaates who i don't get to talk to as often as i would like. and life is just good. good in the best possible way, the sturdy, real way. and i came home to find my boy already asleep in bed and looking content like he has a blast running about a 4-H camp playing a character all weekend, and it makes me happy.
about last entry's parting question, i suspect i mostly answered it already. at least, the important part -- looking for balance. clearly there are some people i would objectively like to invite but would be way too disharmonious considering the people i really *must* invite, like my wonderful housemates. and there are other people i would like to invite, but they wouldn't know anyone else. and some of them would still be comfortable and everyone would have a blast. and some of them would be uncomfortable, and discomfort is contagious and so it would make everyone else uncomfortable and that would be bad. and what about friends of friends -- you know, people i barely know, but someone who i'd really like to come would be psyched if they could invite them. oh, i hope i can find a balance. and not forget anyone i really would have liked to invite.
short entry today, really need to get to sleep, work tomorrow. and i'm exhausted.
see, i'm not a *totally* impractical, frivolous person.
parting question: political and social activism. what can i do that is actually effective and satisfying?