Sunday, December 8

We got up late and had a shower, followed by a delicious breakfast of leftovers. I played with my new laptop, to make sure that the account worked outside the Arcada network, and to configure hibernation. Why is hibernation always hidden, when it is so useful? Beats me.

We all spent as much as possible of the day indoors. The temperature had dropped by about ten degrees. Somewhere in the north of Finland it was -37 degrees, the coldest this year.

Now Irma has taken me to my Christmas present: a performance by the Gospel Spirit of Harlem. Two songs in and it is clear that most sould music is simply gospel with the subject matter changed. Four songs in and I am forcibly reminded of the time, twenty five years ago, when I saw Funkadelic at the peak. They had thirty five musicians onstage, and sang exactly the same way as the singers I am listening to now. It occurs to me that, at times, they sang exactly the same tunes too.

There are six singers including Anthony Morgan, the leader of the band in the glittery jacket. It is his fiftieth birthday today and the audience sing Happy Birthday to him at the end. Then two of the singers and the band turn it into an improvised song that the other singers join and, in an instance, it becomes clear that they can make something up on the spot that sounds traditional and rehearsed.

We leave happy and satisfied. It was not an event it would have occurred to me to attend, but I am very glad we went.

Very glad indeed.