Letter from the Editor #33
An interview with "Aging as a Spiritual Practice" author and teacher Lewis Richmond about his course at Tricycle: The Buddhist Review; The Gen X Piano Karaoke report...
Readers,
The weather has (finally) turned summery here in the northeast after an interminable winter, and I am so here for it. We’ve been going for pool swims, taking long walks, and eating sweet corn with dinner, often out on our back porch.
We don’t have summer vacation plans—we’re not great about planning in advance. But we’re thinking of taking a few days away somewhere near a lake or other body of water. Where should we go? Where are you going?
Where will you be vacationing this summer? Got any recommendations for places that are within a two- or three-hour drive from Kingston, NY?
Check out the rest of this series here. P.S. Click here to get more out of this post by reading it online instead of in your email…
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An interview with Aging as a Spiritual Practice author and teacher Lewis Richmond about his course at Tricycle: The Buddhist Review …
Recently I got to take a course called “Aging as a Spiritual Practice” led by Buddhist priest and meditation teacher Lewis Richmond, through Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, a magazine and online learning center. It’s modeled after Richmond’s book by the same name.
I enjoyed this course, and how it reframes aging as an inescapable reality—not only one to accept and make peace with, but to also savor and enjoy—and elderhood as an achievement and honor. The course’s tag line gives a nice little taste: “Getting older is the greatest teacher.”
I figured Oldster readers might might enjoy the course, too. So I spoke with Richmond earlier this week over Zoom, and asked him to share some of his insights. Our conversation is here. ⬇️
Right now Tricycle is offering Oldster subscribers 25% off tuition, when you use the code OLDSTER25.
The Gen X Piano Karaoke report...
Oh, what a night! Oldster’s Gen X Piano Karaoke event last week at Sid Gold’s Request Room with pianist Paul Leschen was epic. It was so moving, inspiring, and uplifting that I’m going to make this into a series, probably quarterly, highlighting varying themes and musical periods.
I was joined by six performers who all chose songs released before 1997 that had particular meaning for them. Before singing, they each told the stories behind their choices.
I opened with Lisa Loeb’s Stay (I Missed You), a song on the Reality Bites soundtrack—although I was dressed more like an extra from Singles, in frayed cut-offs over fish nets, topped with a plaid flannel.
Side-note: After rewatching both movies in preparation for the evening, I’ve come to the conclusion that Reality Bites is a true Gen X movie, and Singles is more Generation Jones, or as Lisa Borders recently put it in these pages, “Geriatric Gen X.” (Both are good movies! And “Melrose Place is a really good show.” IYKYK.)
Next Kera Bolonik told the story of hearing Patti Smith’s Gloria: In Exelcis Deo for the first time—and finding identification in Smith’s singing about love for another woman—then performed that song.
Then Mark Armstrong told the story of listening to R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People as a lonely, brooding 16-year-old, and performed Nightswimming.
After that Alexander Chee told a poignant story about a bashing incident he endured soon after coming out (which he shared in this post) and then performed Erasure’s Oh, L’Amour, which he and his friends had been singing the night of the incident.
Then I got to duet with Emily Gould on Indigo Girls’ Closer to Fine, a song she’d asked me to learn the harmony on several years ago. At last we had our chance. (Emily is technically an elder millennial by one year, but I love doing karaoke with her so much, I made an exception.)
Next up was Alexandra Auder, who told the story of watching Jesus Christ Superstar asa child with her mother, “Viva Superstar,” in bed at the Chelsea hotel, then did a wonderfully whimsical and tender performance of I Don’t Know How to Love Him.
After that Blaise Allysen Kearsley told a story about seeing INXS’s live in 1986 as a tween, with her best friend, then sang Never Tear Us Apart while wearing the very concert tee shirt she got that night.
Then Emily Gould channeled 90s’ Jewel for a bang-up version of Who Will Save Your Soul.
Finally, my husband Brian Macaluso sang Steely Dan’s Rikki Don’t Lose that Number, and I sang backup. (It’s one of our many karaoke standbys.)
After that, attendees took turns at the mic, including Dustin Schell, Meredith Clare, Kavita Das, Emily Flake, amanda chemeche, Laurie Woolever, Rebecca Weller, Vivian Manning-Schaffel aka MUTHR, FCKD, and many others. Everyone was amazing, but Chemeche’s near-operatic performance of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights blew everyone’s minds.
***
Adding to everyone’s upbeat mood was Knicks fans’ exuberance, coming from the front bar. It was game four of the championship, and when New York won, the cheering spilled into the back room—our room, the one with the piano bar.
At around midnight Brian and I walked for 20 minutes with Blaise toward Union Square, and our buzz from a great night of piano karaoke and storytelling was magnified tenfold by the infectious, communal joy bursting from the streets. People were out and celebrating, strangers high-fiving each other.
From start to finish it was one of those magical New York City nights you never forget.
That’s all for today. Thanks as always for reading, and for all your support. 🙏💝
-Sari
I live in Tacoma WA where fireworks are illegal but the law is ignored and the sale of fireworks is legal on Tribal land. I have a passionate dislike for being stuck in the middle of what feels like a war zone - without the injuries and deaths - and my dog is inconsolable totally terrified by the booms. No doggie downer does the trick.
So she and I go to a peaceful island off the coast of British Columbia for a week. July 4 is not a one day celebration in my neighborhood. Other than hiking into the wilderness, there is no other way to escape the reenactment of bombs bursting in air in this upper left corner of the US. And time spent on a Canadian island is awesome.
We are from the hill country of central Texas but are lucky enough to summer up here in the Berkshires. I love glass art, and have always wanted to make the drive - about 4 hours - to Corning, NY, to see the Corning Museum of Glass. It looks fantastic! Have a wonderful trip, wherever you go!