GCNE Meeting/Performance, 05-02-2010, The banks of the Charles River

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Alex Lahoski, Dev Ray, and Tim Butler (who is visiting from New York).

The weather is beautiful, today, so the circle has chosen to take advantage of this and unleash ourselves on the unsuspecting public along the Charles River. Brad is about twenty minutes late, unfortunately, but once he shows up, we're off! Victor mentions that we will be working with an awareness of the motion of breath, as we move through the day.

Roughly twenty-five minutes later, we park in a garage in Harvard Square (courtesy of Glenn's day job), and embark to the river. Once we arrive with thrones, amps, guitars, and ourselves, we find a spot close to a bridge (the John Weeks Bridge, apparently) and circle up. At roughly a quarter of five, we begin with a bit of circulation to get the blood flowing and check levels, and then jump in with an improvisation. Regrettably, Dev has to leave, in order to go to work, but we continue to circulate and improvise. We come to a stop, and Victor calls "Growing Circle". After playing this, we jump straight back in with more improvisation, but come to a halt when Dev comes back and asks Glenn to help him get back into the garage. As Glenn leaves, we decide to take a break, and continue on in a moment.

A few minutes later, we circle back up again (with Glenn coming back in about 10 minutes later), and proceed to play for over two hours, without actually stopping. Most of this involves improvisation and circulation, but plenty of repertoire is called: Eye of the Needle, Third Relation, Flying Home, Thrak, Asturias, Where's the Nurse?, Askesis (twice), Growing Circle (again), and the Prelude circulation. There's also a very lovely improvisation that feeds into the first Theme, Invocation. Eventually, we close with a final circulation/improvisation.

Over the course of two hours or so, we maintain something of a continually shifting audience, with some people very happy to see us. One or two people ask a couple of questions, and are very pleased to see what we are doing. Two happy accidents, as well: Andy Cahill, who attended the beginner's course in Sant Cugat, back in July of 2009, accidentally finds us playing; and another person named Jonathan, who attended one of the former beginner's circles, about four years ago. Over all, a very good set of events.

Victor suggests that, in lieu of a regular meeting, we instead go for Indian food at a restaurant in Harvard Square, where we can relax and discuss some matters of importance. Over the course of the meal, several big things are put on the table (not counting the food), and we're able to really get a scope of what opportunities we have available to us. Once the meal adjourns (thank you, Alex and Victor!), it's back to the cars and the loft, in order to switch equipment and people to necessary vehicles, and a farewell for the night. Meeting adjourned at roughly 9:45 p.m.