day of unmasking

So this was the day, the day on which the state officially lifted its covid restrictions.

Not that I could tell. All three business or public establishments I entered today, it was business as usual, assuming you consider the last year to be usual. I had my mask too.

One of my visits was to the public library where my hold had come up for a copy of Alex Ross's Wagnerism, not so much a book about music as one on the composer's influence on other media. Browsing through it I'm finding it to be - apparently unintentionally - quite condemnatory of Wagner's work. This cheers me, as so am I. More on this later.

Another reason for visiting this particular library is its adjacency to the park at which the community orchestra in which B. is a violinist will be playing on the Fourth of July. B. asked me if the park's amphitheater had any shade. One-word answer, no. The tall trees shade the audience seating but don't get to where the players sit: at least not at that time of day.

The concert will be a potpourri of patriotic music. Sousa marches, including this one; Elgar's "Nimrod" - say, whose patriotism are we celebrating here, anyway?