Hello There, You English
My eldest son, Ryan, who is fifteen, had his first professional gig in a jazz club. This past Thursday, the Ryan Barwin group premiered at The Pepper Jack Cafe in Hamilton. Due to a last minute band crisis, he had to have fill in musicians: the amazing Mark Sepic on guitar, percussion, and digital looping, and the markedly less amazing Gary Barwin on saxophones. There's a Yiddish word, kvelling, which means something like "overflowing/welling with pride." I was definitely doing this. (Indeed, made a big puddle of pride on the floor.)
Ryan was playing guitar and --even if I do say so myself -- he was fantastic. Some people get nervous when they perform and the anxiety shows. Others do better the moment they hit the stage. He is in the later category. I've never heard him play so well. It did make a difference that Mark, a seasoned and relaxed performer, was on stage with him. I guess also the fact that I was there too, kvelling.
He played two long sets: a bunch of jazz standards, some Coltrane-influenced extended improvisations, some Bill Frisell, Grateful Dead, Low Rider, and an original tune.
The place was packed. A fantastic night altogether.
***
It's been a while since I saw this the first time, but I recently received this old joke again. It is appropriate as I'm heading through Pennsylvannia to Washington DC for 10 days.
Hello There, You English:
Thou hast just received the Amish Virus.
As we haveth no technology nor programming experience, this virus worketh on the honour system. Please delete all the files from thy hard drive and manually forward this virus to all on thy mailing list.We thank thee for thy cooperation.
— The Amish Computer Engineering Dept.
Comments
By the way, how come people say "eldest" instead of "oldest" when they're referring to their kids?
Stu
"The Eldest Trick in the Book."
Good question. I tried to find an older statesman to ask, but instead
I checked out: http://www.onestopenglish.com/Grammar/Reference/Adjectives/adjectives4.htm
"The usual comparative and superlative forms of the adjective old are older and oldest. However the alternative forms elder and eldest are sometimes used. Elder and eldest are generally restricted to talking about the age of people, especially people within the same family, and are not used to talk about the age of things, e.g.:
It’s the oldest/*eldest castle in Britain.
Elder cannot occur in the predicative position after link verbs such as be, become, get etc., e.g.:
We’re all getting older/*elder.
My brother is older/*elder than me."
and
http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic7966.html:
"Just as an aside, remember that 'eldest' is normally used in front on a noun - and only used with relatives and family members. Whereas, 'old, older and oldest' are used as adjectives of comparison - comparing two things that differ in age."
but then again, I might be drinking too much olderberry wine.
grats to you both!