Man With Sign, April 3, 02026
Friday is another cold morning, with temps in the mid-30s and very humid. I reach Roosevelt Circle at 7:32 and set up. Today's hand-held message is the multi-colored WEIRD IS THE NEW NORMAL, and if this ain't weird times I don't know what would qualify. Craige arrives a few minutes later and we chat briefly.
1/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS7Qbk5WoeA
#ClimateChaos #GlobalWarming #HindustaniMusic #CitizenActivism
Traffic is very light and disregards us almost completely, the drivers looking straight ahead. One of the (very rare) pedestrians greets me and we exchange smiles and nods; a bicyclist calls out hello. I'd misplaced my winter gloves and am wearing a thinner pair that has a split in one thumb, and I can feel the cold air.
2/
Sensitive to some weak spots in yesterday's work on bol-taan construction, I choose to spend the entire hour almost entirely practicing one thing: the eighth-note triplet bol-taan I'd attempted yesterday and abandoned. I go over the basic melodic line (five simple arching contours themselves arranged in an arch) at slow tempo, moving between sargams, open vowels, and song text.
3/
After about ten or twelve minutes of this I start the tabla at a very restrained 73 bpm, and focus on getting the triplets rhythmically accurate and in tune. The second and fourth set begins on the low Dha, and the various wide intervals challenge my pitch; the line spans a major seventh and the intervals are a major third, minor second, augmented second, minor third, both up and down.
4/
I also work on a version of the line in which the starting points of cells 1 & 5 are switched with that of cell 3, which arranges the ascending arcs in a descending arc. The 2nd and 4th cells remain on the low Dha, attendant intonation challenges and all. After a long stretch at 73, I begin incrementing by 5s, and over the second half of the hour I get back to yesterday's tempo.
5/
John Gallagher arrives, takes some pictures for his ongoing photo-essay, waits while I make a video, then records me and Craige as we sing a version of "Get Together." The wind whistles past us, pulling warmth from my face and the bit of exposed skin on my hands. And then home, for a day of students, video editing (including recordings if all goes well), and the usual resistance chores.
6/
Let me just say (for the benefit of my future trial in International Criminal Court for being a citizen of a war-criminal nation) that I have been opposed to this shit since before it started, and I've engaged in this practice of conscience for eleven years now. I don't expect any special clemency for it; protest is the bare minimum required of us as decent human beings.
See you Monday.
Man With Sign
end/
Warren Senders