Iris must be the best hostess ever. We were so comfortable we didn't get up until 11 in the morning--a first for both Stu and I. We are doing our planning as we go along.
First stop was the DeKalb Market--difficult to describe. A super-sized market featuring everything edible from locally grown greens, so beautiful and lush you could put them in a cut-crystal vase for your living room table, to cases of cheeses, local and imported. An entire alcove held chocolates, another for fresh cut spices. Cases of sea food with shrimp in five different sizes. More counters of pork, lamb, goat, beef, chicken, and turkey. Still more iced boxes of fresh fish, whole, filleted, breaded, boned, marinated--ready cut or prepared to order. Customers came in various colors, scarf covered Muslims, to Kepa clad families.
One food station served prepared foods by the pound. For $26 total, Iris, Stu, and I tried a dozen fresh vegetable dishes, curried garbanzo beans, spicy red lentils, red and green cabbage chows, goat stew, chicken samosas and jerked chicken. I only regretted having only one stomach. Much too much for a single visit so we are going to try a return trip before we head to Savannah on Tuesday.
Atlanta is a big city, with lots to offer. We had already enjoyed a culinary feast, our next stop was a musical repast. Ahavath Achim Synagogue, a large conservative congregation, hosted an afternoon recital featuring "9 String Theory". Angelina Galashenkova-Reed playing the domra, and John Huston on the guitar. Nothing electronic, just amazing music on the domra, an adaptation of a tenth century instrument that probably originated in Egypt and was condemned by the Czar in Russia in the early 19th century because it was used by Gypsies. Ms. Reed played superbly, as one would expect from an international star. John Huston's guitar playing was mesmerizing. Together the domra, a 3-string instrument, and the guitar, 6-string, are the '9 String Theory'. They've adapted music originally scored for piano, Flamenco guitar, full orchestras, evolved into a haunting stringed performance.
We're not done. This was the last day of the 4 days Atlanta Greek Festival, so off we went. The Festival is all about music and food. We watched Black children dancing with their White counterparts, inspired by the Greek rhythms, everyone improvising. Our feet couldn't stand still, our hips swayed, arms held high. And then home when the first drops of rain began falling.
Some musings you can skip or not. At the Synagogue I spoke with one of the officers and we talked about the waning congregation. Why? Because the young Atlanta professionals don't put their children into the Atlanta public schools, they move to the suburbs and enroll them in Jewish Day Schools. The negative unintended consequence is that Atlanta public schools are less and less integrated with a Black school population of over 90% and city synagogues losing membership to the point of threatening extinction. A positive consequence is that more Atlanta Jewish children are receiving a Jewish education and thus decreasing the impact of assimilation.
We should be having a national conversation about integration, its good and bad sides. Because we are moving toward a national curriculum, a standardized common core, we are not free to espouse our local values, we neutralize everything with meaning. God is removed from classrooms to maintain separation of church and state. But for many of our citizens, God is essential to their lives, but they are not free to include values, basic right and wrong as they see it, in the education of their children. We insist everyone value the same thing and gloss over studying the Holocaust, the Trail of Tears, even Slavery, for fear we offend someone. And in the process we offend everyone. Those who can leave the public system, those who can't have to regurgitate the values and history espoused by the (still predominantly white men) in their Washington DC think tanks. We should be having a national conversation about the value of valuing local customs. We are not a nation of everyone is the same, take a walk in the DeKalb market and see the selections different groups make. We can dance together as we did at the Greek Festival, but that doesn't wipe out celebrating our differences.
Another observation: music writing. During this musical journey we've been taking these past three weeks we are learning about the importance of writing to singing and instrumentals. Not so much about the performances, although that's what we see, it's about the written word, the songs themselves, the stories they tell. Did you know, I didn't, that Barry Manilow and David Sussman wrote the theme to American Bandstand? (Okay, don't know why I threw that in, time to sign off.)
Listening to the rain hitting Iris's roof, fall through the trees, and bring down the autumn leaves. All good.
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