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Suspense!December 15, 2008 Libana, one of my most favorite performance ensembles, performed at the Woods Hole Community Hall last night. Despite the hassle of crossing the water, I knew I was going as soon as I heard they were coming this close; it's been at least a decade since they performed at the Whaling Church in Edgartown, and the venue is a short walk from the ferry dock. Libana is six women performing music from all around the world, with voices, an array of instruments (including an awesome variety of percussion), and dance. As a group they've been together for nearly 30 years, and the newest member of the ensemble has been with them for 19 years. There's more info about them on the Libana website. You can't go wrong with any of their recordings, and if you have the opportunity to see them perform, take it! So I hooked up with Gail, an island friend who loves the music, on the 5 o'clock boat. We yakked our way across Vineyard Sound then walked up to Pie in the Sky to get a light supper. There we were met by Gail's friend Mary, who had just come from singing a solo with a local chorus. Turns out that Mary and I have overlapped in a couple of places, notably Washington, D.C., and Weston, Mass., where we knew or knew of quite a few of the same people; not only that, Mary was instrumental in getting the Washington Revels started in the early 1980s -- which is when I first heard of the Revels and saw my first performance. At the hall we were met by Roberta, an island musician who had spent the weekend in New York. The performance was wonderful, as expected; we left a little before the end so we could make the last boat home, the 9:45. Suspense, you say; where's the suspense? This doesn't exactly sound like something out of Alfred Hitchcock. The suspense, which I managed to confine to a small space at the back of my brain for the entire evening, had to do with Travvy, who was Home Alone. Travvy has been Home Alone before, for an hour or two or, at Thanksgiving, three. This time it was more like six hours. Before I left I debated shutting him in his crate. No, six hours is too long for that. I even considered not going. Then I decided that I wanted to hear Libana so much that I was willing to take the risk -- which isn't to say that I wanted, or expected, to find my apartment trashed by a left-behind puppy when I got home. Before I left, I put the seriously irreplaceable items -- notably the hardcopy manuscript I'm currently editing -- out of reach, but this apartment isn't puppy-proofable, or anywhere close. So I drove home, parked in my usual spot under the tree, crunched across the gravel, and climbed the outside stairs. As I opened the kiddie gate at the top of the stairs, Travvy came to the front door, wiggling in greeting. Not a single boot or sock was out of place. All the trash was still in the wastebaskets, all the books and papers were just where I'd left them, which is to say "on every available flat surface." I hugged my wonderful puppy, then put on his Puplight and snapped on his leash. We went for a walk in the light of the gibbous moon.
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