Saturday - Evening: Autumnal days feel great. In DC, the man who promised to drain the swamp turns out to be a swamp creature.

 The second week of October, when the air is crisp in the morning, just right in the afternoon, and chilly at night, is perfect. The sun's path across the sky is a bit to the south and the morning and afternoon light is entrancing, delighting the eye with patterns of shade and color as it comes through the trees. 

Today is also a Holiday on the Jewish calendar, Shemini Atzeret. For me, the importance of the day is that during the synagogue service there is also a Yizkor commemoration. Yizkor is a time for remembering family and friends who've passed away. Traditionally, a person does not join the service until after a parent has passed away. I began after my mother died 25 years ago. There are four Yizkor services during the year, three on the last day of each pilgrimage festival and the fourth on Yom Kippur. 

It's a moving service, a time to stop and think about all the people who've died that meant something. For me it's my parents, my brother and beloved aunts and uncles, people who were a loving and important part of my life. But I also think about departed friends, and in thinking about them recall everything that made them important to me and to their families as well. There are, sadly, too many of them.

Turning from this pleasant melancholy - for this sort of remembrance is a good thing - to the dyspeptic situation in our country's political life, is not easy. The news is filled with the misdeeds of our President including allegations of financial crimes, sexual misconduct, slander and a casual disregard for the health and well-being of his fellow citizens. Tonight, I won't say more except it is important to go and vote, and to vote for Biden and Harris, and if there's a Senator running for election in your state, to vote Democrat for we need to turn the Repulsive wing of the Republicans out of power.

So Unelect Trump. Unelect Lindsey Graham, Unelect Moscow Mitch McConnell, and the rest of the rascals.

These photos were shot in 2013 at a performance by the great pianist Kathy Supové. She was performing new works as part of her Digital Debussy project, at the old Flea Theater in TriBeca. 

If you don't know anything about her, check out her website which has videos of some of her performances. She is a major proponent of contemporary music for the piano.

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