Senior singalongs in Oakland
Retired college music professor conducts group.
A retired college music professor grabbed his wife’s walking cane in Oakland the other day, started waving it through the air and instantly the pandemic got a little easier to take.
“Everybody is singing more together,” said Jonathan Elkus. “I think it’s making a difference.”
Elkus is the de facto conductor of the Wednesday afternoon music jam session that happens at the highrise Piedmont Gardens senior residence on 41st Street. Residents stand on their balconies and belt out campfire songs while the Hootenanny Club strums guitars in the courtyard.
It’s been going on for several weeks. At the beginning, Elkus noticed that the singers on the 15th floor weren’t exactly in time with the singers on the 2nd floor, soundwaves being the tricky things they are.
So Elkus, who used to lead the bands at UC Davis, grabbed one of his wife’s canes, slipped one of his white socks on one end for visibility and plunged back into the conducting business, leading his fellow residents on such tunes as “You Are My Sunshine” and “We Shall Overcome.”
Resident Ruth Campbell sings from her 15th floor balcony while
her husband, John, plays drums with the group in the courtyard. Being 15 stories away from her husband at music time, she said, is just about the right distance.
“I can’t carry a tune,” she said, “and, with my husband downstairs, he can’t tell me I can’t carry a tune.”
The group used to play regular concerts in the lounge before the pandemic forced it to switch to the courtyardandbalcony setting. The complex canceled its rich program of lectures, movies and workshops, and the Wednesday singalong is what’s left. Residents — most of them in their 80s — wave scarves, the way the quarantined citizens of Italy did when they started balcony singing in the early days of the pandemic.
“It’s just fun to see everyone and do something all together,” she said. “We all miss being with each other. Making music together helps.”
St. Pancake’s Day: There’s something about a pancake, says an Oakland man, that has the power to vanquish things like pandemics.
Ariel Dovas and his 7yearold daughter, Zetta, were moping around the house the other day after their Easter egg hunt went bust because there was only one egg hunter. Dovas said what they needed was a new holiday, and the two of them came up with St. Pancake’s Day.
St. Pancake’s Day, they decreed, will be the last Saturday of the month and is all about making pancakes with people you love. When you create a new holiday, Dovas said, you get to make the rules.
Dovas, a video producer by trade, created a website (www.stpancakesday.com) and filled it with history about pancakes and poems about pancakes and advice about pancakes. The main advice is to turn off the computer.
“This is all about taking a break from your screens and doing something in the moment,” he said.
Making pancakes, he said, is special.
“It takes time. You usually do it on the weekend. Sometimes you put chocolate chips in. When else do you get to have chocolate for breakfast? Only with pancakes.”
Once St. Pancake’s Day is over, you post pictures of your pancakes and exchange recipes, after doing the dishes.
No, Dovas admitted, the world is not yet familiar with St. Pancake, yet he exists, just like that St. Nick fellow in the red suit, who also had to start someplace.
“St. Pancake’s Day is something to look forward to,” Dovas said. “My daughter is excited about it. And she hasn’t been feeling excited about a lot of things lately.”
Wedding invitation refunds: Most things about marriage come without guarantees, but not Chris Wu’s wedding invitations.
Anyone who ordered engraved wedding invitations and then had to cancel a ceremony because of the pandemic can get a full refund or a free doover, later on.
Wu, founder of the Paper Culture online stationery company of Millbrae, feels just awful about all the weddings that have been announced on his fancy card stock, weddings that will never take place.
“It’s a terrible situation,” he said. “We want to help.”
The refunds will cost a lot now, but Wu figures to make it up down the road. Weddings are often followed by things like birth announcements, graduation announcements, engagement announcements and then even more wedding announcements. With any luck, a satisfied customer will think to do all that announcing on Wu’s paper goods.
“We’re going to lose money on the initial refund,” he said, “but we’re building for later on.”
The wedding invitation business is down about 70%, he said. On the other hand, sales in nonwedding stationery are up 30%. That could be because writing and sending a letter by U.S. Mail takes time, something people suddenly have a lot of. It also makes a statement, the kind in ink with no delete button.