So the RISA event was tonight at 7:30 and, of course, I had to go. I got there a little early and was, for a little while, the only person in the audience; then I was joined by an incredibly drunk gentleman who spend four or five minutes blowing raspberries with his mouth, and then switched to croaking at irregular intervals. Ryan Fitzsimmons, who organized the event, looked a little worried, and asked croaking guy if he was doing that on purpose; the guy croaked and nodded. He then asked him if he was going to continue doing it while people were performing. Croaking guy thought about this briefly, then croaked and shook his head 'no'. Ryan suggested that if he could avoid doing it during the performances it would be greatly appreciated.
Ryan started his song (which wasn't the 'going swimming' song -- each songwriter got to do four songs, the third of which was the theme song) and, apart from one relatively subdued croak and a little kicking of the metal chairs in front of him, Croaking Guy more or less kept to his word. Then he left for a short while, and after retrieving a bottle of wine from somewhere he came back and sort of lay down on the floor behind me. Then after another couple of songs he left again.
The first round of songs was complete, and Chris's friend Bridget showed up. Croaking Guy showed up again and sat next to Bridget, giving her the full benefit of his unique odor. Then he left again, this time for good, although his scent remained for a bit. Anyway.
The third round of songs, which was the 'going swimming' songs, came. Everyone had little introductions to their songs, which I recognized from my days in a writing group as the obligatory 'this is why what I wrote sucks' segments. The songs were all pretty enjoyable, though. Chris's song was told in the first-person and was a song about a guy who goes to the beach checking out other guys in speedos. He suggested that the only way the song would be any good would be if all the other musicians also played, which they did, which was very nice and which I felt kind of subverted the 'songwriters in the round' paradigm a little.
After the theme songs were done, the theme for next month was chosen. The way it worked was this: Everyone in the audience (which was six people) wrote down a possible theme. Then four of the themes were chosen at random and given to the songwriters, each of which read one of them. Then everyone voted for which theme they liked. The proposed themes that were read were 'robots', 'riding on the subway', 'hurricanes', and 'surreptitiousness'. Guess which one was mine?
When the themes were read out, 'surreptitiousness' caused a lot of comment, because people seemed uncertain as to what it meant. The final vote count was: robots 5, surreptitiousness 4, riding on the subway 1, hurricanes 0, at which point there appeared to be quite a bit of consternation about the difficulty of the winning topic. This entertained me greatly.
Then they each did one final song and the evening was over.
After the show, I took Chris and Bridget to Trinity Brewhouse for drinks and a little food, and Chris recited the lyrics to his song again, providing a little commentary for Bridget and my benefit.. Then we went to the abandoned telephone booth by the old fire station nearby and Chris took out some matches and burned the only two copies of the lyrics to cinders.
It was a good night. I think it will be necessary for me to go back next month.