This is what Soul Bossa Nova looked like at the start of 2020.
This is what Soul Bossa Nova looked like at the start of 2020.
This is what it looked like during the tumult of mid-year.
This is what it looked like during the tumult of mid-year.
And, somewhat optimistically, it looked like this by year's end.
And, somewhat optimistically, it looked like this by year's end.
2020 started out a year, and it ended A Year™. It's hard to believe it began with Kunle getting his TenPointTenThousand band's rendition of Rock Port Rock played on the January 19th episode of WMBR's Subject To Change (just a few months after he got School of HONK's (then new) Superstition on the same show in late 2019!). We began with big bands playing in the streets. We began with real hugs, not air hugs. We began with carpooling and cafes and ABC gum. Remember at our last, regular School of HONK session when Shaunalynn made a joke about oranges being naturally, single-serve snacks? Little did we know, single-serve food-sharing would be the least of our worries as we learned what living through a pandemic would actually entail.
2020 started out a year, and now it's over. Many things that began last year continue into now, and many of them aren't good. Some real—and really hard—stuff has gone down, and it has impacted folks in our communities, folks we love and care for, in real ways. There is work to do. There are problems to solve. But we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the beautiful, loving, playful, and inspiring things that happened in our community over this past year, not because only positive things happened, but because we want to enter 2021 with a fight left in us. And because we wanted to share with all of you just how important this community has been for us this year, and how grateful we are to share space with all of you—be it digital or distanced—in these fragile skin sacks, on this giant rock, circling that enormous ball of burning gas we call the sun.
Below, you'll find something of a Table Of Contents into this year in review. Peruse freely or go straight to the spot you find most appealing! We’re already excited about how 2021 is shaping up—and thank you for being with us through 2020.
Loud love,
Kevin, Rosalie, and Shaunalynn
Rock Lobster has been an unlikely anthem to our 2020. Somehow, the arc of this song's development feels symbolic. We're not sure we can say exactly what it is symbolic of, but it feels a part of the School of HONK zeitgeist right now, and it sure feels good to reminisce about!
It's hard to believe the dance to Rock Lobster was composed in early 2020. Bless this quintet!
It's hard to believe the dance to Rock Lobster was composed in early 2020. Bless this quintet!
It's also hard to believe we waited until this year to ask the hard questions of our bandmates. The results are in.
We'd especially like to highlight the keen and thoughtful methodology used by Ken to answer this question. The classic rock-or-lobster coin toss. The ultimate in fairness and accuracy. Thank you, Ken!
It came up in some of our early-pandemic online sessions, like this great Pictionary clue.
And this, well. It's a little easier to believe that this masterpiece of smiling faces and claws happened in 2020! Let Rock Lobster live forever in this screen-based adaptation developed for us by Veronica and Rosalie.
And finally, we're able to play together again, and this song is getting a lot of airtime as we do! This rendition is from HONK! United, and one of our favorite versions went undocumented, played in the Frog Pond on Boston Common. Thank you to the B-52s for this absurd anthem to an absurd year. On to part 5! Ocean sounds for all!
As we mucked about in the early months of the pandemic, we didn't have a lot of information. We knew gathering more than a hundred people to play brass music wasn't safe, but we didn't know what was. During those months, we improvised. We showed up for each other. We shared. We tried to figure out how to be together when we couldn't actually be together.