The Community Music Hangout has passed the quarter century mark! We’re well on the way to my dream of getting to 100. Thanks to everyone who has made the event such a success; if it were just Rikki and I out there by ourselves each weekend, we would not have persisted in organizing things. Thank you. The 25th Meeting of the Community Music Hangout gathered on Saturday, August 12th, 2023 at Carly i.e. The West Piano. This time around, we were positioned squarely on the fog meridian. There were splotches of blue amid the marine layer and, throughout, you could see the halo of the sun through the clouds. Carly had some sticky notes early on, but as the day warmed, and we played more, she came good. I’ll say it again: it is remarkable how resilient that piano has been for us since late winter. Thank you, Carly. It was rather quiet on the promenade. With Outside Lands happening over the weekend just about a mile to the west, it seemed that many of the usual park-goers gave the promenade a miss. Nevertheless, we met a new friend in Anthony who stepped up to the piano to play and sing “Your Song” by Elton John. Well done, Anthony! Hope to see you again at the Hangout. We saw a good group of our regular Hangout friends throughout the day. We saw Nina and her violin AND she brought DUMPLINGS! Yum. What a great idea it was to bring food to share. The Hangout can also be a potluck. I very much support that idea. Brian was back again, and he had a ladybug visitor riding along on his hood, surely singing their little ladybug lungs out! Rikki was there, singing and capturing pics and vids. Thank, darlin! And we saw Joe again and he brought his lovely Martin guitar and held it down all afternoon. We also had Angel and Diego ride up on their bikes and Diego shared fabulous playing, as usual. Towards the end, we saw Shijie again and he brought Xabi along too. And they both played beautifully! Great stuff. The Hangout is for sure the place to bring your musical friends as well as the place to meet new ones. It was great to see everyone and meet the new faces. You are invited! The Hangout is for everyone. As I always point out, with the exception of my lovely wife, every other Hangout regular is someone we met at the piano. The road from stranger to musical friend is incredibly short at the Community Music Hangout. So come on out, bring an instrument, bring songs, bring smiles, bring dumplings (or what have you) and join the fun! We’ll see you next for the 26th Community Music Hangout on Saturday August 19th from 11 – at least 2 at Carly i.e. the West Piano. See you then!