The Community Music Hangout gathered by the beach for the 45th edition of the Hang on Super Sunday, February 11th, 2024. We were hosted by our good friend John Elliott at his Sunday Serenades on the Great Highway Park (hey, let’s call it Sunset Dunes, why not?). It was fun to meet in a new location and we carried our usual vibes along with us to the new spot. The sun was shining as we gathered to share our music. John was on hand to help us get set up and get the party started. Joe was an early arrival with his cajon in tow. Jorge pulled up early, too. Clearly there was some kind of group effort so that most of the “J” named folks showed up early. In any event, we were off and rolling. Soon, Kyle rolled up with the low end. And Ivan pulled up with his guitar. Next up, Nina and Jake biked up with Nina’s cello. Nice. Paul also biked up with his melodica. Nice. Just like that, we had a nice group of folks who followed us out to the new spot! Cool! (We’ll be back at the normal spot next time out). Lilah was back as well, and she played some fabulous piano. Thanks Lilah! She also earned a nickname from her enthusiastic leafing through my overfull songbook binder. A big chunk of pages slipped off two of the three binder rings and nearly fell completely out of the binder! So I therefore dub her: Lilah the Destroyah! (To be honest, it was past time for me to switch to two smaller binders so this is just the impetus for that move. No worries! But the nickname stays.) The highlight of that day, for me, were Karen and Juniper. They came all the way from Berkeley out to Ocean Beach to join the Hangout! That right there is a serious time commitment. I love it. I saw the two of them singing along from their seats, which is awesome and encouraged. But then I saw Karen applying some peer pressure to Juniper to come over to the piano and sing with us. After we did a song, I asked her if she had anything she wanted to sing on the microphone. It turned out she wanted to do “Riptide” by Vance Joy. And she wanted to play piano and sing it! Awesome! The journey that Juniper took from singing in her seat, to singing with the group behind the piano, to jumping on the piano and leading a song is such a good journey. It’s such a treat to be a part of that journey, and to encourage the unsure to take that next step. And to see folks like Juniper be rewarded in experience for taking that step. That’s what the Hangout is all about! Great job Karen and Juniper! Hope to see you again real soon. It was around 2:30 by the time we packed it in. It was time to get home and brace ourselves for what would ultimately be a Super Bowl that ended in bitter disappointment, with an overtime loss for the team from Santa Clara. Having just experienced the Eagles suffering a late loss to the Chiefs last year, I know just how my niner friends are feeling today. Sorry, guys. At least baseball is right around the corner. We’ll be back for CMH #46 on Sunday, February 18th! We’ll be back at the usual spot, on JFK and Stow Lake Drive from 11:30 – 2:30 (provided it’s not raining).