Festivus is officially here, I went to my first holiday show, Robinson & Rohe’s Longest Winter. This is a tradition, I see it at least once every year. This time it was at the Common Ground Coffeehouse. How much is this a home game? When sound check was over Jean said, “Are you doing merch. I always assume you’re doing merch but I didn’t ask.” I said, “I always do merch when I’m at the Common Ground; I always do merch when I see you. That means I’m doubly doing merch.” That’s not uncommon at the Common Ground, Carter has the excellent taste. In other words he books the people I think are great.
It’s been a week and a half since I’ve seen Jean and Liam at Jean’s Album Release Show. I don’t know how I survived that long. I’m a stoic, There were fewer people that I knew there than there should have been, Fred & Linda, Peter and Paula, Carter and the volunteers. Not one of them had seen the Christmas show before. They’ve been doing it for five years. I’ve seen it at least once every year, twice on a number of occasions. You need to see it. Everyone needs to see it. See is the wrong word, hear is the wrong word, experience is the right one.
The music is quite different from what they do the rest of the year. Much of it has the unearthly sound I associate with medieval music. It has the same effect as meditating; hearing it lowers your pulse and blood pressure. It creates a feeling of peace and well-being. There is more than music, they call it a light box show.
The light box triptych is the creation of their friend, Andrew Benincasa. You might recognize his work from Caffe Lena or his animation of the Darlingside song God of Loss. Talented people attracted other talented people.
During the show Liam explains that the show is staking claim to Christmas and Christmas traditions. There are those that try to stake exclusive control and if we do nothing, they have the control, and that’s wrong. These traditions belong to all of us, even atheist Jews like me. These are my words, not Liam’s; when people decry the War on Christmas, what they mean is a war on their restrictive world view. There is more to Christmas and all our cultural pillars than can be held by one group or one person. It’s akin to what I do every year on July 4th when I celebrate the Declaration of Independence as I see it. These things belong to all of us, and we should feel free to express them in our own way. The Robinson & Rohe way of expressing Christmas is beautiful, as is Caroling with Terre Roche. I wouldn’t miss either for anything.
The merch sales were as brisk as I’ve ever seen at Common Ground. Everyone wanted something and many wanted multiple items. Despite the fact that I was modeling the t-shirt, we didn’t sell many of them. Maybe it’s because I was modeling it. I should have taken a selfie wearing it.
After the show I got a ride home from Fred and Linda. I was home before 10:30. I am never home from there before midnight. That was great. It’s a 20-minute trip by car, I can do the car to train to bus to subway or subway to bus or long subway ride in an hour and quarter but only if I everything is timed perfectly. It rarely is.
I had a scare this morning. I was awaked by my phone giving repeated notifications of the type that usually mean a sports report, it’s the sound of a knock of a door. It wouldn’t stop. There was no notification, just the sound. I rebooted the phone and when I did I got an error message for an invalid SIM card. One more reboot cleared everything up. Whew. Anyone have any idea what happened?
I’ve heard great music three out of the last four nights, Anaïs Mitchell, Deni Bonet, and Robinson & Rohe. Now I’m entering an empty week. I’m going to a Knick game Monday and I have a colonoscope on Thursday so I can’t go out on Wednesday but no live music until Friday night. That’s the Woody’s children 50th anniversary show. I have a feeling that most people don’t considerer six days between concerts a drought.
I was going to write about something else but I’ll save that as I won’t be doing things worth writing about this week. I better write this down so I don’t forget. I did.
It’s almost one. I better eat. Is there any greater testament to last night’s show than me putting off breakfast so long so I could write about it? Robinson & Rohe will be doing the Longest Winter Tour until Dec 22. If you can make any of these shows do your self a favor and go.
Now for sausageeggandcheese.
No Wait! I forgot the most important thing. When I was doing merch I did some silly little thing for Jean and Carter said that I was the perfect merch guy and Jean then said, “Yes, Gordon is perfect.” I said that’s going to be the title of today’s blog. It’s also going on my resume. It will be the only thing on the resume; Now You’ll understand the title. Otherwise I’d just look like a narcissist.
Wise Madness 