The soundtrack of today’s edition of Wise Madness is the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Das Rheingold. Will that inspire or intimidate me. The Ring Cycle is the tale of the universe from birth to death; pretty big shoes to fill. I’ll stick to talking about Deni Bonet, therapy, and food.
I missed therapy last week because of my insurance crisis. I have an entire week of issues that I never got to talk to her about. Even this week the crisis which reaches to the heart of my psych problems seemed so distant. My therapist had to keep redirecting me back there from the random thoughts coming into my head. There’s nobody to do that when I blog but me. Sometimes I succeed, Sometimes I chose not to.
My relationship with my therapist has become somewhat comic, it would make a good short sitcom. We try and make each other feel guilty. I hone my rapier wit skills fencing with her. She was impressed that I used the word “rapier.” I didn’t even think of that as an impressive vocabulary word. I have read a lot of swashbucklers. I even took fencing in college. I’m a regular Sulu.
I did snap myself to attention and got myself to take care of something important that I have been having trouble doing. It’s easier for me to deal with stressful things when I’m with my therapist; she’s my safety net. I have to move past needing that, but it’s better when not dealing with them at all, the strategy I’ve used most of my life.
Yesterday was an awkward schedule day. If I have something early to do in the City I take the train from Harrison to Grand Central, that gets me in at 5:10 That gives me time to get dinner and maybe do some shopping. It’s harder when I do something late. Deni didn’t go on until 9. That gives me time to come home and go out again, but not that much time and involves more travel time. It takes me longer to get from the Fordham Station to home than it does to get to Grand Central on the train. Then I have to head out again. I sort of suspected that I’d wimp out and stay home. It’s a testament to how much I love Deni that I didn’t even though I’m seeing her again in a week and a half.
My ideal plan was to make barbecue country style ribs when I got home but that’s daunting as they take a long time so I’d feel time pressure the entire time I was home. When I walk along Fordham Road from the MetroNorth to the subway I pass a lot of fast food places and 99¢ pizza. It’s tempting to just grab something there even though it’s early. As I passed checkers I saw they have a new special, a double cheeseburger on Garlic Texas Toast. I found that tempting. Then I realized that even more tempting is making that at home, so I did. It wasn’t a double, as my burgers are bigger, and also better, and my cheese is better, pepper jack. I think I’ve made this before but not in a long time It is the only way to server a burger. I made hand cut fries with it. If you don’t have a deep fryer just make them in cast iron skillet. You can only make one serving at a time but that’s all need. I made my entire dinner in about the same time I’d have taken to preheat the oven if I had gone for ribs, and it was amazing.
Deni was playing at Paddy Reilly’s Music Bar, her now regular gig. I know I don’t have to get there early and planned on arriving just on time. Two monkey wrenches were thrown into my plans. First the subway ran a bit slow. The second is more insidious, Paddy Reilly’s moves when it knows I’m on the way. To get there last time I took the 6 train to 28th street, walked east to Second ave, and made a right. Nice and simple. I did exactly the same thing last night and it wasn’t there. I checked the address, 512 Second Ave. That puts it north of 28th Street and on the other side of Second. I accepted that it tries to avoid me, crossed Second and headed north. I get up to 512 and it’s not there. I look across Second and see it on the west side of the street. That’s where the odd numbers are. It moved in the time it took me to walk two blocks. Once it’s in my sight it stops moving, it’s a quantum mechanics thing, once it’s observed the wave function collapses and its position is fixed. It tried to cover up its subterfuge by changing the address to 519, but I’m not falling for it. I know what I read, that it was 512. It changed once I started heading towards it. I talked to Deni afterward and she was totally unaware that the place was moving while she was in it. To her it was always on the northwest corner of 29th and Second; quantum weirdness and the observer.
All that moving around meant I missed her first song. I’m sure that she saw it wasn’t there and did something terrible like a Dawes cover. Once she saw me everything she played was great.
Paddy Reilly’s has an odd layout. There’s a long narrow bar that was packed but an alcove with a few tables by the stage that was almost empty, so I got a great seat. The only other people there were Andy, Deni’s husband, and Paul, her manager. I just realized the irony, I was sitting with the two Englishman at an Irish bar. Good thing we didn’t have our own version of the Troubles.
I just wrote about Deni’s show at Paddy Reilly’s six weeks ago. Can I think of anything new to say? I can, not about her music, but about her music’s affect on the crowd. We’ve all been to bar gigs. For the most part people take the music as a background to their drinking and socializing with their friends. Some are so oblivious that they try and shout over the music to be heard. So here was Deni in a bar with young people trying to get drunk, and many of them paid attention. These were not fans of Deni there to hear the music. They didn’t know her at all. Yet I watched in awe as these twentysomethings were enraptured by the music. Most impressive was when she played Einstein’s Brain or as I call it, Einstein’s Brain at the Beach. This is not one of her great party songs that fits a drinking crowd. This isn’t one of her high energy rockers. It’s a thoughtful intricate instrumental, and there were people totally entranced by it. She finished the evening with a very rapid version of Orange Blossom. There was a couple in the back room with the pool table who heard it, followed the siren song to the stage, and started dancing. They talked to the woman, they became instant fans and are coming to see her on March 19 at City Vineyard. I got a video of them dancing. I have to edit and post that and send it to the dancers. Don’t you want to hear music that affects people like that? Of course you do, come to City Vineyard with me and that young couple.
After the show I headed back home. They have rebuilt the 28th Street station and one of the new features is that there is an arrival time clock outside the station! When those clocks were first installed in the stations but the best pieces of feedback I read was that there should be one outside. That way you could see if you have time to run and get a cup of coffee before you go into the station. I saw I had eight minutes. There was a MacDonald’s on the same corner. I was thirsty and MacDonald’s has a special now, all soft drinks, all sizes $1. They also have automated ordering kiosks, which makes things go very fast. I went in, ordered a large diet coke and when I got back to the station the train was still four minutes away. This was a very 21st century experience.
I have nothing planned for today so I’m going to listen to Das Rheingold. run over to Aldi’s. and edit my huge backlog of videos and photos. The first things up will be from last night. I’ve been writing short entries of late. Today’s is 1467 words; Wagner is inspiring. Stop the presses, a miracle just occurred. Spell/Grammar check didn’t find a single mistake. Wagner even inspires my typing.
Wise Madness 