Yesterday’s adventures are pretty much the essence of being me. It has music, an idiot stories, food, and not getting things done. Our adventure starts with me falling asleep in the middle of writing yesterday’s entry. When I woke up I found myself very much pressed for time and neglected to write about things I meant to include. I’ll give a couple of them now. In the afternoon I saw Kaia Kater; in the evening Birds of Chicago. Allison Russell is in BoC and she told a bit about her background; a Montrealer whose father came from Grenada. Kaia Kater is also a Montrealer whose father comes from Grenada. I talked to Allison about it and she’s known Kaia since Kaia was 14 but didn’t know Kaia’s background till she came out with the album Grenade that’s inspired by her father’s experiences. What a small world. Twenty or thirty years ago I was reading about the history of the banjo and the author pointed out that this archetypal African instrument was mainly played by white men. On Sunday I saw two young mixed-race women playing banjo. Our Native daughters is a collaboration of four women of color that play banjo, Allison is one of them and Kaia was asked to join the group, but they couldn’t work out the timing. Everyone would have been confused if the band had both Amythyst Kiah and Kaia Kater. They should do a tour together, they’d have a natural sponsor, Kia Motors.
The other thing I neglected to write about was that the name of my Red Molly tribute band is Faceless Trolls. Why? Let’s just say that Molly talked herself into a corner. This is how I talk about my friends. Why do I have any friends?
Yesterday’s plan was a musical doubleheader, Youth in a Roman Field at Baby’s All Right in Williamsburg then Stick & Bow at the Consul General of Argentina. I had never seen or heard Stick & Bow, part of my reason for going was the unusual venue.
Because I fell asleep while writing yesterday I was running late. I left the house a few minutes later than I planned. That means I got to the train station, a few minutes after the train left. I had to wait for the next one, so I knew I’d be late. I had been looking forward to this show since Youth in a Roman Field played On Your Radar three weeks ago. That was my first time seeing them and they won me over big time. I got their CD and was even more impressed. This show was their big video release show.
I arrived at Baby’s All Right about 10 minutes after I thought the show started. When I got there the doors were locked. I was confused. Somebody inside saw me and answered the door. He told me the place was closed. I discovered that I wasn’t 10 minutes late, I was 24 hours and 10 minutes late. I had the day wrong. I’m an idiot. It’s not easy being an idiot. I figured I’d try and go to Motor Vehicles to get my replacement driver’s license. That plan was immediately shot down as in my rush I hadn’t brought the form the police gave me saying that my license was stolen. I had a lot of time to kill and decided to go up to my PO box to pick up my mail. I walked over to the Marcy Ave Station of the M train; the same one I had just gotten off of. It’s an elevated train. You can see where you’re going. I could see the Williamsburg Bridge that I had to cross to get back to Manhattan. Despite that I got on the platform going in the opposite direction. It was the way I’d go back when I had a friend that lived in that neighborhood and I lived in Crown Heights. I’m a double idiot. Luckily I caught it as the train pulled into the next stop, so I got off and crossed to the opposite platform. I had two and a half hours to kill so time wasn’t an issue.
Good thing I went to my PO box. I apparently hadn’t been there in over a month. I found a check and three holiday cards in it. I know this is getting repetitive but I’m an idiot. I then rewarded myself by stopping at the Doughnut Project, across the street from Carnegie Hall. I chose the Black Gold AKA Brownie Batter. It’s always a great choice. My second choice would have been the Bacon Maple Bar. There’s a strip of bacon in it. Still, nothing beats chocolate.
I walked very slowly over to the consulate at 56th street and 5th avenue. I got there early but figured that was as good a place to hang out as any, better. Consulates are always posh establishments. The receptionist was extra nice, walked me over to a beautiful parlor with comfy furniture and pointed out the unlabeled bathroom. I was looking a bit unkempt as I had run out of the house and badly needed a shave. I felt a bit self-conscious, but she made me feel at home. I was soon joined by a man and his teenage daughter. Turned out that they were from Montreal, as was the band, Stick and Bow. He’s also a musician, Séan Dagher, his daughter Nell I also a musician. I remembered Séan’s name as we discussed the accent mark and he gave me his card. Going on the theory that people that are fun to talk to are more likely to make music I like, I asked him to send me a digital copy of his album. To remember his daughter’s name,
+I had to resort to a trick. She’s Canadian so I pictured Dudley Do-Right’s girlfriend. Dudley was in love with Nell. Nell was in love with Dudley’s horse.
This entry is more me than I thought. I’ve written 1011 words and haven’t gotten to the music yet.
Stick & Bow is worth waiting for. They are the duo of Canadian marimba player Krystina Marcoux & Argentinian cellist Juan Sebastian. Isn’t that enough to make you want to see them? Does everyone know what a marimba is? It’s a very large mallet instrument. I had to dig deep into the Facebook hive mind to find the name for the class of instruments I meant. They are ones that people will mistakenly call xylophones. A xylophone is just one specific type. Calling something made of metal a xylophone is silly, xylophone means wood sound. Not that the English language isn’t often silly. Searching the internet did nothing to help me find the generic name. When I asked my friends, some didn’t get what I was looking for, suggesting the more general percussion. That’s like saying that the name for felines, the group of animals that includes, cats, lions, tigers, bobcats, etc, is mammals. All felines are mammals, but most mammals are not felines. Special thanks to James, Pat, and Nico who came up with mallet instruments, sometimes called mallet keyboards. I knew to tag James as he plays vibraphone. He’s my only friend that plays a mallet instrument other than a glockenspiel. Glockenspiel’s certainly count but most of my friends that play them are not trained glockenspielists. They bought them at Urban Outfitters.
Both Krystina and Juan are classically trained. They play is a diverse mix to best show what their unusual instrument pairing can do. There’s lots of folk-inspired classical. There’s Nina Simone. They are doing a tribute to two musical greats, Ludwig Van Beethoven and David Bowie. If that doesn’t have you hooked you are made of sterner stuff than me. I was mesmerized from the moment they started. This is what art is supposed to be, creative people expressing themselves with no regard to convention, just following their muse. I signed up on their mailing list, I’ll see them whenever they are in town, and feature them on Gord’s Gold.
When I got home I tried something new and very simple with the air-fryer, a baked potato. Here he shined. It made it faster than in the oven with no pre-heating and consistency and taste was just as good.
Today’s plan is to go to Motor Vehicles and then to John Platt’s On Your Radar.
Wise Madness 