Occasionally there are benefits to being me. I got an email from WFUV on Thursday asking me if I wanted tickets to see Richard Thompson on Friday night. RT is tied with Rhiannon Giddens for my favorite of favorites and I was free so of course I said yes. I went with my WFUV volunteering work wife Jim. Jim’s real wife Alice came up with that. I’m also his work wife, somehow two men are in a lesbian work marriage.
I came from therapy. Most of the session was filled with telling my therapist about being robbed and the aftermath. What’s great about telling her is that she knew that I wouldn’t find the robbery traumatic, just a good story, but I’d find replacing my documents daunting. She also reveled in the true crime details, “It’s like watching Law & Order.” I’m a fun patient.
I was in no rush after therapy, I wasn’t meeting Jim for a few hours. So of course, for once the timing with the bus and train coming home was perfect. The bus was early and the train late, so I could make the early train. I didn’t. I had a free beverage form Dunkin’ coming to me and there’s one by the station so I went over their and enjoyed by cocoa mocha signature latte. Those are incredibly good.
The show was in Newark and Jim and I decided to go via Jersey Transit not the PATH train. As we get the senior discount that’s cheaper and it’s much more comfortable. My timing was perfect. Even though it’s two trains to get from Grand Central to Penn Station it’s fast, the Shuttle runs every couple of minutes during rush hour and I can take any of three trains to get to Penn Station so that two involves no wait. I made it in plenty of time and found Jim quickly. He arrived first and I asked him to send a selfie of himself showing where he was waiting. I’m going to do this for now on when meeting people.
I did some research and found a good Irish pub, McGovern’s just six minutes from NJPAC where the concert was, and we ate there. Who knows my favorite Irish pub food? You didn’t know that Wise Madness involves pop quizzes? That means you get a pop quiz question wrong. My favorite pub food is bangers and mash. It came with baked beans, I asked them to leave them off as I’m not a big baked beans fan and like corn they have a thick skin which can get stuck in my intestines. I got the beans. From the few that got mixed in with the potatoes, I discovered that these were great baked beans. I couldn’t resist and ate them. I’m fine today. Maybe I can eat baked beans now. Corn is still verboten. The dinner made me very happy.
Then it was on to Richard Thompson. When we went in NJPAC made me check my bag. As long as I was doing that I checked my coat too. Our seats said OLOGE, what does that mean? When we got in we found out. I’m guessing it stands for orchestra loge. We entered at orchestra level but there were raised sections on the sides at the same level as the back of the orchestra. It reminded me of the Metropolitan Opera side seating. They aren’t fixed seats. Those are much better. We were close and high enough to get a perfect view. These were exceptionally good seats.
There was no opening act. It started on time and we got an hour and forty-five minutes of unadulterated Richard Thompson. It was a solo not a band show. Richard has a large repertoire. As he said, he disturbingly realized that some of the songs he wrote as a teenager are now 50 years old. RT is not a legacy act; he still makes great new music. He did five songs from his latest two albums and one brand new one. That might be the best of the new ones. He did a few more hits than usual, including both Beeswing and 1952 Vincent Black Lightning. I remember going to a show when some big fan said he never did both in the same show. He does, that fan was crazy. He had a woman doing backing vocals and she joined him on some solo songs and of course some Richard & Linda songs. I was surprised he didn’t do, Shoot out the Lights or Wall of Death. That’s what happens when you have so many songs at your disposal. He did one request, Blackleg Miner that he said he hadn’t performed in 10 years. He had to start again in a different key, and he left out some verses, but how many musicians could sing and play any song they haven’t done in 10 years without any preparation. There is nothing that Thompson doesn’t excel at; he’s one of the all-time great guitarists, a great songwriter, great singer, and his patter is as funny as anyone’s. The audience always laughs out loud.
We had pretty good timing coming home, when we go to Newark Penn Station we only had to wait a few minutes for the train. At New York Penn Station we were not as fortunate. We just missed an A train and the next was not for half an hour. That’s not normal. We had to take the local C on a different platform. We only went two stops as that’s where I change to the D and while we were there Jim saw that the 1 was still running, it ended early, but we beat the deadline. We figured I’d get home first as I’m on an express train and he’s on the local. We were wrong. His train came right away, I had a long wait. Still I was home well before midnight, I can’t complain.
I couldn’t go right to sleep and then I had a bad night sleep. I didn’t wake up until almost 11:00. My plan was to go to the Women’s March that started lining up at 11:00. So much for that. Too bad, it’s important to show support. I should have signed up to register voters at the march. I’m not doing my part to elect Warren, and if she loses the nomination whoever wins the Democratic nomination. It’s amazing how many people don’t learn. They are badly badmouthing Democratic candidates. People don’t see that the difference between the Democrats is miniscule compared to the difference between any of them and Trump. The difference between what any of them will be able accomplish is even smaller.
Alan texted me yesterday and asked if I wanted to go to the Knick game tonight. I said yes. I usually only get the bad teams and he can sell the tickets against the good ones but tonight I’ll get to see Philadelphia. They have legit stars. Now that he discovered that he can email me tickets it’s easy to get me tickets at short notice.
Now I have to make breakfast, it’s already 12:33, this was not one of my early start days. Then I have to pick up meds at the pharmacy and buy eggs, so I’ll have breakfast for tomorrow.
Wise Madness 