Your Humble Diarist awoke from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a sleepy awake person. It was not the dreams; it was my usual combination of digestive and breathing issues. But one of the dreams was uneasy. I was Rodin’s Thinker, and somebody placed me in the bed, and I rolled on my side to be more comfortable and was worried that he’d see I moved and realize I was a person not a statue. In addition, I wasn’t sure I had the correct hand under my chin. I ended up falling back to sleep when I was out of bed so now it’s time for me to eat not blog. I’ll be back when my belly is full.
Here I am with a belly full of sausageeggandcheese on an English Muffin. The cheese was pepper jack, I know that question was on your lips. Don’t mock my appreciation for food. As Thorin said about Bilbo; “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” I’m the template for a merrier world.
Last night I had a maritime adventure, I saw The Sea The Sea at City Vineyard. The Hudson there is an estuary, not a sea, but it’s saltwater and close enough to be appropriate. To continue on the food and music theme I stopped on the way there at Trader Joe’s as I needed eggs. I also bought potatoes and butter. I’d lay odds that I was the only one in the audience who brought their groceries with them. This was actually pretty big; it was my first time that I wore my backpack since throwing my back out and I also carried heavy food. I survived it. The one time I got a twinge in the back was not carrying it. Someone walked by my table and I was afraid one of my grocery bags was blocking her way so bent over to move it. I moved too fast and couldn’t reach the floor. I’m not quite healed, but I’m doing well enough to live my normal life.
Chuck and Mira Costa are one of the bands that forcefully reminds me that not all bands are created equal, though all do have certain unalienable rights., among which are life, liberty, and being paid for gigs with money not exposure. I hear the Sea the Sea and see the gulf between them and the ocean of mediocre musicians. There are plenty of good musicians and bands but not many great ones. I don’t have to look for reasons to love the Sea the Sea; the problem is trying to enumerate them all for My Gentle Readers. Today I’m going to take it to the most basic level; they engage both my mind and heart. I don’t drift off when I hear their music. They never drone and lose my attention before getting to the end of a line. There is always something grabbing me. Sure it can be their harmonies, the thing that they are best known for, but it can also be their use of language, the way they play just the right guitar, keyboard, and drum parts, the overall meaning of the song, or the beauty of their voices. Between songs their banter is engaging. As a member of the audience you want to be friends with these people. I’m fortunate enough that I am friends with them. But I’ve gotten that feeling from other musicians, like Dave Van Ronk, it doesn’t require knowing them off-stage. It’s the same thing that makes their music great; there is so much there there. Their minds are a rich landscape.
I had four encounters with strangers worth discussing. I’ll start with the unfortunate ones. There was a woman at the table next to mine that started snapping her fingers during one of Chuck and Mira’s songs. I don’t mean snapping in time to the music. The problem was not that she was snapping on one and three. It was that her snapping had no relationship to the music at all. It was a quick snapping like she’s trying to attract someone’s attention, maybe the waiter, maybe Chuck and Mira, maybe a dog I couldn’t see. I was glad that she left early. Not so much because she continued to make noise, she didn’t. I just didn’t want to think that she was a friend of the band’s. I got some quality Mira and Chuck time after the show. I always let everyone else talk to the band first while I hang. We started talking about Todd Sickafoose. He produced their first album. You might know him from his work on Hadestown. That put a new bug in my ear. I want Mira and Chuck to write a musical. I didn’t know this, or more likely I did know it and forgot, but Mira started out in musical theater. I want to watch them on TV accepting their Tony and Grammy awards. If you are their friends let them know you agree with me. Let’s get the ball rolling. How about a musical based on the Anabasis of Xenophon? That’s where the got their band name from. It would make a great epic film but can’t see it on Broadway. There are literally no female roles, it’s a war story, and a bit action packed for a musical.
On the way to the show, while I was holding the bags of groceries, I got on a crowded 1 train. I was delighted when I found an empty seat. The reason it was empty was that the gentleman in the next seat had his legs at a 45º angle and blocked the seat. I didn’t let that stop me, I said excuse me and sat in it. He didn’t move his legs. He kept his knees directly in front of me, forcing my knees to the side. I didn’t want to invade the space of the person on the other side of me, so I scrunched up as small as possible. I didn’t want to squeeze the innocent bystander, so my legs pressed against the offender. He told me to stop and that I shouldn’t have sat there as there wasn’t room. I pointed out that if he sat straight there would be room. He said that he was 6’4″ so there wasn’t. His height had nothing to do with it. There was plenty of leg room, we were in sideways facing seats and no standing directly in front of him. There are some people that I just don’t understand, and I gave him no further thought. He only sat there for one stop.
He was not nearly as noteworthy as the people that sat near me on the ride to Trader Joes. It was parents with twins, maybe three years old. The boy sat with her father, not in my line of vision but the girl sat with her mother right near me. She and I played games almost the entire trip. It started with her waving at me and me waving back at her. Then we started playing mimic games. I’d do something and she’d try and copy me. I know and loved silly face and hand games as a kid and can always count on them to entertain children. There was peekaboo. There was sliding my hand over my face going from happy face to sad face. There was seemingly pulling my face to left and right. Playing “here’s the church, here’s the steeple.” We kept each other amused. Her mother apologized for her and I told her that there was no need; playing with other people’s kids is the best. I talked to the mother while playing with the kid. Sure, there are annoying people I can’t understand but there are also wonderful people I do. When we got off the train the kid waved at me and said, “Bye!”
On the ride home I encountered another toddler that waved at me. This did not develop into a relation like the first one, but it still made me feel good. I know I come off as a gregarious people person but put me in a crowd and I’ll gravitate to the kids and dogs. Those are my people.
Wise Madness 