Good morning My Gentle Readers. It is actually morning, when I’m supposed to be writing. I just resisted making breakfast first. Now all I have to do is remember what happened yesterday. That might sound easy but as I have not had breakfast I have also not had coffee. This will be a challenge.
I’m trying to get more exercise so yesterday I went for a walk. My first goal was to go back to Williamsbridge Oval and video my perambulation of the park. Technology failed me; for reasons I don’t understand the video kept freezing. That never happened before. I’m going to blame gremlins; I have some evidence of that I’ll get to later.
After my circuit of the oval I had only walked 2000 steps, my goal is 6000. I decided to walk down Bainbridge Ave past Montefiore Hospital and explore new territory. I soon found I was walking past a cemetery. I love cemeteries, so that was good. I know about Woodlawn but I didn’t think this was it. I was wrong, Woodlawn Cemetery is very large and closer to my house than I thought. The one time I was there I took a roundabout route. I had no idea I could just walk down Bainbridge The entrance is only a mile from my house. The last time I was there it was closed, yesterday I arrived 35 minutes before closing and got to do a bit of exploring. I’m going to go back more prepared. I’ll look up where the famous people are buried. I did a little research while I was there and found to my dismay that Houdini is NOT buried there. He’s in Queens. I should have visited his grave when I lived there. I should have realized he’d be in a Jewish cemetery. Here are some people that are buried in Woodlawn, Nellie Bly, George M. Cohan, WC Handy, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, I’d expect him in a Jewish cemetery too, Frankie Frisch, Joseph Pulitzer, Herman Melville, Damon Runyon, Dorothy Parker, and Fritz Kreisler. That’s a lot of great writers and musicians. I didn’t find any of their graves. I did find F.W. Woolworth, the founder of the 5¢ & 10¢ chain. His Mausoleum is modeled on an Egyptian temple. It’s amusing that all these Christians are buried in tombs built to resemble pagan temples, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian. I need to spend a day at the cemetery to explore further. I’ll do it next time it’s sunny. I’ll go back in the snow. I love a snow-covered cemetery. Here are a few of the photos I took.
They close the cemetery gates at 4:30. I was just wandering and was a little concerned I wouldn’t find my way out in time. My sense of direction did not fail me, and I found the exit. There was some nice symbolism, I walked straight into the setting sun. Then I went directly home. I walked over four miles, 9269 steps. I need to do that more often. I will try every nice day. I have miraculously kept in pretty good shape while living as a recliner potato but at some point I need exercise.
Yesterday was the second Tuesday of the month and that means, John Platt’s On Your Radar. John’s guests were Friction Farm, Tom Prasado-Rao, and Kim Moberg. This was the rare case where I was Facebook friends with all the artists. When Aiden and Christine lived in New York I saw them all the time. Christine was a regular at On Your Radar. Then the abandoned New York for the cheaper pastures of rural South Carolina. I keep telling myself that it was not to get away from me.
One of the virtual audience members said that this was the best OYR in a while. It was exceptionally good. Tom of course performed $20 Bill (For George Floyd). I am never confident I remember his name correctly, that it’s not Floyd George. Have you heard it? It’s a defining song of 2020.
All of the performers knocked it out of the park. Unfortunately, John’s hardware never even came to bat. He couldn’t get the sound to work. Our intrepid director, Rob Hinkal, rose the occasion and we pulled off John Platt’s On Your Radar without John Platt. Kim led off by singing then introduced Tom. We hoped that John would then be able to join in, but he couldn’t so Tom not only introduced Friction Farm but also interviewed them. John made an appearance in the end holding up cards that thanked the artists that Rob read. Then Rob showed the graphic I made introducing next month’s show. With all that happened we still ended up with a great show. Let Shakespeare in Love explain how.
You understand now? Good. Thanks to Rob, Kim, Tom, Christine, and Aiden for going above and beyond the call of duty. The show went on.
I had a late dinner after On Your Radar. The chicken I had taken out hadn’t defrosted yet, so I finally ate the canned chili I bought at the start of the lockdown. It’s not my favorite meal but it was good, fast, and easy. My plan after that was to write next week’s Gord’s Gold, this time in Carla Ulbrich. A fly got into that ointment. I got a message from Ron Olesko that I had to re-record this week’s show. The sound wasn’t good. I suspect that I recorded on the computer mic instead of my good external one. When I went for my script it wasn’t where it was supposed to be. I have a folder of Gord’s Gold’s scripts. A quick search found it in my documents folder. It’s going to run today at noon, 6PM and midnight EST. This won’t be posted by then. At least I’ll remember to listen this week. Last week I forgot.
Wise Madness 