I’m not dead! Sorry I haven’t posted. I’m apologize the most to myself. This has not been good selfcare. I have spent so much of the last few days sleeping. I’m going to have to discuss this with my psychiatrist. Is it my meds? It doesn’t feel like it. I had med related sleepiness and it felt different. Is it narcolepsy? Perhaps though I doubt it. What I know for sure is that I don’t know enough to judge; my psychiatrist went to med school, I didn’t. I didn’t wake up until after noon today; now it’s 4:08 and I’m finally buckling down to write. This is important for my mental health. I am playing the perfect music to write to, Pete Kennedy’s Electric Sitar Meditations. Thanks Pete, you always distract me from writing with the Kennedys live streams, this makes up for it.
Despite my sleepiness I did manage to record this week’s Gord’s Gold for Folk Music Notebook. I just wish I could finish it before 2 AM on Sunday (Saturday night). That’s not fair to myself. I submitted it to the station at 1:25 AM. My procrastination forced me to miss two things that I really wanted to participate in; both Jim Infantino and Christine Lavin had online concerts yesterday. What I was looking to even more were the zoom afterparties. They are not only interesting people, but they also attract an intelligent audience. I always enjoy their zoom parties. Not that I don’t enjoy putting together Gord’s Gold; I love it; next show I need to talk about that. Carey once said about me, “When Gordon loves something, he wants the whole world to love it.” That is very much the essence of me; at heart I’m an evangelist. What’s great about being on the radio is that I don’t have to tell people about the music, I can play it, and let the music speak for itself. “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” There’s a lot of disagreement about who said that I’ve seen Elvis Costello, Frank Zappa, and Martin Mull as suggestions. That being so I’m going to just take the credit myself. If you use it, acknowledge me as the source.
The last year has changed Wise Madness; about a third of my posts used to revolve around discussing the concert I went to the day before. The week before I went into lockdown was a particularly busy week for me. I’m going to look back a year and see what I was doing.
March 4 – Knicks vs Jazz at Madison Square Garden with Alan
March 5 – Christine Lavin’s On a Winter’s Night at the Landmark on Mainstreet in Port Washington. Chris was joined by Patty Larkin, Cliff Eberhardt, John Gorka, Cheryl Wheeler, and Robin Batteau. By a total coincidence I’m playing Chris, John, and Cheryl on Tuesday night. I went with Ellen.
March 6 – Rosier at Jenkins House Concerts, on the upper west side. I miss house concerts. I went to this one with Dan.
March 7 – Darlingside at the Irvington Town Hall Theater. This was a Common Ground Coffeehouse concert curated by Carter Smith.
March 8 – RUNA at Commodore Barry Culture and Arts Center in Philadelphia. Yes that’s four concerts in four nights in four different cities. I went to this one with LORi and Steve. I gave hugs to Jayne, Cheryl, and Shannon. Those are the last three people I hugged.
March 9 – Off Day.
March 10 – John Platt’s On Your Radar with guests South for Winter, Damn Tall Buildings, and Jared Feinman. I decided I wasn’t going to touch anyone, but Alex and Nick from South for Winter extended their hands and without thinking I shook them. They are the last two people that I have touched.
That was the last time I saw live music indoors. I went to a few porch concerts with Katherine and to the Botanical Gardens with Allison and Joe, and that’s been it the last year. I’m glad I was as busy as I was before I went into isolation. A couple of days before I went into the hospital for three weeks in 2000 I went down to Alexandria VA to see Dar Williams with Carey. I was doubled over in pain much of the time but going was one of the best decisions I ever made.
I procrastinated yesterday but I did make myself dinner. For the first time in forever, I made a hamburger from a handmade patty. I never buy ground beef because I don’t want to form the patties by hand and then freeze most of them when I can buy frozen patties from Aldi. My roommate is away for a few weeks and left some ground beef in the fridge. I figured it’s better to eat it then let it go to waste. I did a good job. I’ll have to work out the economics of this. I’ve become addicted to my mandoline. Chips have become my go-to way of making potatoes. It’s so easy and it’s fun. I’ll have to force myself to make hand-cut fries now and then.
As I missed yesterday’s zoom parties I should call someone today. Will I? I don’t know. Maybe you’ll hear from me.
Wise Madness 