Snailmail

I forgot to write yesterday. That’s partially because I was good and worked on Gord’s Gold. The show is streamed on Tuesday night and I finished it last night. I beat my old record for early finish by more than 24 hours! I get good enough at this maybe I can expand to two hours a week. I am already working on next week’s show. I started a new way to multitask, one that everyone else does already, listening to music during my commute. What’s my commute? My Donut Walk™. This was my most productive Donut Walk™. Not only did I get my exercise and a free donut, but I also used my Checkers/Rally’s app for the first time and got a free Mother Cruncher Chicken Sandwich. That’s a new item on their menu. They are only a few doors down from Krispy Kreme. I ordered the sandwich on the app, stopped into Krispy Kreme for my donut, then picked up the sandwich. For the first time I used the New York State Excelsior Pass App on my phone to prove I was vaccinated. I’m a 21^st century kind of guy. The Mother Cruncher is not as good as the Popeye’s chicken sandwich, but it was good, convenient, and free. I started later than usual because I wanted to get there at a reasonable hour for dinner. Instead of leaving early so I’d be back in time for Alice Hasen’s Fiddler’s Friday livestream, I left after the show. Then I wanted to be ready to watch Robinson & Rohe’s show later so I didn’t do the extra mile I usually tag on to the walk. I only burned five calories more than I got from the donut. I’m not worrying about the sandwich as I had to eat dinner anyway. During the walk I listened to the band Moonfruits. I saw them at NERFA several years ago and loved them. They gave me a CD but apparently never opened it during the post conference confusion. I am in the process of going through my CDs to see if I still had them in my digital collection and came across theirs unopened. This was like finding a $20 bill in the pocket of a coat you  haven’t worn since last winter. I listened to it as I walked and chose which song I wanted to play. It is the first song set to be played not on Tuesday, but a week from Tuesday.

I need to have talk with all of my musician friends. You need to arrange your schedules so that hey don’t conflict. All of these artists streamed live at either 7 or 8 PM last night; Robinson & Rohe, Miles & Mafale, Joe Crookston, Nobody’s Girl, Miss Tess, and Carla Ulbrich. I didn’t see Carla in my notifications, did she miss this week? She’s my default show for 7:30 on Friday. While I can go back and watch these it’s not the same as watching live. A big part of the fun is interacting with the artists. I went with Robinson & Rohe which was done in front of a limited live audience at Caffè Lena with a professional video setup. Note I put the accent in Caffè, Even Lena doesn’t do that in the body text of their website, even though it is used in the name of the venue. This is the kind of thing I enjoy getting right. I just set up Word to automatically insert it. Does this surprise anyone that knows me? I’m a stickler and an obnoxious pedant. I had a bonus interaction with the band during the show. R&R do this fun thing at their shows, The Troubadour Express; it is the snailiest of snailmails. Back in the old days if you wanted to get a message to someone in a distant place you left a letter with someone traveling there, often on a ship, and they would leave it at the destination with someone that might be able to get it to the intended person. R&R reproduce that experience. At shows they leave note paper, which audience members can write and give to the band to deliver. You can address it to a specific person in a specific location or make it more general. You can address it to general types of people like  “Somebody starting a new job,” or “Somebody who thinks they deserve a letter.” Because this was a virtual show, except for the lucky few in the audience, they accepted email messages. I sent one to Fred, figuring there was a good chance he would be watching, he wasn’t, but Liam did read it. I used my standard email signature, “Obediently Yours, G. Nash.” Liam knows me well enough to say, “I know who that’s from.” That’s not the bonus. The bonus was Jean read a paper note that somebody left at a previous show addressed to Jessica W______ in Troy NY via Saratoga Springs. That’s where Caffè Lena is. In the comments I wrote, “I know Jessica!” Our friend Beth also wrote, “I know Jessica!” More amazingly someone in the audience new Jessica and picked it up to deliver for her. Today came the kicker. Jessica wasn’t watching the show, but the person who picked up the note sent her a link to the video and pictures of the note. It was from me! It sent it like four or five years ago. I told you it was the snailiest snailmail. I had forgotten it which is not surprising as I usually leave notes with the Troubadour express then never think of them again. It’s a small thing to do but I figured it would put a smile on the face of someone that gets one. It did! She described it as “Something magical happened.” That made my day. Few things make you happier than making another person happy. Any time you feel down on humanity, remember that. This is the rule not the exception. Most of those people out there that you are thinking of as selfish get the same rush of endorphins from making someone smile as you do.

I’m watching Jean do a children’s show from Lena now. She is delighting the many children that are watching, and me, and I’m sure that thought delights Jean. The show is on YouTube so I can watch on my TV. It means that I can’t leave comments but I’m writing this and that’s interacting. Sometimes when see someone on TV or hear them on the radio, I think, “I want that person to be my friend.” I thought that last week when I heard Kemp Powers on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. He wrote One Night in Miami, which I watched and loved after hearing him. He also co-directed Soul, which I also loved. When he was talking all I could think is, “He’s one of my people.” The main character in Soul is based on a music teacher at my middle school. I wonder if Kemp lived near me. If feels like he did. Watching Jean, I also think, “I want that person to be my friend,” then realize that she is. I have the best people as friends. That includes you. If any of you know Kemp Powers, introduce us. When Einstein was still in college he had a friend that wanted him to meet another friend. That other friend was Kafka. Neither of them was at all famous but the mutual friend recognized something special in both of them. They did meet in Prague. There is no record of what they discussed. Some writer should turn that into a play. Hey Kemp, become my friend and that can be you. I usually think of Tom Stoppard as the person to write it; in addition to it being exactly his kind of subject matter, he was born in Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic.