Music At Rivendell

Hold on to your hats, I went out Sunday, that’s two days out of the three! Yesterday I headed south to the land of Ditmas Park in central Brooklyn. The majority of my subway rides since the pandemic started were to there. This time was special, I went to my first house concert après la peste. Matt Nakoa played First Acoustics. This was their first concert in over a year but the last one in Brooklyn. Coco and Bruce are moving upstate; where they will launch First Acoustics 2.0, not Second Acoustics. I’m already planning my trip up there. First Acoustics is one of my homes away from home. When I lived in Queens I’d go to most of their shows and even more often when I lived in Brooklyn. It’s an hour and a half from here but I was not going to miss this. Coco is the Godmother of Brooklyn Folk and my Folk Sister. We’re the same age, it would be too weird for her to be my godmother.  I refer to Coco and Bruce’s house as the Last Homely House East of the Sea aka Rivendell aka Imladris.. This was not just the first concert since the pandemic started and he last in Brooklyn, it was also the first gathering of the tribe. Everyone was vaxxed and as the show was in the back yard we were all maskless. I got to see my friends’ faces! Even better I got to hug everyone! I’m going to try something dangerous, naming all the people I hugged. You know I’ll forget someone. Let’s say that’s the person I love the most. Yes that’s it. There was John & Sheila, Perry & Beth, Jeff & Carol, Brianna, Dan & Phyllis, Coco & Bruce, Fred & Linda, Carolann, and of course Matt. That’s surprisingly good, I remembered 15 people. I’m out of practice at this. I still remember it geographically; I look around the yard in my memory.

Something unheard of happened. I arrived late. I’m usually he first to arrive. I was not good; I didn’t get ready early and left in time to make the train that should have gotten me eight minutes before showtime. Instead, I got there seven minutes after! Normally that would not be a problem, things don’t start exactly on time, but this show was streamed. I would have liked to get there early just to hang out with everyone. I made up for that after the show.

Matt is as talented a musician as I know and a natural born entertainer. He plays acoustic and electric guitar and keyboard. The piano is his home, he is one with it. The acoustic guitar is the most folk, but I like Matt best when he rocks out. He did plenty of everything yesterday. He even had Coco up and dancing. I’ve have enjoyed just watching Coco and Bruce enjoy the show.

When the show was over I didn’t want to leave, but eventually I pulled myself away from my friends. Even then I stopped and talked to Perry outside his car before they headed out. My next stop was What’s the Scoop, my favorite Ditmas Park ice cream parlor. I did not go on my Donut Walk™. What’s the Scoop’s chocolate ice cream is incomparably better than a Krispy Kreme original glazed. I was hoping a friend might be able to join me, but she was busy working at home. She was able to multi-task and talk to me as I ate my ice cream and then took my Ice Cream Walk™. I needed to burn off more calories than a donut, and I hadn’t walked the day before. Instead of hopping on the Q train just down the block I decided to walk up the line until I had enough exercise for the day. My friend gave me a hot tip that there was live music on 18^th street. This is why I love Ditmas Park. There was a jazz combo playing in someone’s driveway. They were great but I didn’t have time to stand and listen. I started at Cortelyou and walked all the way up to the Prospect Park Station. That was about 4 miles. I walked 4.7 miles for the day and burned 413 calories. I just looked it up and a scoop of chocolate ice cream is 143 Calories. I would have thought much higher. Even if I had the equivalent of two scoops and their ice cream was richer than average, which I’m sure it was, I burned it off.

The weather was perfect, it looked like rain when the concert ended but it was clear by the time I got on the subway. I never even needed to put my shirt over my t-shirt. That is the last box to check off to make it a perfect day. This was the most socializing I’ve done in more than a month of Sundays. Closer to two months of Sundays. The tribe once more gathered for music and there was chocolate ice cream and a long phone call with a friend. Put a circle around it.