I have more time today than I planned. I was going to have my therapy in person but 95º weather argues against walking five miles in the middle of the day. I’ll do it by phone today. Ugh, my next one is at 9:30 AM. I’ll have to get up early if I want to make it in person. I’ll do it, it’s good for my soul. I don’t even now what that means.
I stayed home yesterday and watched and listened to the Mets win a doubleheader. I didn’t go to the Mary O’s session because I found out that Caitlin and Chris weren’t going to be there and there was a crazy thunderstorm. Instead, I watched the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. They are great; the DC/Arrowverse equivalent, Legends of Tomorrow has become terrible, except as a mystery. The mystery is why I keep watching it. Guardians are funny but work as action films and dramas too. Rocket could beat all the Legends together without breaking a sweat. Legends is just silly not funny, and stupidly silly at that.
That’s how far I got writing yesterday, not very. Fifteen minutes before therapy I felt sleepy so I too a literal catnap. What makes it literal? There was a cat napping on my head, as I napped. It was only ten minutes, but it worked. I woke refreshed. I’m just telling you that so I could say that I “literally catnapped.” If people come to accept that “literally” means the same as it’s antonym “figuratively” we lose that joke; that’s enough of a reason to fight for keeping the distinction.
Now, as John Oliver says, our main story tonight is my visit to The Porch to see Bessie and the Rainbow Kids. I had never seen, heard, or even heard of Bessie and the Rainbow Kids, so why did I go? The Porch is owned and operated by Mark Miller and Beth Kaufmann, the founders of the band Spuyten Duyvil, and our friends. I say “our” because I went with Katherine. This ended up being a gathering of the tribe, in addition the people named Dena, Mark & Beth’s daughter was working at the Porch, Nick Russo of the Scooches and citizen of Buddha-Pest, our combined camp at Falcon Ridge, played banjo and guitar with the band, John, the bass player of Spuyten Duyvil, was doing sound, and Jim, the harmonic player was in the audience with his wife, whose name totally escapes me because, all together now, I’m an idiot. There was a real “we’re getting the band back together” vibe.
The Porch is a new music venue, but the interior is still be renovated, the shows this summer are on the large patio out front. It serves not just the porch but other stores on the block. The location could not be more convenient as the 145th street subway station is right in front. That serves the A, C, B, and D trains. New Yorkers know why I used that order, out-of-towners won’t. The A and C are on one line and the B and D are another. My house is serviced by the B and D, and I got there door to door in 25 minutes. This is the fastest that I’ve ever gotten to a show by public transit.
As I said, I had never heard of the band before so imagine my surprise that as I walked up the steps of the subway station, I heard the distinctive rumble of a sousaphone. Thanks to listening to Jean Shepherd as a kid I will never call it a tuba; he played sousaphone and was proud of the distinction. This was not the quartet or maybe quintet I expected, this was a decet. Let’s see if I can remember all the pieces; the horns, sousaphone, trombone, trumpet, tenor sax, and baritone sax, that’s 5; the strings, electric guitar, electric bass, and banjo/guitar, that’s 8; drums and keyboard, that’s 10. I’m missing someone, there was a tap dancer, bringing it up to eleven. Is there a word for an 11-piece combo? There is! an undecet! That’s not un meaning not but un meaning one, as in one plus ten equals eleven. I haven’t gotten to the show yet, but I’ve already had two diversions into linguistic pedantry.
When I heard the music, I was afraid I got the time wrong, but this was just sound check. The website said to bring a folding chair but there were chairs set out, so I used the one I brought to hold a seat for us when I went inside to say hi to Dena. That’s when I spotted Nick but couldn’t say hi as he was sound-checking. I also so John, at the sound controls, an iPad. I thought he had moved away but there he was. I assumed that I remembered wrong, and somebody else from the band had moved away. When Katherine arrived, she had more confidence in her memory and asked him straight out, “Didn’t you move away?” He had, he came back. Was I an idiot for thinking I was an idiot when I wasn’t? Let’s get meta.
I knew anyplace where Mark was involved would have good food and I was right. I had the Cuban panini, and it was fantastic. I was hoping for his homemade pastrami, but the panini were premade, and it came in a Reuben which comes with sauerkraut. I’ve had his pastrami so if you if you like sauerkraut you might want to order that when you come. You will come if you live in New York, and you have good taste in music or food.
They created The Porch to be a neighborhood amenity and they succeeded. The audience was filled with people that lived there that just walked by, heard the music, and couldn’t resist staying. It reminded me of The Budgiedome, there were those seated watching the show and those stopping on the sidewalk off to the side stopping to watch. There was a real sense of community. People were meeting and talking to their neighbors. We don’t live in the neighborhood and had many friends there, but we met knew people too. I even got an unexpected kiss, tongue right in my mouth, from a stranger. It was a dog named Samo. I don’t remember his/her person’s name, but I know the dog. I told it that I don’t do that on a first date. There were two lovely women sitting in front of us that we got friendly with, and I even remember one of their names, Hannah. I remember because I wasn’t sure if she said Hannah or Anna, and asked “with an H?” And she said, yes, it’s a palindrome. More linguistic pedantry! She’s my people.
During the break Nick asked me if I wanted to meet Russell? My response was who’s Russell? Russell is the leader of the band, aka the bass player Bessie. After the show we were talking to the tap dancer, and she told us that Bessie is the name of his upright bass and became his moniker too. The undecet was great. I went to see my friend but now I’ll go see Bessie and Rainbowkids for the music. They are a neighborhood band but that doesn’t mean it’s a pickup band. Russell is a Grammy, Emmy, and Golden Globe nominated musician. He fits into one of my favorite niches conservatory musicians playing music we don’t associate with conservatories. He went to the Broward Arts Center then Julliard. He has the chops but not the attitude. Nick is a remarkable musician, and I knew he wouldn’t play in a band that didn’t have great musicianship. I was particularly impressed with the dancer, Mikayla (sp?) and the electric guitarist. This was her first gig with the band. Their music was extremely varied, one of the songs sounded like 1960s west coast rock like you’d have heard at Monterey Pop. There was rap. There was jazz. Russell is from Kingston Jamaica and his Caribbean roots came through. It also came through in his outfit. I was jealous; I’d love to wear that at the next Falcon Ridge. Their album isn’t out yet but when it was I’ll find a way to play it on Gord’s Gold even though it’s not the usual Folk Music Notebook fare. It’s all folk, you ain’t never heard no horses singing.
We hung around after the show socializing and helping to clean up. As I was bringing in chairs Beth thanked me and said, “I’m a perpetual volunteer and I’m always with the band.” It’s my natural niche in the musical ecosystem. I have not been illustrating my blogs and I should; it’s actually easier here than it was on Diaryland.
The ride home was not as easy as the ride there. I waited longer for my train to come than the entire trip down there took. I didn’t start timing until after Katherine’s train came, hers was in the opposite direction, and that was 19 minutes. As Katherine said goodbye from the downtown platform, she signaled that we weren’t wearing our masks! I hate being that guy. I reached into my pocket for my mask, and it was gone! I must have dropped it as I took my wallet out to pay at the turnstile. As I had 19 minutes to wait, I walked the entire length of the platform to the downtown end where I knew there was a token booth, that no longer sells tokens or even MetroCards. I told the woman working there I lost my mask and she called me over. She gave me a mask, the MTA will give anyone who needs one a high quality cloth mask, and then she let me back into the subway.
This morning I had to run out for milk before breakfast and discovered my fitted Mets cap wasn’t on its hook, I lost it! It might have been at the show, it was hot, and I took it off. I just texted Beth to ask if it were found. I have plenty of other caps, but all the others are adjustable. I have plenty of baseball caps but only one Mets cap left. Have I mentioned that I’m an idiot?
Do you know what was great about having a pandemic? That we learned to appreciate the joys of gathering with people when we couldn’t. Every time is special so once again, I’ll put a circle around the day. I’ll be going back to the Porch for sure. I want to see you there.
Wise Madness 