Indulgences

I saw two concerts the last two nights, Dar Williams with Crys Matthews on Thursday and the Murphy Beds with Ivan Goff on Saturday. By skipping yesterday, I now can’t do either show justice, especially when I have personal things to discuss too. I’m drinking my second perfect cup of coffee as I write, that will help. I make the coffee the same every day; I use espresso beans from Marie’s, measure the water, and grind the beans at the same setting, but sometimes it comes out better than others. Today everything is perfect. That should turn me into a superhero, Coffeeman! Coffeeman can kick Iron Man’s ass. I just finished watching Ironman and can confirm that.

I had a celebratory therapy session. The highlight was that when I told her that if I get the teaching job in Brooklyn, I’ll be moving there she said that was great except that she’d be losing me as a patient. When I said, “You knew it couldn’t last forever,” she said, “I was hoping it would.” Do other people have relationships like that with their therapist? Is it just me? Is it just her? It is just us? It made me feel good.

I was feeling great and told her that I had been indulging myself. That means food. Right before the session I had a Little Debbie’s Fudge Round topped with peanut butter. If you like chocolate and peanut butter you need to try that. For dinner I made poutine. The store only had au jus gravy, so I thickened it with flour. That worked fine. Thank The Flying Spaghetti Monster that poutine no longer trigger’s Crohn’s attacks. It’s been too long since I invoked the divine aerial pasta.

I try to never miss Dar performing. I try to never miss Crys performing. Seeing them together was a double necessity. I loved that Crys was so excited about opening for Dar. The last time I saw something like that was when Anaïs opened for Dar. I love that I can say Dar, Crys, and Anaïs with no need for last names. The show was at Symphony Space, one of my favorite venues. I went with Fred, we sat front row center, can’t complain about that. One of the things I missed at virtual concerts was running into friends. There was no way I will see Dar in New York and not see friends. Fred doesn’t count, as I went with him. The by chance people started showing up before curtain. As I was talking to Fred, we heard from behind us, “Pipe down, down front.” It was Jeff, Carol walked down the aisle immediately afterward. I’ve seen them both since the plague began but I still appreciate the hugs. Chris was sitting in the same row, that was pure chance. When I came out of the bathroom, I spotted what I thought was Cindy, but wasn’t sure as she was wearing a mask and cut her hair. I said, “Cindy?” And it was her! Then when the show was over Fred, a different Fred came over to say hi. Of all the friends that could show up she was the most coincidental as I played her on Thursday’s Gord’s Gold, in the set following the one with Dar and Crys. Gord’s Gold was streaming during the concert and there I was in the same room with three of the artists I played. What you didn’t hear Gord’s Gold Thursday night? If you weren’t at the Dar/Crys show you had no excuse. You can make up for it now. Give it a listen now.

I’m not going to assume that you are listening as you read the rest of this. The set I did that went Dar-Dylan-Crys-Billie Holiday is the programming I’m most proud of.

Dar was excited to be back performing live and in New York City. This was a home game though she now lives upstate. She performed a classic mix of songs from her new album, I’ll Meet You Here with older classics. My favorite song from her first studio release, The Honesty Room is The Babysitter. I realized at the show that when I see Dar, I become Dar watching the babysitter in The Unicorn. She was there thinking, “I can’t wait to give her the card. I can’t wait to give her the card.” When I see Dar, I’m sitting there thinking, “I can’t wait to shout out, ‘I am the Others’” in As Cool as I Am and singing along and waving my cell phone during Iowa. I turned my phone off as requested by the management during the show. That’s why I have no pictures. But as I sensed the show was nearing the end, I turned it back in preparation for Iowa. I love the group bonding of the audience. I suspect that’s one of the prime appeals of religion. I wouldn’t know by personal experience as Pastafarians don’t do those kinds of things.

Yesterday after my poutine I made the long trek to Red Hook, Brooklyn to see The Murphy Beds and Ivan Goff at the House of Love. The Murphy Beds are the duo of Eamon O’Leary and Jefferson Hamer. Going by their new album, Easy Way Down I should be referring to them as “Eamon O’Leary and Jefferson Hamer (The Murphy Beds). I’m slow to change. The trip takes over an hour-and-a-half, so you know this had to be important. The House of Love has always been Amy’s house but thanks to COVID-19 she has moved it into an interesting space, of unknown purpose, which is much larger. It is still the House of Love as like Asgard it is not a place, but the people. The House of Love is an important node in the folk community. Every person I knew there, other than Amy, is a musician. The first person I saw was Amy’s son Lucas. I’ve known him since high school. He grew up in this community. He’s preparing a record and I told him to send it my way when it’s ready for radio. Someone walked in and I knew exactly who he was, a folk musician from Ireland that moved to Australia, and now lives in Jackson Heights. I know where I met him. I know his music. You know what I didn’t remember? His name. I decided to go with honesty, “I’m sorry, I know who you are but forgot your name. He said exactly the same thing as me. It was Vincent Cross. I invited him to sit with me. Now I forgot his friend’s name. It was a common Irish name. I was getting better at names before COVID-19, but I’ve fallen out of practice. I need to work on it again. I also saw Andrew Vladeck and later I saw him talking to James Shipp. They didn’t know each other but were connected by a series of coincidences. James came with Stephanie Coleman who I had just seen at Jalopy. To make things even better James is in Jean Rohe’s band and I was wearing my Jean Rohe t`-shirt. My hair is finally long enough that I could take a picture I’ve wanted since I got the shirt.

Jean doesn’t know it, but we are in a competition. I want to see if I can get my ponytail longer than hers.

Ivan Goff is an uileann piper. I suspect that I’ve seen him before, he’s great and has played with everyone. I posted this picture on social media and said that while most of the world has no idea what he’s playing but I suspect most of my friends, and My Gentle Readers do. I introduced myself after the show, got his CD and gave him my card. You’ll be hearing him on next week’s Gord’s Gold. You’ll also be hearing the Murphy Beds, they have a new album out, Easy Way Out. I go so much music this week. I haven’t programmed the show yet, it’s going to be jam packed. I also started some theme sets for future shows. My compulsion to see connections between things is useful when planning a radio show.

The concert leaned heavily into the trad Irish/British parts of my taste which is remarkably similar to the Bach part of my brain. There were tunes where Ivan joined Eamon and Jefferson and they functioned as the basso continuo under his subjects. Bach should have written for uileann pipes, guitar, and bouzouki. If anyone has a time machine that would be putting it to good use.

The trip home took forever because as has been happening far too often of late my D train got caught behind of work train and went very slowly with frequent stops between stations. I should have taken the 4, but I had problems with that the last time I took it. Late nights on the subway are problematic. The work has to be done, we are still recovering all these years later from Hurricane Sandy, and the MTA spent years not doing needed maintenance. I intellectually accept that it’s necessary, but I still hate having it take more than two hours to get home.

Now that the weekend is here, I don’t seem to have any plans. That’s fine. I have to record a video interview for the teaching job, my introduction of Hannah Read for the Folk DJ Showcase at NERFA, and Gord’s Gold. Laundry and shopping would be good too. If I want to get any of this done I better this posted.