Wow, I’m writing this when I’m supposed to, in the morning. Maybe this is a harbinger of things to come. Now if I can get back to going to sleep earlier so I’m rested when I wake up. I just closed my eyes and almost fell asleep. I could make coffee but once I do that, I’ll also eat breakfast, watch TV, and not get around to writing for hours.
My Long-Time Gentle Readers know that on the second Tuesday of the month you can find me at Rockwood Music Hall for John Platt’s On Your Radar. You might know that but that’s because you aren’t an idiot like somebody else, I know. I won’t use any names. Yesterday afternoon I went out for my daily constitutional. In addition to it being my Donut Walk I considered making it a medical walk, getting my flu shot and a COVID-19 test. I went to the local pharmacy which was listed online as giving the flu shots but that wasn’t indicated anywhere in the store, and they were busy, so I didn’t get it done. It’s still a bit early, I’ve been told that Halloween is the optimal time to get it. Then I found a booth in Fordham Plaza, across the street from Krispy Kreme, offering COVID-19 testing. I was unfamiliar with the organization giving it and it was the saliva test; I wasn’t sure about its efficacy. My phone rang when I was researching that and with that so went my medical plans. There was no rush on the test, and I very much wanted to talk to the caller. We talked as I walked and after I got home. She asked me about On Your Radar. Alarm Bells! While I hadn’t forgotten about it, I hadn’t noticed the time, it was 5:53. OYR starts at 7 PM but I usually get there by 6:15 to talk to the artists and make sure things are going smoothly. Good thing I was dressed, I ran out of the house and to the subway. On the way I realized that the mask that I thought was in my pocket wasn’t there. I was still on the phone with my friend, and she reminded me that I could get one at the token booth. The booth is two blocks further from the closest entrance, so it wasn’t a slam dunk that was faster, but I went with it. I love that the MTA provides high quality cloth masks at token booths. I still call them token booths even though they haven’t sold tokens for years as I don’t know what to call them and I enjoy the anachronistic name that preserves the history.
I arrived with about ten minutes to spare. My seat is reserved so I don’t have to worry about that. I had time to make the rounds saying hello to people. Part of the appeal of On Your Radar is that it’s a social scene. I usually sit with Fred, but he couldn’t make it. I ended up sitting with John Platt himself. He’s usually at the next table but he had two guests in addition to his wife Sheila. I love seeing everyone but was particularly delighted to see Coco as she moved up to Kingston. Turns out that some months she can still make it down here for the shows. Fred, no not that Fred, another Fred was sitting right behind me with his wife. They were also at the Dar/Crys Matthews show on Thursday. I accused them of stalking me. Jeff and Carol were sitting with Coco, they are also at the Dar/Crys show. We’re a club. Who else was there? Dan & Phyllis, and Richard & Viki. I have been doing this all my life, but I still enjoy my mental process, I walk through the room in my imagination and list people as I encounter them.
The artists in order of appearance were Lindsay Whiteman, Dan Whitener, and Us! (Amy Soucy, Glenn Roethel, and Judy Kass). I’m not sure if I have seen any of them perform. I have seen all the members of US! But never together. I had never heard of Lindsay. Dan was a Facebook friend but for the life of me the only things I remembered for sure was that he is in Gangstagrass and that I liked him. I wasn’t even sure if I liked him musically or personally. My brain sometimes works that way. Turns out that I like him both musically and personally. That’s always good. He is weird in the good way. He has a song about the moon crashing into the earth and killing everyone. He also has songs about less serious things, like the human condition, one of them, We Are Gonna Be OK appears in the great Spike Lee film, The Black Klansman. Now I’ll have to watch that again.
Lindsay is a delightful young woman from Long Island now at the Berklee College of Music. What makes her delightful? She’s a 21-year-old with a guitar who doesn’t sing drones about how sensitive she is. She writes about things that others don’t, like that people dye their hair to fix all their problems. I just realized an interesting paradox. What I like about her is that unlike so many others she doesn’t try to be Dar. Yet who did I compare her to? Dar. She doesn’t sound like Dar at all but like Dar her songs are lyrically dense, she sings very fast. She might have more words/minute than Dar who has about twice as many as most songwriters. As opposed to drones her songs have swing. She said that her favorite musician is Lady Gaga, so I made sure to tell her that Ms. Gaga played Rockwood when she was starting out as Lisa Germano and as Lady Gaga. Did I get the name right? One of my friends, I forgot whom was on the same night as her. Lady G performed in bikini. Ken Rockwood told my friend, “Sorry you have to follow that.”
US! was designed in a lab to appeal to John Platt, upbeat trio with perfect harmonies from our social circle. In the set Judy mentioned taking part in the Women’s March. I think she might have marched with me. I know I saw Amy Soucy at one of the marches. While I was talking to Lindsay after her set Judy came buy and let out with, “It’s Gordon Nash!” I loved her delight in seeing me, but I was in the middle of talking to Lindsay who I knew was about to run upstairs so I couldn’t talk to Judy. After the show I went over to apologize to Judy, and here’s the part that made it worth mentioning. She was so obviously not offended by me. By being herself, she made me feel good about being myself. That is how I want to affect people.
As I rushed out of the house, I did not have time to eat before the show which then ran late. Instead of hanging out socializing I beat what for me is a hasty retreat. I grabbed a slice of dollar pizza to hold me until I got home. That proved costly. I missed the F train by seconds. The next one was in 7 minutes, so I wasn’t too concerned. I need to be in the front of the train, and it took me three minutes to reach the front of the platform, where I want to be when I got off. I only take the F one stop then switch to the D. That’s where the pizza caught up with me. There was a 16-minute wait. If I had not gotten the slice, I would have caught the previous train. Then to add insult to injury a work train came before the D, and we had to follow that. That meant having to stop and wait for them to do their work. This has been happening to me most of the time on my way home. Why? Does the MTA follow my schedule and make sure to send a work train out in front of mine? Not that I’m paranoid or anything.
Why does everything happen at once? After writing all this I have more to say. First, I heard back from the Charter School company that applied to. They liked my video interview and I now have a zoom interview scheduled for Tuesday. I think this is going to happen. This is what I was talking about on the phone with my friend in the beginning of this entry. It happens and my whole life changes, I’ll move to Brooklyn, get my own place, have to find new doctors and a therapist. God knows what else. No, he doesn’t, God doesn’t exist. The Flying Spaghetti Monster knows what else. The FSM knows even though he doesn’t exist either. He is at least aware that he doesn’t exist? Why do I say he? Does assigning a sex to a spaghetti monster make sense? They might reproduce asexually. By convention he uses male pronouns. The ritual greeting of Pastafarians is, “My you be touched by HIS noodley appendage.” But Pastafarians are free-thinkers. We are not bound by conventions. I’m going to refer to the FSM as it.
Wise Madness 