Yesterday’s adventure was traveling north to see the Richard Thompson at Tarrytown Music Hall. I could not afford the tickets but out of the blue my friend Connie bought me one because she knows that he is tied with Rhiannon Giddens as my favorite of favorites. Now that I’m carless it’s a pain to get to there but Richard makes it well worth the trip.
There was some difficulty getting there. I have a choice of multiple roots and took the one that Google Maps said was fastest. That involved a subway and a bus to the MetroNorth University Heights railway station. That’s the Hudson Line, I live by the Harlem Line. I checked how much wiggle room the Google route had, and it looked fine even if the subway and bus were a little late. When I got to the bus, I discovered that the bus was not a little late, it was extremely late. I had to change plans on the fly, I was waiting for the SBS – BX12 which makes fewer stops than the regular BX12 and takes me right to the station. When I saw a regular BX12 I ran to catch that, it’s at a different stop. It turns before the Metro North station, and I wasn’t sure where. I tried asking the Driver and he just told me to take the SBS. I figured it out on the map. It’s just a five-minute walk from the closest stop and the driver should have just told me to get off at Sedgewick. I got to the station with three minutes to spare. The SBS did not pass me. I would have probably missed the train if I had waited for it.
Time out to make a too common complaint. There are small enclosed heated waiting rooms on the train platform. A smoker stood outside but right in front of the door, smoking. The waiting room was filled with smoke. Did he not realize that would happen? Did he do it deliberately as a protest that he’s not allowed in the waiting room. There is no advantage to standing right there. He could have waited anywhere else but that one spot and not bother anyone. I’d like to think that he simply wasn’t thinking. There’s no reason to assume malevolence. There’s enough of that to go around without hypothesizing in places where it isn’t clear.
The train ride was great, and the usher enforced the mandatory masking. To my great shame I forgot to put mine on. He offered me one. I thought too slowly, I should have accepted it. I didn’t because I had a KN95 on me and those are better. I use them whenever I am seeing a show at a venue. I recommend that everyone do that even if vaxxed and boosted. Forget me, what do I know? I do it because that’s what every expert I have read says. We don’t have to shut out lives down again, but we should take all the possible precautions. Can you believe somebody, a friend, not a right-wing nut, asked me why I was wearing a mask? I said, “Because there’s a pandemic.” She had to know that. Everyone knows that. Maybe she doesn’t think it necessary, and I didn’t push her to wear one, but why feign ignorance as to why I was doing it?
I have seen Richard Thompson play at Tarrytown Music Hall many times. As it’s a regular venue for him he likes to mix things up when he plays there. It’s a home game to him. That makes the shows better. Once he did a career retrospective, doing songs from every period of his career from before Fairport Convention to the present. He started in Fairport as a teen so that’s going way back. This show didn’t have a theme, but he leaned heavily into the Fairport and Richard and Linda Thompson material from the 70s. Part of that is because he was joined by his girlfriend Zara Phillips who sang that Linda parts. I hate having to call a grown woman a girlfriend, but no other term makes it clear. If I said, “partner” you might think musical partner. Significant other and romantic partner are awkward phrases. I go with awkward but short and familiar girlfriend. The legalization of same sex marriage saved senior citizens having to refer to their romantic partner as girlfriend or boyfriend.
Richard also read from his book. When artists do things like that it is often boring and a distraction. Not when it’s RT. His selections are short, to the point, and often told a story behind the next song he played. I would enjoy an evening of just hearing Richard tell stories and make jokes. If you only know him from records you won’t appreciate how funny he is.
Whenever I see him, the question is, when during 1952 Vincent Black Lightning will I tear up? I set a new record, during the guitar introduction. The tears were freely flowing by the end. I was going to play another song of his on Gord’s Gold, but I can’t. I have to explain to My Gentle Listeners how much the song means to me. My Gentle Readers already know. It is a one-song opera. I hang on every word and picture everything that happens. I don’t hear the song, I’ immersed in it.
I set today aside to take the ACT for the tutoring company job I applied for. That did not turn out well. I did fine with the questions the problem was that when I finished the first section, English, there was no go on to the next section button, just finish the test. I hit that and that just got me back to the beginning not the next section. I had to write the interviewer and ask what to do. I’m not happy about that but it’s honest. She’ll know from the result that I’m smart.
I’m a bit behind my usual schedule for Gord’s Gold. It’s not due until Tuesday but I like to have it all planned out by Saturday. I have it all down except for one new song that I’m waiting for an artist to send me. I won’t feel comfortable sequencing the show without it. I like to hear how songs segue into each other.
Time to make dinner. Matzoh brei pizza is on the menu. As I cook it in olive oil it’s appropriate for Chanukah.
Wise Madness 