I didn’t blog yesterday. I hate when I don’t blog especially on a day that I didn’t leave the house. We’ll count that as a loss and move on that’s a key to winning baseball and life, play one game at a time.
On Thursday I did do something worth writing about and even have pictures. Dan and I went to see The Wailin’ Jennys at the New York Society for Ethical Culture. We met for dinner at the Whole Foods in the Time Warner Building. We bought our food inside then ate in Columbus Circle. That’s a great dinner option if you are in the area with someone that has different culinary taste than you, They have a large variety of foods. There is dining area inside but if you are not comfortable eating inside you can take your food and eat on the benches in Columbus Circle or Central Park. To prove it’s me I’ll tell you what I ate, chicken tikka marsala, hot chili chicken wings, and mac & cheese.
The artistic highlight of the evening occurred while making the three-block walk to the venue. Dan dropped his empty water bottle. It was window and what ensued was a physical comedy on par with the best of Buster Keaton. Dan would bend down to pick it up, the wind would pick up and blow it away from it. He’d run to catch up to it and when he bent down to pick it up it blew away again. I was laughing out loud. I wish I had that video. It would go viral. People would be sure this was carefully choreographed by a comic genius. Dan are you a comic genius with control of the wind? That is a possibility that hadn’t occurred to me until now.
Before we went in Dan said, “I wonder who we will know there. This is the kind of show that John Platt would go to.” When we went in who did Dan spot? John. Wait, he can control the wind and knows the future? What other magic powers does Dan have? Is this his divine compensation for his being cursed by liking Dawes? If so, it’s not a fair deal. I went over and talked to John. He told me that Anthony da Costa was playing guitar with the band. I didn’t know that. I’ve known Anthony since he was 16. He did John Platt’s On Your Radar when he was 16 or 17. He was a big part of my musical circle before he left for Austin and now Nashville. It’s bad enough that my friends have been lured to a city in Tennessee, did it have to rub it in by sounding like it was named for me?
The Wailin’ Jennys are a band that I love but have not seen often; largely because they don’t play New York often. When I have Amazon stream recommendations to me, and I heard music I love from a female trio that I don’t know well it’s always either the Wailin’ Jennys or Be Good Tanyas. Both bands are Canadian which conflates them in my brain. I don’t have a lot of spare memory capacity. I should get an SD card. Speaking of conflating the one member of the Jennys that I know is Heather Masse. She’s not an original member and lived in New York for five years. She did On Your Radar back in 2009. While I know exactly who she is I have a mental block with her name. It always comes out, Heather Ma… which I complete to Heather Maloney, but I know very well that she’s not Heather Maloney. The next thing to come to my mind is usually Heather Maeve. I don’t know a Heather Maeve, but Heather gets me to the Heather on the Hills which gets me to Scotland which gets me to Maeve. Then I have to clear my brain, think about something else and then Masse comes to me. Maybe I’ll picture multiple copies of her together, so she’ll be “Heather en masse.” I bet that works.
The Wailin’ Jennys are one of those bands that are tough for me to write about. There’s no idiosyncrasy that sets them apart. They don’t sing about weird things. They do female three-part harmonies, that’s a common configuration. They just do it amazingly well. Every note is exactly in place. The difference between the right note and almost the right note is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. They started the show with an a capella song and I was immediately enthralled and stayed that way to the show’s end.
During intermission I was going to look around for anyone else I knew there when Kevin beat me to it. He came over to say hello. It is not at all surprising that he was there. He’s hard core. He went right from The Wailin’ Jennys to Rockwood to see Elizabeth and the Catapult and Akie Bermiss. I got Akie’s last name right for the first time ever! Akie is enough to identify him, so I don’t usually use the last name. When I do it comes out Berman. Akie is on my “I need to see more often” list. Hanging with Dan and Kevin was great. This is getting my real life back after the COVID-19 hiatus.
Yesterday I finished programming next week’s Gord’s Gold. It’s going to have the final Women’s History Month set and several new songs. There are three artists that I’m playing for the first time. Tonight, I’m off to see John Elliott at the Common Ground Coffeehouse, temporarily in Dobbs Ferry. I have no music on my calendar for the next week. I hope something turns up for me to see.
Wise Madness 