I got one sentence into blogging yesterday and stopped. I have no idea what interfered. Now I have to catch up on two days. Good thing nothing happened on Friday. Something was supposed to happen, the Sunset Singing Circle. It was raining and I kept changing my mind if I was going to go. I was ready to leave, looked out the window, saw the rain, and said, “I’m going to wimp out and not go. A minute later I got a message from Terre, the singing circle was cancelled. There have been three singing circles scheduled this month; two were rained out and the third almost was. It rained until minutes before we started. The clouds never cleared, and we never saw the sun. I love Frances who runs the events for the Battery Park City Authority, but she really needs to work on her weather control skills. There’s no circle next week for Memorial Day. The next is in two weeks. The weather better be better. If any of you can control the weather, please let me know and help out.
Last night made the trek in the tropical heat to the southern clime of Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn to see Deni Bonet at the Brooklyn Music Shop, AKA Don’s house. This should have been a relatively easy commute, the D train to the F, then walk two blocks. I thought I had the timing down until I checked on Google Maps. The F train was running so infrequently it was faster to go out of the way to the G train even though that involved a long wait for the G. The upshot was I didn’t have time to eat dinner before I left. Good thing Don provided snacks. Chocolate biscotti aren’t dinner, but they kept me from eating my arm. I’m a such a good person so I didn’t even occur to me that I could eat somebody else’s arm.
At house concerts I have a dilemma, I want to sit in the comfy seat, usually at the back, but I also want to sit up front. Don had it set up so that the front row was a comfy couch! House concert heaven. If anyone wants to host a house concert with a recliner/massage chair up front I’m there. Well as long as Jackson Browne or Dawes aren’t playing. There are other musicians I’d turn down; The Act and the Ermine Violin are two. I changed their names to protect the innocent.
Deni is a favorite musician, a violinist, a favorite performer, it’s not the same thing, and a friend. I’d see her if I had to stand at the back. She’s even better when she plays with Chris on guitar. They have great musical and performance chemistry. They work at making each other laugh. Deni interacts with Chris the way she does with me. I love music and I love silly, so this is as good as it gets for me. Deni’s music has evolved over the years and now half her songs are instrumentals. She’s a conservatory trained musician and it shows. I have a weakness for classical and jazz trained musicians that play folk and Americana. Does Deni play folk and Americana? She is perhaps Folk and Americana adjacent. I have no qualms playing her on Gord’s Gold even when she rocks or classicals out.
The ones I knew there were Deni, Chris, and Don but I’m me, so I made new friends. I got to meet Deni’s sister Marilyn. I just called Deni because I forgot Marilyn’s name. I thought that would be easy, I was wrong. I saw with Jay from Jersey who apparently has been to many shows with me, but we never talked. Then there was Susan, her friend Mike and Susan’s husband whose name has totally escaped me. My sister Sue’s husband is Mike, and it would have been considerate to me if Susan were married to Mike so I could remember her husband’s name. I have noticed that people do not arrange their entire lives, decades before I meet them, to make my life easier. What’s up with that?
I have heard Deni play Orange Blossom many times and I even posted a video of her playing it. Last night I heard that it was he mother’s favorite song of hers and that she played as part of her summer jobs playing in amusement parks when she was in college. “For those summers I was Deni-Sue.” Chris said, “We’re Deni-Sue and Jethro.” She followed that with, “Nobody better start calling me ‘Deni-Sue.’” I took that as a request to post about it here. Chris agreed with me. I told you I liked Chris. Don’t worry, nowhere in the body of this entry will I call her Deni-Sue.
It was a long trip home, and I hadn’t eaten dinner so of course I hung around and talked for an hour before making a Jewish Goodbye. That means saying “Goodbye” then continue talking, rinse and repeat, ad infinitum. I final dragged myself out of there, got to the subway and began the journey home. I didn’t get there until 1:15. When did I get so old that that became a late night? That’s a normal time to get home on a Saturday night. Early even. I am usually up then so it was no big deal except for not eating. When I got in, I immediately made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Here’s a tip somebody gave me that works. When making grilled cheese don’t put butter on the bread, use mayo.
When I got to my building there were young adults a party with loud music blasting. I should have said something but instead I decided to wait to see if they would stop before I went to sleep. They didn’t. I shouted out, “Please keep it down people are trying to sleep. They were right under my window and very loud. They turned it down but not off then turned it back up but not as loud as originally. I shouted down to them again and suggested that they take the party into the park. They were genuinely nice about it and did shut down the party. They weren’t trying to be difficult. I am sure they had no idea how loud they were to the people in the building. I dread being the “get off my lawn” old guy. I thought I was nice about it, and they responded in kind.
I’ll write about today’s adventures in the heat tomorrow.
Wise Madness 