Dateline School: I’m trying something new, writing during a free period at school. I have no time for writing when I get home and I’m often too tired. Let’s see if this can become the new normal. Unfortunately I’m on a school issued Mac and don’t have Word. I’m writing this on Google Docs. I’ll adjust. I miss writing too much.
I still blog in my head every day, not so much about my life as about the rest of the world. I have a much better idea of what everyone else should do than what I should do. I’m not going to write about that though. I had a day worth writing about on Tuesday and I’ll make that the lede.
Monday was Columbus/Indigenous People Day. I could write about that but won’t. It’s one of those things that I have a different take on than most people. Instead let’s move on to Tuesday. As it was the first work day of the week it felt like a Monday and acted like a Monday, a Monday with an attitude. I got on the 4 train and it was moving slower than normal. Then it was taken out of service at 125th street. After a long wait I got on the next 4 which was jammed. I lost so much time that I arrived late, fortunately I don’t have class first period so it just meant less prep time.
Fortunately I don’t remember all the other things that went wrong. One problem was with the subway after school. I had lots of time so that wasn’t an issue. It was the second Tuesday of the month so we had John Platt’s On Your Radar. Normally I would automatically link to that but it’s too much of a bother from here. That doesn’t start until 7:00 and I used the time in between to go to Trader Joe’s and Union Square and then walked to Rockwood. I got there very early, maybe 5:30, and went right downstairs to soundcheck. There was nobody to stop me. I wanted to go down early as I’m friends with all of this month’s performers. Aimee Van Dyne, Brad Cole’s band Bassa Blue, and Carla Ulbrich. I have not seen Carla since the before times. It was great to catch up. Unfortunately her husband Joe couldn’t make it. I was looking forward to talking about the Mets with him. He’s a good person aka a Met fan. Aimee was doing sound check when I arrived. I gave her a quick hug then went to listen. I had one of my common duties, being asked “How does that sound?” It sounded great. This was the best I’ve heard Aimee. She had a crackerjack band with her. Then i went to schmooze with Brad who was up next and when Carla came in while he was sound checking I schmoozed with her. I got and gave lots of hugs.
The room was packed, almost a sellout and a good number of them were friends. It’s always great when Coco comes down from Kingston for a show. There was also Jeff, Carol, and Brianna, and a peep of Chicks. Aimee is one of the songwriter collective Chicks with Dip. I’m not a Chick nor married to a Chick, but I’m still a Rooster, a member of the Men’s auxiliary.
This was a great show. Carla is more in my social circle than most of my friends in the audience. That meant I got to kvell when she knocked it out of the park. Carla is very funny. One advantage a funny songwriter has over others is that you immediately know if you are connecting with the audience, They laugh out loud. I heard plenty of laughs.
Brad is part of the usual crew, this was his third On Your Radar. Each time was in a different configuration. Bossa Blue was quite different from the others. Brad’s a singer/songwriter but this was a Bossa Nova band, a good Bossa Nova band. It’s not often that I can say, “It’s got a good beat you can dance to it” about a song heard at On Your Radar.
This was the best performance that I’ve heard from Aimee. A band is her songs’ natural habitat. I knew the rhythm section of her band, Craig on bass and Eric on drums. I don’t know the harmony singers but they were spot on as was the guitarist.
After the show came something I was looking forward to just as much as the music. The post-concert dinner and hang at the diner. This happens pretty much any time a Chick performs at Rockwood, Chicks Rollcall, Aimee, Carolann with her husband Mark, Catherine, Katherine, Anna, and all the way from Texas, Karyn. We were joined by Carla, and one of Aimee’s harmony singers. Katherine, Mark, and Carolann I see fairly regularly, Aimie I saw at Falcon Ridge, and I’ve even seen Karyn a few times. I have not seen Anna since before the plague. It’s been even longer for Carla.
This Tuesday that started as a Monday ended up being a Saturday night. Sure I had to get up early the next day but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. This was good for my soul.
Wise Madness 