I am going to try and blog for the first time in months. Yesterday was my birthday, now that I am older and more mature, I might be up for it. I’m not going to be overly ambitious. I’ll stick to the highlights surrounding my birthday. First off, I care about my birthday, This is consistent with caring about important historical dates and holidays. On July 4th I read the Declaration of Independence. On Martin Luther King day I read one of his speeches or Letter from Birmingham Jail. I celebrate opening day of the baseball season. Why should I not have a day to focus my attention on myself. I have had many good birthdays, some great ones, and a few clunkers. I am not going to think about the clunkers. I’m not going to dwell on the things that didn’t go perfectly this year. It’s my birthday and I won’t cry if I don’t want to. Not that there was anything worth crying over.
My plan for Tuesday was to go up to Hastings-on-Hudson for the big Spuyten Duyvil reunion show. They had a warm show last month, this was the real deal. It was raining during the day, but the universe gave me a present and the rain let up and the sun came out by the evening for the show. I have to take the MetroNorth there, but the fastest route is also more expensive, it means going south to Harlem, before going back north to Hastings. I decided to splurge for my birthday and then discovered that I didn’t have to. I had a zone 1-4 ticket paid for on my MTA app. Why? I bought it when I went up to the last Common Ground show but didn’t use the return because Beth, who is in Spuyten Duyvil, gave me a ride home. To make things more perfect, it expired on Tuesday. It was the last day I could use it. I could lie and say this was great planning on my part, but it wasn’t. It was dumb luck.
I knew the show would be great but there were bonus friends there. I expected to see Carter, who lives in Hastings, but there were so many more. Coco and Bruce came down from Kingston! They did not travel the furthest. Mira came up from DC! More expected were locals Maggi and John, and Janeen, who still had to come from Jersey, and Dan from Brooklyn. I was a social butterfly making the rounds.
Spuyten Duyvil will always be one of my favorite bands even if they never play again. They are part of my musical family. They were joined by Joe Iadanza who produced their last record. I hadn’t seen Joe in years, but I saw him exactly a week before at On Your Radar. He is making his way back into my life. He lives on Long Island which means I am on his way home and I got a ride. It took 20 minutes instead of an hour and a half to get home. The universe made a big deal of my 66th.
The world is working in synchronicity. A week ago Sunday, I saw Becca Loebe and she brought up Joe, who I saw two days later.
On the way home and Joe and I continued to reconnect he told how he hasn’t even talked to Carolann in ages. They toured together. I told him that I was seeing her the next day, my birthday. This leads to the best present the Universe gave me, tickets to Hamilton. In the days before COVID-19 I entered the Hamilton lottery every day. I never won. They changed the system. Tickets become available for the entire next week. If you win the lottery you get to buy $10 tickets. I of course entered for my birthday. I won! For a year I played without winning, now I played twice, matinee and evening, and won the matinee. When I called Carolann, I got her voicemail. Immediately tried other people and nobody that I could reach go make it. This is one of my major anxieties, I have been caught with an extra ticket that I thought highly valuable many times and either couldn’t find anyone to go with or went with someone I wasn’t particularly close to. Carolann is a good friend and a theater person; she was the perfect choice. So perfect that I decided to write to her the next morning just to make sure she got the message. She hadn’t gotten my voicemail! She immediately responded and said yes!
We met for lunch at the West Side Café, a theater hangout, it was wonderful. The waiter even asked us if we were going to a matinee so he could make sure that we got out in time. I felt like such a sophisticated New Yorker. I got anxious when I couldn’t find the ticket on the Hamilton App that I had to download to enter the lottery. I figured I’d ask what to do when we got there. You know what you do? You go to the box office, show them ID, and they give you the ticket. I had no idea where we’d be sitting. I figured someplace up high. It was row CC. My thought was the 29th row somehow. Nope, It was the front row, house right. We could touch the stage. I did touch the stage. For one day the universe went all out to make me happy. Look at the cover pic, that’s the view from my seat.
I had seen Hamilton before, and that was with friends I loved too. As this was my second time, I thought it might be less of a thrill, especially as I had watched it on TV on July 4. I told you I take historic dates seriously. I’m a patriot. Guess what, seeing it again was just as big a thrill, maybe a bigger thrill as we were so close. We could see every facial expression and every piece of business. My attention did not wander the entire show. It grabs you in the big opening number and holds you tight until the big finale. There are a few ballads where you can catch your breath, and you need them. Those are not simple breaks; those are just magical in a less frenetic way. Carolann remarked how Lin-Manuel Miranda shows all his musical influences. People notice the rap but there is so much more. What Did I Miss could be part of a classic all singing all dancing 1940s musical. Many of the big pieces felt like Mozart operas, with everyone singing their own thread yet all forming the warp and woof of a magnificent tapestry. It is pure genius.
Carolann and I walked to the subway together and took our time to talk and digest the show. That’s why it’s great to go to the theater with someone who understands theater. It’s always best to go with someone who knows more than you do. I’ve been to the opera with an opera singer. We finally had to part ways. That was not the end of the celebration.
Alan offered me a ticket to that night’s Met game. At first, I thought that would be too much; then said, it’s my birthday, I should live the day to its fullest. I’m over COVID-19, my energy is back, and I’ve had much longer days than that. I made one stop first; I got my free birthday drink from Starbucks. It was amazing, some sort of coffee, mocha chocolate concoctions. It tasted great and got me fully caffeinated.
Then I was off to the Met game. I got there early and used that time to return some of my birthday calls. Not a second was wasted. Then the universe kept giving. I took our usual seats, which are not the seats we buy tickets for, and looked over to the next section and saw Gene & Isabel, and their son JJ. I haven’t seen them in a long time, so I got even more time with loved ones. Then I met Alan back in our seat. Alan treated me to ice cream! What a day. To top it off the Mets had one of their best games of the season. Verlander, who has been a bit of a disappointment this season, pitched his best game as a met. Eight innings of one run three hit ball. The Mets managed to score 5 runs. There was some great fielding. Alan left after 8 and I moved over to sit with Gene and Isabel and got more quality time with them as Ottavino pitched a perfect 9th inning. On the train ride home, I ran into another friend, Paulo. The universe smiled on me.
Today I prepared next week’s Gord’s Gold a week early. I just have to record it now. Falcon Ridge is coming up so I won’t have time to prepare that week. I want to get ahead. OK, now it’s time for me to go to bed. It feels so good to be writing again.
Wise Madness 