When I opened my eyes again, I was squinting in the sunlight through the taxi windows as we careened down Flatbush Avenue in mid-morning traffic. As we turned the corner onto Eastern Parkway, past the venerable Brooklyn Museum, I was overcome with the slightly foreign feeling of total well-being.
We sat in Megan's very warm and humid apartment for an hour or so. (I believe that rainforest plants could thrive in her bedroom.) After sweating the toxins out of our bodies, we made our way over to Tom's Diner, (yes, the one from Suzanne Vega's famous song) and had some breakfast. The interior is part circus decorations, christmas lighting and enormous faux springtime-colored plastic flower arrangements. Great food, not too expensive, wonderful staff and the somewhat touchy-feely Tom makes his way around to say hi to everyone.We returned to the apartment and played some new songs for each other and then rehearsed "In Tall Buildings" a beautiful John Hartford song for Megan's set. Meg suggested we run down to a guitarist acquaintance of hers to rehearse a bit more. So we packed all our stuff, guitars, cables and cds and started off for the train. We were on the F train headed to another part of Brooklyn when the conductor's concerned voice came over the loudspeaker, "We will be stopping at Jay St/Burrough Hall because of a police investigation. This will be the last stop. Please exit the train." This statement was repeated a full four times so no one would forget it. I obviously didn't.
Megan and I found ourselves somewhere in Brooklyn without an idea where to go so we optimistically picked a direction and just started walking. We tried numerous times to hail a taxi but it was 5 pm and every driver who heard our plea of 2nd and Jay St. sped off for a more lucrative fare. Its fortunate that we were with each other, because over an hour later, we still weren't at our destination and we weren't at each other's throats.
The guitarist turned out to be Teddy Kumpel, a session player and New York sideman/composer. (Rickie Lee Jones, Chris Brown) Teddy's apartment is jammed full of sound-making objects, guitars, recording equipment, computers, amps. There is enough stuff to make a techno-geek musician like me drool. I was hoping it didn't show on my face; the envy, the awe; but after awhile, I just gave up and started asking questions about EVERYTHING. Whats this? What's that? Here's Teddy with my favorite thing a Greco miniaturized 335-ish knock-off. Me want.Teddy is such a graceful and tasteful musician/person. Later at the Living Room, he sat in on part of my set adding light-as-air flourishes and swells to my songs while Megan sang back-up vocals and played some sweet violin. Later, we sat in together on Megan's set. Emilie Cardineaux, a terrific pianist and singer also sat in on the set. I had heard of her and listened to her stuff online but had never seen her in action. I have only one word. Wow. I hope I can catch her doing her thing some time very soon.
It was a great evening. One I won't soon forget. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out with friends in the main bar of the Living Room. I spied Richard Julian in the corner with a few friends. I'm really looking forward to his new record. A 13 piece female accordion band was there. One of their members was a beautiful Asian woman in a white sequined mini-dress with pink hair and full-size angel wings. I love New York.
This afternoon I caught a train at Penn Station near Times Square to Washington D.C. The train is oh so lovely. I adore the conductor's voice gently calling "tickets, tickets please." I paid $9.00 for a tuna sandwich and chips in the snack car and ate what I could of it; definitely the low point of the train ride. Eventually the rhythm of the train lulled me to sleep. When I opened my eyes again, we were at Union Station.
So now I'm sitting here in my sister's living room making "cootie catchers" for my niece. In a few minutes, I'll be reading a chapter or two of Harry Potter while she falls asleep. I'll be honest. I'd rather be in this living room, but won't soon forget the other one.
Dinner: Thai fat noodles with beef stew. Mmm...
Listening: Clothes softly tumbling over and over in the dryer...
