Thanks to the quick and wonderful kindness of Laura Fink, we didn’t have to sleep in a ten dollar coffin in Chinatown or spend $180 in a dank Manhattan motel. For whatever reason, poor planning, misscommunication or misunderstanding, we had no place lined up to stay in New York city and I learned this as we are pulling in to view of the City. I’m behind the wheel. I pulled into the wrong lane at the toll. Several fine people responded to my twittered plea for help and right away. Laura lived close to where we needed to be in Williamsburg the next day and was just getting off work when she called me. I get full to my brim with pride and joy from how many kindly and selfless people I am surrounded by in my life. So willing to put themselves out and take in a friend and two strangers he’ll vouch for. Truly I am blessed.
This morning we awoke early and started our day with some brew from a place called Gimme Coffee before jumping on the L train heading from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Today was a slew of firsts for me.
First time to buy a metrocard. first time in a subway station. to ride in a subway train.first time to almost fall into a sleeping woman’s lap from the railcar’s lurch-jolt out of our first station. First time to see Time Square. The Lower East Side. Strands books. Kim’s Records.
Realizations were had a plenty as well. Don’t look up when you’re crossing a street, homeless guy will not try to avoid collision but he will wait until the last second to blurt a warning yell. Van’s are not walking shoes. Van’s are not warm shoes. Not waterproof shoes. Maybe even snow/ yuck/ wetness magnet shoes. That being said, one can still walk miles even if his feet are so cold he can’t tell if they’re still connected at the ankles. Starbucks is one of the only places with public restrooms (for the first few hours I just thought everyone in New York either had camel hump bladders.
Chase had several meetings around Manhattan today with different industry types so Jordan and I got lost until we found an H&M. I bought socks to replace the ones left in PA. I’m proud at how fast I adapted to the NYC subway system. That’s not to say I didn’t get us really lost, but I also got us un-lost. Little detours I like to call scenic shortcuts.
The show tonight was at a member’s only private club called the Norwood. One of several book release parties for Derrick Brown’s newest collection called Scandalabra. Beau Jennings did some songs, as well as backed Derrick with several other musicians while Derrick read. It was great. I didn’t play tonight, Chase played solo and then backed Paul Mazier. Paul has a beautiful soul, I knew we’d be friends before I even met him by all the praise he was given by Scott Windsor and Beau. This club was seriously nuts. After the performances we went to the third floor bar where a beer was 12 dollars. I had no drinks until one was handed to me by a friend. Julia Stiles was downstairs and Chase made sure to come get me so I could see her. I hadn’t really seen a celebrity until tonight. I’m sure there were lots of people cut from the rich and celebrity cloth there but I couldn’t tell. I’m so bad at that.
We were on the train for about 2 hours on the trek back to Brooklyn to stay with Beau and Jodie. There’s all of this crazy construction on the NYC train system so we had to go way past and then backtrack. This was a fun ride because the train was full of people all headed back from the city to Brooklyn. Got to talk movies with some real nice guys. Beau and Jodie live in an incredible apartment in Fort Green, the first place I went in New York and thought, dang, I could probably live here. Quiet, clean, removed, but still big city.
