With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
2003-01-26 - 10:43 a.m.
I’m finding it harder to get myself to update recently but as I just exhorted Jaci to keep updating I better or I’ll feel like a hypocrite. I have nothing against updating actually, I’m just lazy. Once I actually sit down and start writing I’m glad I did.
Yesterday was a special day. I really felt free from everything that worries me and just had fun. After my usual spinning of my wheels I was able to get my ass in gear and I picked Leah up just a few minutes after noon. She was at her aunt’s house in Montclair. Our next stop was Jekyll and Hyde. I had wonderful parking luck and found a meter space right in front. This was Leah’s first time there and I don’t think she was disappointed. It really is a great place for me to go with Leah as we both have lots of fun with the staff. I was just disappointed that the gargoyle never talked to us. I bet you never thought you’d hear anyone say that.
We then drove over to the Bottom Line, our parking luck wasn’t quite as good but we found a spot just a few blocks away on Waverly. It then became a typical day in New York with Carey. We went to fun stores in the East Village including Loves Saves the Day and Alphabets. Carey was at B-fest so she can’t be too jealous. By the time we finished exploring the East Village we just had time for hot drink before the show. We went to a café near where we parked. Leah had hot cider and I tried their hot chocolate. They make the cold worthwhile. The hot chocolate wasn’t OK but not great and it gave me a craving for going to the great Belgian place on 18th street for the world’s best hot chocolate. I’ll have to head down there this week.
Doors at the Bottom Line open at six so as good Früheads we met Gella there at five. I think that’s the latest that Gella ever arrived for a show there. I haven’t seen Gella in months and Leah hadn’t seen her in years. Our greetings were enthusiastic. No one else showed up on line for forty minutes but we had fun. Well except for the times that Gella sent me to the corner.
Once we got inside we had another hour and a half to wait to the show started. We had no problem filling the time. We talked about everything under the sun and Leah showed us pics of her pet rat, Sir Alonzo Gregory Skippy Kenny Bernardo José Warwick Wormtail.
Bad Carey and Barbara came fairly late but were able to find seats right next to us. Perhaps we scared everyone else away J Leah greeted him by saying, “You must be Bad Carey.” He tried to defend himself but they both know good Carey so
I guess I should mention who we were going to see. It was a co-bill of Buskin & Batteau Christine Lavin and Buskin and Batteau. I’m enough of an apostle of Christine that I have made a macro to insert a link to her homepage in my entries. This was the first time either Leah or Gella has seen. It was a slightly shorter show than normal because it was a co-bill but it was still great. The main difference is that she talked a bit less. A large part of her show was dedicated to Gella. After she did Planet X the song that discusses whether or not Pluto is a planet she always asks, “Who in the audience got the best grade in Astronomy from a good school.” Gella raised her hand and said that she got a B+ from Purchase. When Christine asked what she was majoring in Gella told her “Jewish studies and philosophy.” The next woman that Christine asked had been a Jewish Studies major from Brandeis and was now a Rabbi. The winner gets a prize package and Christine had the two of them come on stage for contest. It was a ten question game show. Christine gave the Rabbi her wind chime to ring when she knew the answer and Gella a noisemaker or grogger as Gella corrected her. That pretty much set the tone for the contest. The first ten questions were worth one point and the last one was worth ten. If I were a good journalist I would have taken notes and now given all the questions. I’m not of course and since Carey wasn’t there nobody else did either. Perhaps Leah or Gella can remember the questions. The ones I can remember are; “Who is playing in the Superbowl?” and knowing the lines that follow, “Bye Bye Miss American Pie.” Gella kicked ass during the first nine questions. For the final ten point question Christine told everyone in the audience to think of a planet other than earth and Pluto. She then asked the contestants what planet we were thinking of. Gella said Saturn and the Rabbi said Uranus. Christine declared the Rabbi the winner.
Next I had my turn onstage as part of the Sensitive New Aged Guys Chorus. When I came back to my seat both Leah and Gella made fun of my swaying. I think that Good Carey is a very bad influence. Leah took pics of both Gella and myself onstage with her digital camera but she can’t post them till she gets a new connecting cable. Email her and make her get the cable and post those pics pronto!
Christine finished with “All I Have to do is Dream/Summer Song” complete with baton twirling. I didn’t have video camera with me so I made quick sketches of her and put them together to create an animation of what it was like.
If you go to her Home Page you’ll see a cooler version of that animation. Betsy you should got to see her knitting section.
Buskin and Batteau came on next. They did my two favorite songs of theirs, ESPN and A Folksinger Earns Every Dime. During the latter David Buskin kept giving Leah dirty looks. We all seem to attract attention. This was the first time the two of them have performed together in twelve years. I want to see Buskin’s new band Modern Man. They are as funny as DVN, high praise indeed. We kept commenting on their bass player, he looked like he borrowed his shirt from Murray. Maybe it’s a bass player thing.
After the show we went over to talk to Christine. Gella was being shy and not walking over but Christine called her to join us. Leah gave Christine a demo CD. You have to love that about Christine, she is always looking to help new artists. She really is the fairy godmother of folk music.
The show ran long so we didn’t have too much time to talk, there is a second show. Gella then went to meet her father and Leah and I went to Pomme Frites for their great Belgian style fries. We got back to Leah’s aunt after midnight. It didn’t help that we got stuck behind fire engines on the way to the tunnel and couldn’t move for quite some time. We never did see the fire or figure out what was going on.
All in all it was a pretty good day. As Met announcer Howie Rose says after a great play, “Put a circle around that one.”
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile 2003-01-26
