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.
February 19, 2008 - 5:27 p.m.
I had a fun and busy time last night. My first stop was Rockwood Music Hall. I went there to see Eva Hillered and Jess Klein. I got there a bit early and was rewarded by discovering the lovely and talented Rachel Goodrich. She has been duly invited to The Budgiedome.
I had never seen Eva before but Jess recommended her. It was a good recommendation. When she started her set I was the only one there but people started coming in right away. I took some nice pictures but accidentally erased them. I blame the camera. I took a video that I tried to erase. I was given the options "erase frame?" and "erase all frames" I wanted the entire video erased so I chose all frames. It erased everything on the camera. I'm sorry a video is not a frame. This is probably the fault of a non-native English speaker creating the menu options. Speaking of non-native English speakers Eva is Swedish. She speaks English perfectly but with an accent. When she sings the accent disappears. Why is that? She compares herself to Emmylou Harris and that's a good description. I'm not saying she's as good as the incomparable Emmylou but that's her style. She's worth checking out. I wanted to buy a CD from her but I didn't have any cash and she didn't take credit cards. When she found that out she just gave me one. Those socialist Swedes just don't get capitalism. She's going to the National Folk Alliance in Memphis. Anthony and The Kennedys will be there too. I think I might give them money to give her. I love freebies but this just seemed too generous.
I have seen Jess a number of times but was never a fan till I saw her at SMAF last year. After last night's performance I'm a bigger fan. Part of it is her hitting her stride and finding her style as a performer. Part of it might be me being more open to her other work after being blown away by her torch songs. Those are acetylene torches; they are hot. I am having trouble uploading a video I took of hers. If I get it uploaded (I first wrote "get it up" but in this context that is way too suggestive) I'll post it in this entry. If not I'll figure out a way to get it online and post it another time.
I did take pictures of the beautiful Ms. Klein. Here's the slideshow of them.
The video is going to take forever to upload. I can't decide if I should just insert it in my next entry or wait to post this one. I think I'll wait. As a matter of fact I'm going to eat my brunch then come back here and see how it is doing.
I was able to get it up on Google videos but not YouTube. I don't know why. In any event here it is. Now don't play it if you are involved in the same kind of bet that they made on Seinfeld or are trying to quit smoking cigarettes, you'll want afterwards.
Anybody know the title of the song?
After the show I asked Jenn and Eva I invited them to come up to Cast Party at Birdland to perform some more. They said they might but they didn't. How do I know? Because that was where I went.
Cast Party is an open mic centered around the Broadway and Cabaret communities but is open to all kinds of performers. It is usually hosted by Jim Caruso but last night Christine Lavin subbed for him. That is why I was there; she invited me. I have to find out how they keep the quality do high. Most of the performers are either professionals or of professional quality. There are a few friends of mine that I'd love to see do it. The gimmick is that the order of performance is pretty much random. It is a three-hour show and when your name is called you have to go right up on stage. You have a minute to give the accompanists on piano and stand up bass your music and discuss what they are supposed to do and then you sing.
When I got there I wasn't sure if I would be on the guest list but I was. There was a bit of a problem because Chris always gets my last name wrong. My email is Gordonlew so she thinks my last name is Lewis. That's my middle name. When I first went online I wasn't sure about the wisdom of using my full name in my email address. The hostess believed me so there really wasn't a problem. Chris also reserved me a seat at the table of her friend Russian Michael. He is Russian and has a long unpronounceable last name thus the moniker. She has a song about him on her last album, Happy Dance of the Xenophobe. He is definitely a character. Just to put things in perspective he asked me why I was so quiet. That was said without irony. Compared to him I am quiet and reserved.
When I got to the table before I could introduce myself he said, "You must be the genius!" Christine apparently gave me something of a buildup.
I have to thank Chris for putting me at that table, It was Michael, and me, and beautiful talented women. All of them were either singers or actresses or both. I think I actually remember everyone's name. Let me see if I can do that. Going clockwise around the table starting at my left there was; Katie, Heather, Christine, Michael, Michaela (sp?), Allison Wonderland (yes that's her real name), and Jenny. Wow when was the last time i was introduced to seven people and remembered all their names the next day? Everyone at the table performed other than Katie and Michael. No I did not forget to list myself. I did perform but that's jumping ahead. On no, I just remembered there was one other person there and I forgot his name. He didn't sit at the table long and I hardly spoke to him. I really enjoyed his performance though. I'm going to cheat and find his name. I couldn't. Oh well, He did a really campy version of one of the songs from Annie complete with tap dance. Belay that I just found his name. His real name is Ben Rausch, but he performed in character as Horace Vanderhors.
The quality of the performers was amazing, like no other open mic I've ever been to. One of the reasons is that Jim doesn't let them do ballad after ballad and Christine enforced the rule. One act was a duo. They decided that meant they got two songs, each taking a lead on one of them. They were both ballads. The next person up was Allison Wonderland. Chris asked her if her song was a ballad and she said "yes." Chris told her to sit down and come back if she came up with something else to do. She didn't have the music for it but she did a rousing, jazz rendition of John Brown's Body. Give her points for talent, adaptability, and nerve.
There were some big names in the audience, Jenna Russell who play Dot in the current production of Sunday in the Park with George and Steven Schwartz the composer of Godspell, Pippin, Children of Eden, and Wicked. Leah don't be jealous.
The backgrounds of the performers were as diverse as their music. There was 14-year-old Haden who just flew in from San Francisco. When Chris said that somebody shouted out, "Do her parents know?" Chris assured them that they were with her. There were also lawyers, cabaret performers (including Christine from my table), an opera singer (Jenny from my table), an understudy for Elphaba in Wicked, and one of the waitresses. Oh yes, Christine Lavin did a song with a little help from me. No not Sensitive New Age Guys. It was her new Mind Reading song. She sang it and I read the minds of the people in the audience. Everyone has to pick a number. Then Chris told them to do some simple arithmetic with it. Then they think of the letter that corresponds to that number A=1, B=2, C=3, etc. Then they have to think of an animal that people keep as a pet that starts with that letter. Then they have to think of a state that begins with the same letter as the last letter of name of the animal. Then I told everyone they were thinking of a dog in Georgia! They gasped at my miraculous powers. She keeps changing the bit so if you see her you'll probably be thinking of something else.
I knew I was going to do this but I didn't know I was going to go up on stage with her. I thought it would be from my seat. I'm glad I decided to dress night and combed my hair.
I had so much fun but the timing was tight at the end. The show was supposed to end at 1:00 AM and my train leaves at 1:19. The one after that is at 3:19. Birdland is 12 blocks from Penn Station and I walk a block a minute and it takes about a minute to get from the entrance of Penn to my train. I've timed myself many times. The show went a bit over. I missed the very end but still didn't get out of there till 1:06. That meant I would get there exactly as the train was leaving. I walked as fast as I could and boarded the train with four whole minutes to spare. It's good to know that I can do that if I have to.
There was one real downside to my rushing out. I really taken with one of the women I was talking to. I was going to ask for her number but as the end of the evening neared there was almost no time between acts when we could talk. Then she got up from the table just before I had to leave. I didn't get to ask her. As Christine says in song, "I let the moment slip away." I emailed Chris and she doesn’t have any contact info on her. She suggested that I start going to Cast Party till I find her. I won't be able to stay to the end when I teach the next day, as I didn't get home till 2AM. I don't mind getting home at 1:00 so I could stay for the first two hours. I have never done anything like that before. It strikes me as very Seinfeld.
Oh yes. Today is my sister birthday. Happy Birthday Sue! See I remembered. I'll call you later.
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 February 19, 2008
