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 09, 2003 - 11:55 a.m.
I’m struggling to get this started and I don’t know why. That usually happens when I didn’t do anything interesting. Last night I went to see Black 47 at Connolly’s with Melissa. The show was at 10:30 so I had lots of time to kill before I went. I ate a late dinner at Popeye’s (no comments from the peanut gallery). Then I went down to the East village. My first stop was the Strand. I haven’t been book shopping in a long time. I got another Discworld book, The Fifth Elephant and Sabatini’s Scaramouche. I’ve wanted to read that for years. I am such a sucker for historical novels and swashbucklers. I started reading it on the train and I’m hooked.
I went CD shopping but resisted buying anything. The new Alice Peacock album dwas calling to me at $5.00 but I resisted. I was only going to buy some classic albums that I have on vinyl but not on CD. I was specifically looking for Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
By the time I was finished with that I headed uptown to Connolly’s. I thought I remembered it being on 45th street but when I checked in the Press it was listed on 47th street. I got there and didn’t see where they’d be playing. I asked and was told that I was at the wrong Connolly’s, the right one is on 45th ST. The press got it wrong. I waited for Melissa to show up and when she did I found out that she went to 45th street but on the east side where the one I went to was. The right one is on the West Side. It was a real comedy of errors. We aren’t sure what happened, either I said 45th street or I mentioned that I thought it was on 45th till I saw in the paper that it was 47th street. Whatever it is it wasn’t that long a walk and we made it to the right one in time.
The play was a lot less grungy than I thought it would be. The crowed was too. I thought it would be a bunch of drunken frat boys. I was talking to the guy at the door we told him how the Press got the address wrong. He said that we were lucky that some people see listings and travel to New York to see Black 47 and that come on a week they aren’t playing.
After we checked our coats I ran into Heather, Phyllis, and Frank. I thought I would see them there. They are my New York Irish music friends. Heather told me that they usually go on at 11 and play till 1:15. That was great except that my train leaves at 1:21 and the next one doesn’t leave till 3:21. As she said, it was Black 47 at Connolly’s so it’s worth it. I guess I should mention that this is their regular Saturday night gig. Unless they are on tour that’s where they’ll be on Saturday night.
The show was great. It was longer than the other shows I’ve seen by then. They did a more varied set then I’ve seen them do. They were less a Black 47 cover band. They did do all their hits except for 40 Shades of Blue. The crowd had a different dynamic than I’m used to. We were up front and people didn’t push forward which was nice but people kept walking back and forth the whole show. They’d flit back and forth between different groups of friends.
Black 47 are rockers but I’d love to see them at FRFF. I can see all the people on the hill singing Three Little Birds and Rockin’ the Bronx along with Larry Kerwin. You can really see how much he loves performing. He feed off the music and the crowd and the crowd feeds off him. For the finally they did Like a Rolling Stone so of course Melissa and I thought of Ally McBeal. I sang it during the chorus.
The show ended around 1 and figured it was too late to make my train. I walked Melissa over to Broadway where she caught a cab. I then realized that if I took a cab I could still make my train. I was lucky enough to find one fast and actually caught the train with time to spare.
I am going to have to do this again. If you want to join me let me know. They do play most Saturday nights.
So often I plan on writing things but when I come down to it I don’t because it sounds pretentious or sanctimonious. I know lots of you are thinking, “You always sound pretentious and sanctimonious.” Believe me I could be a lot worse. It’s hard to resist though. There are times when I see things so clearly and want everyone too see what I see. I’ve always said it’s a good thing I’m not religious or I’d be the world’s most annoying preacher. Anyway I’m resisting now. Just put on a CD by Black 47, or the Kennedys, or EFO, or Bob Marley, or the high energy artist of your choice and you’ll get the message.
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 09, 2003
