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.
May 25, 2008 - 2:09 p.m.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to be home now to write this but as I hardly slept last night I decided to stay home. So now you will be rewarded by my insomnia and get to read today’s edition of Wise Madness.
I’m uploading some videos now. Maybe they’ll be done before I finish writing. If not that means more material in my backlog. I also have loads of photos I haven’t edited yet.
Last night I drove out to the University Café at SUNY Stony Brook for the Annual Bob Dylan Birthday Tribute. Did you know that yesterday was Mr. Zimmerman’s natal day? Did you know that I was so affected that I’d call Dylan Mr. Zimmerman and use the phrase “natal day?”
I’m not sure exactly how long this has been going on but I think it started on Dylan’s 60th birthday; That would make this the eighth one. Now I love Dylan, he is my very favorite singer/songwriter. I love The Kennedys, and I love the venue, so how have I never gone to the tribute before? I almost didn’t make this one. I forgot that the place has a presale of tickets and by the time I looked the show was sold out. I asked Pete and Maura if I could merch and they said yes so I was saved and I didn’t have to pay. Two more of their big fans, Jeff and Susan, did the same thing and they helped me with the merch. There was even more reason for me to go. In addition to the Kennedys Pat Wictor was on the bill. As I walked from my car I ran into Pat’s wife Helen. Unfortunately I called her Mary. I am so bad with the names of spouses and significant others. Let me do a quick run down of the ones I have trouble with and we’ll see if that helps.
- Pat – Helen
- John – Sheila
- Jeff (the huge Kennedys fan that plays bridge, not the one that did merch) – Karen
- Laurie – Paul
- Larry - Diana
I actually have no trouble remembering Diana’s name and even read her blog. I just put her in there to give her a scare as she actually reads this. I do often have to correct myself because my tongue wants to say “Dee- anna.” That’s Aubrey’s wife’s name even though she spells it “Diana.” I especially do that with Alan as he is the only other one I know that is friends with both Aubrey and Larry so both will come up in conversation.
Hey this is going pretty well. I’ve written 449 words and haven’t started writing about the concert yet. As I can’t write about concerts that’s a good thing.
The University Café is 41.5 miles (54 minutes) from my house but I consider it a very local show. Why? I don’t have to cross a bridge or pay a toll to get there. That’s a rarity. I apparently say that a lot because when I got there Pete said, “This is a local show for you because you don’t have to cross a bridge.”
I got there early because I was doing merch and I got to really talk to Pete and Maura. I didn’t get a chance to last week; They are two of my favorite people to talk to. I also of course got to talk to Pat and Helen and Charlie Backfish that runs the series. I didn’t know that many people in the audience. The Long Island crowds are a bit parochial. I know quite a few people from the Huntington Folk scene but they won’t travel out to Stony Brook for shows. They consider it a different world. Of course the Men and Women of Folk know no such barriers. Jeff and Susan drove out from Montauk at the very end of Long Island, a two hour drive. Jeff and Karen drove out from New Jersey, their trip was even longer.
Jeff has been to The Budgiedome but he isn’t someone I’ve ever talked to before. It turns out that he grew up about half a mile from me and went to the same middle school, high school, and Hebrew school. It is a small world. He now lives in North Carolina but stays at Montauk for the summer. He and Susan are both college profs. The Kennedys had a didactic merch crew.
The third performer on the bill was Johnny Cuomo. Doesn’t that sound like the name of a lounge singer from the Fifties? So guess what kind of music he mainly sings. Come on guess. No peeking ahead. He sings traditional Irish Music; Cuomo, a fine Irish name. I’m going to see his Irish band play. He taught the Kennedys some Irish chord progressions and guitar licks. You might end up hearing some of it at a Strangelings show.
The show great. How could it not be? It was great musicians playing the greatest songwriter. Johnny and Pete sing in a style very similar to Dylan’s but Maura’s and Pat’s couldn’t be more different. It shows you how great Dylan’s songwriting is that it works anyway. It works on the guitar and harmonica but it also works on Pat’s lap slide blues guitar. So many songs just blew me away. Off the top of my head there was Pat’s rendition of Oxford Town, Pete and Maura’s Chimes of Freedom and the ensemble’s All Along the Watchtower, Like a Rolling Stone, and Mr. Tambourine Man. Johnny was carrying around a mandolin all day but didn’t play it. We were about to give up on getting to hear it when he finally played it on the second encore, Mr. Tambourine Man.
Our seats at the merch table were up front but off the to the side. They were great except that we could hardly see Pat, he was hidden behind the curtain. Helen’s view of him was the best which was fortunate. I got up when I wanted to take pictures of him.
After the show Jeff and Susan (I almost said Alison; a natural mistake as my sisters are Susan and Alison) couldn’t stay long because they had such a long drive home. I stayed around till the end and acted as Pete and Maura’s Sherpa. In other words I brought the merch back to their car. I didn’t notice it when I got there but as often happens they parked right by me. We were directly across the aisle from each other. When we left I felt weird as I was following them. Now that’s acting like a stalker. Of course it was that we were just going the same way.
Maura and Pete (I deliberately changed the order, there is no law that says Pete’s name always comes first) are moving back to the East Village. It might not make economic sense but they loved it too much to stay away.
I was planning on driving up to the Warwick Winery today to see their Dylan festival that the Kennedys are playing at. The thing is it started at noon and I was just too tired to get such an early start. They are playing there again tomorrow. Maybe I’ll go then. I just had an idea. I’ll ask Alison if she wants to go. It is closer to her house than it is mine.
This has nothing to do with this entry but it finished loading so here is the video of Pat singing Thick Skinned Blues at Lois and Greg’s house. The order of their names is canonical because Lois doesn’t like having to deal with adding the possessive to her name. It should be “Greg and Lois’s” but too many people write “Greg and Lois’.”
Whoops I almost forgot to post the video.
Maybe I’ll write about religion tomorrow. Well maybe tonight as if I go to the Dylan fest I have to leave here around 10 AM.
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 May 25, 2008
