Driving up to New York City with Heather to perform at John Platt’s “On Your Radar” : the first of his programs to be back “in person” since March of 2020, the first one since then not produced online by me, and weirdly 10 years to the day since the last time we performed there.
It’s good to be out, driving, though it’s taken time for me to relax into it. Partners and clients and venues and everyone seems to need a piece of my brain today, but I’ve only got so much to give. They can be grumpy with one another, or they can face down whining folkies without me for a bit. Today it’s just about mileage, a short set, and more mileage. Today is time and space and volume to boot.
Oh – and finding a place to park, I guess.
I shouldn’t say it out loud – but even I-95 is treating us well. The drive’s been easy (once we got away from home) and even the one rest stop was pleasant. The masking paranoias mostly salved by kind of a sparse population at the rest stop, most of which were masked. A welcome surprise especially as more and more stories trickle in of friends who’ve been “oh so careful” testing positive with COVID. A volunteer from a recent show… positive. A friend from high school… positive… Dave Eisner positive, quite sick for a while, now foggy but mostly recovered.
The narrow, cramped streets give us a slow enough pace… … to appreciate the art… and then it turns out that a ferris wheel is blocking the road in front of us. Glad we left PLENTY of time to get to the show…
The unreality of Living through something that still seems unreal. It’s like the entire nation is STILL staring up in disbelief at the incoming kaiju foot… and a lot of us have shuffled to the side but can’t believe it enough to keep on running.
Yeah, I don’t even know what that metaphor means.
Heather’s right – there’s a feeling of ineffable lightness as the miles mount, as if leaving Baltimore is leaving the world and all its problems behind. We know there’s no truth in that. If anything, driving to New York is further into harm’s way except that the community we’re visiting takes that giant kaiju foot quite seriously. I’ll be asked for my proof of vaccination and masks will be required. Hell, just the idea that we’re taking it seriously is a huge weight off my mind.
I don’t enjoy wearing a mask. I don’t enjoy the feeling of THREAT. But all of that I appreciate more than the constant feeling of friction of thinking “THIS person’s glaring at me because I’m wearing a mask…”
Sheesh. I can’t even write a couple of paragraphs without lapsing back into thinking about the pandemic (should that be capital ‘p’ or not?!). I just want to watch the highway go by pretending like there’s distance betwixt me and the world.
Below, photographs from Heather performing at Rockwood Music Hall as part of the very first back-and-in-person John Platt’s On Your Radar Show – fantastic night – though tiny, cramped, and the first time I’ve worn a mask quite THAT long in quite some time… As above, I was comforted by the fact that New York seems to take it all seriously, and watching the big door guy examining vax cards and the New York vaccination app made me feel better about what we were doing….
