We spent yesterday wandering Warwick, NY before driving the rest of the way to Kristen’s sister’s place in Pleasantville, NY. Warwick, or at least that part of it that we got to explore, seems really beautiful. The weather continues to be absolutely delicious even as my cellphone yammers Catonsville-based warnings about the high temperatures back home. We’ve kept a steady 20 degrees below what it is back home, with “feels-like” temperatures often differing by up to 30 degrees.
The architecture in this part of New York is just beautiful. We’ve seen dozens of houses we just want to move on into and perhaps another two dozen that I want to tuck under my arm and take home with me. I’ve fallen in Love with train stations again as we’ve seen a number of those little village train depots that have been recreated into homes or businesses, shops or realtors – I want to snap one of THOSE up and have the coolest little coffeehouse known to the world – especially since a lot of these are on lines that are no longer used…. But a music venue next to even ACTIVE railroad tracks can work with proper scheduling….
Sigh – enough dreaming. Warwick treated us to awesome burritos, a new favourite hot sauce (Cholula chili lime), an absolutely Lovely little independent book seller (I always try to support – I WASN’T going to buy Dance of Dragons in hard cover but I thought dropping the money there was worthwhile, also bought a book about bugs for Amy) and then finally we wound up at an ice cream shop / coffeehouse. On a Friday night I rarely expect much out of an open mic, but it’s summer, it’s Friday night and it’s an ice cream shop so I figured it was worth the gamble. Very glad I made THAT call…
Caffe ala Mode (I think this is their spelling – they have NO web presence and everyone seems to just make it up every time they write it out) is charming and a FANTASTIC space. Jim, the host, has a marvelous moustache and runs things smoothly in a kind of understated kind of way more appropriate to a place in Texas than in New York State – but his unlike myself, he mostly just gets out of the way and guides the open mic with a gentle touch and a whispered word. By comparison I’m certainly a lot more hands-on.
Up until I saw the news this morning I was full of the elation of a good gig, a fine open mic, and playing guitar in the rain. I was enjoying the personal high of having an instrument that let me sit on the steps in the drizzle as Heather sang so fiercely behind me and the noises that we make rolled out over our audience in Hammondsport, NY. Yesterday was a beautiful drive north, the enthralling discovery of a new-to-us town, hooking up with old friends, eating great food, playing a good show. This morning, the grey and the news of the mass shooting of some 70 people in Colorado puts a palpable pall on our mood.
I don’t know what to make of news like this. I’m morbidly curious, of course. As someone who fantasizes about all sorts of things and who has seen plenty of movies about people who take those fantasies one step further, I have lots of thoughts squirreling around about what was probably going through this guy’s head. Sure enough, the brand of anarchist crazy that I was kind of attributing to his actions, choice of venue and choice of imagery seems to be being held up by the fact that he’s apparently referred to himself as the Joker… chaos for the sake of chaos, harming innocents because you can, sowing destruction because you’ve figured out a way to be effective at it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had one Hell of a soundtrack playing in earbuds underneath the gas mask a la Lethal Weapon 3.
With all the healthy, delicious options for breakfast at the Farmers’ Market, we probably earned a couple of extra minutes in Hell for selecting waffles – but they were SO DELICIOUS I think it’s going to be worth it. We stood in front of the stand extolling the waffles’ virtues until the guy got sick of us and told us to go away. Yum! See?!?! HEALTHY OPTIONS!!! We’re bad rockstars. (at the Farmers’ Market in Pleasantville, NY)
We’re Americans and therefore I imagine we’re going to be very excited about point fingers and figuring who is to blame over the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I imagine that there’s not going to be much to point to.
I’m sure some people will point to gun control, and I think I can get behind the idea that he probably shouldn’t be allowed to own an AR-15 AND a shotgun AND two handguns without being flagged or checked up on in some way…. But any one of these could’ve been disastrous enough and even though I don’t really feel that the least innocuous of them should be legal (the SWAT team standard AR-15 automatic rifle) I have friends that own them and I’m not terribly worried about it.
We spent the weekend in Pleasantville staying with Kristen’s sister and her family. Rob (other Rob) is her husband and often has smiles of mischief on his face. It was Lovely to spend some time with them – even if Other Rob DID give me a vicious case of Diablo IIIism. (last time it was Starcraft II – I SWEAR we don’t book our NY travels to coincide with Blizzard releases!) (see below? He solemnly swears to be up to no good and I THINK he stole some of her popsicle!)
I’m sure some people will point to security – but I don’t want to Live in a world where we have metal detectors to get into a movie theatre or random security checks of suspiciously bulky packages on the streets. I don’t know the entry MO, but I imagine this kid pretty much walked in in SWAT uniform and was thought to be “in costume”. I’d be sad if we Lived in a world where we couldn’t go to our movie premieres in weird costumes because they were deemed threatening or provocative. I’m sure someone will say the movie theatre should’ve spotted him on the way in and called the police, but I bet he was blending in pretty effectively.
And I’m sure some people will point to police response. How did the guy should 70 people in a movie theatre and exit freely to be caught in the parking lot? Well – apparently police response was 90 seconds after the 911 call, so I don’t think anyone can really point a finger there.
I’m sure someone will blame violence in movies – but I don’t feel that should be censored and controls of that should be on behalf of an informed public (and the parents thereof). If the connections to the Joker character hold true I’m sure some people will point fingers at his portrayal in the second Dark Knight movie as being too exciting, effective and romanticized… I thought they were chillingly beautiful and yes, appealing – it made his crazy seem like something I almost wanted to immerse myself in.
But let’s stress ALMOST. Maybe his mom should’ve seen there was a problem. Maybe his neighbours? Maybe the school that he dropped out of? No – not really. The fault comes down to him and him alone and that’s the thing we can probably never truly protect ourselves from.
My heart goes out to the people who have survived this tragedy and to the people who’ve died and to those who have lost someone. I hope they disarm the booby traps at his apartment without any harm to anyone – and I frankly hope the guy fries.
Really? There’s like an election in a couple of months guys. Chill out.
