(July 16, 2012) NEW YORK CITY — The trick to writing a public diary is figuring out how much to tell y’all so you’ll be able to follow along with what’s happening, while not (a) revealing more than I should about my private life or (b) turning this into an open-air confessional. I mean, (b) is what my poetry’s for, right?
I’ve been saying for the past few days that I expected this brief visit to New York to clear up some major questions I had about my personal life. I wasn’t wrong. In the past 48 hours I’ve figured out that I want to come back to NYC after the tour, and I’ve also defined or redefined two major relationships in my life in ways that were both helpful and painful. Those three outcomes will help me plan what happens next, but I can’t say I’m completely thrilled with the way they turned out.
That said, I also feel like I’m getting a better handle on what I’m doing right now. This tour (the part that is ending now and the part yet to come) is stripping away so much of the excess detail and bringing me back to the core of who I am and what I’m about. You’d think at 38, with two children and about a dozen careers behind me, I’d have a fairly clear picture already. You’d be wrong.
I often feel that everyone around me has figured something out and I haven’t. I look around at the people in my life and think they’ve learned how to be happy in their current situation in a way that I never have. I don’t mean they’ve settled for what they’ve got, nor do I believe they live problem-free lives of all-day bliss. I just mean that most of the folks I know appear to be reasonably well adjusted to what’s actually happening. That’s something I’m working hard to achieve in my own life. Meditation is one technique I use. Close observation (through poetry or photos or this diary) is another.
So now I’m at a place in my life where I’m faced with one “Hobson’s choice” after another. Frankly, that lack of choice has been useful in pushing me out onto the road and in defining, at least for now, some sort of path to follow. And so for the moment I’m going to just go with what presents itself and see where I end up. More about that later.
/ / /
Meanwhile, I saw two wonderful bands tonight, neither of which I’d heard of. My pal Daryl Shawn invited me to go to Galapagos Art Space with him. It was my first time there and I was stunned by what I saw when I walked inside. It’s gorgeous! The floor is a walkway through a pond to platforms with tables. Apparently the building is very green, which is cool.
The first band was Loop 2.4.3, a percussion duo. That’s a hilariously incomplete description of the band. Thomas Kozumplik and Lorne Watson made a crazy amount of music on dozens of drums and also vibes, piano, voice, loops and samples. The music alternated between achingly beautiful and thrillingly polyrhythmic. And I loved every minute of it. They were joined by very talented guests for a couple tunes, too, although to my ear the duo music best showcased their skills. The last piece they played really tickled my Phil Collins/Chester Thompson bone, reminding me of their classic drum duets from the 80s and 90s. I’m going to buy Loop 2.4.3’s new album, American Dreamland. If you’d like to do the same, go here.
The second band was Clogs, a quartet that combined classical counterpoint and folk lyricism with the open-space sound of bands like Oregon. (They were helped on the latter count by having a bassoonist as one of the lead voices.) Violist/pianist/singer Padma Newsome’s songwriting was unlike any I’ve heard, with each song even more beautiful than the last. But I’m too in love with this music to describe it. So go buy their records and listen for yourself. I also wrote a poem inspired by one of Newsome’s songs which included the idea of a Hobson’s choice. You can read the poem here.
Tomorrow is my last full day in New York. Then I’ll be in State College, PA, for a month to visit my kids before heading west on the second part of the tour.
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