(June 27, 2012) RALEIGH, NC – I had an entire apartment to myself last night for the first time on the tour. My host, David, was kind enough to stay elsewhere and give me the use of his apartment for two nights. And just like the canoe trip last week, it reminded me how important it is to have a place of your own once in a while.
I stayed up till nearly 3 a.m., which should have been fine because I had no particular agenda today. Unfortunately, one of David’s neighbors started mowing his lawn at 8:30 a.m., so that was it for sleeping. Ah well.
I futzed around for a while, ate some of David and Carrie’s homemade bagels (fantastic!) and then produced tomorrow’s show, featuring drummer Pete Zimmer. This is one of the interviews I recorded back in New York before the tour. I have just two of those left in the can – Brandon Wright and Jerome Sabbagh, both of which will be posted in the next couple weeks.
In the middle of the morning I received a nice email from a reporter at the Opelika-Auburn News, asking for an interview about my tour. I’ll be in Auburn on Friday and Saturday. I have a poetry reading there on Friday at 7 p.m. at The Gnu’s Room and then I’ll be interviewed at the same place, same time the next night. There’ll be live music on Saturday, too, including three settings of my poems done by Patrick McCurry. The reporter called me a little later to move our interview to tomorrow. Apparently some news broke that she needed to cover. Can’t imagine what could be more newsworthy than a jazz hobo and wandering poet.
(Aside: I’m writing the first part of this diary while listening to a 2-hour celebration of Woody Guthrie courtesy of American Routes. You can stream the show here. This country has such a tradition of wanderers and hobos and tellers of stories. In my own tiny little way, I’m thrilled to be a part of that lineage. And I’m not being falsely modest when I say “tiny†– what I’ve done can’t compare to Studs Terkel or Woody Guthrie or the Lomaxes, for example. But I hope to get to that level someday.)
When the tour started, I told myself that I wanted to reinvigorate my daily meditation practice, which had slipped a bit during my final few weeks in Brooklyn as things unraveled there. I also wanted to start doing some sit-ups and push-ups each morning so I could take off some of the weight I gained over the past few months. It’s definitely possible to be a vegan and still put on pounds. I’m quite overweight for my height and I just don’t feel as healthy or full of energy as I’d like.
Well, I started out on the tour doing my daily routine of sit-ups, push-ups and meditating. I think I made it as far as the second stop on the tour (State College, PA) before I stopped. Since then, I’ve maybe meditated once or twice at the most and exercised once or twice, too. Other than walking. I’ve done a ton of walking, often carrying a heavy backpack. And I canoed seven miles. But that’s it.
One of the difficulties I’ve had is actually finding a quiet, private space in which to do those things. Particularly meditation. But that’s mostly an excuse. If I can sleep somewhere, I can also meditate there. And I could always get up early enough in the morning to have quiet before other people are up and around.
This morning, aided by having my own place, I meditated and exercised. I truly do hope to keep this going. I don’t feel particularly good about my physical self, and meditation really helps my mental state.
After all that was finished, I walked over to Carrie’s house to spend time with Carrie and David. We ate more of the yummy pasta with lamb’s quarters (not what you think) from last night, and I also had a yummy blackberry galette they’d made.
Then David and I took a walking tour of Raleigh’s downtown. I have to say, it leaves a lot to be desired. There are still some older buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but for the most part downtown Raleigh has that soulless, dead beige architecture endemic to so many modern American cities. No character at all. It looks like the whole downtown came in a kit. It’s really too bad. And it makes me appreciate the character of cities like New York that still feel like individual places.
One interesting note: A company called Empire Property owns and controls most of downtown Raleigh. According to David, the founder of Empire was the son or grandson (I think) of Mao Zedong’s personal physician, which is where the money came from to start the company. David said Empire started buying up property in downtown Raleigh when no one at all was buying downtown. He gave them credit for some of Raleigh’s revival. They’re now sitting on a lot of expensive property. On some blocks, if you leave the coffee shop and walk down the street to the restaurant or across the street to the offices, you’ll never leave property owned by Empire. The best part of all? Apparently on the top floor of Empire’s headquarters there are enormous portraits of Mao. Irony, anyone? In fact, I thought I detected a bit of the Cultural Revolution in the logo of this coffee shop, also owned by Empire:
We walked all over downtown, some of which was deserted (near the convention center) and some of which had a moderate number of people moving around and eating and such (near the legislative building). One of the best sculptures I saw was this one, titled “Presidents North Carolina Has Given The Nation†–
The three presidents are Polk, Jackson and Andrew Johnson. I’ve got to give the state credit for celebrating those three. What a trio of criminals and incompetents. Oy.
We also encountered a soldier at the memorial for fallen soldiers. I asked him if I could take his picture while he looked at the memorial, and he agreed. I wish we also erected monuments to peace activists and environmental activists and others who are working to make the world a better, less violent place.
A cool moment: I wanted to buy postcards as I’ve been doing in every town to send to donors to the tour. (You can donate here.) I walked into the North Carolina Museum of History just after they locked up the gift shop for the night. But the workers inside were kind enough to reopen it and sell me postcards. So if you get a postcard from Raleigh, you have them to thank.
Earlier in the day David had been lamenting the lack of street musicians in downtown Raleigh. Then, behind the science museum, we found Lily:
We tried to go see the Flanders art gallery, but it was closed. I did get to see the great yarn-bombed facade of the building, courtesy of Olek, who is, I’ve been told, the Banksy of the yarn world.
Instead we went to the Contemporary Art Museum. It was nice but didn’t blow me away.
Then we walked home. I got some work done, then met up with David and Carrie for some cheap Chinese food at Carrie’s place. I had planned to go hear Carl Testa play in Chapel Hill, but I’m just too tired and so I’m going to bed. I have to get up at 5 a.m. to catch the bus to Atlanta. Sorry, Carl!
Tomorrow I’m going to a Braves game. I’ll be watching from the organ booth with Matthew Kaminski, the organist for the Atlanta Braves. Friday and Saturday I’ll be in Auburn, AL. I’m reading poetry on Friday and talking about the tour on Saturday. Both nights at 7 p.m. at The Gnu’s Room in Auburn.
(If you’d like to support my tour, you can make a one-time donation and get great thank-you gifts HERE. If you’d like to become a member of The Jazz Session and make recurring monthly or yearly payments, you can do that HERE.)
I’ll leave you with this photo of a career summed up in one sign:
