Day Before Thanksgiving
On my way to the Music Under New York spot at the 59th street & Lexington subway station I ran into Frankie, playing guitar, singing and whistling on the N/R/W platform. He told me that he was at the 96th street station this morning, then went to Times Square to use the bathroom (the only one in the subway!), then came to the 59th street station. He wanted to set up further down the platform, but a Chinese air-hoo player was there. Frankie was surprised to find him there because the Chinese player has never been in this station before.
A man in shiney shoes stood in front of me, pretending to be a dancer annimated by the sound of the saw.
I could hear the sound of the Salvation Army bell-ringer’s bell even though he was on the street and I was down in the subway. The sound of this little bell sure carries far!
Shogo, the Japanese guitar player who is always dressed in black, said hello as he passed by me with his performance gear.
Musical saw joke of the day:
A guy who watched me for a while said: “you can saw my tree any day”.
The sanitation lady came by to empty the garbage canisters a few times. I asked her what time she will be done today. She said 4pm. I asked her if she has to work tomorrow – Thanksgiving Day. She said ‘yes’. I said ‘me too’.
At 4pm both her and I were done for the day.
On the train going home Maria Laila Appedole, the lady wearing big green glasses who sings and plays a keyboard into which she has to blow in order to activate it (like a recorder made of a keyboard) on the trains was performing. I asked her if she wants the bag of nuts & raisins some lady gave me today. Maria said yes, so I gave it to her.
The thing that Maria Laila Appedole is playing is called a melodica. I always think of them as “snapping the keyboard off the front of an accordian.”
They sound just awesome with ukulele and bass. A couple summers ago my partner and I were busking at Pike Place Market and we were approached by a melodica player. I played uke, Thad played guittaron (the big, fat mariachi band bass guitar) and the fella played his melodica. Major jazzy and great voices together.
HH
Hi Natalia,
It was great seeing you from across the tracks at 59th Street the other day! You sounded (and looked!) wonderful!!
I hope all is going well with you and your family and you have a lovely holiday!
Best
Zina