When the Traveler meets the Tourists

Day Two:

Well, it was yesterday, but I can say that it was a nice "not too much" kind of day.

Left to Right: me, Jenn, and Aunt Tam

Aunt Tam and I went out and caught Jenn, a friend of hers and began a sort of walking tour of the city. When I was seven years old, my dad took me to the city and showed me the Twin Towers standing tall over the financial district of New York. Since then, I have never even been that far south in Manhattan. I wanted to see Ground Zero, and Tam and Jenn had never even been down there, so I was their excuse to be tourists for a day.

We got the free tickets to the memorial site and went out to walk around Financial. We checked out Battery Park (which is home to the only memory I have as a child from that visit in NYC, and from where I first saw the Twin Towers and Lady Liberty) and scrapped around talking about stuff.

the view of Lady Liberty from my memory

When our entry time slot came in, we headed over to the memorial and got escorted through an airport security style shake-down. Finally, however, we were allowed in.

The design of the memorial and the replacement tower is certainly at a level of some controversy. Personally, I can agree with many people that the tower is rather sub-par in comparison to the towers that once stood. It has a slightly interesting design, but it's nothing special and adds nothing to the sight. The reflecting pools, on the other hand, I really like.
The design is set around the foundations, of course, and although the idea has a bit of an eerie nature to it, I love the fountain pools that kind of cascade forever. It sounds so peaceful and special there, and the feeling of the cool breeze from the water on the warm day was divine.

As I walked around, I dragged my fingers across each name and suddenly something strange came over me. I started trying to go back and to picture these people, feel them, know them across the iron and the time and the tragedy. Who was Mary... Richard... Michael... Dewaine... Timothy... Suzanne... Erica...? I didn't know and never could...or could I? I don't know. I then did something else. I started seeing them as their families and friends and children and parents saw them, like gravestones and funeral flowers and names on a memorial. I closed my eyes and sighed.

For lunch, we ran off to Little Italy and dined at an...okay...Italian restaurant called La Mela. Dinner seems to make it a happenin' joint, but skip it for lunch. Just nothing special.
We did, however, pick up another friend, Heathe, and headed back to the apartment for a brief respite before traipsing off again.

Heathe was the only one of us who had ever walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, so we all went off to do a walking tour of the Bridge and the Brooklyn waterfront promenade.

On the way, I had fun talking and exploring with Jenn. Tammy said that she met her as a bit of a kindred spirit, and I found the same thing. She was funny, determined, and curious, so we hung back and experienced everything while Tammy and Heathe got their New York march on. The Bridge was nice if crowded and the promenade was lovely. I'd have to say that if ever I lived in New York, I think I would choose Brooklyn as my neighborhood. It may be happenin' in Manhattan, but it is beautiful in Brooklyn.

We came back totally worn out from the walk and had dinner at 7A before saluting one another and heading home.

I'm Jonathon and this is my life.

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Where the Tourist meets the Traveler

Start spreading the news...
...I'm gonna be a part of it!

YES I finally made it to New York City Saturday night, midnight. I'm now staying on the couch in my aunt's apartment in Manhattan.

So yesterday was our first day out and about touring. She tells me that my visits are the some of the only times that she really goes out to see and tour the city, so she seems to tolerate my staying over! XD Just kidding of course; I love my Aunt Tammy.
She is an accountant by trade, and she is working for a company called The Gilt Group. It's a start up company (a few years now or so?) so tells me about the cool, innovative, and really fun and exciting work environment that goes along with the huge work load of getting the company on its feet. Well, that's New York for you: fast-paced, busy, but always exciting.

That morning, we got up at a glorious 11:00am and went out for breakfast at The Good Stuff Diner. Three pancakes covered in strawberry slices and a whole plate of scrambled eggs smothered in cheese later, we were off again to the day's first activity: Broadway.

Winter Garden Theatre where we saw Mamma Mia!

I suppose that as a person who has been to the Big Apple before on one occasion or another and as a bit of a connoisseur of the arts (or something like that), it is some kind of failure on my part that I have never been to Broadway. Oh well, my occasional failure as a tourist is not something that I regret.

I was hoping hard to see Phantom, but considering the impossibility of that, I gave her a list of a few other big names that I was hoping to see and was glad to have tickets to Mamma Mia!.

our seat, seventh row

You don't have to know or like the show to at least level with me on being glad to see it. It was funny, exciting, colorful, loud, musical, and wild. I have to say, I could dig it. ABBA has always been a band I can appreciate, so it was a really fun show, and the performance was spectacular. Broadway, you have not let me down.


That afternoon, we headed back into the subway and HopStopped a way across the river into Brooklyn for something that I had found on Village Voice called the New Music Bake Sale. We saw that there was music and baked goods and community and thought that it sounded nice.

On entering, we turned down the alcohol option and went in to find a place filled with tables and people  and bake sale items. There were cakes, pies, cookies of all kinds and shapes, French pastries, cookie dough brownies, cheese cake-filled strawberries, turkey chocolate chili, macaroons, rice krispie treats, brownies, bacon cupcakes, and so much more, all for sale.

view over the top of the Bake Sale tables

The Bake Sale was essentially a kind of promotion social for these musicians, so everybody was talking about their work or passing out fliers or telling you about stuff. Bands from all over the area had a table each that they had filled with merchandise, decorations, and baked goodies that they had made, all to help support and promote themselves. There were albums and posters and shirts for sale and everything was centered around this theater stage so that you could hear some of the people perform every hour on the hour.

New Music as defined to me by one of the musicians is essentially a reinvented music style, written by contemporary composers. To my understanding? It is experimental sound.

While we munched on brownie and cookies and sat in the balcony, we listened to Janus Trio, Sideband, Concert Black, Sweat Lodge, Joey Molinaro, and Newspeak, and all of them brought something different to the table.

Janus Trio was a band with a harp, a viola, and a flute that...played...we think? There was this weird cacophony of sounds and plucking and the whole thing seemed so eclectic (we also had just arrived) so I thought that they might have just been tuning or warming up. But after a while of this, they put away their instruments and thanked the applause.
It was so...strange and uncertain, but then again we had only just gotten there, so we hadn't quite scoped out the place just yet. And besides, Janus were the ones who brought the cookie dough brownies and cheese cake strawberries, so any uncertainty was quickly overlooked.

Sideband and their musical pods

Sideband was a laptop orchestra. Everyone sat in a semicircle with Macbooks in their lap and a little sci-fi speaker pod machine thing sitting in front of them, and they played their entire number on the laptop keys, pumping electronic sounds and mixes out of the little "instruments" at their feet. I have heard of laptop orchestras, so I was on board with the whole scene.
Here's a link to a video of that song: "Beepsch"

Anyway, the more interesting thing was the second song when they brought out these joystick style machines that were even more alien. The had two strings that the musicians pulled from the little box, and the way that they moved the strings affected the sounds that the box made. I can't describe it, so I have a video for you on that one. Be warned though, it's a little long. You can't really see it very well due to the poor quality, but they are holding the end of a string from their box in each hand as they move.

Next, this group called Exapno brought out three different little bands and artists. Exapno is like a big workshop in the Brooklyn area that people can use as a work space and community for whatever they want. It's kind of like a Gold's Gym for everyone else. Musicians, artists, writers, you get the idea.

Concert Black's most interesting section was the percussion line. The drummer set out a bass drum with a pedal and a xylophone on a big folding table, and that was as conventional as it got. He was bringing out pie tins and cooking pots attached to foot pedals, empty glass jars and bottles, a shot glass, a pewter lawn ornament, dishes, ceramic tiles, wood blocks, a dinner bell, whatever you can imagine, he had it. With four little hammers (two in each hand) he beat out the rhythm to the songs on his little collection. Here's a link to their video while they play their song "Mvt 1 from RE: You better find those blue pills if you plan on giving her more than lip service". We were mostly watching to see him.
Sweat Lodge came out with two electric guitars, a flute, and a pianist and did an interesting number of their own.
Joey Molinaro (probably my personal favorite) came sawing on a violin and stomping out all of his percussion with his feet. He was his own one-man-band, and had a really nice thing going on.

I talked to Joey later and found him to be really amicable and friendly. I had been watching him get set up and he seemed really shy and introverted, so I was talking to someone from Exapno who introduced us and we hit it off immediately just talking about things.

Almost everyone from the Bake Sale was like that, very open and friendly and interested. They asked us if we played, where we were from, talked about their music, asked us about us and we talked about cool things going on, interests, and just whatever. They were all so excited and just simply earnest and open - that's something you don't get often in New York City.

I really enjoyed hanging out with everyone and talking about stuff. New Music isn't exactly my scene, but I can appreciate the creativity, and sometimes you strike gold in the midst. Like Joey, in my opinion, and a few other people who were working on some neat projects. Things like a word collection and a dance meets music interactive project and others. They were all really kind and I enjoyed the baked goods as well.

We listened to an interesting slam poetry meets the Peanut's orchestra number from Newspeak and decided it was getting late. The Bake Sale would last until midnight, but it would take us a while to get home. We made one last little sweep around and picked up some more brownies from Janus, then headed out.

Aunt Tammy told me later that day I had earned cred on both sides of the spectrum: That afternoon I got tourist cred on Broadway and that evening I got street cred at the New Music scene.

I'm Jonathon and this is my life.



http://www.icareifyoulisten.com/
https://www.newmusicusa.org/
http://www.janustrio.org/
http://sidebandband.com/
http://soundcloud.com/concertblack
http://sweatlodgemusic.org/
http://joeymolinaro.com/
http://newspeakmusic.org/

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An Intimate Show

Happy Spring Break!

Well, at least to me and the rest of the university - that famous and infamous week off of classes has finally begun. I'm extremely ready for it.

This year for Spring Break, I'm off to visit my aunts and uncles in the Northeast. I'm flying to New York City to stay with my Aunt Tammy and her beaux John and to visit my Uncle Lee. Then midweek I am taking a train down to Connecticutt to stay with my Uncle Dan, Aunt Rachel, and little cousins until Sunday. I haven't seen Aunt Tammy in  maybe a year and a half and haven't seen Aunt Rachel since Thanksgiving two years ago, so it's a good opportunity to drop in and say hello.

Today, due to some booking and other issues, will just be a commute day for me, so my flight leaves later tonight for La Guardia. I'm hanging out at the airport writing to you right now, but that is boring.
Let me instead take you back momentarily to last night for a little bit more interesting of a story...



I had a full, free night before I had to leave and (what I thought would be) an early flight the next morning, so I had already left the university and was staying in Birmingham. I didn't want to waste the opportunity though - surely there was something cool and fun to do in town.

So I stumbled upon a concert thing downtown. It said that Matthew Perryman Jones and Hannah Miller were playing at The Dark Room. It didn't cost much, so I decided I would go.

I called the venue's phone number and got the personal voice mail of someone named Caleb. Part of me wanted to believe that it was a wrong number, but I figured that maybe he was the manager or something. When he called me back, I asked about tickets options and found that there were still spots available. I remember reading 75 people or something like that, so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to be one of seventy-five late arrivals to get tickets, so I asked him to make sure I would get one. I got directions, thanked the gentleman, and headed down.

When I got there, it took a while to find the spot: I was directed to a little appartment building where I had to buzz in to get him to open the front door. After winding my way around the top floor hallways a while, I showed up at the front door to room 509 where a piece of paper told me that I had arrived.
Turned out that the 75 people were the most possible that the venue could hold.

The Dark Room is the name for the converted private penthouse photography studio in the Phoenix Building on 2nd Ave. N and 17th. The studio - A. Bryan Photo Studio - was dark, strung with little lights on strings and lit with tea candles on the tables and in the window sills. Little mason jar candles sat on the tables here and there and the living room floor was spread with cushions and pillows surrounded by the couches and chairs. The refreshments were a fridge full of drinks and a little bowl filled with packets of peanut butter M&M's.
These photos that I got with my cell phone aren't especially great, but I hope that they convey the ambiance.

I believe the correct term is "House Show" but whatever it was, it was relaxed, peaceful, and intimate. Just you and the music. Sit back on the couch or lay down on the pillows on the floor, holding your loved one dear while Matthew and Hannah sing.

Caleb welcoming everybody to the performance.

Hannah Miller, performing her first song of the night

Hannah and Matthew playing together

Hannah Miller

Matthew Perryman Jones

I have never had a nicer music experience. I sat down on the couch while they performed right in front of me. In all truth and honesty, prior to last night, I had not known of either Mr. Jones or Mrs. Miller, but I was very very pleasantly surprised in so many ways.

The candles and little lights set a kind of mood lighting that perfectly suited the singer-song writer style of the two musicians. People chatted and hung out while the house music played and as soon as the artists were ready, conversation quieted and everyone gathered close to hear them play, like school children at story time. It was so personal and close, it made me feel like this is the way that music is supposed to be heard. She wasn't playing for 40,000 others and me. He wasn't making jokes for stadium seating. It was like a talent show at a family reunion. She knew some of the people in the crowd. He was good friends with the couple sitting next to me. They played their hearts out for no one but the twenty/thirty odd people in the room. I won't lie saying that I felt a little bit criminal taking pictures and videos because the whole evening had such a close, special feeling.

Of course, the best part was the sound.

Hannah Miller kicked off the night.

Here's Hannah sitting on the pillows in front of my couch
while Matthew prepared.

Hannah Miller has a perfectly lovely voice, and a warm and friendly guitar playing style. Her songs come from her artist heart and they are about sadness and love and doubters and dreamers. She plays a little with her husband who has a personal music career as well.
She is a nice girl. I talked to her a little in the intermission between her song set and Matthew's. It was just like meeting somebody at a little social event. I enjoyed her company and she told me a little bit about her music career and the time that she has spent as a musician. She seems to really enjoy it, and loves the artistic aspect of it.


I wish I could go on - she was amazing.

I was able to get some videos of a few of her performances, but I thought that this one was the best. This is a song from the EP called Doubters and Dreamers that she is releasing soon. The song has the tagline for the album, but I regret that I have misplaced the actual name of the song. If you want to find out, I think she'd appreciate you looking up her album. Anyway, I thought you guys might appreciate hearing how awesome she sounded from my perspective.

After an intermission, Matthew Perryman Jones stepped across the moat of pillows and into the little stage circle.

I ran into Matthew during intermission and briefly introduced myself. I had been clued in on everything about him by the lady who shared my couch, but having never heard any of his work, I had to awkwardly admit my ignorance. I asked him what kind of music he played and he admitted that he simply didn't know. I really enjoyed my encounter with him though. He was very open and friendly, humble, and a little bit shy and awkward, but with an evidently big heart and a love for life and beauty.

How can I describe his music? You can hear how much he loves it. That I will say.
Later research found that he has done a lot of songs for TV shows like Grey's Anatomy, One Tree Hill,  Kyle XY, and more. There is a simple beauty to his sound. I had two favorite songs of his by the end of the night. My absolute favorite was one that was he wrote for his wife, called "Megan's Song". He said that she had been having trouble sleeping, so he wrote it to try to help her and it was passed down to each of his daughters. I did not record that one and I think that that is better. It was a little bit too specially to be recorded.
However, my other favorite was "Oh Theo". It was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh.
He talks a little bit about it in the introduction to this video, and he says that it's on the EP he is releasing soon...

A little bit after the show, I told him that I decided his music genre is just music.

It was an evening of just listening to music and...people. After the music stopped, Caleb thanked everyone and we hung out. I talked to Matthew about...life?...and had a really pleasant one on one with him. Later, when I was helping them break down and pack up, I met and talked to Hannah's husband as well, about college, careers, family, and what we love to do.
Oh well, guess I'm a bit of of a conversation bug.

I still can't get over how great that felt as a way to just listen and enjoy music. I highly recommend it.

I have to go soon - in a little bit I will be soaring over city lights and tiny toy cars.
Just another step in my adventure. Just what I do.

I'm Jonathon and this is my life.




http://hannahmillermusic.com/
http://mpjmusic.com/
http://birmingham365.org/org/detail/220173011/The_Dark_Room

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Brief Installment

Hello!

This post is a little belated, but it's just a momentary coverage of the past couple of weeks and an update on current events:

I visited my family again this past weekend and spent some good time with them. At last I got to see them play basketball games in the Upward program and I was able to see all three of my little siblings make baskets. Maddie showed me her trophie from the half marathon that she ran a short while ago (placed 2nd in her age group!) and Dad made a specialty steak dinner in honor of my visit.

My parents took the opportunity of my presence to go out and see a movie together, so while they were away, the girls and I took out a toy that they had been putting off until I could see them again. Me being a mechanical engineering major, they felt like saving it until I could give them a hand.

That's right: a little robotic arm!

We broke it open on the dinner table and spent about two hours assembling it. In order to ensure that everything worked properly, I was in charge of most of it, but they were punching out pieces and inserting screws and putting things in places and having a good old time. By the end of the production, Maddie had gotten so proficient at it that I gave her the job of putting together the control box all on her own. I'm pleased to say she did it perfectly. We had fun playing with it and picking up small things and moving them around until it was bedtime.

Here we all are with the finished product! Yes, we are in a restaurant - the picture was taken after the fact.
Maddie is holding the control box that she assembled. Lily was in charge of parts inventory.

Of course, shortly after, we found that the apparently harmless little robot had grown sentient...control was now in its own hand...



AHHHH! It's taken control!

 Hehehe, just kidding =]

In other news, I've been helping working out kinks and plans regarding proms and formals coming up soon. I'm sure you all know by now that I am escort for a few friends to their prom this year. Oh, and  Elaine said yes, by the way. So, just so there's no confusion, let me outline everyone for you:

1. I am escorting a good old friend of mine named Jessica (who goes to a different college now) to her sorority formal on March 30. It is apparently something that only occurs once every four years and it is black tie. Jessica and I go way back, mostly because of our moms, but we are kind of kindred spirits. Besides, I was her date to her junior prom a few years ago. I just hope she remembers how to dance XD
2.  I am taking a dear friend named Rebecca who goes to my church in my hometown to her senior prom on March 31. She and I know one another primarily through her sister, but really I love their whole family.
3. I'm accompanying Elaine to her senior prom on April 14. You all already know that story!

This week I covered a lot of things with Rebecca and finally managed to get my tuxedo sorted. Rebecca is a really delightful person, and like many delightful people she is also humble and a little shy as well. I'm really excited about taking her, and I have her sister's and her mother's blessing. Among Rebecca, her mom, my mom, and me, we have been working out plans for the evening.

She has a beautiful dress, I am told, that has colors of blue and aqua (some of my favorites!) but I haven't seen it yet. She told me that she wanted it to be a surprise, so she and her mother are going to the formal wear store to pick out the colors and design of my vest and tie. Our mothers are also collaborating on the flowers: her corsage and my boutineer. I will be driving her and she has also left me in charge of surprising her with where we will have dinner. For fear of the slight possibility that she might read this, I can't reveal anything, but I think there are some really nice plans in the making... =]

As I said, I am excited, but I really hope that she is much more excited than me. I am sort of a big fan of prom, which is probably rare for a gentleman, but take that as you like. High school was great, and prom for me was a beautiful part of it. That's why I want to do everything I can to try to make sure that Rebecca and Elaine both have really good proms as well. I'd say that it's true that some things just come to some people, but for the most part things are what you make them.

I try to make my life an adventure. What do you make yours?

I'm Jonathon, and this is my life.






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