This is a day streaked with luck, and painted with fun.
I went out at noon to buy a ticket for a bus trip to Washington, DC for the first segment of the Revenge of Nature Trail to Hell (in 3-D): A Very Appalachian E2 Gathering... OF DOOM! - a Greyhound bus round trip from NYC to Washington costs $84.
In the afternoon, I was shopping for MREs, and I've just received a phone call... It's from the Brooklyn College Excelsior, and I was passed a message from the editor-in-chief that I was offered a job by jazz singer Paul Bernhardt. I called Mr. Bernhardt, and he told me I can work with him on mailing press releases, sending off ads to newspapers, and sorting the mess of e-mail address entries for the electronic mailing list. I told him I'd rather call back when I get back to a good land line that is home.
I've got bad news. The bad news is the prices of MREs are mistyped - they're $5.99 instead of $6.99. - the owner of Kaufman's Army Surplus.
I went back home, unloaded the rations and called Mr. Bernhardt again to discuss the details of work. Okay.. sounds pretty good... I'll probably keep working in the Library Café for the rest of the week... Sure. I was invited to see Paul's show in Arci's Place tonight, and I had to buy film anyways - off to the city I go!
I bought two rolls of Ilford HP5 Plus film for my camera, a copy of Dork Tower and Mary Cleere Haran's Gershwin album The Memory of All That. I also had a plate of herring in the good ol' Café Edison before I went further.
I've never seen the silence that is Arci's Place during a show (Sam Harris was doing his show to an audience of big-name reporters and stars in the Cabaret scene. I waited for an hour or two before Paul and his friends introduced themselves to me.
Mr. Bernhardt's show is great, featuring a three-piece ensemble in front of the afterglow that is the tables decorated with standing used wine glasses and the nonesuch. If I knew more about the songs beforehand, I would love the show even more.
During the show, I noticed a red-headed woman sitting right across me... she looked mightily familiar - and I asked Paul who she is. *It's Mary Cleere Haran!* I introduced myself to Mary, asking if she recalled a conversation we had in the Café Carlyle in March. I told her I bought one of her older albums and a copy of Dork Tower and was freaking surprised to see THE Mary Cleere Haran! Mary told me about her son reading comic books, so I told her to check out Dork Tower. Mary wanted me to send over a copy of my review of her show, and (as of this typing) have already done the deed.
The waitress Danielle, always seeing me as a cool, calm guy ordering a light appetizer before a show, has never seen be broken down into a guy who's shaking and communicating only with the word "Dude!" And Mary left, with the words "I gotta go now, cutie pie." She called me Cutie Pie...