The Fab Faux & John Lennon at 70

I never go in for tribute bands. I figure that I either saw the real deal back in the day or I didn’t. The Fab Faux is an exception. They are a Beatles tribute band but they are in a class by themselves. They make absolutely no attempt to dress like or act like the Beatles, however, they do just an incredible job of recreating the music even the later terribly complicated songs that the Beatles themselves acknowledged could never be performed live. No wigs, no collarless jackets, no Sergeant Pepper’s uniforms. Just the music for these guys. The occasion for this performance was what would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday and they were performing John Lennon solo material along with Beatles’ tracks that he wrote and sang.

We heard of this show back in the spring from a musician friend of ours and we just had to go for it. It seemed like a good way to celebrate and to do so in the city that he loved so much. The bonus was that the show was at Radio City Music Hall, a beautiful theater from the 1930s that was last restored about ten years ago. Just walking into the lobby will take your breath away. Plus it is just around the corner from our place. The theater does not have a bad seat, they all have great line of sight and it feels much more intimate than you would think possible in a 6,000 seat venue. I need to come back one day and just take the tour as this theater warrants its own post.

The show started right on time with a surprising track, “Tomorrow Never Knows”. I was thinking of Lennon performing these songs and was struck with an intense sadness at first but a few more songs into the show that was pushed aside by the joy of the music. The rest of concert was pure fun and amazement as these ace musicians took on any and all tracks regardless of the complexity of replicating studio tracks that were overdubbed, multi-tracked, and even had backward loops. That and they simply played a lot of songs. The songs were in no order at all going back and forth from solo to group and covering nearly every album. At times it was just the five group members and other times they would add different combinations of stringed instruments, horns, and a small chorus. They had two drum kits with the bass drums made to look like Lennon’s trademark wire rim glasses. I particularly enjoyed the songs that used both kits at once.

They took one short break which was filled by the reunited Quarrymen. This was Lennon’s first group that eventually included Paul and George and evolved into the Beatles. They performed “Maggie May”, that Lennon revived for “Let It Be”, and one other song before the Fab Faux came back.

Here is the song list as best I can remember and not in this order:

Tomorrow Never Knows
Working Class Hero
Mother
I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
No Reply
Watching The Wheels
Yer Blues
Power To The People
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
In My Life
Come Together
Nowhere Man
Across The Universe
Because
Strawberry Fields Forever
I’m A Loser
You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
Norwegian Wood
Cold Turkey
Rain
Instant Karma!
Imagine
If I Fell
I Am The Walrus
Help!
You’re Gonna Lose That Girl
Revolution
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Jealous Guy
All You Need Is Love
Mind Games
I Feel Fine
A Day In The Life
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
Tomorrow Never Knows
Glass Onion

There may be some I forgot and I may have put one or two on the list that weren’t performed.
Here are a couple of videos from the show (not mine):

If you get this by email the videos don't show up and you need to click on the post title and watch them there.

Ninth Visitor

Last weekend we had our first visitor from Lawrence, Kansas. Cheryl Burns worked at Village Records in the late nineties and she was there when we closed the store to go completely over to mail order. We had kind of lost touch with her until Facebook and we have been trying to get together since then. She is a big fan of New York City so it probably made more sense for us to reconnect here.

We spent most of Friday running around Midtown. We met up at our place and headed over to the MoMA and covered the 5th Floor thoroughly. Unfortunately the 4th Floor, with the Warhols and Pollacks, was closed for some reason that day. From there we continued down 53rd and grabbed box lunches at a take-out place. We ate our meals in an odd little setting in the middle of the block. There is a patio/garden area, known as a pocket park, between buildings with tables and chairs and a large waterfall all along the length of the back wall. It is shady and cool and totally removed from the city noises. It is named Paley Park and was built on the former site of the famous and notorious Stork Club where celebrities rubbed shoulders for thirty years.

Cheryl and me at Paley Park

From there it was down 5th Avenue to the huge main branch of the New York Public Library for a quick tour and email check. This place has to be seen to be believed. The early 20th Century building has incredible details throughout. So much so that it took nine years to build. The main reading rooms look like the big hall in Harry Potter. It is two city blocks long and backs up to Bryant Park, which was our next stop. There we saw people playing outdoor ping pong and an outdoor reading room where there is a large cart of books to read within this one section of the park.

One the great reading rooms

Old wooden phone booths at the library

Then over to Hell’s Kitchen where we tried out a new place, Rachel’s, which we have now added to our ‘best of’ list. Their specialty is comfort food and they serve up healthy size portions, their single serving of meatloaf looked like it was half a loaf to me. This is near the theater district and we got there about 30 minutes before the starting time for the shows. This is a bad time to arrive as all the restaurants are packed with theater goers and everyone with a table lingers until the last minute even if they are finished dining. We had no schedule so we just went to the bar and ordered wine. Other potential customers came but left when they saw the wait. We were finally called over for our table and literally within seconds the entire restaurant emptied. We later found out that our round at the bar was complimentary for our patience.

We will be back.

We got to spend Sunday evening with Cheryl again and took the bus down to the Village for drinks and dinner at a couple of the funky places there. The bus route home went right by her hotel and there were four more stops to our street so we said our final (for now) goodbyes on the fly. Cheryl has vowed to be back before we leave New York. We had a great time and will be looking forward to that next visit.

Frozen Zone

This was an unusual week here. There were two big international events held in Manhattan. The United Nations General Assembly and, to take advantage of all the heads of state being here, Bill Clinton had his Global Initiative Forum the same week. The area around the UN was under heightened security all week. Street vendors and food carts are not allowed and mailboxes were removed from the streets in the area. A “frozen zone” can be declared at any moment without any notice. This occurs when a dignitary’s motorcade is coming through and all automobile traffic AND pedestrian traffic is frozen. No one can cross a street or go anywhere for fifteen minutes or more.

We are not close to the UN in Turtle Bay at all, however, Clinton’s forum is held right across the street from our apartment at the Sheraton Hotel. VIPs were constantly shuttled back and forth between the two locations so we started seeing changes right away on Monday. They were using the side entrance to the Sheraton (which faces our living room windows) and had that sidewalk blocked to pedestrian traffic and one of car traffic was blocked as well. Police presence was everywhere including directing traffic.

Each day it seemed that more and more territory was barricaded coming to a crescendo on Thursday, the last day of the forum, when Michelle Obama was the keynote speaker and introduced by Barack Obama. As the day progressed we kept going over to the windows and see what was happening. There were twice as many barricades as the day before and all street vendors were nowhere to be seen. Gradually we saw more and more police and I assume plainclothes police as well. A tent was set up on the street next to the entrance, sort of a makeshift garage, so the president could transfer from the limo to the hotel unseen. Sharpshooters were on the roofs all around. I counted at least a dozen at four locations that we could see, all with rifles at hand and binoculars scanning the scene. We had the windows wide open and were freely hanging out of them looking up and down the street when it suddenly occurred to us that being directly above the tent and entrance we could be perceived as a threat and we quickly pulled our heads back in closed the windows. I was really concerned that my shiny camera could be mistaken for a gun. We could practically make eye contact we so close to these guys.

By this time we couldn’t even leave our building as both sides of the street were blocked off. Barricades and police tape kept pedestrians at least a block away and both 7th Avenue and 53rd Street were blocked to traffic. Two huge sand trucks had been pulled into position to block any vehicle trying to break through to 53rd.

We were sitting in front row seats for the total lock down, a little like watching this from your front porch. Toni was doing a little vacuuming and then stop to watch and then back to cleaning.
The motorcade came through, motorcycles first followed by several squad cars and black limos and an ambulance. Then the presidential car pulled into the tent and Secret Service agents were everywhere around it. There was really nothing to see but the security measures.


A half hour later the whole process reversed and little by little things were returned to normal. We went back to our work and in the background we could hear the steel barricades taken down and loaded onto trucks. Police tape was taken down and the streets reopened as if nothing happened and we were free to leave our building again.


Unfrozen.

This is Obama's limo leaving the tent. This is the only photo here that was not taken from our window.

Sharpshooters on the roof of the Sheraton directly above the tent.

The sand truck barricades. That is part of our building on the right.

This is another part of our building. The police are packing up their rifles.

The motorcade leaving. The quality is poor due to reflections on the closed window.

There is no traffic on 7th Avenue. The Sheraton front entrance is on the left.

Eighth Visitors

After a lull in visitors over the summer we are getting quite a few lined up now for the rest of September and going forward. First up in this wave was Thursday evening when we got to visit with Tim and Janet Jury.

They were nearby neighbors at our last house and we had brought in the New Year with them for most of the last decade. Tim was also one of the founding members of our little poker group at Lake Quivira and has been entrusted with keeping my old poker chips.

Tim contacted me just a couple of weeks ago to let us know they were coming and that their hotel was literally just around the corner. We met at our apartment for a little wine and catching up. The sky was clear when they arrived but it immediately started to rain. Before too long it turned into a full blown thunderstorm. To see more on this storm see the previous post. Then, as if on cue, the skies brightened just as we finished our drinks and we were able to go across the street to Maison and be served outdoors as if nothing happened. On an previous stop at this restaurant we got caught in the rain and we had to scurry inside and after the weather cleared up I saw how quickly the staff dried off the tables and recovered. It was like choreography. So I knew all would be okay. Coincidentally New York has had two tornadoes this year, a rarity, and both nights we were at this very restaurant.

We all enjoyed our French cuisine in the middle of Manhattan just feet from the official border of Times Square. We were close enough that the flashing colored lights created stray reflections on every smooth surface. New York’s aurora borealis dancing all around.

Unfortunately the Jurys only had the one night here but we were so glad they reached out to us and we said our goodbyes knowing that we would be getting together again down the road, perhaps in another city and in another country.

A Tree Falls In Brooklyn

Well, actually a whole lot of trees fell in Brooklyn yesterday evening. Here are some photos from the aftermath from the NY Times site. Sadly there was one fatality. Transportation was disrupted in the entire area. This is the second tornado to hit New York City this year and the fourth one in the area.

Ironically, we were visiting with some friends from Kansas when the thunderstorm hit Manhattan. I was telling them about the unusual tornadic activity we have seen here this year.

Gorgonzola With A Side Of Bach

A great part of our experience in Manhattan has been really digging down and finding events and restaurants and places that would never make it into the tour guides. It is a hit and miss affair with only a few whiffs. Sunday afternoon seemed like a bit of a long shot but it turned out to be a wonderful experience.

There is an older hotel, The Roger Smith Hotel, near here that hosts a classical guitar concert in their penthouse one Sunday a month. The admission is $15 but it includes a selection of wines and cheeses. The guitarist this month was a young man from Australia named Simon Powis.

You know it is vintage hotel when the penthouse is only on the 16th floor. Toni poked around a bit and determined that this was once a large single residence with some period fixtures in the restroom. I am sure it enjoyed wonderful views at one time but today it has been dwarfed by a forest of skyscrapers. It is a little like the Writer’s Place in Kansas City picked up and plopped on top of this old building.

There were only about 40 seats and we settled in with wine in hand and cheese and crackers on our laps. We looked over the program and recognized just two names, Bach and Segovia. By the time Simon came out the seats were nearly filled. He spoke briefly about each piece and jumped right in. The sounds he got from his guitar were incredible. There was no amplification whatsoever but he must have really been using great finger strength to pluck the strings to get such volume although it looked like he was merely touching them. I got the feeling we were the only non-musicians in the room because whenever he was playing everyone would lean in a little and concentrate with so much intensity that I was afraid of making any noise by even breathing. No one would stir one bit until the piece was completed. There were many stops and silent parts to each piece so I was sure to hold my applause until Simon would look up and smile. I have to admit that I was surprised at how moved I was by this…totally unexpected.

Between the wine and the music we were so relaxed that it was almost like getting a massage. I think that we both felt a bit hypnotized at times. There was a brief intermission and everyone recharged. Simon was I am sure exhausted. When he introduced the final piece he said that it was the most difficult of the program. He did not exaggerate. It was a bit like the finale of a fireworks display with all the stops pulled out. His fingers were up and down the guitar neck at a dizzying speed with complete stops at each position. It was blur, freeze, blur, freeze, blur, freeze, like a Jackie Chan fight scene. I often wonder how a musician’s brain works. It seems to me that it would be like writing two different papers simultaneously with each hand on a different typewriter.


This is not something I would want to do every day but was definitely a perfect way to spend a rainy Sunday late afternoon.

This video is at a hall at Yale (his alma mater), a bit less intimate but you get the idea.

Village Crawl With Visitor 3.2

Earlier this week our long time friend Barb Roscher arrived in New York for her second visit since we have been here. She was here for a business meeting on Wednesday but she had all day Tuesday free. A return engagement for one night only. We got together early in the afternoon for the start of our self designed Greenwich Village crawl. We grabbed a bus on Fifth Avenue that took us directly to Washington Square Park. We had never been there on a weekday before and as we sort of expected there were no buskers to be seen. We didn’t linger long there as the fountain area was a little toasty from the midday sun. We wound our way over to MacDougal and Bleecker and chose Caffe del Mare for our late lunch. Our server had a charming Jamaican accent and was very accommodating. He rattled off the special which was a choice omelets, fries, adult beverage, salad, and coffee. How could we refuse? We didn’t even bother with the menus. In just a minute we had our wine, bloody mary, and mimosa in hand and the salmon omelets and Eggs Benedict weren’t far behind. From there we headed west to a recent find, Fat Cat. It is a large place in the basement of a building off of 7th Avenue. It is a jazz club and game room. We weren’t expecting any live music on a weekday afternoon but a band was there rehearsing so we lucked out. The place is a mishmash of seating, some booths, some small tables, sofas with coffee tables, and some long cafeteria style tables. All the tables have checker/chess boards or Scrabble boards. Play all you want for $1 per person. The perimeter of the room is lined with at least a half dozen ping pong tables behind netting to keep the balls somewhat confined. Next are eight or so pool tables, a couple of foosball tables, and a couple of shuffleboard games. Like I said it is a big space. We opted for the Scrabble board and the gloves were off. Toni was lagging behind a bit and made a valiant effort to end the game with the word QUOTE. It was close but she still fell a bit short but a most impressive finish. We went on a couple more blocks for serious drinks at a little bar, Cubby Hole, appropriately named. The drinks are cheap and the house even opened up the bar for a round to celebrate the bartender’s birthday. From there we went for a quick and inexpensive dinner at Art Bar around the corner. If you go there be sure to go to the back room for a totally different dining experience. The three of us ate for twenty Dollars including tip!! The bus stop is right outside the door and one pulled up within a minute. By the time we said goodbye to Barb and got home it was after eleven o’clock and we had been on our crawl for about ten hours.




You might recall that we went to the Village on Barb’s first visit as well. We were struggling and bumbling around with a GPS back then and the machine was even having a hard time. The Village is one of several more challenging parts of Manhattan. If you have spent any time here you are no doubt familiar with the famous grid system here. However when you go this far south you encounter streets that predate the grid. In this case there three grids crashing together and they also overlap. As a result you get a lot of odd shaped blocks of every geometric shape you can name and more. You also get intersections with six or more streets radiating out like bicycle spokes. Some east/west streets are numbered but most are not and the ones that are don’t ‘behave’ as they should. For example, 4th Street takes a few bends and winds up intersecting with 10th Street and 12th Street when it should run parallel. So we consider it to be quite an achievement to get around there now without getting lost.

Summer's End

We had a really low key Labor Day Weekend. Saturday we caught the bus down to the farmer's market at Union Square Park at 14th Street between Broadway and Park Avenue. This is all truly locally or at least regionally grown produce. The place was packed but we didn't care as the weather spectacular...better than I can ever remember. Seventy degrees, no humidity (37%), and a nice steady breeze. We bought quite a lot of produce including the largest radishes I have ever seen, as big as golf balls. We grabbed quick sandwich at a great BBQ restaurant, believe it or not. Hopped on a return bus and ran into a street fair where we rounded out our late lunch with some fresh roasted corn on the cob (fresh as in husk still attached).

Sunday was another great weather day and we decided to head for Central Park again. Toni put together a chicken sandwich picnic lunch and we grabbed the New York Times and read it cover to cover while sitting on a park bench at the mall. Then we went to Bethesda Fountain and watched the rowboats at the Loeb Boathouse before heading home.

Nothing too exciting, just hanging around the city before Fall kicks in.