10/13
Piano Dan is in the sanctuary with a young woman singer named Julia. They are rehearsing, making a video, working on a promo to help them get what Dan calls a real gig. They’re rolling out some pop standards, light jazz. I’ve never heard Dan do that kind of harmony before. To be honest, it’s very comforting, calming to hear them filling the sanctuary.
It’s the kind of day with too much to handle. As you dig in to deal with what must be dealt with, new demands keep coming across the e-mail. We’ve got a boiler to build, a benefit to organize, a fund raising effort to carry out. Jane’s congregation is in a rapidly evolving crisis and we seem to have a role to play. And the situation at Zucotti Park, at Occupy Wall Street, is changing by the minute. It appears that Mayor Bloomburg is going back on his word and the NYPD is planning to empty the park at 7 am for sanitation reasons. Occupiers will only be allowed back in under rules that will completely change what this occupation has been. A confrontation is looming.
Sarah rushes back in to pick up the wallet she has left and then back out again.
Dan and Julia have finished. He tells me that Julia is an accomplished songwriter as well. She says the space has inspired her. That it's a blessing to sing here. And I see that RL has arrived, guitar in hand. His beard is beginning to grow out in his fall/winter Dusty Withers,famous sidekick persona. Dan and Julia leave.
We’ve got to show RL what the sound system can do, so the Beatles’ I’ve Got a Feeling fills the space in full stereo and RL breaks out in a big smile. Look, he says, the Tribal Council has been after me. After me to make something happen here. But I have to know what’s the plan for the boiler. Without that, nothing happens. And so we try to bring him to date with Gale Brewer, Lisa Semple, the plumber....
I step out for a minute. When I come back, RL is deep in conversation with a guy from Australia who has just wanderd in while his wife gets her nails done. He very soon will inivte the Aussies to join him at St. James’ Gate, his office, for a drink.
A woman comes in buscando para ayuda. She wants to know si alguien aqui habla espanol. I tell her si and that she needs to go to la iglesia a la esquina de ochenta y seis y Avenida West End. She nods and takes off. I begin to say to Danielle And your next project is... and she tells me she’s already lining up Spansih lessons at El Taller.
Jane has brought a friend from the coast, Deryl, to check things out. He quickly decides he's like to tackle painting the bathrooms. Starting tomorrow.
Danielle looks up, smiles, hey can I help you? she says. I look up and its the Prophet in all his subSaharan rastaman glory. At the end of a long incomprehensible stream of words i hear, church? Yes, were a church, I say, you are welcome to come in, sit down rest awhile. You are welcome. His eyes dart back and forth awhile. Then he turns and leaves. He's never set foot inside the church before. I wonder whatt brought him in.
A woman comes in with a bag of food, (actually good food), for the homeless.
Jane has brought a friend from the coast, Deryl, to check things out. He quickly decides he's like to tackle painting the bathrooms. Starting tomorrow.
Danielle looks up, smiles, hey can I help you? she says. I look up and its the Prophet in all his subSaharan rastaman glory. At the end of a long incomprehensible stream of words i hear, church? Yes, were a church, I say, you are welcome to come in, sit down rest awhile. You are welcome. His eyes dart back and forth awhile. Then he turns and leaves. He's never set foot inside the church before. I wonder whatt brought him in.
A woman comes in with a bag of food, (actually good food), for the homeless.
And I’m now checking the latest to see if I’ve got to be at Zucotti Park at 6 AM. If so, it will be a collar occasion.
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