Must be a piano player

10/17

Good to see Danielle back again.  Mim and Katherine have come to meet with Richard Barr, an old friend and colleagye of Katherine’s from back in the days when they worked for the same radio station.  And it turns out our kids went to PS 87 together and his daughter was in one of Frog & Peach’s productions in the balcony theatre. And of course, his kids were part of Rudy's gym experience.

Rchard was aked to do pr work back in the early days of the Friends of West-Park.  And as that effort shifted, changed, evolved, he was ultimately eased out. There's a lot of history to review. He’s interested in what we’re trying to accomplish. Willing to help. But we’ve somehow got to get all these efforts, Lisa’s fundraising and community support, the gala efforts, all on the same page, working in a coordinated way towards the same end.  Or the moment will be lost. Richard agrees first to reach out to some of our poitical friends.

After Katherine leaves, Mim goes out to get sandwiches and she and Danielle and I review where we are on the boiler. We might actually have the final necessary estimate. We need to approve and start work soon. 


A older couple comes in. With books and clothes to donate.  We're interested, but....They live across the street at the Belnord. Have lived there over thirty years. Retired. Ready to go to Brazil for two years. I talk to them about our work in Brazil over the last several years, Point of Encounter/ El Punto del Encuentro. Especially in Recife. Hope's work in health, Arcadia's in dental. Turns out they've got good friends in the administration of the hospital in Recife. They're leaving soon. Sorry we didn't meet sooner. Mim, always protective, intervenes and says that we don't really have the infrastructure right now to deal with the clothes and books. And she's probably right.

Jeremy has come to rehearse.   He’s got some good stories. We share our experiences of Occupy Times Square. He describes what I had experienced, the somewhat bizarre police tactic of clsoing off the south end, preventing people from leaving. It had what Jeremy called a lobster trap effect, ie, you could enter the demo, but not leave. As they cut off east and west exit routes, it kept swelling the crowds. Tourists from the midwest only wanting  to see the Lion King or Mama Mia became unwitting addtions to the protestors. Things had, as Jeremy put it, gotten strange. 

And he’s got another story. As the gospel chorus repeated  over and over with rising intensity in the last song of the last service of the Sacred Center, he leaned forward for one final piano flourish and wound up smashing hs nose into the piano. Next thing you know, blood everywhere and a broken nose. Later that day, he said, walking with his wife, he saw a skateboarder with wads of cotton in his nose. Must be a piano player, he was able to joke. We’re both excited at what could come out of the new collaboration to begin this Sunday. 


Boxer Mike has come in to show Danielle the picture he took of the both of them. Both of them smiling. As always, he's ready to help. Just wants a place to hang his bag. 

The cardboard is all gone. Only an empty vodka bottle on the steps.