Just tryin to save a building, not tryin to save a soul

9/2

Spent the whole day away from the church. On purpose. Needed a break. 

Report from Columbus Avenue and 78th..

Quiet night at the Open Mic at 78 Below. RL’s up for the last set of the night. Demands that Joe and Pat and I all be there. And of course, Poet Tim.

Starts by singing a line about slept real good after my open mic the other night...and has a chorus about I’m just trying to save a building, I’m not trying to save a soul...It’s a song about his relationship with West-Park, incongruous as that might be. Between beginning and end, he covers all our social history from suffragettes to anti-Vietnam to Wall Street get out (didn’t quite rhyme..) He created it on the spot.Talks about the community needing a place to come together, always. Finishes about looking forward to a day when we don’t need a building to find our peace of mind.

No one recorded it. RL can’t remember it. He's all teared up. Hell, we all cried. Mandola Joe is organizing an intervention to recover the words. 

But I’m marvelling about how this old coot (thank you Dusty) has become as integral round here as heat and toilet paper. Seriously. Everyone please notice. 

RL  chose not  to sing  another song. For tonight.. that's enough. Stay tuned.