Uptown Girl

I'm so glad this week is over. I could use a day to myself. It was lots of hard work, but there was some fun in there, too.

The launch went well. There are always little follow-up things and it'll be a bit before the dust settles, but with it all being public now, I have more resources to help. It's bound to be an interesting ride for a while, though.

This weekend, I plan on leaving all thoughts of work behind. Sunday to Monday was pretty much one big 24-hour day with a couple hours of sleep wedged in there. I left late Sunday and was back in at 5am Monday, then chugged along with the week. Wednesday night I slept nearly 12 hours-- what a relief! I don't really feel like I've caught up fully yet, though. That's for the next couple of days.

Tuesday night, despite the exhaustion, I went to the Vince Guaraldi tribute at the 92nd St Y. It was so much fun! I met my friend Rick for dinner at a great little Italian spot near the theatre. I'm rarely on the upper east side, outside of doctor appointments, so it's fun to explore new neighborhoods. Amazingly, not only did they have food I could eat, but delicious food I could eat-- and more than one choice! Especially for an Italian place, it's a rarity. I did have one small warm-from-the-oven biscotti with my bowl of perfectly-ripe fruit and it was heaven, but I figured id I ate one, it wouldn't be so tempting to have something worse later. A little perfect bite of vented steam. Maybe some day I can try the lemon spaghetti, which is supposed to be absolute perfection. I'm not quite there yet.

The concert was fantastic. The evening was part of their Jazz in July festival, directed by Bill Charlap. I didn't know his music before that night, but I'm definitely a fan. He captured Guaraldi's style perfectly, right down to the accents and his solos were great.

Joe Locke was on vibes-- wow. Wow. He's a true master of his instrument. He and Charlap did "Skating" in perfect sync. That's not an easy task. It was like they fused together as one instrument several times that night. I'd seen Locke play before, but he seemed especially in his element. Since we were up in the balcony, it was interesting to watch him play from above. I was mesmerized much of the time.

Each of the musicians that night was remarkable. The percussionist did this amazing solo that gave me absolute chills (not my first of the night). I need to look up his name again and post it later. Brilliant. And to hear Carol Woods sing "Woodstock" was a lot of fun. If you saw, "Across the Universe", she was the gospel singer singing "Let it Be" (she also did Smokey Joe's on Broadway).

Here's a bit of Charlap playing at the Village Vanguard:


Let it Be (warning- if you haven't seen the film, there's a spoiler here):


Joe Locke, doing his thang (I really wish I could have captured "Skating"-- I've been thinking about it all week!):


Here's the song "Skating" anyway, so you can understand the intricacy. Who doesn't like watching Snoopy?