indy superman, alt-street-parking, and uncle bill

hello dear readers of the sometimes-in-session-blog,

this week finds us in new york city where, much to my amazement, double-parking is sometimes perfectly legal. on street cleaning days there is apparently alternate-side-of-the-street-parking (it has a much shorter name in real life, i just can't remember it right now) in which you are completely and totally allowed to box in your friendly neighbors so that street cleaners can make the city shine. you just park and leave your cell phone number (if you want) on the dashboard. this totally amazed me and completely confounded manuel, who says that in italy he has read about people who got shot for doing such a thing. forgot to leave a cell # on the dash, apparently.

last week at my show in indy, a car accident happened on the street *right* outside the window of the cafe where we were playing. our friend darren went to go check on the situation and after an hour still hadn't come back. when we went outside, he was nowhere to be seen. about 90 minutes later he returned, rubbing his wrists. apparently the guy who started the 4-car chain collision took off running from the cops, who pursued. darren saw that they would never catch him, so he took off down a side street to cut him off. meanwhile, the police reinforcements were called and, seeing darren close in on our ne'er-do-well, mistook him for an accomplice who was also running. the officer pointed his taser at both of them and told them to get down, which of course they both did. it took almost an hour to get sorted out who was who, and darren spent that hour cuffed on the curb. actually, he spent part of it on his face with a foot in his back - the second half was spent on said curb.

then ohio, where we had good listeners, and pennsylvania, where we had good food and good, if very very few, listeners. a rough patch, ohio and penn. but onto the glories of nyc/brooklyn, where my friend vicki stuffs us with food and takes us to all the cool places, where pete's candy store rocked as a venue, and where we encountered uncle bill. my brother took us to a bagel shop/deli today for lunch and this adorable old man who literally shuffled when he walked made my sandwich...he cut my pickle into the shape of a heart and said, "ah, will you look at what happens to me when a pretty girl asks for a pickle!" he had this great older-guy-new-yawk accent that i loved. he was probably 80.

so we made a lap of town, so to speak, and a few hours later we were waiting on the corner of the street right outside the deli when uncle bill (that's what his nametag said) came out. i waved at him and he came over to say hi and see where we were headed. he ended up walking us to a nearby park, very very slowly, telling us about his great-great grandma, who was italian, and who apparently learned only enough english to curse. he then invited us to come to the deli for breakfast tomorrow and said the house specialty would be on him - a bagel with lox, eggs, and onions. when i translated those ingredients for manuel he turned a little green, so we may not be taking uncle bill up on the offer after all.

does anyone need a semi-permanent house-sitter? this is a career i am very very interested in, especially if you live in NY or Minneapolis, MN. :)
show in Brooklyn on Thursday, come on out and say hi.
love
vanessa