Dispatches from ExpensiveTownUSA
An Appreciation for Shirley Chisholm State Park
Rockaway, New York, November 29th, Somehow Still 2020 Today forgot to be winter, blue skies and warm sunlight found us here on the edge of USA. We took a 25 minute drive to Shirley Chisholm State Park in Brooklyn this morning. I’m still foreign sometimes and there are many gaps in my local and national…
Read MoreA D- Day Veteran Makes Me Promise to Get a Fishing Rod
Rockaway Beach, NY Feb 24th, 2020 It’s a quiet time. A strange time. I’m keeping my ears piqued and my antennae fine tuned to find new stories and songs and opportunities. It’s a strange time, an in between time, a quiet time, a divisive time, a February time, a rest stop off the highway time,…
Read MoreCitizen Connolly
A Train Rockaway – High Street, Brooklyn Bridge, Dec 3rd, 2019, 6.38am. Take a right at the Harbor Light Walking through the sleet and snow at 6.28 am on a Tuesday morning. In the pre dawn light, passing headlights catch the blue white flakes. I should have replaced my boots before the winter. I’m speed…
Read MoreTurning Sound Into Soilds
Rockaway, October 29th, 2019 Modern living can be abstract. I’m making soup. Turnips, onions, garlic, celery, cauliflower, carrots and sweet potatoes. I played at Saugerties Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning and my tip jar included two big bags of vegetables. In an age of digital pennies and virtual likes, I enjoy the directness of…
Read MoreWe Are Afraid Of The Wrong Things
Rockaway Park, NY, October 21st, 2019 Remember when I used to write regular tour blogs? Well, I’m going to try to get back to that, here’s lesson 6,712 of New York City teaching me to be grateful. We moved to Rockaway in April. We have a brighter, lead paint free apartment, a kitchen I…
Read MoreGoodnight Fawkner – Song Club Moves to Stella and Fly
Rockaway Park, Tuesday, August 27th, 2019 Goodnight Fawkner I’m sorry to share the news that Fawkner closed its doors this weekend. We’ve been hosting Big City Folk Song Club there for the last few years and at the same address prior to that when it was Ceol. Thanks to everyone we worked with there…
Read MoreMidtown – Astoria – Upper East Side – Cobble Hill – LES – Sunset Park
New York Performances this week: Monday, April 29th, MIDTOWN: New York Beer Company, Monday Night Session, 8pm Tuesday, April 30th: ASTORIA: BCF Song Club at Shillelagh Tavern with E.W. Harris Wednesday, May 1st, UPPER EAST SIDE: Stella and Fly ( First Wednesdays of the month) Thursday, May 2nd, COBBLE HILL, Brooklyn: Big City Folk Song…
Read MoreStory?
September 6th, 2018 I’m gathering my tour stories, trying to write them down. Assemble them in perfect disorder. I’ve been touring for almost 20 years. I’ve shared and gathered a lot of stories. Which ones would you like to read? Getting punched in the face in Cyprus? Meeting a London Police Officer at 1am…
Read MoreThe Body of a Starling – When a Zucchini is an Eggplant – Winning
March 19th, 2018 – The kitchen, Brooklyn Four night light candles encircle the body of a starling. A grown sober woman is sitting on one of those 25 cent horsey things. And she’s invested the quarter. The horse is moving and singing like a sick ice-cream van. The fulling grown seemingly sober and sane…
Read MoreOverheard in Brooklyn
“I mean, who the fuck drugs a therapy dog?” – Overheard in Brooklyn A reasonable question from the woman walking behind me to her phone. Who the fuck? Who indeed? I casually, ever so discretely slowed my walk to gather some further information for you. A volunteer? An intern? Nobody likes them anyway whoever…
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