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April 13, 2005 - New York When I woke up and came to my senses we were in Manhattan. I have a ‘love/hate’ relationship with New York. If I haven’t been there in a while I feel a longing to go. When I get there I’m usually ready to leave after a couple of hours. A guess a lot of that hasta’ do with the fact that I’m usually driving. It’s a nightmare to drive in New York. But there are some really cool things that I like about New York. First of all, my grand mother lived most of her life in Brooklyn. I remember living with her during the summer when I was a kid. Also,…my wife is from Queens and my mother in law still lives there. I love visiting her. Of course, everyone knows that Fodera is located in Brooklyn. That place is magic. Good things happen there. But, pretty much, the only time I go into Manhattan is to gig. Other than that, I tryta’ stay out of that madness. Surprisingly, the traffic wasn’t too bad today. We seemed to be heading south. We musta’ came through Harlem or something. When we got to the venue we had to drive around the block about 10 times. I’m not exaggerating at all. I even went back to sleep. Eventually, we found a park for both busses. The ‘main’ bus parked right in front of the venue and the ‘family’ bus parked just around the corner. Irving Plaza is a pretty cool venue and I have some very good memories of when the times when we played here before. The only bad memory is when Joseph left his digital camera here and it never showed up. The staff is very professional here. But they seem somewhat ‘jaded’. But that may be a New York thing. They had that “I’ve seen everything’ vibe that a lot of New Yorkers have. At least a lot of the city folk have that vibe,…whether they’ve seen everything or not. We got loaded in and set up pretty fast. There is a ‘noise’ ordinance at Irving Plaza because of it’s location so we can’t make ‘sound’ `til after 5pm. My wife and stepdaughter showed up. They help with some production stuff (they usually do). It’s always great seeing them on the road. They had stayed Toné’s mother’s place in Queens the previous night. After they helped out setting up some production stuff they went for a walk. Joseph and I walked to the hotel. It was a couple of blocks away. I was in desperate need of a shower. The hotel room was the size of a walk-in closet. Man,…that thing was tiny. There were no face cloths in the bathroom so I had to go back down to the lobby to get some. The lady in the lobby said that they don’t keep face cloths in the rooms,…they’re given out by request. What?! OK,….I’m starting to remember why I’m not crazy about New York. Anyways,…I showered and walked back to the venue. I saw my wife and stepdaughter in front of me while I was walking. I ran up behind my wife and grabbed her butt (hee hee). Victor had an interview with Sirius radio so he wasn’t around. I think his wife and kids we’re meeting up with him later. When he got back we did a short sound check and then we did an impromptu seminar for some grade school students of Steve Pitman. He grew up with the Wootens. We took questions and played a song for the kids. We usually have ‘tons’ of guest at the New York shows. I don’t even try to have guest there. A buncha’ record company people came out. The guys from Fodera came out. It’s always great seeing them. I was excited about them seeing me play a lot during the show. Derico and JD had someone from Vic Firth sticks in the house. Chris Jisi from Bass Player magazine was there. He had just recently finished an interview of Victor. And he did ‘piggy back’ interviews of Divinity and me. Now he was here to check out the show. There are a buncha’ friends and fans that we usually see in New York. It’s always cool seeing familiar faces. The show went great!!! Will Lee surprised Victor by showing up and doing his part on the Bass Tribute. Yo Vic,…we had it planned all along! The record company people were blown away. I hear he was speechless. He just didn’t know what to expect. The guys from Fodera loved the show too. We all had a good time. Saundra is from New York so she got to go visit friends and family. I missed meeting her mom because I was busy with stuff. My wife and stepdaughter left to make that long drive back to DC. I would see them 2 more times on this tour. When we got the bus loaded we drove back to the hotel so we could shower. I decided to ride the family bus to Somerville/Boston so I could watch the latest episode of ‘24’ with Victor and Holly. As soon as ‘24’ went off I jumped in one of the ‘open’ bunks and went right to sleep. Man,…I was ‘bone’ tired. The drive to Somerville/Boston is 215 miles so we weren’t staying the night. peace&blessings,
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