From: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org (lucy-list-digest) To: lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: lucy-list-digest V5 #166 Reply-To: lucy-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk lucy-list-digest Sunday, August 17 2003 Volume 05 : Number 166 In this issue: [lucy-list] a post-blackout post [lucy-list] Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Pittsburgh [lucy-list] a post-blackout post [lucy-list] LK at Wolf Trap ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 13:58:45 -0400 From: "Benay Bubar" Subject: [lucy-list] a post-blackout post Well...seems like a few years since I last posted, though of course it's only been a couple of days. While nobody who was in the midst of it has yet posted about the blackout here, I've been looking at other lists and gathering that many people (especially those not in NYC) found the blackout adventurous and even kind of fun...it is true that it made me immensely grateful that we have all the conveniences we do in the first place when many people in the world don't (something of which I try to remind myself regularly anyway), and it was certainly memorable, and fascinating, but fun? No, didn't get much of that part here. I was at work in upper midtown Manhattan when everything went dark...we hung around for half an hour as we learned through some people's cell phones and battery radios that the outage was not just our building...then not just our block...then not just our city. When I heard Ohio and Toronto (which sounded at that point much further west to me than they truly are), it really seemed that we were going to hear California next and it would be the whole country blacked out...terrorism was first in our thoughts. They made lists of people with extra room in Manhattan for others to stay, but I just wanted to get home. Finally, a group of us made our way down the stairs from the eighth floor (on the way passing building workers with tools going up to try to get out the people who were trapped in the elevators). We bought drinks at a nearby deli lit by candles, then set off about 5 p.m. through the heat and crowds, Brooklyn-bound. It was a surreal walk...six and a half miles (to a friend's family home where I ended up staying the night) in three and a half hours. With no traffic signals, ach corner was a negotiation between the cars and the people, but there was strength in numbers such that masses of pedestrians could cross at once without TOO much worry about being hit. It wasn't long before we began seeing civilians directing traffic at some intersections and police in others...certain major streets were completely taken over by pedestrians, no cars in sight. Some tempers flared, but most people seemed calm. Restaurants along the route were handing out water and allowing people to use their restrooms (though the one I stopped at did not have water at the sinks, leading me to believe for hours, until finding out otherwise, there was not only no power anywhere, but also no water). In an effort to find the least crowded route, my little group ended up walking across town and then down along the East River...we thought of taking a ferry, but the lines were hours long when we got there, so we just kept walking, the sweat pouring down. I happened to have on new shoes that were soon killing my feet, but there was no choice: keep going, or sleep on the street. I just kept reminding myself, "I'm not stuck in an elevator. I'm not stuck in the subway; things are good." And we kept going. We heard on the radio that sunset was at 7:56...I had no flashlight and I just wanted to get to Brooklyn before dark. Finally, we made our way in from the water's edge to find the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge...we clambered up a hill and over a barricade and there we were. The bridge was fairly orderly by the time we got there---they had stopped all cars on the Manhattan-bound side such that we walked in the roadway, getting a view pedestrians never usually see (unfortunately, the crowds and the exhaustion made the view difficult to enjoy). Now and then the crowds would part to let through an emergency vehicle...and some people were actually selling rap CDs at a little stand in the middle of the bridge roadway...but otherwise it was all people walking, walking, walking. The Brooklyn borough president, a larger-than-life guy anyway, was standing near the Brooklyn end of the bridge with a megaphone, exuberantly shouting "Welcome home, Brooklyn!" over and over again...some people rolled their eyes, but it did lift my spirits a bit. We stumbled on and made it to my friend's family home just before dark and sat on the stoop as darkness fell, eating ice cream that was being given away by the local convenience store before it melted...then hot dogs and beans...then we tried to sleep, my friend's family and several of us unexpected guests crowded into airless rooms, listening to the unusual silence punctuated by the periodic wail of sirens. There was little sleep to be had. Where we were, the power came back on midmorning yesterday, and we gingerly turned on only what lights and fans we really needed...but there were no subways and life did not feel normal. The day was consumed by long waits for crowded buses (which got stuck in traffic jams due to the lines at every gas station) to get to my home, then a friend's home, then another friend's home where we spent last night (and where there was no water this morning---it was a boiler problem in the building, but I thought for a little while that it was some whole new nightmare). And now I am home again...exhausted...grateful...confused...defrosting my newly emptied refrigerator and freezer before leaving to see Suzanne Vega on Long Island (we have the tickets, things are working, might as well go). Things still seem rather surreal; ordinary life has returned outwardly but not yet inwardly. I am not turning on the AC while I don't have to, trying to conserve...but music is suddenly a necessity, and so I am listening repeatedly to Every Single Day because, through its being so intensely familiar, it is the most comforting thing I can think of. Best to all... Benay ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 12:31:31 -0700 (PDT) From: simona loberant Subject: [lucy-list] Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Pittsburgh Hello there. Lucy came to PIttsburgh this past Thursday for the first time in two years. Just like two years ago the house was packed and most likely sold out. Lucy was great and played a few songs from her upcoming album which she promised will be out in February (just in time for Valentine's giving I assume :-) ) What she didn't sing was Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, two years ago she tried but couldn't rember the lyrics and I am kicking myself for not having printed out the lyrics and requesting the song this past thursday. The reason being that the stage at Club Cafe has a starry background that changes and twinkles as the evening progresses. So Lucy please come back to Pittsburgh soon, we promise another sold out house and lyrics to the song you gotta sing one of these days. ~Simona ===== Simona L. Loberant "Every now and then go away, even briefly, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer; since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power." **Leonardo da Vinci __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 16:23:42 -0400 From: peter cox Subject: [lucy-list] a post-blackout post Benay Good to see you back safe on the list - welcome home Peter (in Wales, UK - where we see the stars every night - thanks to the lack of light pollution) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 19:53:47 -0400 From: Jay Votel Subject: [lucy-list] LK at Wolf Trap Lucy Kaplansky at Judy Collins' Wildflower Festival at Wolf Trap Farm Park, Vienna, VA Reviewed by Jay Votel (jay.votel@verizon.net) 1. Written on the Back of His Hand 2. Ten Year Night 3. Land of the Living 4. By Way of Sorrow Lucy was the "new kid" in this show that headlined Judy Collins, with Tom Rush and Tom Paxton. All four did short sets in the first half -- Paxton's was politically savvy and incredibly funny. He's got a song about John Ashcroft that brought down the house. In the second half, Judy Collins sang a long set and then brought everyone out for sing-alongs. Lucy led the group in "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." Paxton did "Wild Mountain Thyme." Rush did "Wasn't that a Mighty Storm" and Judy Collins ended the show with "Amazing Grace." There was no encore. On the down side: There were a couple of sections of empty seats in the Filene Center's Loge section, and the lawn wasn't as crowded as the show we saw for Willie Nelson this summer. In fact, it was one of the smallest crowds at Wolf Trap I've ever seen. It was a nice summer evening with no rain, a rarity this summer here, and a Friday to boot. But, it's August in the D.C. area, and that means half of the city is out on vacation. The audience was clearly there to see Judy Collins, whose voice filled the place -- and that's some feat. Lucy got a good reception, but she had to follow Paxton, and that's tough. Paxton and Rush were cracking jokes onstage. Lucy spent her time singing her heart out. It was great to be there for her first appearance on the big stage at the Filene Center, and Lucy truly "has arrived" if she's sharing that stage with the likes of Judy Collins, Tom Rush and Tom Paxton. ------------------------------ End of lucy-list-digest V5 #166 ******************************* This has been a posting from the Lucy Kaplansky mail list digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe lucy-list-digest" in the body of the message