shelton in new york 4-9-2005

so i've come out to new york for a trip - ten days total, going to do some playing with folk who live here and with grey ghost. i've had the idea for coming out here to visit for awhile, as i have a very nice aunt & uncle who live on the upper east side who let me stay with them while in town. whenever i stay with them up here it makes me feel in a small way that i am in a salinger book. they live just a few blocks from the met & central park, an express subway line so it's easy to get around the city. i took amtrak in from chicago - it was a 22 hour trip that wasn't so bad - i had a good book to read - fool's progress by edward abbey - and my ipod - if you're in a hurry the train is no way to travel - you have be let your patience take over your whole though process. and never ask what time it is & always expect to get to your destination later than is scheduled. but hey, a $40 ticket for a 1000 mile trip isn't so bad either.
the first couple of days here went by nicely - i got some work done at the public library here - they have a great study room with 40 foot ceilings, long wood tables, comfortable chairs. it kind of feels like you're outside but it is nice & quiet. i worked on some patches in max for the shows i'm doing here - a good way to spend an afternoon in new york, and costs nothing. my first show here was at this space the glass house gallery. i did two short improvised sets with mark denardo - he of the game boy. the way the night worked was that there were 5 different groups & each played two twenty minute sets about an hour apart. a group woul dplay, another would join, then the first would stop playing - it was a nice way to go in between musical styles without needing to have a set break - one group was made up of some free jazzers, another was this mixing board fellow wearing an orange hood that looke like a puppet elephant, the third was a trio of sampler, ketboard and outboard effects, the last was a duet of cello & percussion interjected with vocal samples. lots of creative stuff. the space was a bit off the beaten path in williamsburg, near the river - reminded me of the buddy space in chicago, without the goofy-try a little too hard-hipster scene & with kind of a creative re-use store feel - just tons of stuff allaround creating an installation of randomness. williamsburg is pretty funny - unfortunately it has the post-college party town feel - same as wicker park in chicago - which is good for some things - like if you want to go out to see other young folk, but also makes it seem like a drunken disney world. denardo & i hit a party afterwards - lots of folk, met a nice fellow named daniel who turns out to be another floridian. went home late on the subway - listened to a little dexter before going to sleep -