i was back in the big apple again this past weekend. my niece was waiting for her uncle to bring her a crib to sleep in. shes so dayum pretty...looks just like her momma(huny) who looks like our grandmother. shes got one big dimple in her right cheek. her nose is hidden by her chubby chipmunk cheeks, & she got these chinky eyes like her grandfather. her looks have been passed down from several previous generations...dem some strong genes dea son! 
anyway...i left to go to ny at 1030am on friday morning. i thought i was making great time, until i hit the nj turnpike around exit 3. traffic came to a standstill. then it would move like 30 ft at a snails pace, then stop again. i was blown. there was nothing in the horizon but bumper to bumper traffic. i turned the radio to 1610 on the am dial to listen to the traffic report. the announcement stated that a tracktor trailer had exploded on the turnpike just north of exit 5, & all traffic was being diverted to exit 4, over to 95 north, to 195 east, & back onto the turnpike. i was still miles away from the nearest exit & didnt see anyone moving at all. as a matter of fact, traffic was so slow that a guy in the car in front of me got out of the passenger seat, walked into the woods along the highway, pissed for like 3-4 minutes, & then walked back to his boys car which was moving in traffic. he got back into the car when it stopped because of the car in front of it. eventually i made it to exit 4, but i never had to get off the turnpike. the backup had subsided, & traffic was beginning to move at breakneck speeds. time elapsed...2.5 hrs.
ahhh, but its not over. i get to the nj turnpike exit outside ny at the gw bridge/95 north toll booth, & traffic slows again. i drive thru the toll, get onto 95 heading to the bridge. wham! traffic stops again. the sun is still shining, its rush hour & the time is like 455 pm. at this time im only 20 minutes from my sisters apt. im truly pissed by the traffic, but i turn on hot 97 & begin jamming to the sounds. i figure ill be there in time to sit down to dinner & watch some basketball playoffs. well...eventually i get across the gw bridge, take the exits heading to hunys & get onto local streets to only not be allowed to go towards her apt. i had to turn around onto some other streets & double back. one problem tho...one way streets were all i could drive. so needless to say, i was not going where i needed to go...fucking yankee stadium traffic
i double park outside her building, & walk in behind a tenant. at 910pm i knocked on her door.
it took me 11 hrs to make a 4 hr drive! it took me 4 hrs to make a 20 minute drive!
the baby gear gets unloaded, i find the bombassed parking space, & i relax finally. i wash my hands & arms, take off my dirty shirt, & greet my beautiful lil niece. i talked to her, kissed her, played with her fingers & toes, kissed her some more, baby talked to her...lol. to put it lightly, i made a fool of myself like i was supposed to! 
i had a great weekend, didnt do a damn thing but play with my lil niece & talk baby shit with my sis. sunday came, & i headed home. i was dreading all the tolls & traffic backups...however, the tolls were fewer, & i had no traffic backups.
yeah...it was a great weekend.
anyway...i left to go to ny at 1030am on friday morning. i thought i was making great time, until i hit the nj turnpike around exit 3. traffic came to a standstill. then it would move like 30 ft at a snails pace, then stop again. i was blown. there was nothing in the horizon but bumper to bumper traffic. i turned the radio to 1610 on the am dial to listen to the traffic report. the announcement stated that a tracktor trailer had exploded on the turnpike just north of exit 5, & all traffic was being diverted to exit 4, over to 95 north, to 195 east, & back onto the turnpike. i was still miles away from the nearest exit & didnt see anyone moving at all. as a matter of fact, traffic was so slow that a guy in the car in front of me got out of the passenger seat, walked into the woods along the highway, pissed for like 3-4 minutes, & then walked back to his boys car which was moving in traffic. he got back into the car when it stopped because of the car in front of it. eventually i made it to exit 4, but i never had to get off the turnpike. the backup had subsided, & traffic was beginning to move at breakneck speeds. time elapsed...2.5 hrs.
ahhh, but its not over. i get to the nj turnpike exit outside ny at the gw bridge/95 north toll booth, & traffic slows again. i drive thru the toll, get onto 95 heading to the bridge. wham! traffic stops again. the sun is still shining, its rush hour & the time is like 455 pm. at this time im only 20 minutes from my sisters apt. im truly pissed by the traffic, but i turn on hot 97 & begin jamming to the sounds. i figure ill be there in time to sit down to dinner & watch some basketball playoffs. well...eventually i get across the gw bridge, take the exits heading to hunys & get onto local streets to only not be allowed to go towards her apt. i had to turn around onto some other streets & double back. one problem tho...one way streets were all i could drive. so needless to say, i was not going where i needed to go...fucking yankee stadium traffic
i double park outside her building, & walk in behind a tenant. at 910pm i knocked on her door.
it took me 11 hrs to make a 4 hr drive!
it took me 4 hrs to make a 20 minute drive!
the baby gear gets unloaded, i find the bombassed parking space, & i relax finally. i wash my hands & arms, take off my dirty shirt, & greet my beautiful lil niece. i talked to her, kissed her, played with her fingers & toes, kissed her some more, baby talked to her...lol.
to put it lightly, i made a fool of myself like i was supposed to!
i had a great weekend, didnt do a damn thing but play with my lil niece & talk baby shit with my sis. sunday came, & i headed home. i was dreading all the tolls & traffic backups...however, the tolls were fewer, & i had no traffic backups.
yeah...it was a great weekend.
VIEW 17 of 17 COMMENTS
-Prince just made a brand new album last year called Musicology, and it schooled my ass - musicology indeed... the whole point of it was to celebrate live music and musicianship - i don't share his fear of that, personally, since so much hip hop has embraced so much jazz, but if it gets Prince to make a new album then fuck it! the album is so good it actually scared me and i had to call my mother.
ok, did i say notes? i meant a quiz:
-ever check out Live Evil? same band more or less as Bitches Brew
-also, do you have the remastered live at the Filmore East new years eve '69-'70 double cd? there is a version of Machine Gun on there that has Buddy MIles singing this superhero-themesong-style backing vocal over the guitar solo starting around four and a half minutes... three straight minutes of maybe the most inspired playing EVER - if you have that version then you know what i'm talking. Band of Gypsies in general, though, were something wholly special, right? it's as if they encapsulated all of the revolutionary energy of the time in this one blinding moment before evverything fell apart - like when Bird and Diz added Mingus to their band, you know? Or better yet, like when Max Roach and Charles Mingus recorded Money Jungle with Elllington - just straight up subversive, you know? to me BoG are like all the sentiment and intensity behind Jimi's Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock taken out of the art gallery and turned into an hours long collective meditation/chant down... on the same cd they leave in Jimi's intros and banter and stuff and he introduces Voodoo Child as the Black Panthers' national anthem... i get chills every time i hear that shit.
of course, if you have the version i'm talking about then i'm just wasting space here...
...but just in case i'm not annoying enough yet, ever check out the stuff Miles did right before Bitches Brew with the Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams bands? my fav Miles recording of all time is actually from that period from right before he added John McLaughlin - it's called Miles In The Sky and has (freak out on this) George Benson on guitar!!!
yikes, man - sorry for the long-windedness! um, it's the withdrawals, yeah... that's my story and sticking to it.
...so let's save discussion of Coltrane for when you've decided whether or not i'm too nuts to talk to at this point