mama goes underground

first of all, I have to once again emphasize on how happy I am to live in New York City. It is something about this place that makes it special. I fell in love with this city the first time I set foot here and that was over 10 years ago, as an au-pair, in the middle of a freezing winter-night (in the spur of a moment, we had jumped on a late train from Philly, where we au-paired, to go find and dance at the "Limelight" in New York. Maybe I'll tell that story another time.).

Anyway, tonight I went out to Brooklyn (Dumbo) to join this music jam party/performance combo (ShareDj something event...veeery cool and kinda avant-garde..but easy-digestible kinda avant-garde). I left the house at almost 11 pm, driven by guilt and loyality at the same time. My good old friend Gammon (from Austria) was in town with his band (Thilges3) to play a few gigs. He had told me about this months ago, and I had been looking forward to this just as long. Of course, the night of the first concert came and went. I didn't make it. The night of the second concert (thursday) I was determined to go and planned to abandon all motherly duties at 6.30pm sharp until the moment I received a phonecall from Dario (around that time) informing me of his running late. (ARHGGGH) ...fine, so momma was back on call...I start bathing the kids, get them ready for bed, etc. etc.
Dario finally shows up shortly before 8. Concert starts at 8.30 in SoHo but, I'm no 21 anymore. Me needs layers of make-up and the like, as well as heavy defrizzing action of appearing-zero-gravity hair due to earlier bathroom-moisture-exposure.
Finally leave house (dragging along friend Marta) at 8.30. Return to house at 8.40. Forgot directions. Traffic horrible. Get to SoHo at 9.30. Pay 5 bucks to get in. See last song of Gammon's band performed. ...
Soo, naturally I felt bad. Gammon was a bit disappointed, too... missing both concerts....mhm mhm mhm. I told him, it wasn't my fault but he accepted no excuses for lateness. I told him we'll talk again when he has kids ;) Then we went to the "Pink Pony" somewhere around there to eat and hang with the rest of his musician-friends. Apparently all of them had some kind of fame to them but ignorant as I am nowadays (concerning the music industry) I didn't know any names. One of them used to be the drummer for Iggy Pop... at least, one name I knew ;). Ask me something easy. (who is Jason Timberlake...wait...ehm...Timberland....ok, I guess, never mind...I can't even keep up with in-your-face-all-the-time pop culture).
Anyway, I promised Gammon I'll be there Sunday. Little did I know the Sunday event was set for 10pm in Brooklyn (gasp). I couldn't skip that one. Tired as I was today (got up 7am), I made myself some strong coffee, called everyone I know to please come join me on the long ride as to not fall asleep behind wheel, and finally got my friend Jessie to volunteer. Introduced (?) some more caffeine to system in form of Red Bull (that's why I'm still freaking up and typing, thank you very much) and hit the road. Getting there wasn't too hard; a bit unsettling (creepy but apparently hip neighborhood....well, maybe by day-light) but not too hard; To get into the building of the party we had to type in a code which we got from a voicemail number I copied from the web. It looked like an old (abandoned) ware-house building but once we stepped into the loft where the event was set, we entered a world of high-tech overload. Everyone was sitting or standing around with laptops, synthesizers, musical instruments, video cameras, projectors, and other gear. There were three screens to project the videos, which were being produced by the guests and the room was filled with music which seemed like a jamming session of electronic frequencies...surprisingly pleasing to the groove-nerves... There were maybe 40 or 50 people. I ran into Gammon and he informed me that I, once again, had missed a very cool performance of Thilges3...but, of course, he was happy I came down, regardless.

So, Jessie and I sat down on the floor and listened to the next group, which started just a few minutes after the general jam-session people where having. I quit smoking years ago but I lit a cigarette to puff on (yes, I still like the taste) just because I could. The performing duo was absolutely fantastic.
It was just a woman singing (adding beats and other sounds with her i-book), accompanied by a guy on an e-guitar (or..shit, was it a bass? this is embarrassing... I don't remember...all I know is that he also manipulated the sound of his instrument.... but I was so captured by this woman's beautiful voice, I barely paid attention to the guy. They call themselves "Gustav" ... and they reminded me a little bit of "Portishead".) .... click here to listen a bit

Anyway, so now it's almost 3 o'clock in the morning and I have so much caffeine in my system I could probably break night. I already walked the dog, cleaned the kitchen, got ready for bed... oh well, I guess I'll be surfing the net for a bit more.
so long ma' peeps. ;)