So, to be completely honest, Pete Seeger was *not* at the concert last night. The ticket-buyer was a bit misled. It was a tribute to Pete’s 90th birthday. It was a great concert anyway. A bunch of local folk musicians sang songs written by or otherwise related to Pete and encouraged the audience to sing along. The interactiveness helped me stay awake longer than usual. I am sorry but I have a really hard time staying awake sitting in an audience. Especially at night. I made it through the first half pretty well. Intermission was tough. I didn’t have the psychic stamina to hang out in the crowded lobby and by the time the second half began, I was struggling to keep my eyes open and dying of thirst. I managed to make it all the way to the ending We Shall Overcome, then we snuck out the back door of the building into the relief of the cool night air and home. And then I couldn’t get to sleep. That good old second wind kicking in, of course.

One of the reasons I live on the Planet Ann Arbor is because I love this city so much, especially the downtown area. We used to visit my cousins here when I was a kid and they lived on Crest, right around the corner from Slauson Junior High, where Pooh and Jay went to school. We would drive down from Yooperland every fall to see a football game and Pooh and I would walk downtown on Saturday morning before the game. Downtown Ann Arbor seemed like heaven to me with all of its beautiful stores and restaurants. Sometimes it is hard to believe that I have ended up living here as an adult for so many years, working, raising the beach urchins here, hanging around schools and theatres with them, driving grubby little urchins all over town, sending them off to college and beyond, working again. Etc.

I realized last night that it has been ages since I have been downtown, except for when I meet MWBB for breakfast at the Broken Egg and that’s on the very edge of downtown. Other than that and a few quick and dirty xmas shopping forays, I have been avoiding the downtown area for years. I’m not totally sure why. I used to love it down there. Now that I am “old” and am working “outside the home” full time and deal with property “up north”, etc., I do know that when I am *not* working or out of town, I just wanna be home. I don’t need anything from downtown and there are coffee shops and the Plum Market and just about anything I need within walking distance here on the west side. But it was kind of fun last night once I got settled down a bit. A not-too-crowded night. Eating at a table in the front of the Red Hawk, watching people, window shopping, checking out some old theatre haunts, like the Trueblood, which is gone and being replaced by the monstrosity in the photo. And the Lydia Mendelsson, may she stand forever! Tonight? Knight’s.

G’night,
KW

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 6:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.