You see things here…

There was the 45 year old Turkish woman, big breasted, dark eyes, dark hair, smoking a cigarette, who sat down next to me on a bench in front of the CBS building and asked me if I wanted a “massage and some companionship.” We talked some more. I told her no thank you, that I was meeting a friend in a few minutes to play a board game. This was true. But I took her number. Talk about a fantasy she would be. I’ve never had Turkish. So this is must when I get the time.

The lady all dressed up in black pantsuit swaggering down the sidewalk totally wasted. Like any minute she was going to stumble over and fall face first onto the ground and never wake up. she was mumbling to herself very grumpily. Just totally wasted.

This girl standing on the corner at union square crying, just a little girl, maybe 18, ‘can any of you please spare some loose change. The guys in my band shied away from her but I came up to her and asked her are you having a bad night and she said yes a very bad night. I took out a ten and gave it to her. it was all I had. aren’t you broke man my bandmates asked me. I am now I answered. I then hugged her and reminded her to pray to ask God for help and he would help her. it stayed with me all night. the desperation on her face. The pure sadness.

it reminded me of when I was a young struggling artist. Although I was never hooked on any major drugs like she obviously was I was still totally down and out and I know that God has infinite compassion and understanding for whoever we are and where ever we are in our lives. He knows and he accepts and he is always there for us ready to pull us out when we are ready.

The seven year old kid who knocks on our apartment door for a half hour while we are trying to sleep. Finally he just walks in and goes up to the edge of my bed. He wakes me up I swear to go I don’t even know this kid and asks me if I play the guitar. I say yes in complete shock. He then asks me if I will teach him guitar. I politely tell him that yes I will but that he will have to wait till we wake up. that musicians sleep very late in the day and that it is better if he doesn’t just walk in to strange apartments like that. crazy. only in New York.

There is the garbage issue here too that is totally out of the twilight zone. Today I received a ticket for improper disposal of my garbage because some garbage cop assumedly found 1 can and two plastic bottles in a clear plastic bag rather than a blue or black bag.

So you can’t throw away cans bottles or plastic or glass or aluminum of any kind. O.k. that’s actually cool if you can figure out where to get these special bags from. But you also cannot throw away cardboard boxes either. So my apartment is filling up with them. these big boxes. Because supposedly you have to tear them apart and then flatten them and then tie them up with string or twine whatever the hell that is. and where the hell are we supposed to buy that from…. this place is nuts.

A camera, I need a video camera around me and on me at all times here. the rest of the country will never believe what it is like here. it is a world all its own.