Yeah, so it's been a while. Well, when I get my new computer in about a week, I should be better.
Yesterday Ben and Eduardo came over for a visit from Boston. They had a traumatic time getting here and a more traumatic but luckily brief stay at a "hotel" which shall not be named here, but if you ask me I'll tell you. Ask me before you come here.
They did manage to get a room at the good ole' Hotel Newton, though. And then we had a marvelous breakfast at Caffe Con Leche and wandered around Times Square before I bid them farewell at the door to Urinetown, the musical. Ben tells me the CD is wonderful. I think I might want to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Asheley Judd or The Boy from Oz with Hugh Jackman. Ha, like I can afford the tickets. ..

But afterward going down into the subway I had one of those, wow, this really is New York moments. A crowd had filled about a 1/3 of the concourse, at least a 100 strong, to gather around 5 of the most amazing drummers I have ever seen perform on the street. These guys were *good*. Three bongo drummers, one with a shaker of some kind, and two bucket-stick drummers. They got a paint bucket filled with cash and whooping applause from the crowd which I think was not purely tourists. I haven't been able to figure out who they are exactly. I saw that their CD said something like I&I on it. Any ideas?

I did my police ride a-long this week, and I can't publish what happened, but if you know me, ask me the next time we talk, b/c a couple of amusing and interesting things did happen. Suffice it to say that I now have a big interest in the current state of the "Drug Epidemic" in New York.