Scenes From An Evening

5:30. Phone rings.
"Why aren't you at your neighborhood bar?" the caller asks. Because I'm at home? It's the charming Nicholas, in town for rehearsal and a performance and assuring me I want to come meet him and his friend. Off I go to the B @ B to enjoy conversation with worthy conversational partners, including the astutely politically savvy friend. Highlight: Nicholas telling me, "You should put video on your blog. You ought to be on TV."

7:15. Chop Suey Books.
Authors Joanna Smith Rakoff ("A Fortunate Age") and Dylan Landis ("Normal People Don't Live Like This") read from their new works of fiction, one a novel and the other a short story collection and both quite compelling. I always appreciate hearing a writer's words in their own voice and these two were no exception. Both books grabbed the listener and put them right into the story. Highlight: An audience member breastfed during the reading, prompting Rakoff to share a time when she brought her infant to a reading in Soho and ended up having to breastfeed during the taped interview afterwards to quiet the baby. Her breast ended up on Japanese TV.

10:00. Six Burner.
Prabir Mehta (minus the Substitutes) and two musicians, Treesa (on violin) and Matt (on upright double bass), both from the Richmond Symphony, playing new material written for the occasion. The music was well crafted with a classical bent and full of hooks, as Prabir does so well. They finished with a superb rendition of "Eleanor Rigby." Highlight: Being told, "Don't stop wearing fishnets. You are working those fishnets," by a random attendee.

12:15. Catherine Street
Finally meeting the new neighbor whom I'd been told was as enthusiastic about J-Ward as I am. He was. His wife was already asleep, but I hope to meet her soon. Highlight: An unexpected and most enjoyable twenty-minute conversation at midnight with a person I didn't know when I began my day...and yet we had plenty to talk about.

Just another day in the life.