Back to Blogging: The Return of Ron Dagan

Before I lose all the new traffic I received thanks to my Fan Site of the Month nod on Jambands.com, I figured I better post something here. So I’m going to try to fill up this space with a few short snapshots of my daily life here in New York each morning. I’m going to try to work my way up to daily again, but I’ve said that more times than Deep Banana Blackout has gone on hiatus. Anyway, here is goes:

Last night was the first Saturday in as long as I can remember that I actually spent in New York City without some sort of obligation, so, naturally, I tried to pack the evening with enough random activities that I felt sufficiently stressed. I started the day having brunch, err lunch, with my friend from high school Chris in the West Village. Now, Chris is one of those friends that I never see often enough, but with whom I always have a great time talking about life. But since we tend to only see each other once or twice a semester, the first half of our conversation always feels like a job interview: we go over our recent resumes, talk about our goals, namedrop a few mutual references and finally agree to call each other in a week or two. Of course since we’ve both been keeping up on each other's progress via the Internet, most of this is a formality, but regardless it's nice to know that I can get a Cliff Notes look at my good friends' lives in less time than it takes to prepare a two cheese omelet (hash browns, no toast)

Latter in the day, after popping into the Relix office for a few hours, I had dinner with my friend Jenny and went to see a Galactic/RSJ2 show at Roseland. Of all my friends in NYC Jenny has assumed the big sister role and regularly gives me advice on shopping, cloths, girls and all the other things I’m not very good at dealing with. We have a natural rapport and are both extremely neurotic, so if anyone wants to know any more about our friendship, how we are like brother and sister or the last 8 people either of us have dated, I'm sure the waiters at this fine Mexican restaurant can give you a nice recap in any number of languages.

Galactic was fun, though I still find it odd that I have friends who have seen them upwards on 30 times and still can't name a single song, and after the show I attended two unrelated birthday parties which happened to both take place at the same bar in the Lower East Side (New York's a surprisingly small place when you refuse to leave a ten block radius after 11 PM) But the best part of the whole night was when a friend of mine walked in from a Ron Dagan concert at the Canal Room. In case I am speaking Wet Hot American Summer to you, Ron Dagan is a kids folk singer whose tour schedule reads like the Directory of North American Jewish Summer Camps and, more than anyone else, is probably responsible for seeding both the 1990s jam and indie-rock scenes outside some canteen in upstate New York, New Hampshire, Maine or Pennsylvania. I had no idea he was still playing music, let alone the Canal Room, and think we should pare him with Michael Franti or at least Matisyahu at the Jammys this spring. Then again the show probably would start way after lights out in my bunk...