We’re running local on the A train (that is, stopping at every stop), so I’m glad I left early for that reason alone. Also, though, I had a fun conversation with the other violinist on the train, John O’Malley. I’m carrying a monstrous fold-up double bass and he had a skateboard, so one of us was bound to ask the other about their story!
John busks in Central Park, having begun playing violin seven years ago. He’s applied some nous to learning, applied smart exercises, and the year-old video he shared, of Irish Soldier was very impressive. He said I was crazy to go “over there” the same way I’ve heard it’s crazy to live in NYC. He recounted stories, including a marriage proposal - a couple, walking in the park, heard violin in the distance, following the sound until they found him. After they’d been listening for twenty minutes, John looks over and the man is proposing! “I finished my piece and played some Mozart,” and in talking with the couple, they hadn’t planned on it, it just happened. Music really is affecting!
The State Department provides some support for American Voices and this project - we reflected on government projects, and people, who go in and do good. He spoke of his friend, Clay Thomas Whitehead, who as director of Telecommunications Policy in Nixon’s White House, had helped protect PBS, and had the unenviable task, before it was considered a possibility by most of the Administration, of putting together briefing books for day one of a Ford presidency, with Ford’s chief of staff. The chief of staff came to him, apparently, saying “Ford’s going to be president and he’s not ready, so we’ve got to help him.” (According to a cursory glance of the internet, that chief of staff was a young Dick Cheney, responding to news from Alexander Haig, Ford’s chief of staff.)
A fun conversation, in short. John got off a while ago, but I’m still on the subway, writing this. The train diverted along other lines, and I could have changed trains for a quicker route services, but the combination of bass, suitcase, violin and bag make me want as few transfers as possible!
I’m posting this with the view of Manhattan in the distance, on the elevated AirTrain at JFK. It’s a beautiful morning, I think a good day for flying, I hope.