Moonie and I hit The Mediator Stage a couple nights ago to see Boston-based singer Lisa Marie and her “All Shook Up” pal John Juxo.
Before the show, Moonie wanted a “moonie” (selfie) in front of the Mediator stage, so we popped upstairs for a better view. It’s a cool space, yes?
There’s a great non-profit, Resources for Human Development, that believes that art “breaks the barriers between people with and without disabilities.” A friend of mine had been an art therapist at RHD-RI for years, and I still love going to their shows and concerts to see what fun and beautiful and interesting things their clients have created.
This month RHD-RI has been collaborating with The Drawing Room, a Providence venue founded by photographer and artist John Jacobson to “promote drawing locally, regionally and nationally in all its glorious forms.” Together RHD-RI and The Drawing Room created “Drawn Together by Chance: A Collaboration Featuring Modified Oblique Strategies.”
Moonie and I checked out their closing reception Thursday evening and loved the scribbles, sayings and drawings that covered every inch of the Drawing Room’s long white walls. Moonie even learned a few things.
Then he studied some of the art adorning the smaller, un-scribbled-on walls.
I hadn’t heard of Red Nose Day, which is apparently an annual fundraiser where comics use entertainment to raise money for those in poverty. It sounded like a decent cause, so Moonie and I kicked in a bit to the campaign at a local pharmacy, whose cashier sported a red felt mustache and red bow tie, and she gave him this swell red nose sticker to wear for Red Nose Day. Oh BOY! He can’t wait to put it on!
Here goes–Oh.
Oh, Moonie.
I think it’s maybe a little big for you, buddy.
Moonie is my buddy. My pal. My guy. My sidekick.
But I still wouldn’t recommend playing pool with him.
He’s too little to lift the big long heavy cue sticks, so instead he’ll run around the table rolling each ball by hand and giggling like a maniac. And he isn’t entirely interested in the rules so much as the fun, so he’ll happily scratch the cue ball or sink the 8 ball before he’s finished getting the solids and stripes into the holes.
It’s cute to watch him running around with the balls, but it sure takes a loooong time to play a game, and you’ll probably end up with a grumpy line of biker dudes waiting for you and Moonie to finish.
Maybe play chess instead. If you’re OK with him trying to ride the knight pieces like horsies, that is.
Oh boy! The Killdevils played on Sunday at Oak Hill Tavern. These guys haven’t gotten together to play in so long that Moonie and I just had to trek down to North Kingstown for this show.
First we giggled at the sign. The space in “Killdevils” made it look more like a directive than a band name.
Then Moonie checked out the Killdevils’ instruments – you know, to make sure they were safe for musicians Chris Monti and Jake Haller, not because he liked to stand on them and pretend he was surfing.
He’s a giver like that.
Jacob Haller is nothing if not modest. “But Moonie already posted about me,” he pointed out when I suggested a photo of the two guys getting along.
“Yeah, but that was your album ‘Cabin Fever’ arriving in the mail, not you personally.”
He agreed with that and agreed to a photo. He’s a pretty agreeable guy. I like his bluesy folk music, as does Moonie, and his sharp wit, but I also like how down to earth Jake is, whether he’s chilling out to “Dr. Who” episodes or knitting a stegosaurus (yes, really, he can knit dinosaurs). It was good of him to stop between sets and pose with my nude lil’ dude.
He even let Moonie sing a couple of numbers.
Jocie Adams is amazing. A graduate of Brown University, she once worked for NASA (which I guess means she could be among the few people to respond with, “Well, actually, yeah” if ever asked the playground retort, “What are you, a rocket scientist?”), but she wasn’t afraid to follow her real calling, music. She’s a classical composer who plays everything from clarinet to organ to dulcimer to guitar. Her voice is absolutely beautiful, and she has made great music with her old band, The Low Anthem, and delved into cool and interesting new territory with her new band, Arc Iris. All that talent and brains and beauty could go to a person’s head, but Jocie seems totally sweet and down to earth, and she’s a big cat lover to boot. These were all good reasons to have her and Moonie meet.
Moonie all but swooned when Jocie found a plant that matched his hair.
Each year, the Southside Community Land Trust holds a big, all-weekend-long “rare and unusual” plant sale. Even plants that seem normal and innocuous have special SCLT powers. In past years, we’ve brought home raspberries that fruited twice a year instead of once, or digitalis that grew lush and beautiful and psychedelic enough to turn anything in our yard into a drug addict. In addition to the fabulous plants of all shapes and sizes, grouped by sun vs. shade vs. fruits and veggies and herbs and others, the plant sale boasts free music. I’ve joined my favorite local band, The ‘Mericans, on their annual plant sale set several times, as it’s impossible even for me to get stage fright playing a low-key setting in front of a tree and a chicken coop.
Moonie was really quite taken with those chickens, by the way.
Also with the random items that were being reused as planters around the property.
Moonie and I didn’t get any photos of Marc Douglas Berardo when we saw him at Tupelo Music Hall, so after Waterfire on Saturday night we headed down to MDB’s favorite haunt, Perks & Corks in Westerly, to catch his hometown show. He and his pals Ken Serio, John White and Sandy Allen were rocking by the time we walked in, and even people outside the building caught some of the joy from their noise.
Sandy Allen provided great slide action next to us. Moonie was fascinated.
When MDB and friends stopped for a break, we asked Ken Serio if it was OK for Moonie to take a photo with his percussion instruments. Ken gave us the green light, and Moonie hopped right up.
One of the most wonderful things about Providence is WaterFire, which started as an art installation in 1994 by artist Barnaby Evans to help celebrate First Night Providence and which has grown in scope and size every year since. Saturday night was the first partial WaterFire to kick off the season thanks to a sponsorship by Volvo. It was also a good trial run for Moonie, as it featured fewer fires, fewer people, and fewer food and drink to stimulate the senses than a full WaterFire lighting, which can easily draw ten thousand people and hundreds of vendors and performers. I wanted to make sure he’d be OK with the smaller version before I blew his mind with a full WaterFire.
We got there just in time for WaterFire crew members to float by us one of their boats, lighting the braziers full of wood on fire. Great timing!
Hey, Moonie, look what’s coming toward us. A boat with a pretty lady on it!
But not just any pretty lady. This one was dancing with fire!
moonieandme 