Future Shock

Carnegie Hall. Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Gonzolo Rubalcaba and more. And I...I was bored to tears.

Okay, see, this is why I shouldn’t talk about music. Again, what do I know? With all of those elements how could I have been so completely unmoved? I knew there was a chance I’d be slightly disappointed because somehow, when a performer stands on the Carnegie stage, there’s an immediate divide between he and the audience; maybe it’s just too grand. But it wasn’t only that. This three-hour show was like witnessing a gathering of top Nobel Prize Winning heart surgeons in fancy suits who were waiting to receive their awards. But I want to see them out in the fields and on the front lines. I want to see them with their sleeves rolled up, sweating, cutting it open and transforming life. There were smiles on the artist’s faces, but the joy didn’t translate. They were playing but not playful. David pointed out that they performed as if they had nothing to prove, and when you start doing that, you should just hang it up.

When the show was over the standing ovation was like none I’d ever seen: like the roaring of ten thousand lions and the stomping of ten thousand bulls. David and I looked at each other in dismay. Could it be we were the only two people in the hall who thought the evening was less than stellar?

After a walk to 8th Avenue and a leisurely cup of coffee, it was past midnight by the time we headed home. We saw a sign for a palm reader and I ran up the steps and rang the bell. We went inside and Madam whoever said she was going to read my mind. “Oh, please don’t,” I said. "Then let's look into the future," she said, and she predicted I would have three children. “Oh no I won’t!” I told her. “It’s not in your control,” she said. “Oh yes it is!” I replied. Then she said if we gave her $50, she would light a special candle for us from “The Church in Jerusalem,” (You know that church on the corner of Moses Avenue?) But we’d already spent enough money on a disappointing show that night, so I handed her $10 and the curtain came down.