Had a really fun time (or as the irish say, good craic) last night at Mickey John’s in Queens. My friend Joey had a surprise party for her mom who had just arrived from Ireland to visit. Joey hired an accordian player who sang and played some old irish tunes. There were a bunch of us, and all of a sudden one of the guys says, maybe I’ll play my Uilleann pipes! It was so cool, and definitely not something you see everyday. I guess they are sort of similar to bagpipes except that you pump air into them instead of blowing. The sound is rich and haunting.

We all danced irish jigs and “jived” (swing danced). It was a blast. Then his brother sang some irish tunes a capella about the hardships of moving away from Ireland to live in a new country and they almost made me cry!

In the cab back home DD and I talked about how unique and wonderful the night had been. DD said that the songs were so much more poignant when sang by an Irishman who had emigrated over to America.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the movie “Crash” but I think the line when Sandra Bullock’s character says “I am angry all the time… and I don’t know why.” was such an interesting statement. Because I feel that way a lot of the time, just angry.

There is something about modern life, the fast-pacedness of it, and the anonomity of it, that leaves us feeling totally alienated and angry. We just want to lash out at other people because we don’t know what to do with the feeling. There’s a lack of feeling that we’re connected to others and responsible for the welfare of the world.

I don’t have all the answers to it but I do think it starts by looking within and asking yourself if what you’re doing is helping mankind or if you’re just selling your talents and your soul away. You have to do a lot of soul-searching and stop sleepwalking through life to break out of the cycle of anger. Anger’s like a subtle (or not so subtle) knocking at the door saying that something’s not right, and that you’re compromising your values.

Went to see the Charlatans tuesday night, a great British band who has had many many albums out since I last listened to them in the 1990s. I need to catch up! Leader singer Tim Burgess is still really hot with his indie-swagger. The band sounded great and played such old school hits as “The only one I know” and “Can’t get out of Bed”. Some of their new stuff sounded good as well, and had a reggae influence. I had not been to Webster Hall in about ten years, the last show I saw there was Quicksand, and memories of that show flooded back. It was really fun, and my friend Eddie and I did some shots so we were feeling pretty good. We really got right up there near the front of the stage where Eddie got some good pics.

Last night in art therapy class we watched an HBO Special on the Living Museum, an open artist studio located at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens. It was a fascinating look at a unique approach to art therapy. The inpatients walk over to a large artist studio on the facility which is contained within a giant warehouse. This gives the patients ample room to create giant works of art if they like. The patients live with a variety of severe mental illnesses, but in the Living Museum, they’re just treated with respect as artists.

And they are having an opening with works from the patients at Dabora Gallery in Greenpoint on June 5th! (Read on …)