We woke up this morning to cloudy skies with a little rain. We met Hannah at Columbia for lunch. On another visit I had seen this little restaurant called Community Food and Juice that serves organic food. There had been a long line of people waiting outside. I wanted to eat there so we tried it. It was good but the pictures on their website must have been taken ten years ago because now it looks like lots of college students have sat in their chairs, eaten at their tables and drunk coffee out of their big mugs. There are lots of places in the neighborhood for Hannah to eat. (Columbia does not offer cafeteria service during the summer.) Not long ago she was telling us about a sushi place she had found and how cheap it was. There was a long menu list of what she had gotten for $8. However, she says she will not be going back; she and another guy in the program had bad repercussions. The art department chair said he had been going there for 30 years and had never had a problem but he was rethinking that decision. Another interesting little thing about restaurants in the city: the sanitation department grades them and then posts their grade in the front window. I haven't noticed anything below a B but I have seen several grades pending signs. Hannah was actually going to get a home cooked meal tonight. One of her BU friends is working up here this summer and his parents just moved to Brooklyn and they are cooking for Hannah and several of the BU NYC contingent.
Tonight Tony and I went to hear Roberta Flack at BB King's. Several days ago we had walked over to the box office of a show called 4000 Miles which the day before had gotten a great review in the NY Times. The tickets were only $20 so we thought we should see it. The ENTIRE RUN was sold out! I don't know if that says more about the power of a good review in the Times or of a $20 play ticket! But the box office was near BB King's
where we saw the sign for Roberta Flack.
Roberta walked out on the stage with a little help from one of the backup singers. She had on a long, funky Donna Karan dress (she mentioned it; that's the only reason I know) and black platform shoes. She sat at the piano and dove right into Feel Like Making Love. She is older but still has that deep, smokey voice of the 70's. (Speaking of, everyone in the place was either our age or older. We told Hannah at lunch that day we were all excited about going to hear her, and she looked across the table at us with this blank expression. Me: Roberta Flack? Killing Me Softly? The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face? Really? I even sang a few bars. Nothing.)
She sang for only an hour. She had another show at 10:30. She did all the favorites: Killing Me Softly, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Here Comes the Sun (she's working on a new album of Beatles' songs which she plans to call Let It Be Roberta.)
We snapped this picture of her while we were backstage visiting with her before the show. (Just kidding.) I wanted to find a picture that looked something like she did last night. Her hair is right in this picture but she looks a good bit younger here.
The Times Square area was still crazy at 10:00pm but the lights made it look like noon. It wasn't raining but very foggy and no moon or stars in sight.
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