Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com. It beats listening to nothing.
Speaker 2: My goodness, it's being Frank, where the only way to
Speaker 2: be is Frank. Hello, everyone in, welcome to being Frank.
Speaker 2: We're the only way to be is Frank. I'm your host, Frank.
Speaker 2: Well going on, and I'd like to thank you for
Speaker 2: joining us on what we like to call the Intelligent
Speaker 2: Conversation podcast, where no conversations out of bounds and all
Speaker 2: points of view are welcome. Regular listeners are aware of
Speaker 2: our routine, and that is to record live to tape.
Speaker 2: And I give you the date so you have some
Speaker 2: context and irrelevance is the eleventh of December.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: The county in which I live in. This podcast streams
Speaker 2: from Rockland is outside of New York City, geographically the
Speaker 2: smallest in the state of New York. Yet despite its
Speaker 2: diminutive stature, it produces some of the finest musical talent
Speaker 2: found anywhere in the country. In addition, these musicians have
Speaker 2: always been willing to lend their considerable talents to charitable causes,
Speaker 2: and rarely will you find more talent or a better
Speaker 2: cause than this weekend's twenty ninth edition of Blankfest at
Speaker 2: the Hudson House of Nayak. Don't worry a gang, We'll
Speaker 2: have plenty of details coming up shortly. For an entire day,
Speaker 2: you can enjoy great music for the simple admission price
Speaker 2: of a blanket that will then be distributed to the
Speaker 2: less fortunate on Christmas Eve. In the previous twenty eight years,
Speaker 2: the event has resulted in over twenty thousand blankets being
Speaker 2: donated to the homeless, with a total bound to increase
Speaker 2: with this year's haul. Well, now it's time to meet
Speaker 2: four key members of the team that works so incredibly
Speaker 2: hard to make Blankfest happen. And I suppose the best
Speaker 2: way is to start at the so called top. But
Speaker 2: the man who originated this wonderful event those twenty nine
Speaker 2: years ago, and despite the enormous challenges, continues it today.
Speaker 2: As well as as many other skills. He may be
Speaker 2: best known as the front man for the progressive rock
Speaker 2: band The Bag Daddy OS one of my favorite titles
Speaker 2: of a band. I love it. I'm gonna introduce him
Speaker 2: and let him tell us about the other very special
Speaker 2: guests he's brought with him, and indeed they are special,
Speaker 2: and we're gonna have some intelligent conversation right here at
Speaker 2: being Frank. Let's welcome back, mister Ken Row Ken. Thank
Speaker 2: you for joining us. It's a busy week for you.
Speaker 2: I'm sure it is.
Speaker 3: It is a crazy week to say the least. And
Speaker 3: thank you Frank for making room for us this busy,
Speaker 3: busy pre Blankfest week.
Speaker 2: You know, it's always my pleasure. It's it's such a
Speaker 2: wonderful event. It's a fun event. It's great to have
Speaker 2: you guys on to talk about it. So let before
Speaker 2: we get into the nuts and bolts, if you will
Speaker 2: of it, let's talk to I said, you brought very
Speaker 2: special guests, allowing you to introduce them. Since you know
Speaker 2: them so well, you know, I can give you a bio,
Speaker 2: but you tell us about them and how important they
Speaker 2: are to this event.
Speaker 4: I'm good. I'm gonna go.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with chronological order, by order of whom
Speaker 3: I met and when I first married.
Speaker 4: I first met Chuck to.
Speaker 3: Brune many many years ago, when we were both residents
Speaker 3: in the Nayac area and he was fronting a lovely
Speaker 3: band called The Horse She rooted in on. I went
Speaker 3: to go see them at the bottom Line and I
Speaker 3: was completely hooked. And I've been a fan ever since,
Speaker 3: and I've been a friend even longer. As a matter
Speaker 3: of fact, he was bartending the night the Bag Daddys
Speaker 3: were playing a show down at a little club in
Speaker 3: Nyack that since departed called my place, and I said,
Speaker 3: you know, wouldn't be kind of neat if we had
Speaker 3: a show where we could have click blankets at the
Speaker 3: door and give him to the homeless. And then I
Speaker 3: forgot about it for ten days, and after another show,
Speaker 3: I walked in to a bar ordered a drink, and
Speaker 3: Chuck came up to me and said, you know that
Speaker 3: idea you had about that show, that's a great idea.
Speaker 3: You should follow through on that. And that's how Blankfest
Speaker 3: was born. So that's our first guest is Chuck de Brune.
Speaker 3: Our second book is Chuck.
Speaker 2: Welcome. We're gonna hear from you and and see if
Speaker 2: you will verify that story for us. So welcome, Welcome
Speaker 2: to being Frank.
Speaker 1: Thanks Frank.
Speaker 2: Ken, he's up there. Okay, my pleasure. We're gonna talk
Speaker 2: plenty in just a minute. We'll get through the introductions. Ken,
Speaker 2: Who's up next?
Speaker 4: Next up?
Speaker 3: One night the Bag Daddys were playing at the hallowed
Speaker 3: birthplace of Punk's CBGB, and there was another band on
Speaker 3: the build called Thrust. I struck up a conversation with
Speaker 3: someone in the band, and she was telling me about
Speaker 3: all the wonderful things she had going on, including an
Speaker 3: art exhibit at the now Departed. It was on Avenue A,
Speaker 3: and I can't remember the name of place. Bar wasn't
Speaker 3: called bar A, was it, Patty? I'm sorry, Well, you
Speaker 3: remember your art exhibit it was at Yes, it was.
Speaker 5: Called Oh, I can't believe I can't remember. That's weird.
Speaker 5: It was ninety four, and for some reason, I was
Speaker 5: very much bolder than I'll just walk up to anybody.
Speaker 5: Where's latch? Who's latch? Give me an R two?
Speaker 4: Yeah, like you know that.
Speaker 3: So actually, Neil and I came down to check out
Speaker 3: your art show. We got cards and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: And then about a month later, I walked into a
Speaker 3: latch show as a matter of fact, and I said,
Speaker 3: whatever happened to Patty Rothberg? And he said, well, you
Speaker 3: didn't hear about her. And usually when somebody says something
Speaker 3: like that, it usually means that something bad has happened.
Speaker 3: But he said, she's big time now. She's going to
Speaker 3: be on the Tonight show. And I was like what.
Speaker 3: And that's how I found out you've been signed by
Speaker 3: EMI and that you had an album coming out between
Speaker 3: one and nine. And I got my whole family to
Speaker 3: stay up and watch you guys play on the Tonight Show.
Speaker 3: I still have the VHS tape somewhere in our home.
Speaker 2: And yeah, we're giving away. It's a while ago since
Speaker 2: it's on VHS.
Speaker 5: David Letterman is now Santa Claus and Jaylen.
Speaker 3: I was like, they've all morphed into.
Speaker 4: Wasp icons of holidays past.
Speaker 5: It's true, but it did happen, so all the way
Speaker 5: you said it happened.
Speaker 2: Patty Wanner. Thank you for joining us here. We haven't
Speaker 2: met previously, so I've seen you at Blanket Fast It's me,
Speaker 2: yes up here up top. You can't see us, but
Speaker 2: we can see each other. Yes, that's me. I'm celebrating again.
Speaker 2: People can't see us, but I figured i'd set the mood.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us. We talk to you a
Speaker 2: little bit more a little more detail about blank Fest
Speaker 2: and your involvement, but can I know you've got somebody
Speaker 2: special you want to talk about now too, So yes,
Speaker 2: look at that last.
Speaker 3: Last but certainly not least especially in my life. It
Speaker 3: was way way way back in twenty twelve when I
Speaker 3: was aimless and rudderless and I met a lovely, lovely
Speaker 3: lady who charmed the hell out of me. She made
Speaker 3: me want to clean up my act. I'm still working
Speaker 3: on it. And in the meantime, we got married and
Speaker 3: I got a chance to do something that has been
Speaker 3: very very close to me, which is I collaborate with
Speaker 3: someone I love very very much. She is not just
Speaker 3: my wife, but she's a wonderful bilingual poet, and she's
Speaker 3: the brains behind this whole operation. And she and actually,
Speaker 3: on our one month anniversary of being a couple, she
Speaker 3: actually rode with me up to Nayak from Queen's while
Speaker 3: David Tanner, who will be at Blankfast, helped us set
Speaker 3: up all the equipment. So she's been with me every
Speaker 3: step of the way ever since.
Speaker 4: I guess it was.
Speaker 3: Blankfast, Blankfast seventeen, Blankfast sixteen. Her name is miss Yvon
Speaker 3: sodamayor Oh.
Speaker 2: My hells, I hello, thank you once again. You were
Speaker 2: with us last year and you're back and you're going
Speaker 2: to read a couple of poems for us at.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 2: Always, it's it's always it's in need my pleasure. Guys,
Speaker 2: let's talk a little bit about you know, your involvement,
Speaker 2: how you got involved with with blank Fest. You know, Chuck,
Speaker 2: why don't we we start with you. We got a
Speaker 2: little bit of the short story about it, but tell
Speaker 2: us a little bit more detail. How you first got
Speaker 2: involved with blank Fest.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Ken kind of nailed it. We we had a
Speaker 6: conversation or two about it, and uh, coincidentally at that time,
Speaker 6: my grandparents had passed or my my grandfather had passed away,
Speaker 6: and we were cleaning out his house and they had
Speaker 6: a pretty big house and they had a lot of blankets,
Speaker 6: and uh, I just threw them all the back of
Speaker 6: my car.
Speaker 1: And uh, what did we raised the first year? Ken?
Speaker 4: Was it forty blankets? And I think you brought most
Speaker 4: of them.
Speaker 1: I think I brought twenty of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but go ahead, Yeah, it was it was it was.
Speaker 6: Uh, you know, when we first talked, I started talking
Speaker 6: about it and I love I love the idea of
Speaker 6: being charitable, and I'm also a bit of a cynic
Speaker 6: and I think some of the charities could be better
Speaker 6: run and there could be waste cut from some of
Speaker 6: them and administration costs. The great thing about Blankfest is
Speaker 6: there is none of that. It's twelve hours of music.
Speaker 6: And I should also say to anybody who's planning to attend,
Speaker 6: you don't have to go buy a blanket. There's one
Speaker 6: in your closet, in your guest room that nobody has
Speaker 6: touched in five ten years.
Speaker 1: Just take that one.
Speaker 6: This is about taking the things we don't need and
Speaker 6: give them to the people that really need them. And
Speaker 6: I would also like to emphasize that these blankets get
Speaker 6: distributed on Christmas Eve, and without fail, for twenty nine
Speaker 6: or twenty eight soon to be twenty nine years ten
Speaker 6: organizes people to go down and hand them out to
Speaker 6: New York City's homeless on Christmas Eve. The sacrifice and
Speaker 6: the generosity and the caring, I there is no better
Speaker 6: charity in my eyes here.
Speaker 2: You make a couple of great points there. I think, Chuck,
Speaker 2: that we should emphasize the fact that it's truly hands on.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's an exchange. You bring the blanket, you
Speaker 2: give it to, you know, to somebody. It's stored for
Speaker 2: a little bit upstairs, then it's stored until Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2: Then literally a crew of people come and take it,
Speaker 2: so there's very little overhead, if you will. Everything is
Speaker 2: directly given to those who need it, so that you know,
Speaker 2: that's I think a really great point yep.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also an amazing day of music.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Again, people have to realize it's all day long,
Speaker 2: it's a variety of music, and we're gonna get into
Speaker 2: it a little bit. I'll allow Ken to give the
Speaker 2: lineup that we can expect and in just a bit,
Speaker 2: but I want to get to Patty too. Patty, talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about your involvement. How you first, you know,
Speaker 2: heard about this crazy idea of performing and for blankets.
Speaker 2: If you were, what did you think about it at first?
Speaker 2: How did you first become involved?
Speaker 5: Okay, well, first I'd like to say I remember the
Speaker 5: day I met Ken, I was playing with this crazy
Speaker 5: tribal industrial band, which that genre has not continued. I mean,
Speaker 5: you know they say, like, for example, the band White
Speaker 5: Leg is very popular right now, and they say, oh,
Speaker 5: they were just screwing around, and no, no, no, they
Speaker 5: weren't screwing around. Thrust was like we were banging on stuff,
Speaker 5: we were wearing body glitter, and you know, we were
Speaker 5: sex positive and we were going to make a statement.
Speaker 5: And meanwhile, there were some women who chose to be nude,
Speaker 5: topless mostly and the guys would just come to gawk.
Speaker 5: Of course, So and Ken was not one of those guys.
Speaker 5: Of course, he was a gentleman who was shielding his
Speaker 5: eyes and waiting for his bride to be I'm just
Speaker 5: trying to repeat it, like I remember how.
Speaker 2: Much how much.
Speaker 5: This is the graphs roots operation money is only there's
Speaker 5: no bitcoin here, only blankets. So I remember Ken as
Speaker 5: being very bright, very smart, and like enthusiastic about his band,
Speaker 5: the back Daddios. I loved that the title of his band.
Speaker 5: And back then I was so open to any idea.
Speaker 5: I mean, if you've ever seen Thrust, this is not
Speaker 5: a commercial with Thrust gone. But and by the way,
Speaker 5: that art show it was called Math for Artists, the
Speaker 5: Wonder of Genetics, and it was a portrait show of
Speaker 5: people in pop culture who looked like to me, and
Speaker 5: then you put them together in it. But I'll just
Speaker 5: continue talking about Ken. So the first place that I
Speaker 5: remember he had he had me to his friend Neil.
Speaker 5: This is when guys still had long hair but not
Speaker 5: lipstick or you know. It was like a transitional I
Speaker 5: guess grungy phase of reality. Uh, and Ken had long hair,
Speaker 5: but yeah, that was a later phase. You were Beatles fan.
Speaker 5: I remember, of course very serious and you said, hey,
Speaker 5: I have this blank Blankets.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 5: I don't know. All I remember is going to it
Speaker 5: was not bad synops. This is not the beautiful operation
Speaker 5: that it now is. And I'm sure that is very
Speaker 5: much in part to Yvonne who came. But no, I
Speaker 5: don't know. I mean I remember we were in It
Speaker 5: looked like the Neville with a green stained, beer stained carpet.
Speaker 5: Like at the first year, since I think it was
Speaker 5: called bruck Cells, it was a different.
Speaker 2: It was Chuck's place. It started out of brook Cells.
Speaker 5: And it was just like you know, it was a
Speaker 5: little bit like Chile, if I remember. Actually they made
Speaker 5: it into a venue and it worked, and then somehow
Speaker 5: it turned into the Hudson House and it just grew
Speaker 5: and grew. Every year was more and more, and I
Speaker 5: missed maybe one year. I think I've been to every
Speaker 5: single Blankfest.
Speaker 3: Well, you were on my short list of dream performers
Speaker 3: to have at the first ever Blankfest in ninety seven,
Speaker 3: but you couldn't do it at that time, and do
Speaker 3: you remember why.
Speaker 5: I was probably on an airplane somewhere.
Speaker 3: Yes, you were. You were on tour with the Black
Speaker 3: Crows in Japan, right, did I get that right?
Speaker 4: It was Japan? Right?
Speaker 5: Actually the Black Crows was just like England and oh okay,
Speaker 5: but you know what I back then, they could It's
Speaker 5: like tomorrow you're on OPRAH just in Chicago, and then
Speaker 5: I don't know who was the brilliant prisoner put together
Speaker 5: to the itinerary, but it was like, okay, you're going
Speaker 5: to Japan and then you have to be in you know, Italy.
Speaker 5: So yeah, this is great.
Speaker 2: I love this nave dropping. It's really good, really good.
Speaker 2: And one of the names they dropped you mentioned Neil.
Speaker 2: I should clarify it. That's the mail man, Neil Richter,
Speaker 2: our engineer who's with us every week, by the way,
Speaker 2: has played. He's asked not to, you know, because we've
Speaker 2: got our conversation going so quietly back. But Neil is
Speaker 2: that's Neil Richter, that guy up behind the mic, that's him.
Speaker 8: That's me.
Speaker 5: That's amazing because I remember you.
Speaker 2: Of all the people that can remember that, I remember,
Speaker 2: that's him.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's totally amazing.
Speaker 3: To me.
Speaker 5: My new band is called the Coincidence and that's why.
Speaker 2: See as things are always happening to get big. Frank okay,
Speaker 2: ivon Or, I said, let's you know you're you're now
Speaker 2: you're on the spot as the organizer, the brains behind
Speaker 2: the operation. Tell us about your involvement. What do you
Speaker 2: do here?
Speaker 9: Ken is too generous. I support him. I count the blankets.
Speaker 9: I welcome the folks in the blankets at the Hudson House.
Speaker 9: I do get to perform the thank you very Much,
Speaker 9: my bilingual poetry in Spanish and English. So basically I'm
Speaker 9: just like the I guess, the wife behind the organizer.
Speaker 9: I may suggest some ideas or some acts, like I'm
Speaker 9: always unofficially scouting, like if we were watching a friends
Speaker 9: or shows or something, you should ask them, should ask
Speaker 9: them to perform. And sometimes you actually he has followed,
Speaker 9: and I'm trying to think of who it was, anybody,
Speaker 9: any of the acts, and then you did ask them
Speaker 9: and they came and like Fizz was one of them,
Speaker 9: that Brooklyn group, two young ladies, and I thought they
Speaker 9: were just exciting and fresh blood, and I just thought,
Speaker 9: bring that tonight, bring that to Blankfest because we need to.
Speaker 9: We need to promote the fundraiser, you know, the benefit, sorry,
Speaker 9: the benefits, because all we asked for are blankets.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 9: No money, just blankets and your beautiful smile and personality
Speaker 9: and hope for it.
Speaker 2: Really is it really is amazing. It's an amazing day.
Speaker 2: It's uh, you know, perfect for the holidays, et cetera.
Speaker 2: And now I'm going to read a little something that at
Speaker 2: the end that I think we'll tie it off together. Chuck,
Speaker 2: I want to bring you back into the discussion here.
Speaker 2: Do you have a best memory of blank Fest?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 2: What are some of your strong memories, either of your
Speaker 2: own performance or somebody else's. Is there something that sticks
Speaker 2: out in your mind?
Speaker 6: Oh my god, going on twenty nine years, Frank, there's
Speaker 6: a there's a mountain of every year is it's always
Speaker 6: a different animal, which by the way, comes with a
Speaker 6: whole slew of different challenges that we didn't anticipate.
Speaker 1: But somehow we always seem to pull it together. And
Speaker 1: when I say we, I mean ken.
Speaker 4: Everybody.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know I I love playing it. I love
Speaker 1: playing with the band that I play it with. Every year.
Speaker 6: Who hasn't I don't think we've been a band since
Speaker 6: nineteen ninety six, but we still play once or twice
Speaker 6: a year and always Blankfest. I you know, I can
Speaker 6: bring up some funny memories. Joel fell down the stairs
Speaker 6: of the Hudson House.
Speaker 2: It's long. It's a long stairwell too. That's not funny.
Speaker 2: That's a long way to go down.
Speaker 1: It's a long staircase.
Speaker 6: I can remember a couple of the shows that were
Speaker 6: at Brucksell's. At the end of the night, can Ken
Speaker 6: and I were standing there looking at the pile of
Speaker 6: blankets and he was terrified, lamenting the fact that he
Speaker 6: was going to have to count them all.
Speaker 1: There were so many. Yep, it was a fire hazard.
Speaker 2: There you go, and please relieve me of this duty. Yeah,
Speaker 2: oh my god.
Speaker 1: There. What was the biggest year? Ken? Was in the
Speaker 1: eight hundreds, I think right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was. It was over eight hundred.
Speaker 3: And that was the year when the cutting room. I
Speaker 3: knew somebody at the cutting room in New York City
Speaker 3: and they said, uh, you know what, We've got some
Speaker 3: old coats and uh and and uh, you know, stuff
Speaker 3: that had been left behind and we'd like to donate that.
Speaker 3: So everybody that year they just all threw everything in
Speaker 3: so that combined with what we did in Nayak, it
Speaker 3: topped well over eight hundred and I think that was
Speaker 3: around two thousand and two, two thousand and three.
Speaker 1: And if I can, I'll share one more thing, please
Speaker 1: do sure.
Speaker 6: Somebody who hasn't been mentioned here, who has played every
Speaker 6: blank Fest and is usually flying in from Europe on
Speaker 6: the same day of blank Fest. This guy named Joe Drso,
Speaker 6: who I think everybody on the call knows. And I've
Speaker 6: been lucky enough to do a couple of duo acoustics
Speaker 6: shows with Joe, and it's just it's it's fantastic that
Speaker 6: Joe cuts time out of his incredibly busy schedule to
Speaker 6: make it to this event.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, we invited him on this evening, but
Speaker 2: he's touring. Is in Europe, in Italy or Germany's some
Speaker 2: really cool place.
Speaker 3: Where we all get he's actually he's actually going to
Speaker 3: fly into LaGuardia on Sunday and he's and and he's
Speaker 3: done this on multiple occasions, including last year.
Speaker 10: Uh.
Speaker 4: He's basically going to get a.
Speaker 3: Car from the airport and go directly to the Hudson House.
Speaker 2: And you know, kind of dedication people. And these are
Speaker 2: really talented people, busy people get paid well often to
Speaker 2: perform and and do it for charity, for for blankets
Speaker 2: and for people who really need it.
Speaker 6: It's just that I think that says a lot about
Speaker 6: the charity and the grassroots, you know, beautiful aspect of
Speaker 6: this charity is that people at that level and including
Speaker 6: yourself right see that it's it's an important thing to support.
Speaker 1: Because this is this is really you know, human to human.
Speaker 2: People helping people in a very direct sense. Patty, Let's go,
Speaker 2: let me what's some of your memories. Is there something
Speaker 2: that sticks out in your mind a particular performance or
Speaker 2: performer associated with blank Faster.
Speaker 5: Let's see. Well, I remember when Ken and Yvonne were
Speaker 5: upstairs were actually I hate to say this, but we
Speaker 5: were making a movie but it never got finished. So
Speaker 5: that's not a guilt triper.
Speaker 1: But that.
Speaker 5: But Yvonne was there and she was just so cool
Speaker 5: and I got to know her for the first time,
Speaker 5: and I just thought those two there's some vibe there
Speaker 5: run off. But the other memories. I love going to
Speaker 5: the Blankfest. It's an annual tradition with my booker manager,
Speaker 5: Gary Barton, who is also my best friend. He's the
Speaker 5: greatest guy ever, is so funny. And we would go
Speaker 5: to the Japanese restaurant before.
Speaker 11: Because the first time we went, he accidentally knocked water,
Speaker 11: like a lot of water, like a picture all over
Speaker 11: the floor, and we were so embarrassed, but they were
Speaker 11: so nice about it.
Speaker 5: And then I think it happened again the next year.
Speaker 5: It's something those things happened. I don't know why, but
Speaker 5: but I think the second time it was just a
Speaker 5: glass and it wasn't a joke either, But so we
Speaker 5: would go. That's that's our tradition, the blankfest. We go
Speaker 5: to the Japanese restaurant, spill a little water and there's
Speaker 5: plenty of blankets to stop it all up, and then
Speaker 5: we go play no wet blankets but all together.
Speaker 2: Mix that clear.
Speaker 5: The misfits. It's unbelievable because this is the typical thing
Speaker 5: I would do. Like I was, remember Don Hill's Anyone,
Speaker 5: It was like of course, of course, so that was
Speaker 5: a club that you know, if faster was the catworn
Speaker 5: town like today, that's where they would have flit. And
Speaker 5: also the bag Daddy was in my band. They had
Speaker 5: a stage and lights kind of metally, and I know
Speaker 5: I had a point. It was something and I can't
Speaker 5: remember because I'm nervous. I want to make sure I
Speaker 5: have enough time to savorything.
Speaker 2: About high point because.
Speaker 5: Every year I would see Bobby and they were just like,
Speaker 5: isn't the Adams family that has Marilyn. I don't know,
Speaker 5: but there are size and their like monsters, the monsters
Speaker 5: great good for you, So you know they you know,
Speaker 5: they're just like great and they do these Christmas songs
Speaker 5: except like mister and missus munster. And then they have
Speaker 5: this daughter who's like this beautiful like blonde anyway, so
Speaker 5: that's like towards the end of the night. I remember
Speaker 5: that always.
Speaker 6: I remember interrupted, Patty, I can talk about the fact
Speaker 6: that you remember the end of the night is impressive
Speaker 6: after everybody's.
Speaker 2: AT's in its own right, exactly after twelve hours offest
Speaker 2: to remember even the end of the night. Chuck is saying,
Speaker 2: it is quite an accomplishment even of itself.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, well, I of course missed my entire point,
Speaker 5: which was the Misfits. Like, okay, basically, I'm talking to
Speaker 5: a guy I don't know who he is in the
Speaker 5: basement of Don Hill's and he's got powder all over
Speaker 5: his face, and I don't know who he is. Now
Speaker 5: you guys all do, but I'm talking to him. He
Speaker 5: seems like a cool guy, you know. And then later
Speaker 5: people are like, what was he like? And I'm like,
Speaker 5: he's a guy who fatter on his face.
Speaker 2: I don't know, what do you mean.
Speaker 5: They're like, that's uh. And now I don't even remember
Speaker 5: his name, the guy Bobby Steele. Was his name Bobby Steele.
Speaker 5: It wasn't Bobby Steele. I'm creating this unbelievable coincidence that
Speaker 5: relates to me and I think probably everyone. But I'm
Speaker 5: just really tied into it right now, like this ynchronicity
Speaker 5: of the fact that I mentioned one person that Ken
Speaker 5: knows and he's on my Brady Bunch. He's a great
Speaker 5: Brady in my zoom land. But anyway, so I don't know.
Speaker 5: I went to a barbecue in Linden, New Jersey. I
Speaker 5: don't know anybody there, and all of a sudden, this
Speaker 5: girl with a woman with a dog, she's talking like this.
Speaker 5: She's like, I got this. Uh, this guy, he just
Speaker 5: never gives me enough merch. I don't understand that she
Speaker 5: went to second grade with this guy who I can't
Speaker 5: remember his name, with the powdered face. I mean, this
Speaker 5: always happens to me. So that's my point is, Look,
Speaker 5: everybody is in need of a blanket, you know. I mean,
Speaker 5: look at Linus. I don't know if you guys ever
Speaker 5: used Linus as a i'll have.
Speaker 9: What you're having. Girl.
Speaker 5: My friend is totally panicking because he's waiting. No, no, no,
Speaker 5: But I mean I'm trying to get there's so many
Speaker 5: amazing memories. I remember seeing Michelle Shocked a couple of
Speaker 5: years ago.
Speaker 2: There you go, that's memory. Very cool.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I didn't know. I actually didn't know what she
Speaker 5: sounded like, so it was cool to have that.
Speaker 2: Very cool.
Speaker 1: Here's another really good memory.
Speaker 6: I don't know if we brought this up yet, but
Speaker 6: longtime blank best supporter we lost a couple of years ago. Yes,
Speaker 6: Tim o'donne, who's performances were always spot on, there, always
Speaker 6: spot on.
Speaker 2: The first year without him with his and the TMU
Speaker 2: band and all of the tributes, it's a wonderful day.
Speaker 2: It's it's a meeting.
Speaker 4: Ahead, if I may interrupt.
Speaker 3: Right after Tim passed in September of last year, I
Speaker 3: was in contact with Robin, his partner, and I said,
Speaker 3: you know, is there any way we can get in
Speaker 3: contact with the rest of his band and get them
Speaker 3: to make an appearance as a tribute. And they showed up,
Speaker 3: and it was in the four o'clock time slot, you know,
Speaker 3: which is just entering prime time. And I can't believe
Speaker 3: the emotional weight that that carried that evening, and it
Speaker 3: just knocked me out completely, and I know it blew
Speaker 3: everybody's circuits in the room that night. And so I
Speaker 3: got in contact with Robin again and she put me
Speaker 3: in contact with the boys or the guys, and I
Speaker 3: think this is going to become an annual tradition. I
Speaker 3: it just broke my heart when I got to the
Speaker 3: four o'clock timeslot to book last year and I saw
Speaker 3: Tim's name and I knew he wasn't here anymore. So
Speaker 3: I think from now on, four o'clock still will always
Speaker 3: belong to Tim o'donniue And they'll be playing again this year.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 2: It's a good time to, I think, segue and talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about the lineup, Havana. I want you to.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get you ready for a poem in a bit,
Speaker 2: but before that, let's talk. Since we've we've led into
Speaker 2: it a little bit and mentioned some of the performers.
Speaker 2: Ken tell us a little bit more about the lineup.
Speaker 2: Who are we going to see? Who are they?
Speaker 8: Uh?
Speaker 2: And uh? In general? When when will they perform?
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm just gonna go in in in just chronological order.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: Donald Sabasnik is a really I I personally love his songwriting.
Speaker 3: He reminds me so much of Lou Reed. He's just
Speaker 3: got that nice visceral kick to what he does.
Speaker 5: What you mean, I've never heard his last name pronounced.
Speaker 5: I've only read.
Speaker 3: Ye, it ain't no eye chart that's his last name.
Speaker 3: Donald Sabasnik is the wonderful performer, and I've gotten to
Speaker 3: know him a lot, especially in the pandemic years when
Speaker 3: we used to do a lot of remote features together and.
Speaker 4: With our good friend Rue Rue Star.
Speaker 3: Donald front's a group called a Density Black Cat, and
Speaker 3: so that's with Dennis Doyle, who's another very very very
Speaker 3: talented singer songwriter. So they're both going to be performing
Speaker 3: together to kick the show off at noon, and then
Speaker 3: we've got the equally talented songwriter Michael G. Potter going
Speaker 3: right after him, and Michael actually volunteers his time to
Speaker 3: play at Strawberry Field down in Central Park, h every
Speaker 3: week and always attracts a crowd. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 3: Michael Moore caught him and featured him on his on
Speaker 3: his his Instagram feed one one weekend, which I again
Speaker 3: just blew all of our minds. Michael is a great
Speaker 3: guy and we can only wait to bring him to
Speaker 3: the stage. And that's followed by Amanda White. Amanda White.
Speaker 3: I knew her way way back when she used to
Speaker 3: hang out and sing with various bands down the Lower
Speaker 3: east Side. She's since relocated to her native Boston and
Speaker 3: she's operatically trained. There's times when she doesn't even need
Speaker 3: a PA system to get her voice over the band.
Speaker 3: And she yeah, she's She's just fantastic. And also, if
Speaker 3: you ever see the Bag Daddyo's Gut Wrench video, she's
Speaker 3: the quote unquote chick in the video We go back
Speaker 3: a long long wayverbialick, proverbial chick. Now, she's got a
Speaker 3: great backup band and one of the guys in that
Speaker 3: backup band is a very very talented singer songwriter who
Speaker 3: plays a mean ass electric guitar. He's actually sat in
Speaker 3: with the Bag Daddy is on occasion. His name is
Speaker 3: Ross Byron and he'll.
Speaker 2: Be following her.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's the beautiful thing about Blankfest.
Speaker 3: If you don't know these acts, if you play on
Speaker 3: the same bill, you know enough times, everybody gets to
Speaker 3: know each other. It's kind of a great cross pollenization,
Speaker 3: you know, where people end up collaborating with each other.
Speaker 3: I notice because I hear the stories.
Speaker 5: And beautiful community it is.
Speaker 3: It's and then right after Ross, at one point thirty,
Speaker 3: we've got Anne Hussick. Anne Hussick AND's a personal fave
Speaker 3: of mine because again she was part of the same
Speaker 3: crew down the Lower east Side that we would bump
Speaker 3: into all the time. She has her own promotions place,
Speaker 3: Annie Husseck Presents, and I'm just flattered that she can
Speaker 3: carve out enough time to come on up and lend
Speaker 3: her singer songwriter.
Speaker 4: Talents to the night.
Speaker 3: Sophia mcglue came by recommendation from a mutual friend and
Speaker 3: she's younger, but yet despite her youth, she really, really
Speaker 3: really has a lot of experience under her belt and
Speaker 3: she brings it every time. I'm gonna keep going because
Speaker 3: I know time is limited.
Speaker 4: Count of nine.
Speaker 3: Count of nine only does one gig a year and
Speaker 3: it's Blankfest. I've known Joe Dugan going way way way
Speaker 3: back when he used to play with a band called
Speaker 3: the Uh. I always mispronounced this. Please forgive me the
Speaker 3: Thucidian Theory And yeah.
Speaker 2: It's easy. It's easy for you to say.
Speaker 1: They played.
Speaker 6: What was that their city and Theory played Blankfest as well.
Speaker 4: Yes they did. They played back in the bruck Sells days.
Speaker 4: Thank you for remembering that.
Speaker 3: You know, that's right. And as a matter of fact,
Speaker 3: that's how I got my snare drum because Joe Dugan,
Speaker 3: the drummer who I always loved, a great guy. He
Speaker 3: one day he just left the snare drum behind and
Speaker 3: I called him. I said, you left the snare drum behind.
Speaker 3: He says, ah, keep it, hold on to it. It's yours.
Speaker 3: And so that's how my studio got a snare drum
Speaker 3: from from Joe Dugan. And UH we actually the bag
Speaker 3: Daddy has played at his wedding to his keyboard player Abby,
Speaker 3: who he met through a UH I believe he was
Speaker 3: advertising for a keyboard player. Abby answered the ad and
Speaker 3: became much much more and uh since then, uh they
Speaker 3: put count of Nine together and again it's a wonderful lineup.
Speaker 3: And again I'm blanking on names and I hate this.
Speaker 12: Uh yeah, art, art will imitate or life will limitate art.
Speaker 3: Trust me on this one, because I forget a bunch
Speaker 3: of things. And but count of nine, they will be there.
Speaker 3: They will be laying it down, uh and there, and
Speaker 3: considering that they're going at three o'clock, it's great to
Speaker 3: have a full band just like, you know, kicking it out.
Speaker 3: And one year they actually did uh their own interpretation
Speaker 3: of the entire Help album, believe it or not. And
Speaker 3: all I can say is I was so knocked out
Speaker 3: by it that I kept their set list as a
Speaker 3: permanent reminder.
Speaker 4: That brings me to David Tanner.
Speaker 3: And I had only known David Tanner for the last
Speaker 3: twenty years as a promoter, somebody that I used to
Speaker 3: work with with the Mini Fest out of New York City,
Speaker 3: and we would play, you know, we would play for David,
Speaker 3: you know, at the drop of a hat. He's just
Speaker 3: a great, great guy. One day he said to me,
Speaker 3: I'd like to come and do a few songs. I said,
Speaker 3: I didn't even know you played. He says, not only
Speaker 3: do I play, and not only do I write, he goes,
Speaker 3: but I'm playing my best friend, Jesse Kelso's guitar. Jesse
Speaker 3: Kelso as a musician friend of his that he had
Speaker 3: known for forty years who had passed away a few
Speaker 3: years before. And so David plays his scotched a butterscotch
Speaker 3: colored fender and he does several songs in the memories
Speaker 3: of those that he's lost before. It's a very touching set.
Speaker 3: He brings his family, he's his kids, his grandkids. He's
Speaker 3: just and by the way, this is a man with
Speaker 3: a pacemaker that will show up the day before Blankfast
Speaker 3: and it will help us hustle equipment up and down
Speaker 3: the stairs. It's just I said, David take the rest
Speaker 3: of the day off. But he's just a generous, generous guys.
Speaker 3: He's been with us since. Like I said, the first
Speaker 3: month anniversary that I was with Yvonne, we were in
Speaker 3: his van hustling equipment up for Blankfest.
Speaker 4: From the Bronx.
Speaker 3: The Bronx Now, of course four o'clock that's when we
Speaker 3: have the Tim O'Donnell memorial with the TMU band, and
Speaker 3: once again they were definitely one of several highlights last
Speaker 3: year and we're looking forward to more of the same.
Speaker 3: I can hardly wait to introduce those those guys on
Speaker 3: stage after that is this artist I got to get
Speaker 3: to know.
Speaker 4: Her name is Missy Vanst to my own.
Speaker 3: She'll be doing her righteous righteous rhymes backed by some
Speaker 3: ugly guitar player, but we won't go into detail.
Speaker 9: Using his original bagdadio.
Speaker 2: Music, you're gonna hear some of that soon. Right after
Speaker 2: we go through the lineup, we're gonna an opportunity to
Speaker 2: demonstrate your dual skills.
Speaker 4: Yes, indeed speedy.
Speaker 3: Right after that, we're gonna have Patty Rothberg up.
Speaker 2: Yay, we know her.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we surely know her now, don't we. And uh,
Speaker 3: by the way, one of the real one of my
Speaker 3: fondest memories would Blinkfest And this is early on. This
Speaker 3: was when Patty was coming up, and this is the
Speaker 3: late nineties, early two thousands, and I remember her calling
Speaker 3: me on the phone and saying, I didn't realize Niyak
Speaker 3: was such a cool place. And I took special pride
Speaker 3: in that because I was born and raised in Nayak,
Speaker 3: and I've always.
Speaker 4: Been proud of where I come from.
Speaker 3: So uh, thank you very much for that, Patty. Uh
Speaker 3: that was.
Speaker 5: Said something like that unless I meant it.
Speaker 4: Thank you too.
Speaker 3: And then as if, as if the hits just can't
Speaker 3: keep on coming, then we followed Ms Rothberg with Joe
Speaker 3: Drso fresh off the plane from Italy, and uh, all
Speaker 3: I could say is I've known Joe Drso for a
Speaker 3: million years. He went to high school with my sister Jennifer.
Speaker 3: I just wanted to put that out there.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: And jen always told me that he was a great
Speaker 3: guy from you know, from first day of freshman year on.
Speaker 3: Joe's just a good, good guy.
Speaker 4: And then I was lucky enough.
Speaker 3: To work with him when he helped resurrect the CBGB name.
Speaker 3: Uh he became he was one of the partners in
Speaker 3: the new CBGB, the CBGB festival.
Speaker 13: Uh.
Speaker 3: He gave me a job when nobody else would so.
Speaker 3: But he was playing Blankfest long before that, I want
Speaker 3: to add. And then, of course, right after Joe Durso again,
Speaker 3: as if it can't get any better, the horse that
Speaker 3: rode in on we'll be playing.
Speaker 2: And we know who that involves, don't.
Speaker 3: I. I rendered Chuck speechless.
Speaker 2: Which easily done.
Speaker 6: And and best band, We're the best band that's playing
Speaker 6: at six o'clock that night, that's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 3: Well, then that's followed by the best band that plays
Speaker 3: is six thirty, which is Nuns Imposers, which again Chuck
Speaker 3: is is directly responsible for Artie and the and the
Speaker 3: guys are just fantastic. And again I'm blanking on names
Speaker 3: because for years I knew it is who else is
Speaker 3: in the band? Chuck helped me, so.
Speaker 6: John Ricks in the band, who also plays trombone in
Speaker 6: the horse, he rode in on.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 3: I've known John through you, uh you know, via you
Speaker 3: through through the years, didn't he didn't He front Kablama Chuck.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he was the lead singer for Kablamachuck. He's got
Speaker 6: a ridiculously powerful voice. They were an amazing band.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love I love those guys.
Speaker 3: I used to see you guys do double bills together
Speaker 3: all over the place, and uh, it's amazing that somebody
Speaker 3: that talented and you should include yourself in this.
Speaker 4: Somebody that talented? Is that is that down.
Speaker 3: To earth you know, no, no no star attitude or
Speaker 3: anything like that. He was just like the guy you
Speaker 3: would talk to, you know, on the barstool next to you.
Speaker 3: He was just a really, really nice guy and still
Speaker 3: is and.
Speaker 6: So it's kind words can by the way, I was
Speaker 6: brought promised aviar.
Speaker 3: Well, you know everything we could.
Speaker 4: We took the brown m and ms out. I don't
Speaker 4: know what else you want, you.
Speaker 2: Know, let's keep moving along, guys.
Speaker 3: Ago we spoke about Bobby Steel before. That's when the
Speaker 3: undead will come up right after nuns imposers.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: Bobby with his bride Diane. Uh, they always put together
Speaker 3: a great show.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: For years they would show up in this converted hearse
Speaker 3: that was the Steelmobile. And the first year Bobby Steel
Speaker 3: ever appeared at Blankfest. Uh, the late great t Tommy
Speaker 3: Dirkin was doing his podcast, his live podcast called Tommy
Speaker 3: D's Nuts, and he was able to go live through iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3: And when Bobby Steele came on, it got so overloaded
Speaker 3: the net just crashed. And that's the power of Bobby Steele.
Speaker 3: We always get people inquiring when's Bobby coming, when's Bobby's coming?
Speaker 4: Well, he's coming at seven o'clock.
Speaker 3: Hopefully he'll be there before then because we want to
Speaker 3: get him on stage on time. And his daughter through Diane,
Speaker 3: is Hannah and she fronts a three piece harmony group
Speaker 3: called the guests, and so we piggyback them one after
Speaker 3: the other. They go on to seven thirty. They are
Speaker 3: wonderful and it's just so great to bring them back.
Speaker 3: The biggest challenge with Blankfest is that we are always
Speaker 3: open to getting new blood in. But the thing is
Speaker 3: is that we're not going to introduce newer groups at
Speaker 3: the expense of people who have been loyal to us
Speaker 3: over the years. So and it makes me so happy
Speaker 3: that people want to come back year after year after
Speaker 3: year and play this.
Speaker 10: Uh.
Speaker 3: It warms my heart that they recognize how great the
Speaker 3: the the cause is. Thank you, dear. And after the
Speaker 3: guests we have the Suffolk Stranglers.
Speaker 4: They're a new band.
Speaker 3: But but but Geo the Gino, the drummer for that group,
Speaker 3: actually played with the band Chuck. You might remember them,
Speaker 3: remember the beauty school dropouts.
Speaker 1: Oh hell yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Great yeah, great old school punk band. I met them
Speaker 3: down at CBS on on several occasions.
Speaker 4: Love those guys.
Speaker 3: We got them to play blank Fast. They've all gone on.
Speaker 4: To different things.
Speaker 3: And Gino when he said, uh, you know, you got
Speaker 3: room for my band this year, I didn't even listen
Speaker 3: to them. Our publicist was going don't you shouldn't you
Speaker 3: hear them?
Speaker 14: First?
Speaker 3: I said, trust me Gino, I trust him implicitly. And
Speaker 3: then when he sent me the MP threes after we
Speaker 3: had booked them, I was so happy because these guys
Speaker 3: absolutely friggin rock and they're going on at eight o'clock.
Speaker 3: And that brings us to the next band, which is
Speaker 3: Sad Coffeehouse, brand new original band, but it's fronted by
Speaker 3: the same people that were playing with the ex tribute
Speaker 3: band We're Desperate last year. They've they've they've they've hung
Speaker 3: up the ex tribute uh for now and they're doing originals.
Speaker 3: And all I know is that if there anything is
Speaker 3: as tight and as good as We're Desperate, these guys
Speaker 3: are absolutely gonna rock. And then then that's followed by
Speaker 3: this little known band out of Naia called the Bag Daddios.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And then.
Speaker 5: Turn to a pumpkin wet Rothberg.
Speaker 2: We want to thank you. We know you have another gig,
Speaker 2: all you working musicians and artists my god, So uh,
Speaker 2: we'll see that thing.
Speaker 5: And I'd love to talk to this guy about some day.
Speaker 5: Compare notes about being in a Ramones cover band and
Speaker 5: just all at the Blank Fest. So come and bring
Speaker 5: your blanky.
Speaker 2: Very good.
Speaker 3: There, kick ass and we'll we'll talk to you later,
Speaker 3: my dear, I.
Speaker 5: Will see you. I'm really sorry I'm missing the post
Speaker 5: the protests going to miss you because I'm going to see.
Speaker 7: You with and you can catch it on the stream afterwards. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 7: thank you again. Sunday, all right, I can't continue. We've
Speaker 7: got a few more minutes to get everybody in.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 3: Well, you know what, after the bag daddios, we've got
Speaker 3: a couple of open slots and we've decided not to
Speaker 3: go out there fishing for new groups.
Speaker 4: In the eleventh hour, mostly because A we may run over.
Speaker 3: B we may actually invite a couple of last minute
Speaker 3: guests that show up, and if it devolves into a
Speaker 3: jam session, so be it.
Speaker 4: But if we call it an early night.
Speaker 3: As long as we get our blankets, we're golden beautiful.
Speaker 2: Indeed, indeed you are. It's going to be so much fun.
Speaker 2: I'll be there, my partner band will be there. It's
Speaker 2: gonna be great day. We're going to give more details who, when, where,
Speaker 2: We've already talked about why. But we have a special treat,
Speaker 2: as Patty teased, we have a poet amongst us. I'd
Speaker 2: like to use you the female Poetessa just sounds.
Speaker 1: Cool before we transition to bond.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Can I just bring something up that I think, I
Speaker 6: think really needs to be emphasized about this event?
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 6: I'm a huge proponent of local, live, original music. Yeah,
Speaker 6: and the lion's share of the bands that are playing
Speaker 6: there our original bands, and that doesn't get nearly enough
Speaker 6: focus or publicity or notice.
Speaker 1: I think in today's world.
Speaker 6: So I would like to applaud ten for making sure
Speaker 6: that the original talent as a place to play.
Speaker 12: Yes, live music, baby is a good thing, and it's
Speaker 12: live all day.
Speaker 4: It's our Our main theme is always Indie to the death.
Speaker 2: All right, well it's Yvonne. We're setting you up. What
Speaker 2: are we going to hear? Now?
Speaker 9: We'll start with I guess Nostalgic Christmas, which is about
Speaker 9: Christmas in New York City that Ken and I spent
Speaker 9: after delivering blankets or during delivering blankets. I always ask
Speaker 9: him can we please go by Saint Pat's Cathedral and
Speaker 9: the Rockefeller Tree because as my parents used to well
Speaker 9: my mom really used to always take as it was
Speaker 9: a tradition, you know, when I was a little girl,
Speaker 9: and those were the stops that you made. You you
Speaker 9: went to the church prayed, and then you went to
Speaker 9: see the tree and see it lit and enjoy you know,
Speaker 9: the city. I've added to it, and I've told can
Speaker 9: we have to go to Macy's and see the windows.
Speaker 9: So in between delivering blankets and to the homeless, we
Speaker 9: make little pit stops. And so I started to write
Speaker 9: about it because it's sometimes you just get lost in
Speaker 9: things that you just do and then you forget the
Speaker 9: feeling that it's that is evoked from that. And so
Speaker 9: I just said, wait a minute, let me stop and
Speaker 9: think about this. This is very special that I've done
Speaker 9: with my mom, and.
Speaker 5: I think my little brother was in tow.
Speaker 9: And then now I do this with my husband and
Speaker 9: I take him or he takes me, you know, and
Speaker 9: now it's our tradition.
Speaker 2: Yes, you make That's the wonderful part of the holidays too,
Speaker 2: is you know you have old and you can always
Speaker 2: make new traditions as well too. Absolutely all right, Ivan
Speaker 2: Sotomayor with nostalgic Christmas.
Speaker 9: Christmas with green and red ribbons going straight to my heart,
Speaker 9: the warmth and the chuckles music to my longing fears.
Speaker 9: I'd almost forgotten such joy and good year. Kids running
Speaker 9: around in circles singing Palla lea. I stand in its
Speaker 9: energy as the skaters go by and lovers proposed by
Speaker 9: the Rockefeller train, as hot chocolate is sipped with floppy
Speaker 9: windows onto the Grand Cathedral, filled with belief and hope,
Speaker 9: giving respite to the cold admirers rushing in and clutching
Speaker 9: trendy bags of chocolates. Back outside to the storefronts with
Speaker 9: magical light, shoes full on display, filling the night's noisy crowds,
Speaker 9: merry music and carold we all know, heading down to
Speaker 9: Midtown with a center of their pulses.
Speaker 5: It's a band of beautiful lads dancing.
Speaker 9: And kicking, sinkling and charms. Further down to the windows
Speaker 9: made famous in names, each a special Christmas scene, all different,
Speaker 9: but stilling theme the same. It's Christmas, Christmas everywhere, It's
Speaker 9: Christmas again. Can't wait till next year. Navidad consintas verdes
Speaker 9: with ROPAs uendo direct on corrasson el calori lassas mumus
Speaker 9: caparam solidos and ciosaus caserio virado tell ria buen animos
Speaker 9: minos corin and circulos cantando Alleluia, my parents, Sun and
Speaker 9: he a Miteros, Patine los pasan Rosamantis, proponent Undo, Largo, Rocketella,
Speaker 9: the interested very Chocola glin that thereslas bantanas conivla Ala
Speaker 9: Ran Catral Vanos Ueno, the pe Esperanza dandorespirolos a Milores
Speaker 9: Herncos and Candria Grando wols As Evan bonn As the Mooda.
Speaker 9: There were a puerreloss, caparades can spectaculos de lusis, macigos
Speaker 9: and panti to Letra Lenando las with us as movie
Speaker 9: to co musica and sicosquitos as the Regeno cell Center,
Speaker 9: La Sua don the nervous Central Ulsa. It's Navanda and
Speaker 9: mosas nana by Landi Patio Comuni, Cantos Synchronis, album Masabaco,
Speaker 9: la tentanas h as famosa in number and caronas and
Speaker 9: especial those differences for an and the mission of them
Speaker 9: is Navida navidatas pactis its navida denuevo no may one
Speaker 9: fast a.
Speaker 5: Proxy one.
Speaker 2: H. That was beautiful, Vonne, thank you so much. We
Speaker 2: are sharing that memory and making new ones for all
Speaker 2: of us.
Speaker 9: Thank you, Frank, Thank you for the opportunity and the
Speaker 9: and shining a light on Blankfest, which again I've joined
Speaker 9: only in the last thirteen years, but it's a really
Speaker 9: worthy cause, blankets for the homeless, and it's something that
Speaker 9: I truly wish would end and we wouldn't have to
Speaker 9: do it. But until then, let's do this every year.
Speaker 9: And we'll see you on December fourteenth at the Hudson
Speaker 9: House in Nayak.
Speaker 2: You know, guys, we're going to We're going to take
Speaker 2: a quick break. When we come back, talk a little
Speaker 2: bit more about the event, where people can find it,
Speaker 2: et cetera, times, locations, et cetera. And maybe we have
Speaker 2: time for at least one more poem from Mayor? What
Speaker 2: do you think I think I think we should certainly, ok, Yeah,
Speaker 2: my very special guests Chuck to bruin and if on
Speaker 2: such a Mayor Patty Rothberg was with us earlier. She
Speaker 2: had a prior engagement that she had to leave to
Speaker 2: but we thank her for being here. Please don't go anywhere.
Speaker 2: This has been great fun. We've got another poem come up.
Speaker 2: We've got some great closing music from none other than
Speaker 2: the back Daddy os to close the show, so lots
Speaker 2: more fun to come. Don't go anywhere yet. This is
Speaker 2: Being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono. We'll be right
Speaker 2: back after these brief commercial messages.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent Conversation podcast. Thanks
Speaker 2: for sticking with us. I'm your hosts Frank Bubono and
Speaker 2: as always our engineer as the mailman, mister Neil Ripter.
Speaker 2: We bring our audience a fresh topic every week and
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Speaker 2: We're back live to tape. It is the eleventh of
Speaker 2: December and we're talking blank Fests with the three of
Speaker 2: the people who are the pro movers behind this wonderful
Speaker 2: event held every year. This is the twenty ninth consecutive year.
Speaker 2: They haven't missed any time in all those years and
Speaker 2: have managed to donate over twenty thousand blankets to the
Speaker 2: homeless during that time. It's really it's quite an achievement.
Speaker 2: We're joined by Ken Row, Von Suttomayor and Chuck to brewin. Guys.
Speaker 2: I'll put it out for all three of you too.
Speaker 2: It's kind of a rhetorical question, but I think it's
Speaker 2: an important one as we talk about this charitable event
Speaker 2: in giving. What have you felt through the years too?
Speaker 2: Are people more or less charitable today? Are they more tolerant?
Speaker 2: I mean that's the thing that's been going on with
Speaker 2: the Internet and stuff, the kind of divisiveness. You know,
Speaker 2: an event like this kind of pulls people together. Do
Speaker 2: you feel people are becoming more or less tolerant today? Again,
Speaker 2: it's a rhetorical question. Just your thoughts on it, Chuck,
Speaker 2: wh why don't you pick it up? Wow.
Speaker 4: I mean that's a that's a huge question.
Speaker 14: I mean, obviously, you know, five years ago, we had
Speaker 14: a small situation that that I think really changed the
Speaker 14: way people interact. Uh, you know, I think we I
Speaker 14: think we're more segmented now. I think, you know, social
Speaker 14: media has had a huge impact, and I don't think
Speaker 14: people you know, if you look at the numbers in
Speaker 14: the restaurant, in the bar business, they're all down for
Speaker 14: the most part. People aren't going out, they're not interacting
Speaker 14: as much as they used to.
Speaker 1: And I think an event like this.
Speaker 14: Really gets people kind of involved and connected and in
Speaker 14: the same room and enjoying what we used to enjoy
Speaker 14: years ago, which was great live original music. And and
Speaker 14: the charitable aspect of it is you know, I've I've
Speaker 14: said it a couple of times, but I just don't
Speaker 14: think there's a more down to earth, you know, grassroots
Speaker 14: charity on the planet that does what this one does.
Speaker 4: I'llbeit on a.
Speaker 14: Smaller scale, but there's zero fat, there's zero waste, and
Speaker 14: I really think people identify with that.
Speaker 2: You know, it's kind of like feel good for doing
Speaker 2: the right thing, have fun and feel good. How can
Speaker 2: how can you go wrong.
Speaker 14: With that right, yeah, right, and throwing a couple of beers,
Speaker 14: which I've never been afraid of, and I think pretty much.
Speaker 1: Everybody in the call is not afraid of that.
Speaker 2: Better, if I what are your thoughts? It's the same question,
Speaker 2: how do you? And again what I think Chuck raised
Speaker 2: a good point where interactive human events like this are important.
Speaker 2: But I don't want to put words in your mouth.
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts?
Speaker 9: I know that's it's a dense question. But and as
Speaker 9: I'm reading or trying to understand about this k economy
Speaker 9: and the flattened K of the top three percent and
Speaker 9: all this, the point is we're all suffering. We're suffering
Speaker 9: with higher prices. We're suffering and choosing rather than going
Speaker 9: out to see a show, or go into the city
Speaker 9: or take a drive and pay the higher gas prices.
Speaker 9: You know, you're choosing to stay home. You're choosing to
Speaker 9: stay local. The beauty I think of this charity is,
Speaker 9: first of all, it's a charity, it's to help others,
Speaker 9: and that it makes you feel good of what you
Speaker 9: know you're participating in society. And secondly, what all you're
Speaker 9: asked is for a blanket, a gently used blanket, it
Speaker 9: doesn't have to be new. Some people donate gloves, hat, scarves,
Speaker 9: and it's something just whatever you have to warm these
Speaker 9: folks up. We don't need you to come in and spend.
Speaker 9: We don't need money from you. We just need your
Speaker 9: good cheer. You come in and if you have one
Speaker 9: beer and nurse it all night, that's.
Speaker 4: What it is.
Speaker 5: But you're here, you're physically here.
Speaker 9: And yes, with social media, this podcast, notwithstanding, this is
Speaker 9: an intelligent one of thought to connect absolutely other social
Speaker 9: media seeks to confine in solitary you're by yourself with this,
Speaker 9: you know, glowing you know screen and that if that's
Speaker 9: all it does, then that's not good. But this at
Speaker 9: least we're we want to see you, We want to
Speaker 9: talk to you, want to just get together and have
Speaker 9: a conversation. I mean remember that you know subject, verb,
Speaker 9: you know object, and just talk.
Speaker 4: And just connect.
Speaker 9: And I think just with a blanket. And this is
Speaker 9: what I think Can sought to do before, way before
Speaker 9: I met him on Christmas Eve, even though sometimes I'm like, please,
Speaker 9: you're you're killing our holiday Christmas even to Christmas Day as.
Speaker 5: His wife, you know, I want him home.
Speaker 9: I want to be home with them.
Speaker 5: But you know what, we have the luxury of going home.
Speaker 9: The few hours that we spend out there, driving around
Speaker 9: looking for the homeless and finding them and giving them
Speaker 9: some warmth, warmth and comfort and looking them in the
Speaker 9: eyes and just smiling, saying hello and respecting them.
Speaker 5: That's immeasurable.
Speaker 2: So that human contact, Yeah, that's great. God has just
Speaker 2: just beautifully said and a perfect setup for Ken. I
Speaker 2: think she may have answered it for you. But we've
Speaker 2: we've spoken in the past, and I know it's difficult.
Speaker 2: It's it's an enormous challenge, you know, not only organizational
Speaker 2: but physically. You know, the movement, the equipment, the blankets,
Speaker 2: the storage, the driving, the distribution. So let me cut
Speaker 2: to the chase. Why do you still do it?
Speaker 4: Oh? Oh, you know what.
Speaker 3: I have handled that question several times with therapists over
Speaker 3: the years. I'll be out on the couch and Freud
Speaker 3: will turn to me and go, I, why do you
Speaker 3: still do this?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 3: And I'll be I'll be honest. When I first did this,
Speaker 3: I thought it was a one off. Well, the first
Speaker 3: year I did it, I wasn't even a benefit. I
Speaker 3: just went to some friends and said, you know, I
Speaker 3: had three things I wanted to do. It was like
Speaker 3: on my bucket list, and one of them, I'd have
Speaker 3: a friend named Jay I grew up with. He's like
Speaker 3: a brother to me, and we used to write songs together.
Speaker 3: And you know, he was a Nia High school dude.
Speaker 3: He was like he was a senior when I was
Speaker 3: a freshman kind of thing, even though I didn't go
Speaker 3: to Nia High School. Long story, but he had a
Speaker 3: father who had suffered a stroke and he was confined
Speaker 3: with a walker to their house and he would watch
Speaker 3: baseball a time. He would he was so desperate for baseball.
Speaker 3: He had a short wave radio when he would watch
Speaker 3: WGN for the Cubs games, and and so one of
Speaker 3: the things I wanted to do on my bucket list
Speaker 3: was go and sit up with him and just watch
Speaker 3: some old baseball videos. And I did that one year
Speaker 3: on Christmas Eve, and it was great. Another thing on
Speaker 3: my bucket list which I haven't done yet, oddly enough,
Speaker 3: and I swear I'm going to do someday is go
Speaker 3: to a children's ward at a hospital and play on
Speaker 3: Christmas morning. And you know, I just like, I love
Speaker 3: to do that, and I don't know why I haven't
Speaker 3: done that, probably because I've been too tired from handing
Speaker 3: out blankets as the homeless. Because the third thing on
Speaker 3: that bucket list was to go out and just hand
Speaker 3: blankets to the homeless. So I went to some friends,
Speaker 3: I got eighteen blankets, and I handed them out, and
Speaker 3: then it was such a good feeling I wanted to
Speaker 3: do it again the next year. My friend said they
Speaker 3: didn't have any more blankets. That's when we came up
Speaker 3: with Blankfest. And again, I'm thinking one year just to
Speaker 3: have a benefit, and we'll just do that. Next year,
Speaker 3: I'll buy them. You know, I'll be more successful next year.
Speaker 3: I'll be able to buy them on my own. But
Speaker 3: I got to the end of that first show and
Speaker 3: I looked out at the handful of people that were
Speaker 3: still left in that club, and because there was an
Speaker 3: awkward pause and I didn't know what else to say,
Speaker 3: I said, I'll see you next year. I walked up
Speaker 3: the stage and go, oh geez, what did I just
Speaker 3: commit to? And the reason I keep doing it year
Speaker 3: after year after years, I can't stop. I feel if
Speaker 3: I stop that somewhere along the line, I'm gonna let
Speaker 3: somebody down.
Speaker 4: I don't want to do that.
Speaker 2: Well well put ken well put so blank Fest Sunday
Speaker 2: the fourteenth, that's just a few days if you're listening
Speaker 2: to this recording beforehand. Obviously we're recording on Thursday evening
Speaker 2: Sunday the fourteenth, from noon to well to whenever. Wonderful lineup,
Speaker 2: blank Fest. All you have to do, folks, is just
Speaker 2: bring a blanket. And you know, has Chuck mentioned early
Speaker 2: on in the in the podcast, everybody has what I think,
Speaker 2: can you mentioned in duvantus in your closets somewhere? I
Speaker 2: know I certainly have blankets and things that I said,
Speaker 2: my god, it's going to come in handy someday. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's going to come in handy. That someday is Sunday.
Speaker 2: That's what it's gonna come handy with somebody.
Speaker 14: Yeah, And you know what, Frank, I think one thing
Speaker 14: we didn't mention is, and it kind of goes unseen
Speaker 14: at Blankfest is the people that come in and don't
Speaker 14: stay but just drop off a couple of blankets.
Speaker 2: Good point. Yeah, it's a great point.
Speaker 14: There's there's a there is a lot like all throughout
Speaker 14: the whole event, there are people walking in dropping off
Speaker 14: a blanket.
Speaker 1: People drop off coats, gloves, they drop off all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuff and.
Speaker 4: They don't stay.
Speaker 8: You don't.
Speaker 1: It's not expected. We're just we're just trying to help
Speaker 1: some folks.
Speaker 2: Great point, absolutely, great point. You guys are just about
Speaker 2: at a time. But I want to squeeze in one
Speaker 2: more poem because they're so good, So we asked we're
Speaker 2: going to get one more in. Then we're gonna close
Speaker 2: with some great music from the bag Daddy os. We
Speaker 2: got this way, packing everything, packing everything in. This is
Speaker 2: one tight all right. So what are we going to
Speaker 2: hear for our second poem of the evening, Evonne?
Speaker 5: Well, this last one is called platform Babe.
Speaker 9: And speaking of dignity and respect, this I wrote and
Speaker 9: was inspired when I was Oh my god, I always
Speaker 9: forget seven grand Central yep and taking the train home
Speaker 9: when we lived in Queens, and this lovely lady carried
Speaker 9: herself elegantly and.
Speaker 5: She had a disfigurement.
Speaker 9: She her face was scarred, but she still looked amazingly proud, dignified,
Speaker 9: proud and dignified. Yes, And so I through the train
Speaker 9: ride was writing sketching out this poem for her, and
Speaker 9: I was just moved by how proud she was and
Speaker 9: just and quiet.
Speaker 5: It wasn't it wasn't a brash thing, and.
Speaker 9: So I was moved by her. So I wrote, platform Babe,
Speaker 9: in her honor, and any of us who carry our
Speaker 9: little dark secrets or we think that they're worse than
Speaker 9: they are. And you know what, You're still lovable, you're
Speaker 9: still respectable, you're still amazing, and you still are special.
Speaker 5: So platform Babe.
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it.
Speaker 15: From grotesquely, she walks in beauty geometry, amok selen eye
Speaker 15: and heavy lids, downtrodden spirit, holder, pride hidden by crooked skin,
Speaker 15: yearning love, twisted smile keeps the laugh hid, and joy repressed, suspended, unknown,
Speaker 15: pleasure to be seen. And yet grotesquely, she walks in
Speaker 15: effervescent beauty, gorgeous in disguise, elegance tucked away, immaculate and shy,
Speaker 15: pale as moonlight, soft as satin, Quiet and demure, she
Speaker 15: recedes into the night, a wesper, never spoken Grotesquely, she
Speaker 15: walks in beauty grotescamente comin and bayesa jumitria, salvaje o
Speaker 15: jouraniosi parpos besalos espiritu piso tiao guada Suyo, Tapalo po
Speaker 15: Piel Torcida, the Senda morson Risa Chueca, Juan Tellarisa, Alegria, culte, reprimida,
Speaker 15: placer Deesco to Ravilla, Grotescamente, camin and Bayesa e fervesente Maravilla,
Speaker 15: and this fras releganzies, condida, imaculaapenosa, parida, commos reus lunares, sabosa,
Speaker 15: caricat raanocche sos ramon cal coming And.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, that just about wraps it up for us.
Speaker 2: I really want to thank you, Chuck to Bruin, thank
Speaker 2: you so much for joining us. We won't tell since
Speaker 2: you can't see the visuals, we won't tell you. We
Speaker 2: won't tell people where you actually came to us live from.
Speaker 2: Well we'll leave that as an inside choke.
Speaker 3: Ye.
Speaker 2: It bears a certain relevance to actually where my podcast
Speaker 2: ratings are. That's a story for another day. Ivan So Tobayor,
Speaker 2: thank you for your talent, Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2: It really appreciate it.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Frank, You guys are awesome.
Speaker 2: Thank you, And of course Ken Rau, the man okay
Speaker 2: who's done this now for his twenty ninth year. My God,
Speaker 2: keep keep the vision, brother, keep it going.
Speaker 4: Trying to bro trying to yes.
Speaker 2: Okay. And of course we offer special thanks to our
Speaker 2: listeners who take time to give us a voice in
Speaker 2: their lives. Remember you offer fresh topic just about every week.
Speaker 2: Catch us wherever and whenever you get your favorite podcasts
Speaker 2: that it calls Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, all the others. Check
Speaker 2: us out on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page. You know,
Speaker 2: I was leaving two little extra things. I already teased
Speaker 2: the bag Daddyo song at the end. We'll have can
Speaker 2: introduce it in just a second. But also, you know,
Speaker 2: a little bit of a slogan or something that I
Speaker 2: think is appropriate for our program. And I found this
Speaker 2: comes from my patron saint of Saint Francis of Assisi
Speaker 2: and everybody knows how religious I am. But that's a
Speaker 2: story for another day. Not but I think the message
Speaker 2: here transcends, especially at this time of the year, and
Speaker 2: it's the prayer for peace. Lord, make me an instrument
Speaker 2: of your piece where there is hatred. Let me bring
Speaker 2: love where there is a fence. Let me bring pardon
Speaker 2: where there is discord. Let me bring union where there
Speaker 2: is error. Let me bring truth where there is doubt.
Speaker 2: Let me bring faith where there is despair. Let me
Speaker 2: bring hope where there is darkness. Let me bring your
Speaker 2: life where there is sadness. Let me bring joy. Oh Lord,
Speaker 2: grant that they might not so much seek to be
Speaker 2: consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand,
Speaker 2: to be loved as to love. For it is in
Speaker 2: giving that one receives. It is in self forgetting that
Speaker 2: one finds. It is in forgiven that one is forgiven.
Speaker 2: It is in dying that one awakens to eternal life.
Speaker 2: For our engineer, the Maleman, mister Neil rich Or, I'm
Speaker 2: your host, Frank Obuto. We hope to have you join
Speaker 2: us on the next being. Frank, We're the only way
Speaker 2: to be is Frank. I hope you see Sunday at Blankfest.
Speaker 2: Take care everyone, Christmas A.
Speaker 10: For lowly people.
Speaker 16: Christmas Aple, loly people, Christmas aper lowly people.
Speaker 10: You should know that by now marry Christmas.
Speaker 16: I'm alone, not another friend to stove and lots of breaking.
Speaker 10: It's okay for me. It's just to love the day
Speaker 10: happy people on my TV.
Speaker 16: Sad distracts me so much that I almost forget now
Speaker 16: that Christmas aple lowly people.
Speaker 13: Christmas aple lowly people. Christmas April, lowly people.
Speaker 8: You should know that.
Speaker 16: By now.
Speaker 10: My Godfa's gone to her sister's.
Speaker 16: Space, and now a bet is chanced an empty space.
Speaker 16: Three days, double on my children. Let the all the
Speaker 16: days began.
Speaker 4: See these get being messed up.
Speaker 16: Jingle Bells said, he knows you, my friend, he said,
Speaker 16: I wish you well.
Speaker 13: Oh, Christmas A for lowly people. Christmas A for lowly people.
Speaker 13: Christmas and for lowly people. You should know that by now.
Speaker 17: See a crazy man talking to himself on the bus.
Speaker 17: But I'm staring, passing on and think about his sirs.
Speaker 17: I keep try and deplore you a bunch of silvers, only.
Speaker 16: His off pistol sinery the darkness of my lonely Spanish
Speaker 16: HOLI law if I miss my dad and I miss
Speaker 16: my mom the rich I now live in Florid, and
Speaker 16: my sister aniquants a living end of verbs.
Speaker 10: But the buses aren't Lord, and so I'm stranded out
Speaker 10: the girl.
Speaker 16: The girl unaware. The network withers smiled, curse me forgeting.
Speaker 10: Before no war.
Speaker 13: Christmas aple, lowly people, Christmas, aple lowly people, Christmas aple
Speaker 13: lonely people.
Speaker 10: You should know that by now, Yes.
Speaker 13: Christmas aple lowly people, Christmas A lowly people.
Speaker 10: Christmas aple lowly people. You should know that by now.
Speaker 16: I provide a collar up to my head, weed down,
Speaker 16: turn towards to me. I'm just trying to kill grosstown
Speaker 16: to FESTI snow as now judge slush.
Speaker 8: When you're by yourself, you.
Speaker 10: Concern tells me too much.
Speaker 12: All I want is.
Speaker 10: To be with you. But I guess a drink and
Speaker 10: two who have to do?
Speaker 16: I look at pictures and try to remember the sies
Speaker 16: happens to me when we get INTOCEM. My ters voice
Speaker 16: is saying into.
Speaker 10: Me being a charter just a memory.
Speaker 13: W Christmas a lowlyeople, Christmas for lowly people, Christmas April
Speaker 13: loly people. You should know that by now.
Speaker 10: Christmas a for lowly people.
Speaker 4: Christmas and for lowly people.
Speaker 10: Christmas aple lonely people. You should know that Christmas ale
Speaker 10: loly people. Tell you forget Christmas for lowly people. You
Speaker 10: should know that fine.
Speaker 8: Where m HM Hudson River Radio dot com