*Of course, I'd throw the curveball of Sister Rosetta Tharpe to y'all right before Passover. Who was Sister Rosetta? She inspired The Beatles ("Get Back" lyrics), Bob Dylan, and countless other Big Name (guy) musicians, but she never became a big name herself. A clip of that historic performance was also in the film "Amelie."
A received a blow in Crew this week -- based on his erg results, he was placed in fifth boat, which outed him from this week's race. It was BTBSA's biggest competitor. He was totally bummed. We had decided he wouldn't come home for Passover because this race was so important; Friday, his coach had the rowers erg for places in the race. A was one-tenth of a second behind the last available seat in Fourth Boat. I wanted to punch the coach, but what can you do?
That's right. You go to the annual coffeehouse.
Coffeehouse is an event where students at BTBSA perform musically, read poetry, etc., just like in the Beat coffeehouses in New York and elsewhere. A was nervous before his performance time and opted out a the last minute. I told him to go, anyway. Then I got the call. "Mom, if I don't perform here, I'll regret it all year long." So he ran back to his room, grabbed his acoustic guitar, ran back to coffeehouse, and performed "Death Letter Blues." When A introduced the song, one student actually shouted out, "A song by Son House!" How do these kids KNOW THAT? Dude, I only knew about the stuff that was on the Billboard charts in my day.
I am so proud of A.
And it happened on Passover, no less!
*Image of the old Gaslight Cafe in the West Village. Click on the image of the Gaslight for Son House performance.
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