I received Lach's Folk Fest email. He has 48 people on that park performance list. July 29th will be a memorable afternoon.

We rehearsed last night at Tu Casa. Mario, who runs Tu Casa, said the park people promised the East Village community a stage after they removed the bandshell. He used to put on park concerts but not again. Apparently he's part of a not for profit organization connected with Charas. El Bahio, perhaps?

Look to August 1st for the new status of Charas, the big abandoned public school that for many years has been a community rehearsal space, not without charge, of course.

Every week, some major new change awaits NYC.

Look to the November election for 40 new city council members, plus a new mayor.

I acquired from Jordan Corbin a copy of her CD and it sounds surprisingly dreamy. Her high notes are eerie and she can really hit them. Enter her raw, intimate, exclusive world through the acquisition of her CD. Diane Cluck also has that exclusionary intimacy that seems to contradict mass production of her work. They get me dreaming, but to what end?

Sitting on lawn chairs by the lightly lapping lake as the sun, descending behind the mountain, glows us golden, we chat.

We visited Coney Island on Saturday; t'was Kim's first visit there and she loved it. The occasion was the Siren Concert, with the Asto Boys to Men and Another band with the word "voices," and a band with the word Blues in it, like they were blues masters. The music sounded great. Matador records gave out free samples, including a clear plastic record for the old victrola.

Jon Berger suggested this outing. He, Grey, Matt Mason, Randi Russ, Dina Levy, Kim and I met in front of Nathan's; he was sitting on a waterplug attached to the building like he was the only one there, at its corner, while fourteen hundred people awaited Nathan's seafood to his immediate left. We headed over to Popeyes then to the jam packed alley by the rollercoaster where the bands blared. While on the boardwalk, eating, I ran into my old friend, Jordan Pfister, and I called to Grey when Jordan said he studied with Jack Cassidy. Grey thought he meant Jack Bruce, do I have this right? Of Cream. Anyway, Jack Cassidy was in Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane and he played Bass. We were clarifying that when I realized it meant that Jordan also played bass.

"Hey, Jordan (I had just invited him to my antifolk fest performance next Sunday) Do you want to play with me???" Hens of Monospace, Jordan and I rehearsed today. It went great. Joe Bendik will join us on Sunday. We play on the bill with Moldy Peaches, Cock Roach, Jeff Lightning Lewis and RICK SHAPIRO! That's this Sunday, after the Tompkins Square Park event which will miraculously feature preview spots by all 50 of the fest participants. I met Francis Ford Coppola today at Frank Restaurant and made sure he knew about it. He wouldn't commit, but at least he got the info.

Come to think of it, to get to Coney Island we travelled by subway over the Manhattan Bridge. That sentence strikes a nostalgic note because, in keeping with our "end of the old NYC" tradition (last week, goodbye gas tanks), as of Sunday the bridge is closed to subways until 2004.

Other visits there include an overcast Mermaid Parade in 1995, where I took a photo of the woman with the keyhole ("Hers is the keyhole to youth regained") which is at http://www.cinemavii.com/dizozza/images/keyhole.jpg.