Free Music Every Night

Monday night Laura, Sarah and I ventured into a neighborhood called Lefferts Gardens for a free concert at Wingate Park, part of the Martin King Luther concert series. We got to see DJ Slick Rick, Naughty by Nature and Salt-N-Pepa. Its amazing how many cool free things are available to us in NYC this summer.

We all met at our apartment and took the train over to Lefferts Gardens. We had to stand in a long line and not until we were almost in did I find out there were no cameras allowed. I hid my camera as best I could in my purse and was relieved to get in without being found out. Once inside we found a spot to stand toward the back of the sizable crowed. The concerted opened with prayer led by a local reverend. The crowd was boisterous and fun to watch as they danced and sang to the music.

Slick Rick was fun, although he didn't often finish an entire song and let the crowd fill in holes a lot, which broke the beat a lot. Naughty by Nature was terrific and although we hadn't remembered their songs on the way there we were happy to hear OPP and Hip Hop Hooray.

Salt-N-Pepa were amazing! Their set was quick but satisfying and they even brought out Busta Rhymes, a local, for one song.

Yesterday I went to work and had a particularly difficult photo shoot of a woman, two children under three and two dachshunds. Yikes. After work I came home and was eating my supper when Rachel texted me to see if I wanted to meet over at her place for drinks. I changed and headed over there, which is quite a hike.

We sat out on Rachel's fire escape drinking beer with some of her friends from work and talking as it began to get dark. Eventually her friends all decided they'd like to go for food at some ethnic restaurant. While people were deciding what they wanted to do and milling about the apartment Sarah came home with her friend Stacey. They had been at a show at Rockwood Music Hall around the corner. They had already decided they were going back for the 10 o'clock show, and since it was free and since I wasn't hungry I opted to say bye to Rachel and friends and go with Sarah and Stacey to the show. Also the venue was right by the subway station and I had gotten lost the last time I tried to walk to the subway so that was also a factor. Plus I love me some Sarah.

Rockwood was small and cool and Stacey was full of stories of famous people seen in the small crowd from time to time. We saw an act called Hugo which was pretty great. We sat on stools in the back and watched the show and the small army of videographers filming the set. The show was fun and I look forward to seeing more acts here with Sarah. After the short set we left and I got on the subway home.