In the early afternoon, after a much needed Mother's Day phone call and breakfast, Tim and Jeff from Bard drove us to Poughkeepsie, NY, home of Vassar College. Poughkeepsie is the one of those words that is easy to say, fun even, but hard to get over the initial awkward spelling/visualization. It's pronounced Po-keep-see. I like it. It's sweet, right? Tim and Jeff had finals or whatever, so they dropped us off in this really, really beautiful park on the Hudson River. We were smack-dab in between two bridges and near a wooded area with a big hill. We climbed the hill and found these trails that led to the top where there was a cliff with an intense sharp-drop off with a vast view of the river, forest and bridges.
A couple months ago Khaela met and set up a show with Chris, the Vassar boy whom set up this show, and it didn't take long for Rob and I to instantly fall in friend-love with him and his friend Kathy. The show was on campus at a co-op house that Kathy lives at called The Ferry House. This place is like a dream. The architecture is so clean and '70s Scandinavian.. maybe Danish? It's white and full of floor-to-ceiling windows.. so pretty. It really stuck out on the Vassar campus, which is full of castles, literal castles.. it's the most amazing campus I've ever been on. Who goes there? I couldn't really figure it out.. I mean, there are grand pianos in every dorm.. multiples in some. The library! It's a castle! I think that maybe the kids that go to that school have parents that invented toaster strudel... or really insane scholarships.. I'm not sure, but I hope they know that their campus is really, really special. I'm sure they do.
Everyone at the Ferry House was incredibly nice.. like to where it was making me real shy and so, so, so happy. From the moment we walked in everyone was so kind to us. They let us eat pasta they had just made, they gave us ice cream, they put on such a nice show for us! I loved it so much. I jokingly mentioned that I wanted to move in to the Ferry House, but as I said it I realized it was mostly the truth. My set started off with a lot of talking and comedy. I felt it. Rob felt it. Khaela felt it. It was a good night. Rob created this real good "bit" where while playing the piano he stopped for a second and turned a page on a random music book as if he was reading his own music. TOTALLY FUNNY. He laughed so hard at himself that he had to stop playing a couple of times. ROB IS VERY FUNNY. Khaela did the Blue Sky vs Night Sky opera and everyone held their breath for it.
After the show this nice kid took us on top of the library.. the most intense building I've been in in a long, long while. It's the most castle-y building on campus and our good luck broke the lock to the roof.. I mean, it was already broken.. yeah. Really amazing view. VASSAR! SO PRETTY!
ON TO ITHACA.
Truly,
Jona
Hi Jona, I was at your show at the Ferry Haus, and I wanted to thank you for giving me the dancing bug. It was such a nice atmosphere, everyone feeling the beats and the erasure of stage. The Own Zone cd is great too. I told my mom to go to your show in Miami because she lives around there. You guys should check out Miami Beach too, and admire the old hotels on the beach. woo!