i’ve pretty much surrendered myself to the drug that pulls me here and there— opting not to resist the excitement that comes with discovery— wherever it is. this month brought me back to the big apple- the first trip i’ve made here since the brink of the pandemic in march of 2020. i can’t tell if new york has changed or if i just see the bigger picture after so many years. i enjoy the energy it inspires, and the way it makes me up my game just being here. this was a volunteer trip to reconnect with some folks i met in 2019 who are playing in the big new space of the modern music industry— a very different buisness than the one i started in so many years ago. i come to them as a time traveller who somehow survived the digital transformation which started in the 1990’s, while still living in my 1960’s shell — a bit of an artifact, i’m sure, but one who remembers the reason we all got started in this game to begin with, which sure wasn’t about the money. the cramped offices on 55th street are now replaced with pencil towers with catered kitchens, not that i mind this, i just mourn for those who never “got to” sweat it out the “hard way”. it all started because i am a musician, and i got to know— and survive— in a business that i love.