Sometimes I love the city.

This evening I had dinner in Davis Square with Rosa. Before heading out, I had a bunch of work to do, so we decided to hang out in the Diesel Cafe for 2 hours or so beforehand. Even though I knew it was a planned social night there, the sheer volume of people we ran into that we didn’t expect to see (and just happened to be noodling along) really blew me away. That doesn’t happen out in the sticks where we live.
Even better, after we left, we decided to take the T into town to have dinner at the Cambridge Brewing Company over in Kendall Square. While walking to the T station, I bumped into Steve Revilak who I worked with at my old employer. Interesting, I hadn’t seen him in 6+ months.
Ah well, onwards. Took the T to Kendall, then wandered into the restaurant. First person I see is Ben Hyde, also of former employer, having dinner with a friend. A casual “hey guy!” exchange ensued, and Rosa and I sat down to dinner. Not 10 minutes later, Avi wanders in to have dinner as well, and we do the “Fancy meeting you here!” hallos. Sheesh 🙂
An excellent dinner and much wonderful conversation followed, after which we headed back to Davis. In the Davis T-stop, I heard some music playing – not unusual in the T station, but this wasn’t a guitar, or harmonica, or someone singing. It was a clarinet. And occasional orchestral accompaniment. We tracked down the player, a middle aged fellow happily playing orchestral music on his clarinet, with a small stereo next to him. He was reading from sheet music, and was playing BEAUTIFULLY – a piece obviously arranged for a solo clarinet. There were 3-4 people around listening appreciatively, and he had the obligatory sheet laid out with a small pile of cash on it. This was not some bozo with an amp trying to panhandle. This was a guy who had talent and skill, who was obviously classically trained, who was just out playing beautiful music, to anyone who would listen, and might score some beer money in the process.
Rosa had to actively pull me away from listening, i was so moved hearing his beautiful playing. Gosh, isn’t that what music is for? Just expressing yourself with your music to whomever wants to listen, sharing with appreciative strangers.