(The sound wouldn't work when I tried to upload the videos, so I have to use youtube links instead)
This guy is just chillin' in the park with drums and all kinds of cool percussion instruments, smilin' at people. As soon as it gets warmer Ima wear a shirt that says I love Lamp and a fanny pack, run out of the trees in Central Park and smile at people, hand em a bag of fruit snacks then scanter off back into the woods. On my back it'll say, we all cant be astronauts.
My Dad and his wife came in town last week. I've been in New York City for 6 months and have hardly seen any of the "must sees" in NYC. We saw an opera at the Met, empire state building, an exhibit at the met museum "From Donatello to Bellini" which was DaHOOOOOOPE, china town, Little Italy, took em to my favorite yogurt spot, and it warmed up enough to go for a walk in central park.
Crazy bird lady... She would toss up food and birds catch it in mid air.
It's crazy how much I'm turning out like my Dad.
My Dad is an elder in a church in California called the "local church" or the Living Stream Ministry. He's about the most conservative man I know... like fallin' asleep with his headphones on so he can watch fox news without waking up his wife status.... So my Dad, his wife Robin, and I get off the train and walk up on a group of about fifteen hundred people down by city hall. At first, I thought it was a protest or some kinda union rally nonsense.
.
1,500 people had assembled to play a prank on the city. They divided everyone into 12 groups by the month of their birthday. This decided what subway they were supposed to ride. Each of those groups divided into 10(by their last number of their cell phone) to decide in which car of the train they would ride. It was a no pants subway ride!!!! They just stand on the train in nothin' but their chonies! GHAAAAAhhhh... brilliant! With whom do I walk up on this glorious social experiment other than my DAD?!?! Dad said, "Son I don't understand, why would this many people want to support this cause? Hahahahah... He just doesn't get it. I said, The beauty is... you don't have to understand, people just do their thing here. If I would have walked up on this on ANY other day I woulda found a pink speedo in 2.5 minutes flat and rode the train to nowhere for the next halfa day sippin on some starbucks readin' a good book.
My cousin Michael came in town from Boston. He's doing his doctorate at Harvard in Physics!!! What?!? How am I even related to this yehoo? That is bananas! That fool got the good genes for realzies. He's a little shy, very soft spoken, but absolutely brilliant. He'll drop these one liners and I'm like... WHAT? BABBAHAGAGA... He brought his girlfriend in town to hang for the weekend. She's super cool and plays the Cello... NEAT! She's sitting next to him in this video. What a cool match...
I've been looking for a great place to get my hair cut and I found it. These ladies massage my head for like 10 minutes while washing my hair. A Russian Dude named Alex, that sounds straight off the boat, cuts my hair.
Opening conversation goes as follows...
Dan: Russia huh? Why'd you move to New York?
Alex: I got in too many fights in my country.
Dan: Oh dude...
Alex: The Mafia is bad there my friend.
Dan: Oh dude...
Alex: I was attacked by 5 guys, I got a hold of two of them, but I couldn't fight them all by myself. I had so much adrenaline when I ran away I didn,t realize they stabbed me in the leg. I got home and my Mother saw blood all over my pants. She lifted them up and I was missing a big triangle of flesh... my Mother passed out on the spot.
Dan: Oh DEEEUUUuuuuhhhde!
This guy was crackin' me up the entire time! He told me he was real sad when his hair started thinning. I was like yeah, I'll probably lose mine one day too brotha! It's all good. He said, oh I havent lost it... it's just migrated. BOOM!!! This fool kept em comin' the entire time I was there. At the end he brought me behind the counter and said... "You are good man, and friend, we do shot together. WHAT, are you serious? He said, "Yes, we start tradition." I said you're the boss. This how we do in "Mother Russia." He said some crazy toast in Russian, we downed some Hennessy, and I was on my way.
I went to the World Trade Center Memorial with my parents. It was powerful. A young architects design was chosen. There are two giant wholes in the ground where the towers stood, with waterfalls that go down so deep you can't even see the bottom.
Thousands of people lost their lives, in the most infamous attack in the history of our country, in the exact spot where I was standing. Brothers, children, Mom's, nephew's, best friends were taken. In that moment, I had to words. I stood in breathless awe of the power and affect of this momentous tragedy. This happened just months before my 16th birthday. Comprehending the magnitude and consequence of 9/11 was far beyond my maturity then. I'm just beginnging to truly understand how deeply this wounded our country. In 15 years, if I have a family, it will no doubt mean something far different to me then.
Then I saw this...
Today I sang in a concert in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. A choir led the audience in singing "We Shall Overcome."
Let justice role down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. MLK Jr. Amos 5:24
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