The Last New York Concert (For Now) And Some Saling The Second Weekend In March

The world has gotten a little scary over the last week. Like other parts of the country (actually, all fifty states now), the coronavirus and its disruption of life as we know it, has hit New York. New York didn't have its first confirmed case until March 1st. Today, March 18th, we have 2,480 confirmed cases and twelve deaths statewide. Our county reported its first case just nine days ago. We now have 116 confirmed cases. Large gatherings of people are not only not recommended but dangerous...and now against the law. All concerts and sporting events have been postponed indefinitely. Restaurants and bars are now closed though drive through, curbside and pick up orders are still allowed (though many restaurants are ill equipped to adjust to this and have decided to suspend their operations until such time as it is deemed safe to reopen to dine in). This is New York to which we refer but this is the same story across most of the country. We will all get through this if we use our heads.

All of these changes did not go into effect until the last few days and we had concert tickets for Thursday, March 12th in Brooklyn; a night that would turn out to be the last night of concerts in New York City for the foreseeable future.

We didn't see a show at Rough Trade which is three blocks away from the Music Hall of Williamsburgh but this is where we parked. The ban on gatherings of 500+ people was to go into effect the next night. Rough Trade holds 250 people but they were going to be limited to 50% capacity under the new restriction. They also have a record store here so we went inside. The employees didn't know what their plans were yet as the new law was just announced a few hours earlier. Rob bought a couple of shirts and we left to begin our walk to our concert. 

Just down the street was Bushwick Inlet Park and, since we were early, we took a short walk through the park. 

It's a popular spot for soccer and why wouldn't it be? With manicured soccer fields and a great view of the Manhattan skyline just across the East River, it was perfect. We had to wonder, though, whether this scene would also disappear for the next few weeks or months.

Two views of Manhattan from Brooklyn

We arrived at Music Hall of Williamsburgh for Wire. 

Wire, back in 1977 or 1978. Graham, Colin and Robert (left to right) are still in the band. Bruce, far right, left the band a few years ago and was replaced by Matthew Simms on guitar. 

Instead of having an opening band on this tour, a different member of the band serves as DJ before the band play. Tonight, it was lead singer, Colin Newman. Rob asked him to pose for a picture and Colin obliged. 

Matthew's copy of the playlist was right in front of us as we were right up front and leaned on the stage all night (covered arms, not hands).

We had the best place in the house to enjoy the show.

This is how close we were. It was a great show!

This was Matthew's actual copy of the playlist which Rob had in his hands but gave to the couple nearest to us who seemed to want it even more than us. It was, apparently, the girl's birthday and Rob insisted they have it.  

On Saturday, we had one estate sale on our list. It was a "Victorian estate sale covering the "entire house". The company listed as running the sale was one of which we had never heard. We didn't see anything old but we did see pictures of records; many less common ones from the 1980's. That was our target. We didn't think it would be that popular but, even arriving 30 minutes early, we were #20 and #21. We were also surprised to see so many familiar faces of other salers who usually seek more vintage items and usually play further to the west (this sale was seven miles to our east and we live further to the east than most of the regulars we run into (we cover a wider territory than most). Despite being further back in the line, we were sent in at the same time as everyone else because the sale was run by two guys who typically don't list a company name. They run sales about once every six weeks and they are usually good. They almost always let everyone in at once.

Rob stayed up where the records were but had to wait behind other people who got to them first. There are a lot of record resellers / collectors out there and many were here. A few that Rob wanted were gone which puzzled him because he knew that no one other than him knew who The Plastics were and that one was in an ad picture. We think that some of the collectors just grabbed as many records as they could or did some research before going to the sale. This particular record could fetch upwards of $20 and that was going to yield them a profit. Rob did manage to find 24 records of interest so that was our first find.

Monica went down to the basement (where Rob met her later) to start digging through the mess down there. 

Lots of boxes and lots of digging. Aside from this area, there was not many rooms of interest. Mostly everything else was new. Down here, we found several squeak toys and a few other things to take home. 

Later, we went to an open house in our area. If we see an open house which is vintage and it is in our general area, we try to take the tour to see the inside. This one looked pretty good so we went.

The house had a small kitchen but it did have some great vintage wooden cabinets! 

The living room had lots of potential. Look at that great vintage stereo / entertainment center! 

Another angle of that living room. Great end table! 

This den in the basement was amazing! Unfortunately, there was no storage space in the basement at all. 

These three items sat on a shelf in that den. The realtors said that there would be an estate sale here and they took our email address so we can be notified. We'll be looking to bring these home! 

The house had two bathrooms. One had a pink toilet.

The other bathroom was blue! 

It was a fun stroll through this house and it had lots of potential. In the end, it would not be a house we would buy because there was so little storage space. There was an entrance to an attic but, as far as we could tell, that attic was small. 

When we got home, we had a chance to look at what we found at that one sale and this was what we saw:

Some records

A vintage inflatable New York Jets doll

Some vintage greeting cards, a Barney Rubble coin holder (from Pebbles cereal - 1975) and a book.

Five vintage squeak toys, an Esso Tiger bank and a vintage Easter candy holder

It was a fun day and it helped to take our minds off the more pressing issues going on in our area, our country and the world right now. We're not sure what our plans will be next weekend but we are taking the right precautions including washing our hands with soap and water at least twenty times per day and trying to practice social distancing as often as possible now. 

Stay safe, stay vigilant and stay healthy everyone. We'll catch up again with you in a couple of days.