What I Did For Love and Are New Yorkers Healthier than Most Americans?

Conducting members of Le Train Bleu at Galapagos Art Space, Friday, 20 Jan 2012

Ransom led his ensemble Le Train Bleu in another brilliant concert at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn last night. He began with fellow Yale faculty member Martin Bresnick's Der Signál, a short 1982 opera that was presented with video featuring imaginative puppetry by New York's Puppetsweat. Bresnick was there, adding to the piece's charm by telling us the backstory: he had recorded his grandmother reading her daughter's (Bresnick's mother) favorite story and then set her words to music. It was both dramatic and sweet and the whole package was fascinating.

Next up was a piece I consider a twentieth century masterpiece, Steve Reich's Different Trains. The on-stage string quartet was backed up by recorded train whistles and voices as well as by the Kronos Quartet. As a child Reich rode the train from New York to Los Angeles during the war years; as an adult he pondered what kind of trains he might have ridden as a Jew had he grown up in Europe. The piece that has all the energy, drive and emotion of those charging trains, both the transcontinental variety and the Polish death trains.

The evening ended with Judd Greenstein's Change for flute, clarinet, electric guitar, bass and piano. I loved this piece; it felt at times like straight-out jazz, at other times like classical chamber music. It fit the evening, and this wonderful venue, perfectly.

To get to this fantastic concert I left my house at 4:30, caught the 5:06 in Stratford and arrived at Grand Central ten minutes late at 6:56. The subway was particularly slow; I waited a long time for the 4 express; it took me to Fulton Street where I took the A train (yes, THAT A train) for the trip under the river and into Brooklyn. From there it's a ten-minute walk to Galapagos. Coming back I made it to Grand Central with enough time to pick up a sautéed chicken dinner from my favorite Middle-Eastern food cart on Lexington Avenue before boarding the 11:22 to Stratford. I walked into the house at approximately 1:20, almost nine hours after I left.

After feeding the dogs and waiting for a while to take them out I watched a bit of TV and made it to bed at 3am. Quite an effort! Worth every bit of it, though I still wish it were easier.

Oh, and about the healthy New Yorkers? Well, all this travel entails a good bit of walking -- and stair-climbing too. Changing trains at Fulton Street involves almost a ten-minute walk and 91 stairs! Like everyone around me, I did it. Twice. Unlike them, I don't do it every day. I likely would be healthier if I did.

Today?

My feet are killing me.