Real Music & Real Estate . . .

Yiddishe Cup’s bandleader, Bert Stratton, is Klezmer Guy.
 

He knows about the band biz and – check this out – the real estate biz, too.
 

You may not care about the real estate biz. Hey, you may not care about the band biz. (See you.)
 

This is a blog with a gamy twist. It features tenants with snakes and skunks, and musicians with smoked fish in their pockets.
 

Stratton has written op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.


 
 

I’M SOCIALLY AWKWARD

by Bert Stratton

I have a cottage by Lake Erie. Before coronavirus, I’d invite everybody over — friends from high school, musicians, my wife’s schoolteacher friends. People liked the lake.

Funny thing, in Cleveland few people live by the lake. For instance, Cleveland Heights is six miles from the lake. One guy came to my parties from Indiana. Jeff left Cleveland twenty years ago and returned just to see the lake. He liked to toke down on pot. Am I saying that right — “toke down on pot”? It’s been a while for me.

The water on the lake is rarely blue. It’s usually green. We drink beer until the lake turns blue. Then we play klezmer, “Louie Louie” and “Mustang Sally.” One guy, Dave, always wants to sing “Mustang Sally.” He’s in Thailand most of the time, thankfully. He goes over there for the girls, I think.

I wonder if anybody would show up at my parties if not for the beer and lake. I’m not a big draw. I’m taciturn to the extreme. I talk in a monotone like a depressive. Maybe they like my hot dogs. I get the best: Vienna. Also, I serve some veggie stuff. I wonder: What if I threw my next party in the Heights? Would anybody show up? I’m afraid to think about it.

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3 comments

1 Janna Blanter { 06.03.20 at 9:03 am }

I prefer Hebrew National

2 Kenneth Goldberg { 06.03.20 at 10:34 am }

Please throw it in the Heights and invite yours truly. The lake would be okay too. With any big city on a lake most of the population is not going to reside near it. What’s a little noteworthy is that most of the most expensive, prestigious neighborhoods and communities are NOT by Lake Erie or the main river. There has been some upscale residential on and close to the Lake since the late 19th century, but in recent years the scale of these neighborhoods has grown enormously – particularly on the West Side. Curiously, there are pockets on the East Side where the Lake Erie views are about or almost as good where housing values are still moderate.

3 Charlie B { 06.04.20 at 5:14 pm }

Pretty sure getting high involves toking up:
Even tho the lungs are below the mouth. You can, I suppose down a beer in chug-a-lug fashion. However, on the upswing, high begets higher, Mr. laconic master of ceremonies. Locale is a tid-bit. At least it used to be. Zoom cocktail parties notwithstanding. They are DULL.
And on the subject, what brand of beer do you have in the porch-based galvanized wash tub ice bucket? PBR or do you bust loose thrifty-style with Genesee Cream Ale?

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