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.


 
 

SHUFFLE OFF TO BUFFALO

by Bert Stratton

 
My wife, Alice, went on a road trip with Yiddishe Cup to Buffalo, New York. That was her first one. She had always refused road trips. Alice made two beginner’s mistakes. She talked too much. Talking wears you out. Also, she did not catnap.

We played the gig in Buffalo. The whole undertaking was 13 hours (7 hours driving there and back, and two hours of set up and tear down. Oh, and we played music. Alice did the dance-leading. Alice aged a year that day, she said. She said she had been “hit by a truck.”

Pace yourself, Alice. Take catnaps. Drink a lot of fluids.  Eat an apple.

Same subject, sort of:

I used to blame Taco Bell for post-gig illnesses. T-Bell was poisoning me. T-Bell was slipping me spoiled tacos.

My migraines were always on Tuesdays after out-of-town gig weekends. I’d return the rental van on Monday morning and dispute fender dings; then go to my real estate job to talk about burst water pipes and late rents.  When I’d come home on Monday evenings, my sleep cycle would be all off.

I haven’t done a run-out (one-day road trip, no overnight) in a few years. I don’t miss it.

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6 comments

1 Mark Schilling { 12.21.22 at 9:28 am }

A lot of the physical stuff is mental. I was an insomniac for years until I finally got to the root of the problem: Dead-end English-teaching gigs that were stressing me out and wearing me down. Quitting them all in one day turned out to be the start of the cure. But naps and apples help.

2 Gerald Ross { 12.21.22 at 10:58 am }

When I come back from an on-the-road weekend gig I pour myself a scotch and fall asleep half way though the drink. I’ll sleep for ten hours.

3 Gerald Ross { 12.21.22 at 11:03 am }

In the 1980’s my band, the Lost World String Band would play in Chicago about four times a year. At 3:00 AM after the gig we would frequent an all night deli for huge pastrami sandwiches. If I tried to do that today it would probably kill me. And it’s only three hours before my wake up time.

4 Ken Goldberg { 12.21.22 at 1:23 pm }

Alice always seemed kind of youthful for her age so there was plenty of room for “aging a year.” She is probably back down a year or two by now anyways.

5 Lucy { 12.21.22 at 5:50 pm }

shuffle off to buffalo was my go-to move in tap

6 Kenneth Goldberg { 12.21.22 at 11:22 pm }

“Quite a scene in the film “Dead Ringer” when Bette Davis sings that song after killing her twin sister….

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