Is that a shrub in your pocket...
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Last Live Show for Morning Sedition?
Today was billed as the last live show for Morning Sedition at O'Neal's in Manahattan. Since today was my birthday, it seemed like something we ought to go to, so we did.
What a great show. As much as I enjoy listening on the radio, to see everybody together live, with the energy of a live audience was truly incredible. It's now even more amazing to me that anybody could be so fricking dense as to do away with this show, and these people. They're a truly unique bunch, making the kind of show that I don't think anyone will ever even come close to approaching. For chrissakes, take advantage of these folks for however long they're willing to get up in the middle of the night and put this stuff out there.
We left at about 11:30 last night, not knowing just how long it would take to get there, find the place, and park. As it turned out, we made great time (even had time for a half-hour nap at a rest area in New Jersey), got to O'Neal's a bit after 4:30, and found a garage across the street. We figured we'd just hang in the car for a while, but it wasn't a park yourself place, and so we found ourselves out on the very cold street with a good hour to kill. We wandered around Broadway for a bit, but the wind was whipping along pretty good, so we decided to stand outside O'Neal's. I could see Mark Riley and Goliath already in there, so I waved. Mark waved back, with a "who the hell is that" expression. Goliath cam nearer the door, ascertained that we weren't anybody, and wandered away. As my wife fiddled with her laptop looking for a Wi-Fi signal (there plenty) Mike O'Neal (the owner) came by and said hello. After a while Marc's car pulled up, and I said good morning as he headed inside. My wife said "we're the crowd," and he laughed, and said "you might be the only ones coming." Not hardly.
By the time they let us in, there were 20 or so people, with a good size crowd on hand before the show started. By the end of the show, the place was packed.
Everybody was terrific, and all the favorite characters were there: Marc the Shark, Cardinal Milfington, Lawton Smalls, Johnny K-Street. Everybody was so funny, and there was so much energy - a lot to do with the "last show" feeling that I think crowd and crew all felt, though I, at least, am quite loathe to even think it. The guest were great too, of course, but, in the end, it's all about Marc and Mark. They've taken the show so far since March '04. Again, how in the hell can AAR possibly think of killing Marc and/or the show?
Toward the end, a guy in a suit (who I later realized from watching "Left of the Dial" was Carl Ginsburg, AAR COO) accompanied by a woman came in. I took him to be some sort of mucky-muck - though reasonably liked, judging by the greeting he got from Marc. The woman he was with asked him "did you hear Kent [Jones] this morning? He made me want to cry. He did this really funny bit [Lawton Smalls] offering Marc work with the other side" (or words to that effect). She asked Carl if he had plead Marc's case (which he said he did), and asked if "Doug" had, too (my assumption is that she meant Doug Kreeger, former CEO of AAR who helped to bail the network out of the mess left over from the original mamagement). He said Doug had, too. Carl said, "it's very tough, but it's not over." So, I guess we'll see. If the phone calls and e-mails and signatures peter out, I suppose it'll be pretty much done with. I hope everybody keeps up the pressure.
Tim Robbins strolled in toward the end of the show and hung out (he waved around the "M&M Forever" sign that someone had brought in). When the show ended, O'Neal's exploded with applause as everyone jumped to their feet, and gave a standing ovation that must have lasted at least ten minutes.
My wife had to work at three this afternoon, so it was back to the car for the long ride home. We made it back at 2:20 (with a couple of wrong turns and a hell of a lot more traffic than there was at 4 AM), just in time for my wife to change into her nurse clothes and head to work. Better her than me; I'm beat. I'm running on about three hours sleep in the last 48.
But I have my "bootleg" recording and a few photos (plus an AAR/WLIB T-Shirt, which I'll piss on - maybe line the cat box with it for a couple weeks - and mail back to Danny Goldberg if Marc and Morning Sedition go away), that I hope will come to remind me not of the end of the best show that's ever been on radio, but of one of the best birthdays I've ever had, and the beginning of the next phase of Marc, Mark, and Morning Sedition.
