{"id":2552,"date":"2023-12-06T01:08:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T01:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=2552"},"modified":"2023-11-09T12:32:15","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T12:32:15","slug":"epilog-9-parts-5-was-the-new-years-eve-party-a-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=2552","title":{"rendered":"EPILOG (9 Parts): #5 – Was the New Year’s Eve Party a Success?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

5.Was the New Year\u2019s Eve Party a success?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Big Time!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     It was Huck\u2019s turn to be center-stage, a hero.  Up until now, he\u2019d mostly kept it under wraps \u2013 as to what\u2019s up with the party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Back in Minnesota, Huck was part-founder of the Red House Records Label, along with Bob Feldman \u2013 another of the Sunday morning softball playing friends, now deceased.  Folk musician Greg Brown was part of that crowd.  Greg was a recurring minstrel on The Prairie Home Companion Show with Garrison Keillor.  When Greg heard about the trip, he told Huck to put the Sunnyside Folk Club on the list if the RV ended up in New York City.  Huck didn\u2019t put it on the list, but his #5 (to get on the bus) was an old musician friend, Brendan.  They knew each other from playing together as part of the reggae band Pressure Drop, doing regular gigs at the Longhorn Bar in Minneapolis back in the late 70s.  Brendan later moved to Westport, Connecticut, a few miles outside New York City along the Long Island Sound, and set-up a recording studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWow, would be great to see you if you guys make it this way,\u201d Brendan said when Huck called to see if he\u2019d mind an RV in his driveway a couple nights, \u201cThis place is big enough to hold all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Later, when it was clear we might be in NYC around New Year\u2019s Eve, Huck called Brendan back, \u201cWhat are you doing New Year\u2019s Eve?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWell, boy, if you guys are in town I\u2019m throwing a big party \u2013 got my musician friends from the City all coming up.  We\u2019re going to jam \u2013 sort of a Hootenanny.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cSay, you remember our buddy, Greg Brown?  He said to look up the Sunnyside Folk Club if I got to NYC.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cI\u2019m part of that Club,\u201d Brendan said.  \u201cSome of those guys are coming-up.  Even got Steff Reed and the Mountain Maidens coming.  You know them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cHeard of \u2018em, yah.  Well great, we\u2019ll be there!  Remind me to tell you about the Hoot I organized in San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Four p.m. New Year\u2019s Eve, 2022, with a chill in the air, folks started arriving at Brendan\u2019s.  We\u2019d been there all week, a not-so-quiet week being world famous.  We\u2019d asked FBI guy Stover not to disclose where we were staying and had the Land Yacht parked behind the studio, so as not to be seen from the street \u2013 what, now the 5th<\/sup>, 6th<\/sup>, maybe 7th<\/sup> time? we\u2019d become too<\/em> popular.  Patty spent most the week quietly editing her tapes into the start of a movie. \u201c What\u2019s the theme?  What\u2019s the theme?\u201d she kept saying to herself.  \u201cIs it a murder mystery?  A travel adventure?  (Not a fishing trip.)  Is it all about politics?  Is it about what is fun?  Is it a romance?  A find yourself?\u201d  All<\/em> of<\/em> the<\/em> above<\/em>, she decided, but<\/em> into<\/em> one<\/em> movie!<\/em>???<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Not too long after the music started, Sally was talking with Rocky about what a great trip it\u2019s been and how nice it\u2019s been to get to know him \u2013 \u201cdespite your nasty sense of humor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cWell Sally B,\u201d Rocky replied, \u201cI\u2019m glad you never took offense, but I\u2019ve been meaning to tell you \u2013 you were a lousy Patty Hearst, and you\u2019ve still got a lot to learn about what is fun.  Smoke a joint with me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cOh, you’re such a jerk,\u201d Sally rejoined, \u201cbut I\u2019m learning.\u201d  Then she shouted across the room to Huck:  \u201cHey, Huck . . . Rocky says this music is second-rate – can\u2019t you do better?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cGood one,\u2019 Rocky said laughing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Then the surprise of the night!  Huck had been back in touch with his Valley-of-the-Vapors friends back in Hot Springs and half the members of the \u201cHulahoops<\/em>\u201d showed-up and jammed right in.  (His L.A. band couldn\u2019t make it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Just about 8 p.m., the Land Yacht left for Manhattan with some of the Mountain<\/em> Maidens<\/em> and one of the Hulahoops<\/em> crammed on board.  We\u2019d cleared it with the police chief we were going to keep the party tamped-down, just park the RV on a corner by City Hall, then head out to the bars and Times Square for midnight.  Maybe start a group sing-along if enough people came just to see us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cGood,\u201d the Chief told us, \u201cbut your frickin\u2019 announcement has resulted in blocking off Broadway all the way to Fulton Street.  Every cop in the city who wants overtime is getting it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Over the course of the evening, parked at Broadway and Murray, we were Facebooking and Skyping with all sorts of friends we\u2019d made all across the country.  Most significantly, according to Skip, Susie had the cowboys in Boulder singing with the Indians in Santa Fe off the same song sheet \u2013 not just about politics, but \u201cThis Land<\/em> is<\/em> Your<\/em> Land<\/em>, This<\/em> Land<\/em> is<\/em> My<\/em> Land,<\/em>\u201d plus some song Huck was trying to teach everybody called \u201cCowboys<\/em> and<\/em> Indians<\/em>\u201d – by some obscure band, but with Huck\u2019s new lyrics it was pretty funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cMust have put some good stuff in that peace pipe,\u201d Rocky said to Tsoodzif (on camera) – and off camera to Skip: \u201cYou know, I keep winning these bets.  Fun keeps trumping politics every time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Another highlight was when Tex and Austin got on – doing New Year\u2019s Eve in Laredo – and Rocky zinged them with, \u201c. . . and you know what #1 is right, assholes?  We\u2019ll let as many as you fuckin\u2019 Texans as we can into the new government, just to keep things as dumbed down as humanly possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     We never heard from Sunshine and Peaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Then, along about midnight, Patty doing reel-to-reel highlights of our adventures on a big-screen TV . . .  who strolls up?  It\u2019s Andy Yang!  \u201cYou owe me five sawbucks,\u201d Skip said to Rocky, \u201cremember that<\/em> bet?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5.Was the New Year\u2019s Eve Party a success?      Big Time!      It was Huck\u2019s turn to be center-stage, a hero.  Up until now, he\u2019d mostly kept it under wraps \u2013 as to what\u2019s up with the party.       Back … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2837,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions\/2837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}