Monday, 9th May 2011 in US Tour 2011.
Back to the city and a hotel in New Jersey not far from the Lincoln Tunnel. I booked the hotels so that, in the mornings, we were virtually on the road out to the next venue –nice to hit the road without having to wait in queues of traffic. We parked the car near the Imperial dock and took the ferry across to mid- town. Then a taxi to Sam Ash Music Stores where Neil bought a 9 volt DC adapter plus plectrums plus Vocal-ease plus a dozen other small items. Right outside the store was Bill Kates a very old friend or rather a friend from years ago – not actually very old. It was good to see him -he looked great, and ferried us around New York to a restaurant, to the park, to a book store for more stories to listen to on our huge journeys and a whole food store where we stocked up for the days ahead.
He told us that much of the landscape structure of Central Park was actually man-made. The original purpose was ““to refute the European view that Americans lacked a sense of civic duty and appreciation for cultural refinement and instead possessed an unhealthy and individualistic materialism that precluded interest in the common good.” ” My how things have changed!! It was to become ‘a sweeping pastoral landscape, among which the wealthy could parade in their carriages, socialize, and “be seen,” and in which the poor could benefit from clean air and uplifting recreation without lifting the bottle’ !!!! I love the park – I brought our kids here back in 1976 when Neil was working with Python ‘Live At The City Centre’, and we always felt completely safe. Safer than in our apartment actually. We had a very beautiful place which you got to by lift only except that a couple of guys came in the unofficial way – over the roof and through the window to steal our newly hired TV. They actually bent the bars over the windows to get in.