Yesterday I woke up rather early to work on the last few scenes of my play PITBULLS (formerly Crossing America). I can honestly say I'm almost finished and I'm quite happy with the rewrite. But the point of this point of entry is that I woke up early which usually means I fall asleep early. Well, yesterday, after a day of writing and eating and blustery cold I walked over to the Brooklyn Museum for their monthly First Saturdays--a cultural extravaganza and dance party that has the charm and free-flow you'll only find in Brooklyn. And it's free. But then my good friend Jeremy hit my cell (well, actually his rising-to-stardom girlfriend hit my cell) and invited me to this house party to hear Ledisi perform. Now for those of who you don't know: LEDISI is this organic vocalist from the San Francisco Bay Area who sings with truth and style and neo-soul. She's amazing. Well, Jeremy's girl invited me to hear her in Brooklyn. I was game... until I found out we'd be leaving at 11:30pm. Here lies the quandry. I woke up at 5:30am to write and I was already at the Museum getting sleepy. So... I told Jeremy and his girl Rose to call me when they got in the area (they were driving from Connecticut and was willing to pick me up and drop me off) and that's just what they did. As I was nestled on my sofa watching a Writer's Guild screener of Sean Penn's INTO THE WILD, they called. And I thought about my writing, I thought about the cold outside and I thought about the opportunity to see Ledisi perform live for the very first time... well, I threw on my shoes and vintage sweater and off to Ditmas Boulevard we drove -- which was only ten minutes away.

And when we arrived I discovered, not only was it a house party, it was grand house party. With red carpet leading up the stairs to what look like a mansion. In Brooklyn. A real house. With a sprawling veranda. Think Pasadena. Think Shaker Heights. Think the Ditmas Park area of Flatbush -- I never knew.

Well, we got there too late to hear her perform anything but her encore number. But at least I was invited backstage -- the master bedroom of the master of ceremony, the HOST. And man, talk about impressive. The house was built in 1907. And was the former residence of the Japanese ambassador.

With that said, I so enjoyed Ledisi. Sweet. Sincere. And talented. She departed for D.C. an hour later and we followed. Well, for our departure back to Fort Greene. I got home, got in bed, woke up and guess what? It snowed. Now, that's another story.

Until next time,

Keith