{happy birthday Robyn Koester, thank you Kristen Berkel}

I went to watch my good friend Robyn play her songs at the CCC last night. It was soft and flawless, and I felt proud of her; she's very good. She told the story about how when she went to high school in Germany, she'd meant to take sky diving lessons, but then there was a war and so she had to take guitar lessons instead. She told it better than that, though.

A long time ago, we were walking around the Village and we made some kind of pact with each other that by June of, oh, 2011 (I think?), she would've recorded a CD and I would've written a book. We didn't shake on it or anything, but I think about it sometimes in my free time and feel like I've failed a little. All I've written since then are blog posts and to-do lists. (What am I supposed to write a book about?)

And now, even if it is two years and three months late, she's upholding her end of the deal and recording a little EP this weekend. I'm pretty excited about it, partly because I'm going to buy it and listen to it when I walk to the grocery store in the mornings, and partly because I know she's wanted to do this for a long time and I think it's really great that she's finally "taking the leap", you know, as it were.

Oh and it's her birthday today. (Happy Birthday, Robyn.)


PS: In the band who played after Robyn, there was a girl playing the autoharp! I mean, I realize it's 'a thing' lately for these indie bands to reach for uncommon instruments in a display of pretentious esotericism, but I still got pretty excited about it. What are the chances? I could almost smell my grandparents' chesterfields and feel the blisters on my little fingers gotten from hours of strumming away on that thing with no concept of how it worked. THANK YOU KRISTEN BERKEL.