Badu bummer

I'll have to write up short account of the (free) shows we/I have gone to over the past 3 weeks: the Manhattans/O'Jays, Bahamadia, KRS-One, and Willie Colon. (See below for a video clip from the KRS-One show, shot by your truly--my first upload to YouTube!)

But right now I'm bummed we didn't get in to see Erykah Badu! She was the latest performer at Brooklyn's MLK concert series--the first of which was the Manhattans/O'Jays show I attended, 3 weeks ago.

For that show, I got there sometime around 8pm, and ended up sitting on the bleacher for at least an hour, listening to Marty Markowitz and assorted other personalities get on the mic, until finally the Manhattans came on ~9pm, and the O'Jays ~9:45pm.

So I was in no hurry for us to get down to Wingate Field this evening--we left home close to 8pm, and didn't emerge at Nostrand and Winthrop til 8:30ish...only to find that NYPD had set up a barricade on New York Ave, and were turning people away! Too packed on the field apparently... :(

So we got back on the train, got off at Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum, got some ice cream on Underhill instead, and ended up walking all the way home, up Vanderbilt and down Fulton.

Can't believe we missed the opportunity to see Erykah for free! After having no problems w/ space for the Manhattans/O'Jays, I was very dense and somehow implicitly figured it wouldn't be that much larger a crowd for Erykah..even though I'd read some accounts of people lining up hours ahead of time last summer, for Lauryn Hill. (I am trying to let go of having regrets..but I'm having a hard time letting go of the regret of missing that show! Accounts of it made it all the way to RS!)

So you can guess where I'll be next Monday, late afternoon/early evening..getting in line early enough to make it in for Jill Scott!

PS: Here's that KRS-One clip I shot, Thursday Aug 24 @ the East River Park bandshell: