no room for hipsters

Early on a Saturday in New York City, Ashley and I were already on the subway with bags of wood block paintings, embroidered pictures, handbags, guitar, dog, and laundry hanger.  We’d crowded into the back of a near empty car when the train picked us up in Harlem.  As we bound closer to Union Square, the bags and objects were strewn around the ankles and annoyance of several people.  I didn’t know how we would ever get off.

The Union Square farmers market is a large one.  The vendors’ tents are claimed by a system unknown to me, although I think there are underworld connections necessary.  A delta of craftsmen and artists funnelled the congested row of farmer tents.  In the early hours of the morning it seemed there were orderly rows, of which we snagged a spot on the 4th.  Later the artists and vendors of other non edibles had gradually inched into a maze devised to trap a hungry New Yorker into disruption from the smell of apple wine and cheese.

Ashley and I don’t possess the aggression necessary to sustain life in these situations, and maintained our Southern manners.  The back row vendors had plenty of time to talk shop and buy each others wares as to give enocouragement.  I pretended to be a street performer with my guitar, but there are some top notch buskers as well as hollywood casted performances that occur at these occasions.  We spent the day gaining our respective educations.  A truckload of displays and a bum to hold our spot from Thursday were decidedly what we needed to do better next time.  Crowding back on the subway, we were one wood block and a couple CDs lighter but the experience and enlightment we would file away forever as one of the successes we had come for.

James Cameron and I

And I later wrote this song.  It is about the resolve of Ashley and her dauntless approach to living by her art.  Musically it was co written by James Cameron, my cohort in Virginia Beach landscaping.  It was recorded on the hill in Tazewell, VA.  You’ll notice the space in the track for a guitar solo for whomever should choose to join my band, which will soon take over the radio charts and spill over Union Square to the ears of those buying apple wine and cheese.

Here it is:

shewontletthem723

Tags: james cameron, union square farmers market