Dave Frishberg has written an awful lot of songs with lyrics that truly rival those of Cole Porter. He’s an incredible pianist, too, with a nasal voice that nevertheless manages to convey witty insights and complex emotions in a way we seldom hear any more. As I was listening to one of his songs on his Classics CD, “Do You Miss New York?“, I was struck by the following words, which could have been written by anyone who has moved to one of those big suburban subdivisions:
On this quiet street is it really as sweet
As it seems out here?
Do you dream your dreams out here?
Or is that passe?
Do you miss the scene?
The frenzy–the faces?
And did you trade the whole parade
For a pair of parking places?
The whole parade. I guess that’s what I just adore about living in the city. From our second-story front porch we watch people walk by all the time. From the window of Cafe Kubal we see people walking in to get their caffeine fix or a steaming bowl of exquisite soup. And of course on Memorial Day we actually do get an official Eastwood parade!
I’m wondering who is out there now, people who have lived in Eastwood but moved away, who would kinda like to be able to return to this charming neighborhood where people know each other, attend community meetings galore, raise a stink about bad development and just generally care – deeply – about what goes on here.
[...] to speak of, just a lot of cars pulling into and out of the driveways. The garages are not “a pair of parking spaces” but rather car parks vaster than the average family home in most countries in the [...]