La Belle Epoque Halloween Show

One day I was getting off the subway to go to work and I saw thin red tape blocking one of the exits to the surface. At the stairs was this guy in a fedora, trenchcoat and a suit that looked as if he had gone to the detective clothing store to buy his workclothes.
I nodded to his direction and told my boss, “That cop bought his clothes at the detective store.” By the time I got upstairs, I realized it was part of a Law and Order shoot.
This morning I went to pick up a shirt at the cleaners and saw this lady on the corner dressed in fortune-telling clothes. There’s no other way to describe it. She had the dress of a fancied old world peasant and she had a red scarf made of lace as a bonnet. Anyway, she had a cup and was going up to strangers. When it was my turn she said, “We’re going to vandalize the world . . . Vandalism.” I love living in this town.
My band played Sunday night at La Belle Epoque. I was going to dress up like Matlock but couldn’t get it together so I just wore a nice suit and colored my eyes. My ladyfriend was Betty Davis.
This place is gorgeous. It looks like a cross between a French restaurant and an old-timey ice cream parlor. It’s on the second floor above an antique store two blocks south of Union Square.
I got to play the grand piano and even though I couldn’t hear myself it was still cool to play it. My friend, Dan Dzula, sat in on the drums that night. His brother puts on fantastic puppet shows. Sammy dressed like a Parisian mechanic and he played real good. Dave went as himself yesterday and had to get home to draw pictures for Dr. Pepper. He drew my wolf.
Ben Ickies started a new band called The Ambitious Orchestra. It’s an 18-piece band that includes strings, bassoon, accordions, and Mr. Ickies conducting. It was very ambitious and lovely.
County Club and the Porn Horns were good, too. The singer/trumpet player dressed like Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the singer/sax player dressed like Mario and the other singer/sax player dressed like Teen Wolf! I was a judge for the costume contest and made sure that guy won. He did the dance when he won. It would have been even more badass if the other sax player went as Styles. And it would have been even more badass than that if they’d brought a portable basketball goal.
I think the restaurant was a little peeved. They wanted people to eat dinner and most had already eaten and didn’t want $12 ravioli. It was a good time though. A real good time.