Are You Dave?

We spent the weekend in CA at a family reunion, some 30-40 of our closest relatives, plus various spouses, step-relatives and hangers-on. (No, it wasn’t one of them who asked The Question; they all know me via the web if not face-to-face.)  Saturday night we had a huge gathering at our hotel pool and I took charge of collecting food orders. We phoned in a $120 food order, not outrageous by NYC/Hoboken standards but apparently quite a request for the local eatery. We gave my name as the pick-up person. I grabbed my eldest nephew to help carry food, and headed out to pick up our order. The waitress who spotted us lingering by the counter asked “Are you Dave?” My nephew wondered why I laughed.

Two in one day!

At the organic store, I heard “Are you Dave?” from a woman near the check-out counter. Turns out it was Karyn Kuhl, another Hoboken-based musician who does classes for kids. Eight years working in the same field in the same town and we’ve never actually said “hi” to each other. But she could have been a Fuzzy Lemon: She was included in the original e-mail I sent out, inviting people to jam with Dana, Kipley, Maiken and myself at Cabin Fever 2008. Anyway, we hobnobbed for a bit. She’s friendly.

Then, after a pleasant afternoon noodling on my banjo (not a euphemism) at Church Square Park, I heard an “Are you Dave?” from the gazebo. A woman named Liz recognized me from the Gordys; she was hanging out with another fellow who introduced himself as Manny The Artist. Manny said he’d enjoyed my banjo picking and told me about his son, who is in a band called Blue Food, and I should check ‘em out on YouTube. Blue Food. You heard it here first, folks!

I had a very sweet “Are You Dave?” today at the grocery store. A young boy, maybe 9 or 10 years old, was there running errands for his mom. He looked very mature and self-assured, loading his grocery bags onto the handles of his Razor scooter. Then he looked up at me and grinned. “Are you Mr. David?” he asked. He introduced himself and said he’d been in my class when he was younger.

I feel awful that I couldn’t place him, but it must have been years ago! It was really cool that he recognized me.

A couple times a year, I donate Birthday Party entertainment to the HFA or other groups in town. In most cases I know the families who “win” my services, but not always.

After our gig at Shades, the family that won the party that I donated to the HFA at Cabin Fever came up to me and asked “Are you Dave?”

First one of the year! The Fuzzy Lemons have been e-mailing with a local dad about the Waterfront Museum, which will be docked in Hoboken later this spring. It’s fun to play down on the waterfront; it’s be even more fun to play on a barge on the water! According to the web site: “Over the years, a variety of performers have graced the Barge deck, including rockabilly legend Sleepy LaBeef, former Saturday Night Live band leader G.E. Smith, “Hot Rod Lincoln” Bill Kirchen, and many more!”

Tonight, the dad in question cycled past me, stopped, and asked “Are you Dave?”

He’s meeting with Geri Fallo and the City Hall folks tomorrow, then he and I will hook up afterwards to talk about the possibility of an event or two.

On an unrelated note, I gave a Fuzzy Lemons Demo CD to a woman I met tonight who works at EMI, in their T.V. division.

Rosanna Magarelli runs a big Music Together franchise in NYC. My friends Pete and Erin Lee have worked for her in the past, and I’ve subbed for some of her classes. We’ve spoken on the phone and she’s even offered me quite a bit of money to cross the river and work for her, but we’ve never met face-to-face until today, when she came up to me at the Sippy Cups show and asked “Are you Dave?”

This is actually a follow-up to a previous “Are you Dave?”

Annie McLoughlin of Garden Street Music had contacted me via e-mail months ago, with an online “are you Dave?” but we hadn’t yet met face-to-face. So after our set at the Turning Point her multi-talented husband Dan came up and asked “are you Dave?”

Dan is very cool and plays just about every instrument known to man. You can check out his musical CV on his Web site; all you need to know is that he was in the band Push Stars and worked with my musical crush, Tanya Donelly. We rapped for a bit about music and recording, and then I managed to make his little son cry with some ill-timed antics on my way out the door.

If he’s forgiven me, then the Fuzzy Lemons may team up with Garden Street Music to do a project together in the near future, possibly involving the new Childrens’ Choir they’re setting up. We’ve also discussed taking advantage of Dan’s mad recording skillz to cut a track there in exchange for a performance at an upcoming event. Watch this space for details!

Dave

Today at the playground, the mom at the swing next to us was singing a little ditty to her son:

One, Two, Three, Four, Five,
I caught a fish alive!
Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten,
I let him go again!

Why’d I let him go?
He bit me on the toe!
Which one did he bite?
The little one on the right! 

Naturally we got to talking about music. When I asked her if she’d taken her son to a music class, she said “I just signed up for Music Together.” When she saw me doing a little victory dance, she asked “Are you Dave?”

She introduced me to a couple of other moms who had their 18-month-olds at the playground too. They all signed up for my Shipyard class this fall. Woohoo!

We took our child to the allergist today, and when we introduced ourselves to the Dr. she said “Oh, are you Dave?” The best part was, when she said my name she also made an air-guitar gesture with her hands. I love that. Turns out she’s a Hoboken mom and she’s heard about me and read my posts on the local parenting e-mail group. Always nice to meet a fan.

So, Hoboken parents, if you need an allergist I have a recommendation.

Dave

Got this in my e-mail today:

Hi Dave-

Are you “the” Dave Lambert I have been hearing so much about? My husband and I own Garden St Music which is a recording studio and music school in Hoboken.

She went on to talk about her new son, music classes, and their cool little studio, located under a bank on Washington street. I haven’t been yet but I’m looking forward to checking it out.

Dave