When Bland turns Interesting...

I crave interesting people. I want to meet interesting people and get to know them. I am about to turn 50. I do not know politicians or celebrities. But I have connections, and I love when opportunities present themselves.

Take Pesach for example. For the second night of Passover, Alan and I went to the temple for what I expected to be a pretty generic, bland seder. We were going because our friends Peter and Debby were going. I was not leading any singing, but did have a chance to get up and speak about Miriam's cup.

But the fates did intervene on my behalf. Who approaches our table? Strangers! But not exactly strangers, just people I kind of knew but had never met. My seatmate was Susie Davidson - a journalist and filmmaker. When she said she wrote for the Jewish Advocate, i realized I'd heard of her, and seen some of her writing in other local papers. Susie lived in Malden only briefly, and now makes her home in Brookline. Her companion was Frank Levine (aka Frankie, to her) a Malden High class of 76 graduate and brother of Joe and Peter. I remember Peter vaguely from my art class - long hair, Jewish nose, somewhat of a comedian. I recently read about him in an extensive interview in the local paper - he follows and writes about local music. So Susie, Frank and I had a discussion about the old Boston music scene - the bands we followed, the clubs we went to, the people who were active back then. etc. Frank also collects Malden memorabilia - photos and postcards. (He also collects Three Stooges memorabilia and is a huge fan.) Susie is distributing and screening her documentary about local holocaust survivors, and she even gave me a copy.

So, what had threatened to be a boring bland evening turned into an interesting gab-fest. Of course Susie is well connected and doesn't need any more friends, for sure... (both she and Peter were emailing and texting on their respective personal devices while there, but if we meet again, she'll probably remember me. She remembered Nat when I mentioned that she had done LRC on WMBR. And Frank knows the Cherones and the Surrettes, and we talked about who we knew in common. So all in all, an interesting evening.