Re: "...perhaps a little drama there? " No, I assume it was late in the year, may have been early. After many many concerts they run together. I can tell you that in hot weather, no matter what the honorarium, when I get it, it is not enough for me to feel happy about the effort to go out into some of the most disadvantaged places in New York, but I go. The time that really sticks out in my mind is the one I mention above, when it was WAS over 100 in the building. I don't do well in hot weather, and I can tell you, it was horrific. It may have been early in the year, or late, but it was a heat wave and it was unhealthy. I truely believe that good people like DougR whould understand if they saw a New York Public school in Bed Sty or Ocean Hill, or Statin Island on a bad day - not the bad day for neglect, that is every day, but the days when it is a phiscal challenge to go to school, then anyone would understand.
I watched one school go down hill on Statin Island. I went there every ear for almost two decades. I watched the decline of intergration and the abandonment of the system. Teachers became jaded, and joked in the teacher's lounge about kids they saw hooking after school. It was a junior high. They finally discontined the program where I would come and play music and talk about folk culture. I also, after law school would speak to the LD classes about the potential for overcoming learning disablities, though, I had a hard time believing that it was the LD that would be the big barrier for these kids.
Larry