Journal Entry 10/25/05 - An Honest Cop

Yesterday we had another great recording session. The girls are so amazing to work with. We did the vocals for Brave New Hymn and In America. They had only ever heard both songs once, and the vocals parts were complicated.

I was videotaping the proceedings to have some documentary footage. Angelica is sort of like Robin Williams. When no one is paying attention she chatters to herself using little voices and characters with different dialects.

Frank, our drummer, also arranges the vocal harmonies. His knowledge of music theory is amazing. During Brave New Hymn, on one note the three harmonies happened to merge on a single note. I would have never noticed it, but he caught it and quickly rewrote the parts to give the note a full harmony. The girls are so good they can change things in one try. For a songwriter, having talented people like this bring your music to life is really something of an honor.

The Brave New Hymn chorus brings the three harmonies together singing complex lines of political lyrics. When we played it back Frank kept yelling enthusiastically, “Listen to that, it sounds like Peter, Paul and Mary!”

Frank also does my horn arrangements. We just began working on an arrangement for Good Girl. It’s not one of my favorite songs, but I think the horns will bring it to life. I want to add a section to the song that features the horns. Last year I went to see the Mingus band. I had never heard his music, but I was pretty blown away by it. I’ve wanted to do some stuff based on his ideas. I especially liked the way his horn arrangements used avant guard harmonic ideas. I hope to employ some of that in the new section, and maybe throw in a little Tom Waits and Frank Zappa to spice things up. Zappa for the surprising rhythmic variations he used, and Waits for a nice waltz pattern in the middle of one of the lines. We’ll see how it goes. I’m going to write the melodies and then Frank will arrange it into harmonies.

I have another session Thursday to begin mixing In Praise Of Shadows.

The weather in New York has been lousy. We get the tail end of these hurricanes and it is cold and rainy and windy.

Heather stayed over last night. In the morning she had to walk a bit to get to the subway to go to work. She was complaining about the walk and the weather, hinting for a ride to the subway. The only problem with obliging her is that I lose my parking spot and have to drive around looking for one. She was moping around so finally I agreed to take her.

As I went to drive down the street a bus turned into the street in front of me. I cold see that a garbage truck was parked on the street and the bus wouldn’t be able to get around it so the street would be blocked off.

Although supposedly the hipster capitol of the world right now, this area is really an old industrial area. On weekdays the street are clogged with 18-wheelers delivery supplies to the warehouses and factories. They always block the roads and on a daily basis I drive down sidewalks to get around them.

Seeing the stranded bus I drove up two blocks to take another road. Before the turn there were a group of cars at a near standstill blocking the main road. I drove around two of them and turned down the road I wanted.

Immediately I heard sirens. I pulled over and a round-faced police officer came up to me and asked for my license. It seems one of the cars I passed was an undercover cop. He warned me about my driving and I complained about him being parked in the middle of the road.

Then I sat waiting for him to fill out his paperwork, hoping me might just give me a warning. When I saw the yellow ticket in his hand as he returned to my car, I decided to ride him a bit.

Taking the ticket I said, “now that I have you here, maybe you can help me with something. A few weeks ago my tape deck was stolen. I waited two hours for a cop to come so I could fill out a report and none ever came, but if I drive half a block without my seat belt on I get a ticket. You guys need to focus more on catching criminals and less on extorting money out of the public.”

Ever since 9/11 it has been widely known that police were instructed to give out as many tickets as possible in order to raise government funds. I have gotten parking tickets on my car while there was still time on the meter. Fighting them is more expensive than paying them, so it’s a no win situation.

I know from experience that when you lip off to a police officer it can go downhill very quickly, but he diffused the situation with professionalism and sincerity.

“I’m sorry for being the bad guy here,” he said, “I know people are getting tickets every time they turn around so they can get money out of you, but we don’t ignore complaints. We just get backed up and that’s likely why no one came about your tape deck.”

He went on a bit, talking about the police force and asking about our jobs. In the end I couldn’t feel angry with him, he was so straight up about it all.

Looking him straight in the eye I said, “Well I thank you for being honest about extorting money.”

“I wouldn’t vote for Bloomburg,” he interjected, “He screwed us out of our raise. I can’t pay my gas bill on the raise he gave me.”

Starting to leave he said, “Good luck, and don’t hold it against us.”

“I won’t,” I said somewhat sadly.

He began to walk away, but after three steps he stopped dead. He came back and said, “Listen I’m going to take care of this for you and save you 90 bucks. My name is Shelby. Say ‘Hi’ when you see me. You have a friend on the police force.”

I was astonished and moved. An honest cop. What a wonderful thing to find. Despite my problems with a few corrupt cops, I never held it against all of them. In most of my experiences with police they have treated me respectfully and I try to return the favor.