As we mentioned in the previous post, this past weekend we were going to see Ian Parker play one more time. RiverFest in Knowlton, NJ, was the main reason he came to the US. Knowlton is situated on the Delaware, in upstate New Jersey. Hard to reach by public transport, but luckily Wayne and Dana had decided to drive up to New Jersey to come and see Ian play as well.
Dana had never seen Ian play, but does like his music enough to have one of his songs as their wedding dance. And the title is actually engraved in her wedding band! So they could not let this opportunity pass meet the guy and to see him play live.
Wayne and Dana actually drove up to New Jersey on Friday night, and spent the night with Wei-li (Wayne’s brother) and Karen. We took a train in the morning (with a delay, so we missed our connection) to New Jersey, and an hour late, we arrived at Westfield train station. We said our quick hellos and gt in the car to drive up to Knowlton. It was a beautiful drive through New Jersey. It’s very hilly (accidented, as some people might call it) and green. It’s so much fun to see some of the countryside when you’ve been in the city for this long! And it’s great to see that all the things you see in movies are in fact real.
People still drive old American cars, huge billboards along the roads are hand-painted, the mailboxes really do have those little red flags on them, and there is a realty company called Buttzville Real Estate. Actually, that is because that whole village is called Buttzville. Not that I’ve seen that in a movie, but I could easily imagine it being in a movie.
Anyway, we arrived at the festival grounds around 2pm, parked the cars across the street and crossed the street to the festival, helped by some very nice crossing guards. The festival grounds had a very relaxed and family feel to it. Lots of different food, no big chain restaurants in sight and a little festival market. One of the things that immediately grabbed my attention, apart from the bouncy castle, was the little food stall that advertised Alligator Sausage. Intriguing!
We found a place to call our homebase for the day, and draped some picnick blankets to stake our claim. Wei-Li and Karen had brought their daughters, Abby and Jillian, and they had to first go to the bouncy castle of course. We tried to find a pair of shorts for me (I was wearing jeans because we wrongly believed the weather forecast yet again), but were unsuccessful.
In the mean time, we were sort of listening to the music in the big tent and the acoustic sets in the little tent. It was fun, but nothing really grabbed our attention. We just really were enjoying the general picnic-type day we were having, buying different types of food (Jamaican Jerk Chicken with collard greens, plantains and rice, corn-on-the-cob, the aforementioned Alligator Sausage (yummy!), funnel cake and crepes with chocolate and banana) and drinks (mainly water, but some lemonade, beer and wine as well). And we played with frisbees, yoyos and beachballs.
It was a lot of fun, and all very relaxing. At around 6.30pm it was Ian’s turn to play. We went up to the front of the stage, as most of the tent was filled with chairs(!?). Some girls were already shouting his name and trying to get his attention while they were still just soundchecking. Ian had been there last year, together with Morg Morgan. And they wanted him back. Unfortunaltely, Morg wasn’t here this time, so he would be playing with ‘hired hands’. To me, this is quite impressive. A band (drums, bass, keys) needs to learn all the songs from a cd, and then play together with Ian in front of a pretty big crowd.
Part of the crowd was really into Ian and the band, and they were greeted with huge cheers. After the chilled and relaxed gigs earlier that week in New York, it was fun seeing him rock out on his earlier songs with the full band.It was clear that this crowd was here for the blues, and that’s what Ian gave them. Long guitar solos, heavy rocking with the band and some impromptu interactions between the organ player and Ian. And very enthusiastic fans! Like a proper rockstar, people wanted to touch him, and one fan actually got on stage and kissed him on the cheek.
Dana and Wayne were both really enjoying themselves, and I think Wei-Li and Karen did as well. It might have been a little too loud for the little ones though, but they were getting tired as well. They left just before the end of the concert, but not before Wei-Li bought one of Ian’s CDs. That’s always a good sign.
We sat around after the concert for a bit, and saw an amazing full moon rise over the hills. Then we spoke to Ian for a bit, and made our way back to the car to drive home. We still needed some food, and found some in Westfield. We got to Wei-Li’s and Karen’s house around midnight, and were shown our room. We actually slept in the girls playroom (yes, that room is bigger than our apartment in NYC).
After a good night’s sleep, we got up relatively early, and had breakfast in their ginormous kitchen. We played some more with Abby and Jillian (maybe I should not have tought them to play volleyball indoors over the little fence they have…), and then went on our way to the station. Wei-Li had suggested to take the bus back, instead of the train, as there is no need for changing then. We had a nice drive through the outskirts of New Jersey and Newark and got back to the 42nd street bus terminal around 1pm.
That meant we still had some time for ourselves on this Sunday! We quickly went home, and met with Nick (our landlord), who came to pick up his mail. Saskia talked to Isabella for a bit via Skype, and then we got on our bikes for a little ride. We decided to go to Williamsburg (Brooklyn), and decided to cycle over the Williamsburg Bridge. That’s a lot of hard work! You get up really high, wich gives you a great view over the East River and the other bridges.
We had some late lunch (coffee and a belgian waffle) at a very trendy place in Williamsburg, and just walked around the place for a bit. It’s got an interestign feel to it. It’s kinda hip and trendy, but maybe a little too much so. People are really watchig eachother, sort of sizing them up or rating them or something. a little weird. We then got back on our bikes, and cycled down to the Manhattan & Brooklyn bridges. That was quite a ride, and took along some huge industrial areas. But once we got the the bridges, things quickly became very picturesque, and I started taking way too many pictures. They’ll be up soon, hopefully.
We then made our way to the little park that’s right between those two bridges, put our little blanket down and did soem reading. Or, I did some reading, and Saskia just fell asleep :-). Around 7pm we packed our things up and cycled back, across the Manhattan Bridge. Another bit of hard work, and enormously crowded with tourists. But luckily most of them kept to the pedestrian side of the path, so without much problems we arrived back in Manhattan. It’s funny to notice the completely different feel that side of the bridge has!
We parked our bikes at home, dropped our stuff and walked to the a restaurant, that turned out to be closed on Sundays. We looked around a little more and then found Tre, where we had a nice dinner.
And that was our weekend.

So, what you see here is half (!) a sandwich, for which I paid $7.25. As you can see it is nicely wrapped and sliced in half. The other half, as mentioned before, was already devoured by me. Be aware that it was actually wrapped pretty tight. You can still see the bread, but you can also see it’s been compacted quite a bit.
OK, let’s start deconstructing this sandwich. It’s about three inches long, which means the full sandwich must have been close to 6 inches. On top, we find four slices of tomato and some lettuce, plus some sort of yoghurty dressing.
The next two layers consist of cheese (Provolone, if I’m not mistaken - two slices) and a boiled ham. I think these call it Danish or Virginia ham over here. About three slices of that.
Next up are two layers of salami. The first is a sopressata-type salami. there are two large slices of this, plus some additional bits. Then there is a chorizo-like salami, with an interesting flavor, that includes a hint of aniseed. About 8 slices of this.
The last layer consists of a dry-cured prosciutto. There is a lot of this on there. This is actually the best-tasting bit of the sandwich. With the chorizo and the sopressata as close runners-up. The cooked ham and cheese are not that impressive, and neither are the watery lettuce and tomato.




We walked around for a bit, and then sat down in the shade, waiting for the gates to open around 18:00. A couple of dutchies sat down next to us and we kept quiet. Didn’t feel like mingling. Amazingly, a little later, two other dutch guys sat down between the other Dutchies and us. We still kept quiet while they chatted. How on earth does this happen in New Jersey?
In Holland, by now everybody would be pushing to get in and run to find their spot. Of course, i have only been to the General Admission area in concerts, never had an assigned seat before. But everything went so incredibly smooth here, I was amazed. We both were.Very nice though. I guess this did show our non-nativeness off a bit, as for the next hour-and-a-half, we basically were some of the very few that actually entered the stadium, except for the people in the GA pit. This GA pit (General Admission) is the only place in the stadium where people do not have an assigned seat. It is a very small area in front of the stage. I think it will not hold more than a thousand people. Everybody else is seated. This is so strange. In Holland, the whole floor area would be General Admission, which means a lot more people would be able to fit into the stadium, I think.
‘Sherry Darling’ was another one of those songs that hardly ever gets played, cool to hear that live. In ‘Because the Night’, Nils Lofgren got his two minutes of fame, going completely wild during his guitar solo. He even pulled of a summersault while playing (see the youtube video). Saskia’s neighbour actually asked her “Who wrote this song?”. I knew it was Bruce, and Patti Smith used the song and made it famous. But after 













