The past month has been pretty fun and interesting for NYCSubwayGirl

I met and jammed with musicians from Amsterdam in the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and of course got a wonderful What's Your Inspiration? clip from them. In halting English including no accent Billy responded "this might sound cheesy, but love." I met amazing Sustainability champion Roberto A. Sanchez who gave me such a succinct definition of Sustainability.

I had the chance to sing at a few weddings so far, one of them was for my cousin Michael who not only had the honor of marrying the wonderful Alex, but as Stage Manager of the hit Broadway Show Book Of Mormon, also became part of a Tony award winning team. All in the same weekend. How's that for a high time in your life! Congratulations Michael and Alex. They made a youtube clip of my singing La Vie En Rose for the first dance

It was rainy last weekend both for my Garden Party gig to benefit Spencertown Academy Arts Center and my visit to Bobby The Carriage horse, living happily at Equine Advocates Sanctuary in Chatham, NY. Here's a clip I made of Bobby's re-Birthday celebration. Bobby was rescued on June 25, 2010 by Equine Advocates and the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages. He was then shipped to Equine Advocates Rescue & Sanctuary in Chatham, NY where he has been retired.

Of course the big news occurred Friday evening June 24th when the NY State Senate passed the Marriage Equality Bill 33-29 and then signed by Governor Cuomo. Congratulations to everyone on what I believe is the right side of history. To the others I say, in time like so many of our Country's 200+ years of history has shown, that we evolve.

On June 18th I performed at the 2nd annual Hudson Pride. Here's my blog about the day in Hudson, and some clips from my weekend.

My performance clip at Club Helsinki, and I am especially proud of a clip I made of Matthew Hamilton whose "I might be straight, but I'm not narrow" t-shirt prompted a fun exchange.

Here's Matthew's "make it happen" clip

and event organizer Trixie Starr's What's Your Inspiration Clip.

Summer reading is also something I look forward to as I spend less time performing and more time being inspired by others and the countryside around me. I've already begun with these two:

Fellow Music Under New York performers, Heth and Jed Weinstein's book Buskers: The On-The-Streets, In-the-trains, Off -the-Grid Memoir of two New York City Street Musicians (now that's 36 characters shy of a full tweet).

Margaret Roach "And I Will Find Some Peace In There."

Why do these books resonate with me? With Heth and Jed's book, it's their life of discovering an underworld of possibility by performing in public spaces of NYC, something I know about intimately. And in Margaret's book, it's about following a passion begun by a single act of purchasing a weekend home, and then leaving a corporate job for the unknown adventure of living there full time surrounded by nature. My partner Michele and I bought and built on a piece of land in 2002, and this past month she left her corporate job of 14 years for the unknown. Stay tuned.

Happy 4th of July weekend.

As the summer intensifies so does the subway and I find myself staying longer in my country get away up in Columbia County....

It was rainy last weekend when I went to visit Bobby 11 Freedom, the rescued NYC Carriage horse, now living at Equine Advocates Sanctuary in Chatham, NY. It's one year since Bobby was rescued from slaughter. Equine Advocates President & Founder, Susan Wagner and the rest of us were caught in a sudden rainstorm, but it didn't dampen the high spirits.

Bobby was rescued on June 25, 2010 by Equine Advocates and the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages. He was then shipped to Equine Advocates Rescue & Sanctuary in Chatham, NY where he has been retired. Bobby is sponsored by Cathy and Ron Wong. You can sponsor one of the many equines rescued and living at the sanctuary. contact Equine Advocates Sanctuary

Here's a clip I made of his re-Birthday celebration:

Elizabeth Hess an Equine Advocates board member, avid animal rights activist and author (Nim Chimpsky), brought me along to the party. We took my two poodles Etta and Lily who loved the attention.

I'll be heading back to the subway after a summer break excited to know Bobby is retired from the city grind living happily at Equine Advocates.

The birthday celebration was written about in an article about Bobby by Karrie Allen of The Chatham Courier

Here's a previous clip I made from my intial visit to the sanctuary when Bobby first arrived.