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.

Saturday afternoon I travelled to Hudson, NY for the 2nd annual Hudson Pride event. It's been an intense week for Gay Pride as the NY state assembly under the strong support of Governor Andrew Cuomo passed the first step towards a Marriage Equality bill. Currently held up in the Senate and with the vote looking close to being able to pass, the energy in Hudson was amazing. I met participant Matthew Hamilton with a homemade t-shirt asking undecided Senator Steve Saland (Columbia County's Senator) to join in passing the bill. Check out Matthew's clip I made. It shows Matthew with his t-shirt and a funny rant about how even Britney Spears can be married for only 36 hours but his Mom and her partner Christine of 21 years can't be married.

I also chatted with Trixie Starr one of the event organizers. Last year was the first year and she proudly talked about how wonderful it was to create an event that brought children and people together in one small amazing community of 6000 people.

check out Trixie's Inspiration clip

Later that evening, I performed at the new state of the art Club Helsinki. I opened the night of live entertainment with a set of my own brand of what I call folked-up blues to an energized audience. My partner of 13 years Michele joined along with friends including ex NYC'er and newcomer to the Hudson scene Sherry Jo Williams, (who has opened an amazing shop called The Culture-Commerce Project) to spread the love.

For me, Gay Pride is best described as: To celebrate living a life that is driven by the force of love with the ability to reach beyond prejudice, fear and ignorance. To live a life without compromising or contradicting that love.

(Pride volunteer Jamie Trachtenberg's beautiful email signature) sums it up perfectly.

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage." - Lao Tzu

So here's to NY state being on the right side of History and passing the Marriage Equality bill.

Update on 2011-06-25 11:17 by NYC Subway Girl

June 24 10:30pm bill 1545 passed in NY Senate 33-29. To Senator Tom Duane who so eloquently stated in voting for this bill tonight, "there are no villians in this room, only heros." Senator Duane, you are the hero. Uniter of hero's. Thank you. I'm proud to be a New Yorker. To Matthew Hamilton whom I met and filmed at Hudson Pride, his Mom and Christine can now get married. So can I.