Three-Step/D Dates

Baby Dee is in town, and she knows just how to flatter me to extract parking expertise. She had parked on my block last night, and this morning, at 7:10, I woke her up and instructed her to move her car to the other side of the street at 7:30. There it would be good till 8, at which point I made her go outside again and move it back to my side of the street, and deposit eight quarters in the Muni Meter. (It was Dee’s first experience with a Muni Meter, as opposed to an old-fashioned parking meter. She was a little intimidated, and parked directly in front of the Muni Meter, just in case—kind of like a person seeking out a pay phone to stand next to when using her mobile phone, as I used to do.) Then, after an hour of leisure, we went out together and drove six blocks, to a Monday-Thursday 8:30-10 street. The broom had already passed, and we snagged a spot right at the top of the block, before the entrance to a parking lot. Left to herself, Dee said that she would have mistaken this spot for a metered space and kept going. She made me feel that, though my car is wintering in Queens, I haven’t lost my touch.

It was cold out, and Dee left the engine on for part of the time, which I never do, because I am such a friggin’ stoic. Her car, a VW bug, in which three musicians and two cellos travelled yesterday from Cleveland, has seat-warmers, so we enjoyed having our seats toasted as we drank coffee and ate pastries from the Greek diner on the corner. The only thing that interfered with my enjoyment of this al-fresco breakfast nook was the gigantic Ford van that pulled into the spot in front of us and blocked our view. Now, instead of watching the latecomers trawling for a space up ahead while we basked in the satisfaction of a job well done, there was nothing to look at but the Republic of Croatia decals on the back of the van.

Croatia is not on Dee’s spring tour, but here is a list of dates so far:

Feb. 4 Joe's Pub, New York

Feb. 5 The Stone, New York

Feb. 22 The Sage 2, Newcastle

Feb. 23 7 Arts Centre, Leeds

Feb. 24 South Street Arts Centre, Reading

Feb. 25 The Crane Lane Theatre, Cork, Ireland

Feb. 26 Crawdaddy, Dublin, Ireland

Feb. 27 St John's Church, Coventry

Mar. 1 Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich

Mar. 2 Band on the Wal,l Manchester

Mar. 4 Ikra, Moscow

Mar. 6 Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London

Mar. 7 Hanbury Ballroom, Brighton

Mar. 9 WUK, Wien

Mar. 10 Locomotive, Bologna
Mar. 11 INIT, Rome
Mar. 12 La Casa 139, Milano

Mar. 13 Ex Cimitero San Pietro In Vincoli, Torino

Mar. 14 Ex Cimitero San Pietro In Vincoli, Torino

Mar. 16 La 2 De Apolo, Barcelona

Mar. 17 Sala Clamores, Madrid
Mar. 18 Sala Ambigù, Valladolid

Mar. 25 Berghain, Berlin

Mar. 27 Warehouse 9, Copenhagen

Mar. 28 Literaturhaus, Copenhagen

Apr. 12 La sala Rossa, Montreal

Apr. 13 The Music Gallery, Toronto

Apr. 14 Opening Nights Festival, Cleveland, Ohio
Apr. 15 Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio

Apr. 16 Hideout, Chicago

Apr. 17 CSPS Legion Arts, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Apr. 19 Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Apr. 20 West End Cultural Centre, Winnipeg

Apr. 23 The Big Secret Theatre, Calgary

Apr. 24 The Big Secret Theatre, Calgary

Apr. 28 The Triple Door, Seattle, Washington

Apr. 29 The Woods, Portland, Oregon

Apr. 30 Amnesia, San Francisco, California

May 1 McCabes, Santa Monica, California

May 2 Trunk Space, Phoenix, Arizona

May 3 Outpost Performance Space, Albuquerque, New Mexico

May 6 Niles Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky

May 7 Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, Michigan

Somewhere in there, she is also playing Stockholm. The release of the new album, “A Book of Songs for Anne Marie,” has been pushed back to March 1.