I have to go to Michigan and give a violin concert. 10 years ago, flush with money made on the road with the National Tour of Cabaret and engaged to Nicole I decided to donate a thousand dollars to a new school for strings that was opening in my home town of Port Huron, Michigan. The idea was put forward by my mother that we take the money to set up a foundation and get others to donate money as well and we could support students in need in the area where I grew up in Michigan. We could help them get money to study the violin. Because, as I remember, it isn't cheap.
We would call the foundation The Drew McVety Heartstrings Fund and I would give a concert at the community college as a fundraiser. I had been playing a lot on the road. A lot. I had committed the entire Bach D Minor Partita to memory and planned to perform that baby live on the crucifix of a stage at the St. Clair County Community College Fine Arts Auditorium. I did. It went pretty darn well. We raised a lot of money for the fund. Heartstrings helps kids get violins and violin lessons in Port Huron Michigan to this day.
And it is a difference. There was no School for Strings when I grew up. There was no string program in the schools. I studied in Canada across the river. In Sarnia, Ontario, London, Ontario and Toronto. That's where the violin lived. So now that the school is in Port Huron, let's help keep it there I say.
My mother runs the whole thing, I'm really just a figure head. My brother is on the board as are several devoted and loyal folks. It's really quite wonderful.
I have since given two more concerts when funds start running low in the Fund and at the end of August it's time for another one.
When I think about the 10 year ago Drew, flush for the first time in his life, student loans paid off, money in the bank, money in the stock market, living it up in Brooklyn, marrying a BABE, playing the D Minor Partita, letting the ego swell with the fantasy of going back home and doing it for the kids, mythologizing himself right in front of your very eyes; when I think of that not so and yet far away Drew, I am tempted to be jealous of him.
But you know what? That's just too easy. It just doesn't work that way, and the sooner I figure that out, the sooner I'm going have some deeper, happier, day to days.
So, I have to get ready for this violin concert right? I haven't had a violin gig in a while and frankly I'm a little rusty. Ain't gonna be pullin no Partita out of my bottom this time. So I go over to my neighbor Pete's house to drink and play foosball with the guys. I have several and tell Pete my troubles. He's got some good advice. "Suck it up." he says. "Go take your violin and play in the train station."
Pete is a fine painter and makes a buck every now and again by painting portraits of peoples houses. Not painting houses, but... oh you get it. Sometimes, he tells me, when times are tough for him, he will go set up his easel on the street and just start painting someone's house until someone asks him about it and he can give out his card... etc. The painters equivalent of busking. He sucks it up. He thinks I should suck it up.
I think about how, every time in this last year I think that I am demeaning myself by a task that I think is "beneath me" I wind up learning and meeting someone who takes my life to a whole new place. IE Louis Bavaro, the chef to the Italian Ambassador, who has given me extraordinary training this year as his sous chef when I "sucked it up" and approached him about maybe hiring me every now and again.
So, yes I say. Suck It Up. Put on your "Suck It up" T Shirt Drew. Make it your mantra. Suck It Up.
The next day, 96ยบ I take my violin to the train station. I pick a place. I figure, "I can practice here, if somebody kicks me out, then away I go." Better than playing in the basement at home with zero acoustics and 100% humidity.
I play, and it sounds lovely. Even though there is an industrial size fan no more than fifteen feet away somehow the wave lengths of the violin are not deterred and float above in a very lovely way. I think, as I sway and play, how being a chamber instrument, your violin is only as good as your chamber... and the better the chamber the better the instrument. People stop and turn and listen and smile. A young African American teen drops in the first dollar. I have to sort of stifle a cry when he does so.
In 1990 or thereabouts, I was awfully broke in New York city and had to raise rent immediately. I went to Grand Central Station and played. The first person to drop in a buck was an obviously homeless man. It is always the last person you would expect who drops the first buck.
In the South Orange train station, I played away. The policeman who had been checking the meters out on the street poked in his head and walked toward me. "Uh oh. Here we go." I thought.
At Grand Central I had found the perfect spot to play. A little alcove that naturally amplified the instrument so it sounded great just as you were walking up to the 4/5/6 train. People already had their money out because they were preparing to buy their tokens. They heard the violin and said, "Nice!" and dropped in a buck or change on the way. A nun blessed me. I made $125 in an hour. A cop came up to me and told me I had to move. I had to have a permit. I went to the office and got a permit. It permitted me to play in a designated location down a long empty hall in Grand Central occupied by no one but drug dealers. I played a little, they glared at me, I left.
In South Orange, the policeman walked right up to me I kept playing. He leaned in, looking right in my eyes, I leaned in and kept playing looking right in his eyes.
'What's the name of that piece? That's lovely." He said. I told it was something I wrote for my wife about 10 years ago. "That's beautiful." He said and put a buck in my case. He walked out the other door and gave somebody a ticket.
I played for the next hour or so, trying to figure out what I'm going to play for the concert. I'm keeping it easy. Stuff I like to play. No crucifix this time. I'm asking every student who receives funds, if they so desire, to play something. And I'll play a little something, not too much, not too little. Then we'll have all have some punch and cookies and go home.
So here's the thing 10 year ago Drew... that's right I'm talking to you, : In many ways life has turned out exactly as you expected. You now have a home and beautiful children. If you expected that some how it would all be easy and there would be money flowing the way it was then, (and I know you were) well, you were wrong. Turns out, life kept behaving the way it always did. Quirky and sometimes downright nasty. Suck it up.
While I was playing in South Orange, I watched a woman get off the NY train and head for the exit. She paused for half a moment listening, and then went out the door. Moments later she came back, asked if I gave lessons and wrote down her number on a piece of paper. She wanted me to teach her daughter who plays at the school but hasn't been keeping it up over the summer. She said, "maybe even twice a week."
Ha! I think. Suck it up! See! Later I call the woman and explain who I am to her voice mail and leave my info. I don't hear anything. A day goes by. I go to the train station again and play. I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. It is the woman's number. I finish the piece and listen to the phone. In my head I'm thinking how wonderful it is that she called back when I went to the station again. The holy virtue of Suck It Up is now going to reward me with a little teaching job! Isn't God clever? The voice on the other end is the woman apologizing for not getting back to me quicker. She has lost her job and will not be able to hire me. She is sorry.
I hang up and laugh. I suck it up and play some more. I make money while I practice. About $15 an hour. Not bad. I pack up my violin and take it to the market. I buy some food for my family and I go home and make them dinner.
CITRUS CARAMELIZED TILAPIA WITH BACON AND BALSAMIC WILTED BEET SPROUTS, QUICK BRAISED BABY TURNIP GREENS, AND MUSHROOM SAGE FRIED RICE
TILAPIA
4 Tilapia filets
salt and pepper
flour for dredging
juice of one orange
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 Tbs. white wine vinegar
1 Tbs. sugar
2 Tbs. Olive Oil
2 Tbs. butter
Cut each fillet down center line into two pieces. Season both sides of filets with salt and pepper. Dredge lightly in flour until entire fillet is covered. In a bowl, combine the orange juice, red pepper flakes, vinegar and sugar.
Heat Saute pan over high heat until very hot. Add oil and butter. When butter is fully melted and oil very hot add tilapia fillet and let brown fully on one side. When brown, flip fillet let cook for 2 minutes and then add juice mixture. Allow juice mixture to reduce to about half, spooning sauce on fillet.
When fillet is dark brown on second side serve immediately.
BACON AND BALSAMIC WILTED BEET SPROUTS
1 bunch Beet Sprouts (I don't know where you would get these, I pulled them out of my garden when I was thinning my beets.)
2 strips bacon
1 clove garlic minced
2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs sugar.
Clean sprouts and dry them in spinner or paper towels. Fry Bacon until very crisp. Remove bacon to paper towel and break into small bits. Add Garlic to bacon fat and saute for 30 seconds, add vinegar and sugar and reduce for 1 minute. Take off heat. Pour onto sprouts in a bowl, toss and serve.
QUICK BRAISED BABY TURNIP GREENS
1 bunch baby turnip greens ( again, I got these in the garden while thinning.)
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Water
Heat saute pan until very hot. Add oil. When oil is very hot add greens. Saute until completely wilted and changed in color. About a minute and a half. Add salt and pepper and stir until fully seasoned. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water and cover. Reduce heat and braise for 10 to 15 minutes or to taste.
MUSHROOM SAGE FRIED BROWN RICE
1 cup brown rice
1 Tbs. olive oil
2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 red onion finely chopped
1/2 red pepper finely chopped
1 rib celery finely chopped
1 Tbs. olive oil
5 ounces slice mushroom of choice
Couple of shakes of soy sauce
8 sage leaves
In a small pot heat the olive oil until very hot. Add the rice and toast, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes until aroma fills the kitchen. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
In a wok, heat the vegetable oil to very hot. Bet the egg in a bowl and then add to oil. When firm on one side, flip. When cooked through, remove and cut into thin strips.
Add a little more oil to the wok and add onion, pepper and celery. Cook on high heat for 5 to 7 minutes and set aside.
In a saute pan, heat olive oil until very hot. Add the mushrooms taking care that each slice is positioned on the bottom of the pan so it receives a good browning. Saute for 4 to 5 minutes or until brown. Flip mushrooms and add sage. When sage crumples from heat add soy sauce and toss in saute pan. Remove from heat and set aside.
Heat vegetable oil in Wok until very hot and add rice. Make sure that rice is cooked thoroughly in oil then add egg, and the onion, pepper, and celery mixture. Toss until heated through. Add sprinkle or two of soy sauce.
When serving, mound fried rice and top with mushroom sage mixture.
