tuesday, november 4, 2008
He (Patrick), then living in Brooklyn, New York, on this evening hosted an intimate gathering of friends to view the results (of the election). In attendance were Philip Baker, Kristen DiLandro, Elaina Morgan, and Yuri Namkung, who brought a friend (Karen).
When first she (Karen) and he (Patrick) met one another's gaze, so magical and auspicious a moment it was that the people of Clinton Hill and Fort Greene spontaneously flooded Myrtle Avenue and erupted with good cheer:
He found her intoxicating.
She was smitten with his cats.
She was smitten with his cats.
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| Wembley (left) and Puzzle |
Patrick later this evening learned that she lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota. "Alas," he thought, "a lass."
the following evening
Karen, with her then band (the Parker Quartet), was to perform at Barbès (a celebrated Park Slope institution). Patrick suggested he might attend–on the condition that she would allow him to buy her a drink following the performance. He thought this ruse was pretty smooth.
that night, at Barbès
Karen and her mates performed, among other selections, Anton Webern's Langsamer Satz.
[reënactment by the St. Lawrence String Quartet]
Her (Karen's) music-making slew him (Patrick).
The promised post-performance drink was followed, after a late-night walk through the borough, by another, at Stonehome Wine Bar (a Fort Greene establishment)–which she and he would in due course regard as the site of their first date, sort of–and accompanied by lively and enchanting conversation.
two weeks later
he, serendipitously, would be in Minneapolis to visit with one Michael Steinberg (RIP); on this same occasion, she was to perform with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He was eager to see and hear her again. The orchestra played Charles Ives's Third Symphony.
Following the concert, she hosted an intimate gathering of friends at her apartment in Saint Paul. He attended.
over the following two years
over the following two years
their courtship would be a story of hours-long Skype calls, prolific accrual of Delta Skymiles, and stealthily finagled visits in various cities, whenever she, violin in hand, would tour to locales within driving distance of Brooklyn.
Whether here:
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| Salut, Saint Paul |
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| Brooklyn Bridge |
or elsewhere:
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| Napa Valley, California |
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| Catawba Falls, North Carolina |
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| Provincetown, Massachusetts |
they were happiest when together.
and then, on september 1, 2010
Karen, Patrick, Puzzle, and Wembley–with the contents of his Brooklyn apartment contained in the back of a twenty-foot Budget truck (in which, said twenty-foot Budget truck being driven by one Erin Keefe, Karen and Patrick necessarily invested a great deal of hope and trust)–drove behind, then ahead of, then alongside, then behind, then once again ahead of said twenty-foot Budget truck, for twenty hours, to their new home together in Saint Paul.
In the months ahead, they would be outdoorsy and ride bicycles:
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| (actually Minneapolis) |
attend the Grammys (she won one):
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| Chez Goodman-Ullery, Los Angeles, California |
and baseball games:
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CitiField, Flushing, New York;
NB. actually a Yankees fan (left) and a Red Sox fan (right)
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and hear music together:
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Dirty Projectors, Karen (not pictured), and Patrick (not pictured),
First Avenue, Minneapolis
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and make music together:
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| The Third Place Gallery, also Minneapolis |
among all other manner of shenanigans.
on september 22, 2011
while she (Karen) was touring the east coast under the auspices of the Yellow Barn Music School and Festival, he (Patrick) flew, surreptitiously, from Minneapolis-St. Paul to New York (the drive one year and three weeks prior having proven quite exhausting). Aided by a Yellow Barn accomplice to the quite lovely roof deck of quite a lovely SoHo apartment on the corner of Church and Reade, in which she was to perform that evening, he greeted her, to her surprise, on said roof deck and proposed marriage. She did not jump. On the contrary, she accepted.
this fall
five years into their manifold adventures, Karen and Patrick (and Puzzle and Wembley) return to the east coast, where they will reoccupy the Brooklyn apartment where our story began, and where also they shall wed.