Instead of trekking to the 10 p.m. show to see our man  Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest at the Pavilion, I returned four DVDs to Hollywood on Fifth Avenue.

FYI: great interview with Depp in this week’s Rolling Stone.

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Fifth Avenue was lively. Belleville was packed, people sitting outside like some cosmopolitan Parisean cafe. Walking by Perch, customers were grooving to some live jazz. It was Alessandro Ricciarelli  guitars, Jerome Harris   bass, Mark Ferber drums, Pete Rende  keyboards and accordion. (On Saturday Night, July 8th Akiko Pavolka. On Sunday night, July 9th, it’ll be the Mike Petrosino Trio.)

After dropping the DVDs in the Drop Box at Hollywood Video, I remembered that The Moonlighters were playing at Barbes so I dropped in there. (The cover of their new album to the left.)

The small back room was packed and sweaty. What is it with their air conditioner? People were standing against the back wall to hear this unusual quartet: two female vocalist who also play guitar and ukulele, an upright bassist and a slide guitar player.  The group performs their own compositions, as well as Hawaiian steel guitar swing.  The music evokes old movies from the 1930’s, the depression, a Dorothea Lange photo, the beach at Honolulu, the Boswell Sisters, with some hula/country sprinkled in.

Oooh. I liked it a lot. I had to leave because after buying a glass of wine I didn’t have money to put in the jar that got passed around. The waitress said to put in eight dollars and the ukulele player said, "We usually ask for ten. But give what you can."

I split. Up on Seventh Avenue crowds from a reggae concert at Celebrate Brooklyn were streaming into the subway, onto the Avenue.

At ten minutes before closing, Barnes and Noble was full of people. They didn’t turn me away when I went in to buy "On The Road" for Teen Spirit.

Next stop the Cocoa Bar, which was quiet up front but lively in back. They also had the new issue of the Park Slope Reader. I ordered one of those coffee/toffee frosty drinks.

When I returned to the apartment, Hepcat, Teen Spirit and OSFO were there. The movie was sold out. OSFO was already asleep.

She really woulda been too tired to see a 10 p.m. show. But she was dying to see Johnny Depp as Keith Richards/pirate.

There’s always tomorrow.

P.S.  The Moonlighters will be at Celebrate Brooklyn opening for Bill Frisell on
Thursday, August 3, 8pm. Free to the public. They will be at Barbes on August 4th from 10 p.m. until midnight.