maceo! we want you to blow!

when mrs nice guy was knocked up, we had no idea whether we were having a boy or a girl. when we were thinking about names, we were unanimous on which girl's name we liked. for some reason we just couldn't see eye-to-eye on boys' names. she was quite partial to Ezra, for example. Ezra! i, on the other hand--or perhaps i should say "on the good foot"--really, really, really (really) had my heart set on one boy name only. if we had a son i wanted to name him him Maceo.

this was not a popular choice around my house and i reasoned that all it would take to get her to come around would be to take her to see Maceo Parker whenever he came through town. well, last night Maceo Parker came through town. and he brought the funk by the greasy bucketful. and it was free.

sadly, mrs nice guy has been out of town all week. i miss her. there are many ways in which she is missed. one critical way in which she is missed is that i may have completely blown my last chance to name any future son of ours Maceo. if she had seen the show, she surely would have walked away all abuzz. she'd have been drunk on the funk. she'd want to take me home for some sweet, sweet son-creating. and she would want to name that son Maceo.

i mean, just look at him:

i am getting ahead of myself.

basically, yesterday was the opening concert of prospect park's always excellent "Celebrate Brooklyn" concert series. i hired a baby sitter and i went alone because all of my non-baby having friends either "had plans" or didn't want to "trek out to brooklyn" because they didn't have a "valid passport" and also because they "hate me." whatevs. i went alone to see the funkfather.

i ran into my neighbor on the way over and he had never heard of Maceo! so i explained who Maceo is. and i told him not to come if he wasn't in the mood for a life-changing funkpiphany. he pondered this for about .00008 seconds.

so Maceo played for free -- there was a "suggested donation" of $3. i coughed up 10. i'm a high roller like that. it was a beautiful night. we (neighbor man came along and bought me beers and i like him) got there about 30 seconds before Maceo hit the stage and scored a sweet spot in the crowd. and then Maceo brought the funk. and the lord saw that it was good.

he played a hell of a set -- "Gimme Some More," "Funky Good Time," and "Think (About It)" sung by some poor man's Lyn Collins. there was some newer stuff too, some pretty decent rapping by Maceo's son, i think. the band was so sick i suspect they were rushed to new york methodist hospital right after the show. Maceo, i believe, is older than my dad but he can bust a move that could put Usher out of business.

so the audience was pleased. i was pleased. by the end of his set the bandshell area was freakin' packed -- i had never seen that many people there for a show. everyone stood and clapped for a while, hoping for an encore. a few eager beavers started filing out, hoping to dodge the ensuing clusterfuck.

boy, that was a mistake.

after several minutes of audience clapping, the band finally made its way back onto the stage. the crowd was pleased anew. "yay," we all said. "more maceo!" only maceo wasn't immediately visible. it appeared that the band had returned, but they didn't bring maceo!

you know who they did bring?

they brought prince.

i will let you recover from that for a minute. shake it off, stretch your legs a minute. maybe you need to read that sentence again? go back and reread it. let it seep into your brain. here, it was such a joy to type the first time that i'll do it again: THEY BROUGHT PRINCE.

the nanosecond that all 3'8" of His Purpleness (dressed in white with Jackie O sunglasses on) slinked onto the stage, the crowd went absolutely batshit bananas insane bonkers crazy. i couldn't even hear anything for the first couple minutes because i was too busy yelling "WHAAAAT!?" and "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!!?" and generally failing to process anything that was happening.

but there he was: prince. a total surprise freebie mini-baby prince set. he played something off his new album, definitely in the vein of his old-school "musicology" JB funk sound, which i happen to dig like a steam shovel. he made love to us all. frankly, it didn't matter what he played. he could have walked right up on stage and taken a dump for all i cared. it was prince! he pranced, gyrated, grinded and grunted. one of the great concert moments of my life -- i'm still buzzing off of it. and it truly breaks my heart that mrs nice guy missed it.

actually, it's probably ok that she missed it. if we do have a son some day, she may well have wanted to name him prince. which is almost as bad as ezra.

more and better pics here.