New York flashback: Her real name is Melissa Kacalanos, but she goes by Melissa the Loud (because of her voice, she says online). She was playing this instrument — the hurdy-gurdy — at Columbus Square on Tuesday night, when the temperature was about 95, and was just taking a break to tune it when I walked up and asked to take her picture. Her website: www.melissatheloud.com.
Technorati Tags: new york
Wow Dan…That is a great sound. I have to go up and see her play.
That Columbus Circle area is so changed from the old days. It was dank and forboding for so many years. Incidentally,that is the site where Joe Colombo was gunned down by one of Joey Gallo’s acolytes on Columbus Day in 1971.
http://www.geocities.com/murdersrus/ColumbusCircle.html
Colombo clung to life, such as it was in a vegetative state, for several years. Gallo wasn’t so lucky. He died at Umberto’s Clam House in Litte Italy the following spring. Let’s just say, it wasn’t the clams that killed him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gallo
In any case, I will have to get over there.