We thought we’d go see Asra Nomani when Saturday evening began. Ms. Nomani is an Indian-born, American-raised Muslim. She was a friend of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter abducted and killed in Pakistan as portrayed in the film A Mighty Heart. (Angelina Jolie played Pearl’s wife Mariane. Archie Panjabi portrayed Ms. Nomani.)
Nomani is the author of Standing Alone is Mecca: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam. She was scheduled to give a talk last evening on her life as a single, unmarried mother and a Muslim. Alas, she missed her flight to Albuquerque (luckily for her — a landing in Albuquerque is always an E-ticket ride; with yesterday’s winds it would have been more scary than thrilling.)
Plan B — Arlo Guthrie on his “Solo Reunion Tour” at the KiMo Theatre.
Fortunately there were about 15-20 tickets left when got to the box office less than an hour before show time. We ended up in row X, the back of the balcony, but there are no bad seats in the historic and beautiful KiMo (built 80 years ago in Pueblo Deco style as a movie and vaudeville theater; an attraction in itself).
Guthrie was wonderful. Not only did we get “Alice’s Restaurant,” but two hours of a wonderful selection from his repertoire of songs and stories. These included a couple of his dad’s songs, including “This Land Is Your Land” — just enough to give the evening a sense of wonderment and connection to the great folk music tradition of the mid-20th century.
Guthrie also quoted Marilyn Monroe — he said — for a philosophy of life: “When it comes to life’s decisions,” Marilyn supposedly said, “‘What the hell’ is usually the right answer.”
We thought Arlo Guthrie would be good. He was terrific. (And we were glad Ms. Nomani had missed her plane.)