Cricket and I spend a good half hour alternating between sitting on the cement benches and getting up to peer over the wall, to the plaza below. A pop radio station is hosting their summer concert, which has attracted far more people than this lame event. I can see throngs of families, with children in small baby carriages, buying fried dough and noisemakers. Some kids are screaming for cotton candy. Between the balloon-arches and speaker towers, far below, is a stage where an alternative rock group performs the cool music on KISS 108.
People clap and cheer.
Finally, we meet up with Suede. It is only the third time in my life I have met her. She is huge. Her crimped, colorless hair falls around her wide face, wide body. She is a happy bear of a woman.