Music. Magic. Manhattan.

It is minutes past midnight and I think I screwed up the formatting
here by doing a copy 'n paste of Alicia Jo Rabin's picture but I
could not end the day without saluting the musical magnificence
of Girls in Trouble, the band that the beautiful Rabins formed
with adorable, scruffy-haired hubby Aaron Hartman.

Girls in Trouble performed tonight at the JCC in Manhattan at a
program hosted by comic Judy Gold, featuring bat mitzvah
speeches delivered by the teen actress Sam Mozes, performance
artist Glenn Marla and Unorthodox author Deborah Feldman.

While the spoken word aspect of the show was moving, the
music, performed between acts, was transcendent.

Watching Girls in Trouble, I felt almost drugged, dragged into
a sensual stupor, held hostage to harmony.

The songs. The lyrics. The visuals. The looping pedal. Rabin's
voice. Her glorious pregnant belly. Her synergy with Hartman.

Sitting in the audience, I felt feverish, breathless, as if I were
mortally ill or deeply, dangerously in love.

The band shared the stage with spoken word performers but
nothing held a candle to the ethereal, sophisticated, knowing
songs -- inspired by Biblical women -- that Alicia Jo Rabins sang.

As I prepare for sleep, I feel touched by magic, stirred by music,
awed, grateful, lucky.

I feel as if I have just discovered a new language or a new country
or am tasting a brand-new flavor, never before sampled.

I am touched by a close encounter of the musical kind. I am
different. Better. Closer to the angels.