#Falling raindrop lights 6 feet cracked

#Falling raindrop lights 6 feet cracked

One of those falling raindrop lights cracked Curtis on the back of the neck and crumpled him to the ground. As it plummeted, stage lights fell from it like raindrops. The front truss plunged down, down, down, like a freight train dropped from the sky. Markowitz collapsed in fear, lying on his stomach. As Markowitz turned with the microphone, another gust heaved the front lighting truss off the ground and sent it tumbling, knocking the back truss off the stage as it fell. Drummer Lee Goodness leaned back and caught them with his left arm, keeping the beat with his right. The gust also toppled the cymbals on the drum riser. It happened in a matter of seconds, starting with the wind that had thrown the first two rows from their seats and razed the speakers. My father strode toward Markowitz, axe slung across his body. Composing himself, he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, Curtis Mayfield,” and turned to hand over the microphone. Trees thrashed above the panicking crowd. Stacks of speakers on the front of the stage - big mothers, heavy and stout - fell off like they were committing suicide. Then he felt it - a hurricane-force blast of wind.

He decided to put Curtis on early, thinking even if they had to cancel, the band might at least get off one song. As show time approached, he got word that grim weather rumbled an hour away.

Markowitz hounded his weather contacts, hungry for updates. Ten thousand people had already shuffled into the park and taken seats or splayed on blankets in the grass. He put on shows like this every summer as a gift to his constituents. He’d booked an outdoor show with Curtis Mayfield as headliner, and he didn’t want to cancel it. Wingate Field, Brooklyn, AugA heavy storm slithered across the Empire State, menacing Senator Martin Markowitz. The section of the book reprinted below recounts the fateful event, showing the struggle Mayfield faced, living as a quadriplegic, in the years leading up to his death in 1999. The singer’s son, Todd Mayfield, recently released a biography of his father, Traveling Soul: The Life of Curtis Mayfield, with coauthor Travis Atria. That summer, he played an outdoor concert in Brooklyn where he suffered a freak accident that all but ended his career. He put out two LPs Take It to the Streets and The Return of Superfly, embracing younger artists like Lenny Kravitz and Ice-T who cited him as an influence. Curtis Mayfield was in the midst of reviving his career in 1990, after dealing with his record label going bankrupt and a stale reception for his 1985 album, We Come in Peace With a Message of Love.