When we returned to Boston I discovered that all but one of my apartment mates had moved out, and she was soon to go, leaving the apartment empty. Luckily a friend – I forget now if he was from the CAI or the Petruccci family – knew someone who had a huge mostly empty apartment building on his hands. It was part of some financial scheme: a tax write-off, a way to cover excess wins or losses, or some other financial sleight of hand; in any case, it was a good deal for me, something like $50 a month. The building was a giant classic red brick monster, 8 stories or more high, taking up half a block, and no Beacon Hill height restrictions here!. There was a lot of cheap marble alternating with the faded yellow wallpaper on the inside. There were only two other people living there when I moved in, a nurse on the third floor in back, and a guy way up on the 5th floor or higher, whom I saw only briefly when he was walking out of the lobby to the street. This meant t
Life and adventures of a working musician