All this last week, there was so much to do and see in New York – more than usual which is a LOT. New York Magazine sponsored their annual Vulture Festival and they organized a Mother’s Day brunch concert at 11 AM with Rufus Wainwright at Milk Studios which thankfully, is just up the street from me. (Saturday night I had a little too much fun at a friend’s birthday party and so did my date, who was a no-show after going to see Saturday Night Live and the after party… I still don’t have details) Anyway, Rufus was in conversation with comic Julie Klausner and in between talking, he performed 8 songs. It was a bitter sweet Mother’s Day as his mom, Kate McGarrigle, passed away in 2010 of a rare form of cancer. He spoke of her a lot and also sang a song she wrote about the relationship she had with Rufus’s father, Loudon Wainwright, “The Walking Song”. He sang some songs from his latest “Best Of” album “Vibrate” including, “Beauty Mark” and “The Art Teacher” and many other beautiful songs he has written. But it was fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” that literally brought me to tears. Here he is singing it live in Atlanta, earlier this year. Or as Shangela would say, “Halleloo!”