Yes! I just posted about Mr. Mraz last week, but his new album (Yes!) just came out (#1 on iTunes!) and this week has been Jason Mraz Week, practically. One week ago, he was on CBS Sunday Morning, on Thursday, The Tonight Show, Friday AM, The Today Show and that same night, an I Heart Radio concert for maybe 200-300 people in lower Manhattan. I’m exhausted just thinking about doing all that. He makes it look easy. He just announced that in September, on the Yes! tour with Raining Jane, they will play all 5 boroughs, in mostly smaller venues, finally winding up in probably the best house in a city which has many great ones – Radio City Music Hall. You can get concert info for those shows and the rest of the tour here.

Backstage at the Tonight Show with Chaska Potter, Mona Tavakoli, Jason Mraz, Mai Bloomfield and Becky Gebhardt

Yes! Toyota Concert Series in Rockefeller Center, July 18, 2014

Backstage after the concert with Jason and friends

Last night, after that amazing private concert – that was broadcast across the country – we hung out a bit backstage with Raining Jane and a few friends and then headed uptown to have a bite to eat. New York seemed almost deserted for a Friday night but it’s mid-July and everyone had already gotten the hell out of town for the weekend. It was an exceptionally beautiful summer night, catching up on life with Jason and his girlfriend –who won’t be named or pictured here, they keep that private, you can understand. There is almost nothing nicer than cocktails with friends, an impromptu dinner and a nice conversation about life, art, travel, love, cats, dogs – and most importantly, gelato. After dinner we walked over to THE best gelato place in New York City (and am I’m assuming, THE WORLD) Grom. Is there one in your town? Seek it out. It’s life-changing. Am I overstating it? No. Walking back to their hotel on a perfect summer night, with NYC at about 60%, it seemed, SO still, not dead (it’s still New York) but just about as low key as it gets. It was long, LONG ass day for Jason (going on 20 hours and two concerts) but like the title of the short film below, “We can take the long way…”, we did. It takes a bit more time, but it makes for a better memory. Get into it. Yes!