Radical Transparency

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August 18, 2008

Celebrity Gossip at The Hub

Cruised up the stairs to the room where I live in my grandfather's house after a week away, and it had been hijacked.

As had the bathroom next door. 

As had the bathroom with the working shower downstairs.

As had the kitchen cabinets.

This place gets a bit crowded in August.  Nineteen grandchildren.  One central location.  The hub, if you will.  If anyone's going to college or going abroad or coming back to the States, she stops at Mimi and Hal's and plays for a few days.

And, sometimes, if the rest of us are lucky, she brings home celebrity gossip magazines and leaves them next to the toilet.

Read a bit about Counting Crows and Adam Duritz tonight.  Dude claims he never really recognized himself in the mirror until he got dreadlocks. 

Suspect comment for sure.  And, sometimes, a suspect band.

Not with this song, however.  Never with A Murder of One.

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August 10, 2008

The Encore

You wouldn't think 4am after a crazy party would bring the urge to write, but sometimes stories ask to be told, and sometimes it feels good to get right to the telling.

I wrote the first version of what follows before I fell asleep last night...

Spinto played once and disappeared.

Word was they'd gone to decide what they'd play in the next set.

Tweed got back on stage and rocked the house. But they tired, and people started wondering where Spinto had gone.

I ran (literally) to find them. Wasn't sure if I would. But I did.

I told them what the people wanted, told them their presence had been requested.

We walked back toward the music. It was loud. People were dancing. In the proverbial full swing. Minds had wandered deep into the hip hop. Wandered deeply and happily.

Spinto thought they'd better not step on any toes. They'd get their gear quietly and let the party rock on. Without them. Or, at least, without them on stage.

I noticed this happening and called the cousins into a huddle. I asked what the party wanted.  They said Spinto.

So we all went to talk to them. One at a time. Told them we'd love them to play more. Told them they'd bring down the house. Herded the dance floor and started the cheers and chants.

Spinto hadn't realized. Of course, they said, if people want us to play, we'll play.

They unpacked their instruments, stepped to the mics, slapped some drumsticks together, and played a beautiful little set.

One of the most fun sets I've ever experienced. Across the room moments of love and acknowledgment between all the cousins.

We'd done it. We'd thrown a music festival. With truly legitimate musicians. And they'd loved it too.
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