Wednesday, October 18, 2017

The best corner for conversation

Look at all the great conversation going on at Fifth and Maine!
OUR FRIEND JOE, a veteran musician and loyal Second String Music customer, just stopped by. We stood outside the front door and talked. He was playing for a band but he couldn't take the late nights, so he quit and now he's bummed.

"My idea of a good gig is playing in the afternoon in an ice cream parlor," he said, squinting hard into the low afternoon sun.

Joe was learning the pedal steel guitar. Now he isn't in a band and he is playing an instrument you don't hear much. It's too bad. It's an amazing instrument.

"I put all this time into it. It's like learning the Hittite language, and that's 4,000 years old and extinct," Joe said.

He asked if I still played. "Only in the afternoons, right?" he said. Well, no. Most of my gigs are at night. "Oh man," Joe said. "You ever get so tired you can't stay awake? Just eat jalapeno peppers."

What?

"Yeah, jalapenos, really hot ones," he said. "Coffee, soda, splashing water on your face, it doesn't work. Eat a jalapeno. And don't wash it down until you cry. It shocks your whole body. Try it. It works."

I started laughing, and one of the Outside People walked by, and looked at me like I was crazy. The whole irony thing hit me between the eyes and I laughed even harder.

Joe started walking up the street, our conversation over. "Man, I remember when I was young," he said. He kept walking. I was still smiling. And that was our Fifth and Maine conversation.

YCMIU in our little slice of heaven!

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