played a show with owen tonight. said we were from outta town, you get treated better if you seem like you've travelled to get there. we travelled to get there. it was years.
the show was a show, the part where you're in front of people playing music that they'll either like or not listen to and will have no bearing on whether they say hello to you afterwards. it seems like you ought to be a guest rather than the host when you play, unless it's at your very own house or home base. i have a hard time talking to people, especially when i'm trying to process how i felt the show went. tonight everyone who did find it in their hearts to talk to me said it went well. i know the inside story though-that i broke both of my important nails the day before and therefore felt like i was trying to play guitar with my knuckles. that i didn't eat for 12 hours before, that i only had a sip of ouzo before i left the house because my jack ran dry.
after the playing of the show a couple of friends who had come to hear music ventured into a mild-made-cold-via-wind evening to get in their car and go home. when they walked up to the car there was a man sitting inside. just sitting. not trying to steal it, sitting. "that's my car, what are you doing?" didn't phase him, he said something as though the window pane wasn't in between them. "get out, man" also didn't change anything. he sat there and rummaged until he found a cd that was to his liking and tried to stick it in the player. of course nothing happened being that the car was not on and had indeed been locked before the show.
20 minutes of laughing and half nervous cigarettes later a policeman turned up and walked up to the window with his flashlight. the man just squinted into it.
"this isn't your car is it?"
a shrug.
"what are you doing sitting in this kid's car?"
a reasonable yet muffled response of "getting warm" was mouthed, again as though there were no glass.
"come on out" was another shrugged response and finally the friend tossed the keys to the cop who unlocked the door and heald it open for the guy to climb out. he stood up slow and turned around, stuck his head back in and pulled out his shoes from the passenger seat.
"go stand over there by my car." said the cop and the guy sheepishly obeyed, a 10 year old caught cheating.
my friend went through his car to make sure nothing was missing while the officer gave the man a stern talking to and the onlookers sniggered. not even the freshly cashed paycheck envelope was disturbed.
the man finished putting on his shoes and got calmly into the back of the police car. he was at least warm for the night which is, i'm sure, all he wanted. a happy story with a happy ending.

jonas