now playing: marc cohn, “dig down deep”
they’re everywhere, they’re everywhere…
tonight, i was invited to the annual “ragustock” show as a special guest. lil’ ragu is a local blues legend in my area, and a regular at the saturday “hangs” at keith amos’ guitar shop. that’s where i met him.
he’s such a great guy – dylan was there with me that day, and dylan immediately fell under ragu’s spell…he’s enamoured with him. and dylan was supposed to accompany me to the bash tonight, which he did…but i’d kidnapped him from a wedding reception to take him with me, and apparently he’d eaten something at the reception that didn’t sit well with him, and i had to take him home due to some pretty serious indigestion. i had spent a good chunk of friday night and some time earlier this morning teaching him la grange on the bass so that he could sit in at the end of the night and everything, but he just wasn’t up for it.
so i went back in after taking him home, and ragu said my name over the PA at the end of the set, as they were getting ready to take a break…not long after, a very bohemian looking, slender straight-haired brunette who looked a little like rita coolidge came up to me and said, “are you tom?”
it was my ex-girlfriend samantha’s friend rachel, who used to work with her. turned out that her boyfriend, kerry, used to play drums in ragu’s band. now, this was the kerry that ragu had confided in me that he really missed when he’d left, who had such a great snap to his playing, et cetera…and it was rachel’s boyfriend. i had known that he was a drummer from the days when the two of them were friends…i guess it was only a matter of time until we crossed paths.
i could see why ragu liked his playing so much…he’s a great pocket drummer with a kick-ass sense of timing. and he knows the importance of being able to hear the snare above the rest of the kit. it was a pleasure playing with him.
there were a lot of musicians there tonight – and twice, i was “recruited” by other guys who were there. the one guy, i had mentioned to kerry after the show, seemed as though he came there specifically looking for new guys to put a band together. pretty smart, though, if you ask me.
you guys may remember my having mentioned yet another rachel in one of my entries from last week – rachel, jayda’s classmate from school whom jayda had defended from the republican throngs the day after the election?
well, i finally got to meet her.
jayda had a conference on thursday night that i attended regarding her gifted classes for the year, and jayda pointed rachel out to me, sitting at the table right behind ours.
i walked over to her, and said, you’re rachel, right?
she turned around, somewhat sheepishly, and said, “yeah…”
i said, “i hope you don’t mind, but i’m gonna give you a hug.”
then i introduced myself and told her who i was….after probably freaking her out a bit.
after both families were finished with our respective meetings with the guidance counselors, the kids, their mom and i talked to rachel and her mother for a good half an hour there in the lunchroom of the high school. her mother also teaches there on occasion, i found out. and rachel?
she’s brilliant. really.
she struck me as the personification of leelee sobieski’s character in never been kissed somewhat…she has a sparkle in her eye, very pretty, ambitious, and smart – too smart, really. too smart to ever cross over onto the jessica alba turf, and that shall, in all likelihood, be her salvation. her mother is incredibly bright, and is doing a great job of raising a child with a fully-functioning brain in her head.
i hate that they have the shadow of her brother’s deployment hanging over their head.
and i wonder which is worse…the hypersensitivity of the american population in the post-vietnam era, when people vented their frustrations from an unjust war on the soldiers, or the modern day pretentious, patriotic chest-beating that’s going on in the face of all this ridiculous bravado at the peril of the families of those who end up going?
there is no happy ending for so many people in their position. even when he does come back, what effect will the things he’s about to see have on him? is it likely at all that he’ll be the same person who got on the plane?
let’s remember, folks…chimpy has earned political capital in this campaign, and he’s going to spend it.
it will inevitably be paid by people like rachels’ brother.
and all you assholes out there with your little yellow ribbon stickers on the back of your SUV’s who voted for this sonofabitch will have their blood on your hands.
support our troops, indeed.
you can fool some of the people some of the time…and if they’re stupid enough, you can fool just enough of the people at precisely the right time…
and earn your place next to LBJ in the history books.
oh, and the other rachel? we may have to resort to email – my ability to use instant messaging at work seems to have mysteriously disappeared last week (probably related in some small way to the fact that daily kos has made its way onto the “403 forbidden” list. i’m real interested to find out what our CEO’s thoughts on that are, considering his own political leanings, but i haven’t seen him in the time since…yet.) point being, i’ve disappeared in the afternoons for a reason. say hi to spence for me…and thank him for the weather report. 🙂
...from the rear view mirror 