Have you done anything today that you have never done before? was the question that the teen punks asked us. Us, me and my brother, had just been approached by the kids on the streets of Ann Arbor Michigan. Most of the time I dont bother to talk to people I dont know on the street who ask, can I ask you something, but as my brother Stefan said No I said Yes. It was then that these kids asked their question.
I said no and we moved on. We walked around and ran some errands. We headed back to our moms place and then headed downtown again to see some people. We went to a open house for a friend whos father had died the previous week and then headed off to a pizza joint to meet up some other friends. We ate our pizza, passed out some gifts and then all hit the pavement, looking for some fresh air. We wandered the University of Michigan campus and settled on picking up some ice cream.
Now what you need to know is that there are two ice cream shops on either side of the U of Ms diag. The ice cream place on the west side of the diag had a line out the door and we decided to walk across the diag to the other place. We were walking towards the Diag when our buddy Tim spotted some guy standing out side of a coffee shop playing an accordion.
Now Tim is obsessed with pop music, and no matter how many comic books he reads, how many role playing games he plays, or B-films he watches he isnt a geek, because the music has that much of a hold on him. HE is especially under the thrall of the music of 60s maverick music producer Joe meek. Tim is Mr. Telstar, so named after Meeks well known hit instrumental from 1962. If you heard the song you would know it. I once asked him what his second favorite song was, assuming that Telstar was his favorite. His answer? Telstar, because another Meek tune Have I the Right he thinks is the best thing ever recorded.
Anyway, one of Tims obsessions is collecting covers of Telstar and as soon as he spotted the Accordion player he had to find out if the guy knew the song. Tim wandered off to talk to the guy and quickly found that the according player had never heard the tune. Tim called down the sidewalk to us that the guy didnt know the tune. We expected Tim to rejoin us and wed head out for the ice cream.
Tim instead tried to teach the guy Telstar. Our group wandered over to the accordion player and Tim. I had my laptop on me and I pulled it out to play Telstar off of iTunes for the guy on my tiny speakers. We played it a couple of times; my Brother had his mini-disc out and was recording bits and pieces of what was going on. I burned a CD of 3 versions of Telstar for the guy and we all threw a couple of bucks into the guys hat. We had a laugh and headed out to find the ice cream.
Even then as I walked with my friends it hit me that I had done something that I had never done before that day.
Notes:
Harvey Birdman on DVD rocks, amazing silly surreal cartoon kitsch.
Interviewed an Ann Arbor friend who was a witness to the punk scene in town during the 1977 to present. He had a lot of insight to the Sonics Rendezvous era and what it was like to see a lot of now well-known punk groups play some small bar in Ann Arbor.
I said no and we moved on. We walked around and ran some errands. We headed back to our moms place and then headed downtown again to see some people. We went to a open house for a friend whos father had died the previous week and then headed off to a pizza joint to meet up some other friends. We ate our pizza, passed out some gifts and then all hit the pavement, looking for some fresh air. We wandered the University of Michigan campus and settled on picking up some ice cream.
Now what you need to know is that there are two ice cream shops on either side of the U of Ms diag. The ice cream place on the west side of the diag had a line out the door and we decided to walk across the diag to the other place. We were walking towards the Diag when our buddy Tim spotted some guy standing out side of a coffee shop playing an accordion.
Now Tim is obsessed with pop music, and no matter how many comic books he reads, how many role playing games he plays, or B-films he watches he isnt a geek, because the music has that much of a hold on him. HE is especially under the thrall of the music of 60s maverick music producer Joe meek. Tim is Mr. Telstar, so named after Meeks well known hit instrumental from 1962. If you heard the song you would know it. I once asked him what his second favorite song was, assuming that Telstar was his favorite. His answer? Telstar, because another Meek tune Have I the Right he thinks is the best thing ever recorded.
Anyway, one of Tims obsessions is collecting covers of Telstar and as soon as he spotted the Accordion player he had to find out if the guy knew the song. Tim wandered off to talk to the guy and quickly found that the according player had never heard the tune. Tim called down the sidewalk to us that the guy didnt know the tune. We expected Tim to rejoin us and wed head out for the ice cream.
Tim instead tried to teach the guy Telstar. Our group wandered over to the accordion player and Tim. I had my laptop on me and I pulled it out to play Telstar off of iTunes for the guy on my tiny speakers. We played it a couple of times; my Brother had his mini-disc out and was recording bits and pieces of what was going on. I burned a CD of 3 versions of Telstar for the guy and we all threw a couple of bucks into the guys hat. We had a laugh and headed out to find the ice cream.
Even then as I walked with my friends it hit me that I had done something that I had never done before that day.
Notes:
Harvey Birdman on DVD rocks, amazing silly surreal cartoon kitsch.
Interviewed an Ann Arbor friend who was a witness to the punk scene in town during the 1977 to present. He had a lot of insight to the Sonics Rendezvous era and what it was like to see a lot of now well-known punk groups play some small bar in Ann Arbor.
nebel:
