Last Saturday when arriving home in Durham, Ari pointed out Orion’s belt was missing a star. When I looked after closing the car door, sure enough, only two of the three were visible. Must be a cloud.
Last week I saw two shows: Alice Osborne playing at Kababish and OM at Motorco.
Ari and I kept looking at Orion imagining the belt, the bow, in the cool air. Then I pressed the button on the car fun and we crunched through the leaves and into the warm house together.
Alice is president of the N.C. Songwriter’s Coop and has been a strong and encouraging presence. I see her everywhere: bushing, open mics, Songwriter’s Circles. Look up and she’s there. I picked up Alice’s card at the Kababish gig and am looking at it now. Americana, Folk, Singer-songwriter.
Everybody was taller than me at Motorco and the place was packed. As Lanya and I made our way closer to the stage, I saw Emil getting himself and his drum kit ready for the show. The bouncer told me to wait. Emil drew back to take me in when we exchanged a few words. “20 years, huh?”, he said a couple of times. Later when OM was in their third or fourth song, the bouncer turned to me and said, “He can play. Ya boy can PLAY. We left not to long afterwards and picked up two OM stickers at the merch table in the back.
One day we may witness a bright light descending from the sky. If our intergalactic visitors don’t destroy us all immediately and they are sociologically curious, they may be utterly confused by out strange ways. Stoplights? Jobs? Pets? Ownership? And why don’t trees vote? I like to think that making music and creating accepting communities would be less mysterious. Of course they do that! Alice and Emil both are musical community organizers and the world is better for it.