Conversations about Music

I was playing "mellow background guitar music" for the below mentioned "Healthy Living for Women" conference last Saturday night, & it was my second set of songs (Thursday night was ninety minutes of love longs, Saturday was all over the map. It included the song "Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?", which led one guest to ask "You just played that to see if anybody was paying attention?") In the middle of my groovy rendition of the song "First we take Manhattan, then we take New York", a lady approached me & began speaking to me, as if anyone singing a song is also fully capable of having a conversation.

Lady: You're James Welsch! I saw your name on the thing! Did you know that there is also a famous author named "James Welch," except he spells it differently. You spell it "s-c-h" don't you?

Me: Yeah, I don't know why it's spelled that way.

Lady: My mother is an English teacher, & she thinks that James Welch is the greatest writer of the second half of the Twentieth Century. Do you know who she thinks is the greatest author of the first half?

Me: Who?

Lady: William Faulkner

Me: I've never read either of them.

Lady: Oh, you should really read "The Heartsong of Charging Elk." My mother assigns it in her [blah blah blah]

[At this point, I attempt to resume the song in the middle of the fourth verse, at "I don't like those drugs that keep you thin..." - there are six verses total.]

Lady: Say, does that song happen to be an original composition?

Me: No, it's by Leonard Cohen.

Lady: Leonard Cohen! Really! The poet? You know, I once had a date with Leonard Cohen in 1959 in New York City! You know, that sounds like his type of poetry.

Me: He's a pretty famous songwriter.

Lady: Is that what he ended up doing? Well, it's nice to know what became of him. Leonard Cohen! huh!

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My mother visited me at the point & took some pictures on a rainy day. She was complaining bitterly that I had logged onto her NetFlix account & added Sam Amidon as her "friend". Sam, my roommate in college, is a fiddler, folk singer, & has an ecclectic taste in films. She complained that she keeps getting e-mails telling her what Sam is watching, which she could care less about. However, I found this list amazing:



Movies that both Sue & Sam liked: Castle in the Sky, Love Actually.

Movies that both Sue & Sam didn't like: Crash.