06-18-2007, 10:28 PM
Well, where do I begin? Brian (who I bribed to come with me with the promise of a fried clam dinner) and I made a burn run to Hyannis, since we'd spent the weekend moving my 89-year-old mom into a new apartment. i had gotten an M&G notification that said to be there at 5PM. We made great time, and I was calling LindaT and UHadMeAtWooHoo at 4:45, trying to find the parking lot and the hotel so I could get my M&G pass and my tickets from the New England Soul Patrol group. I'd actually gotten two pairs, one from them and one from the presale. Glad I did, since the M&G would not have happened otherwise,
So we stop at the box office and the venue is weird. The Melody Tent is literally a big ugly blue tent, with several open flaps to let the air and people in. I could hear some warming up going on, but I couldn't see anything from behind the barricades they set up. Nobody else appears to be picking up passes, and nothing is going on. So Brian and I went over to the bar at the hotel across the street where several folks awaited, including Linda and Karen (who had the tix). They were having a grand old time, and Linda's Sea Breeze looked so darn good that I tossed one down for courage before I went back over to the M&G
(you can't smell vodka on someone's breath, right???
So here I am, wondering if it will be a cattle call, or a good time. Hmm, STILL nobody around. Wait, here's one gal who looks even more nervous than I feel. Turns out she's never had the chance to speak to Taylor before. She makes me swear to go first. Though I usually hang back, I feel for her and agree to do so.
AH, here comes the jolly guard. Turns out there are only THREE of us. I'm beginning to get a good feeling about this. We go through the barrier and walk through a small maze of concession stands (this place does not miss a trick in terms of revenue-generating activities). Then I see a bunch of kids lined up. Shoot. No, wait! The guard is waving us AHEAD of them! We get to go first. And here we finally are, lined up like jackasses in the middle of this dirt area between port-a-potties and hot dog stands. And there's a table set up under an open tent. And here he comes- walking out from what I later realized was the back parking lot where the buses were. He's wearing a baseball cap and a tee shirt and looks pretty darned relaxed to me. So he sits down, the girl behind me gives me a poke (YOU go first!), and we're off!
Right off the bat, I almost fall over because he reaches out, shakes my hand, and says "Good to see you again!" And he's actually smiling. He is definitely in full relaxed mode. He's got both elbows propped on the table, and he's slouched down with his chin in his hands. He alternates between this position and tipped back in the chair for the whole session.
I welcome him back to the Northeast, and tell him I've missed seeing him onstage. I'm clutching a piece of paper, which I hand to him. I quickly tell him that this is a favorite quote of mine (having to do with zen practice in my case but it seemed appropriate), and that I want him to have a copy because it reminds me of him (I do this fast since I have been warned that when he gets into Machine Mode he just signs anything thrust into his line of vision, but this M&G is definitely different- he actually seemed very much in the moment). He reads the paper, which says:
"Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul.
-Simone Weil"
He looks up at me, nods his head, and says "Cool!" As he looks back at the paper, I start to babble a bit. I'm not sure how long this M&G will last, but so far it's been a far cry from the move-along-little-dogies I'm used to. I tell him I'm on the Season of the Soul, Boogie Board, and NESP, and that we have just three wishes about him. He looks up and asks what? I say
"First, we'd love you to keep giving these great performances.
"Second, we'd like you to write and give us new original music." I pause.
"And?" he says.
"And we want you to be happy."
"I AM happy. But man, I'm tired today..."
I try hard not to snigger. Caroline was at the show last night, according to rumor. He's rolling his eyes and he's got his chin on his hand with his head cocked sideways at this point. He's so tired he looks stoned.
In a happy way
"You LOOK happy" I say. I'm beaming at this point. We are having a ridiculous conversation and nobody has cut me off yet! Since we are outside, I can really clearly see the color of his eyes for the first time, They are not totally dark brown in this light- they have this beautiful kind of hazel ring around the irises with a thinner dark ring around that, and I am completely mesmerized...
He grins and I manage to snap out of the spell since he's talking again.
"You know, about the writing, " he says, pushing back the chair and alternately looking up in the air, head to one side, and then looking back at me, "I haven't been able to do ANY on the tour, You know, and the book tour is coming up, and they've got me doing all these performances..." He's looking pretty intense now. I think he's really frustrated by the schedule he's been on, This is interesting, since he's saying "They" have him doing things. Hmm, makes me wonder if this was more management's idea than his to extend the tour. But he's not finished.
"This fall I'm going to take time off. I can't write on the bus. It just doesn't work. Seems like no sooner do I get back on the bus, but then they call me out (he waves his hand indicating the M&G). I'm gonna follow the Van Morrison model. You know, I'm gonna hide myself away and just write for a few months. So I may only give two or three performances this fall." He stops and locks eyes with me. "You can tell everyone that!"
At this point I am shell-shocked because he has never said so much in one session to me (much less given me an explanation of his behavior) but it sinks in that maybe he's afraid the fans might take it the wrong way.
"We understand," I say. "Some of us were actually starting to worry about you, that you'd never get the time to commune with your muses. Although from a business point of view you sort of had to do this while the momentum was there. " I grin again.
"But now you've a got a good, solid fan base and you can relax, withdraw, and produce a really great second album"
He and Bill start laughing and he rolls his eyes and says something like "Allright!" with an expression that indicates he's been given a tall order but intends to do his best. There is a funny moment when I tell him I'll be seeing him in Elkhart and he and Bill try to figure out what and where the hell is Elkhart (they still have no clue). And then I hand Bill an envelope with my contribution to Kid One and he takes my camera and wants me to pose for a photo. Now, I've never posed for one of these M&G photos- I hate the deer-in-the-headlights look on Taylor's face. But this M&G is so relaxed and the nervous girl is looking at us, as if she's memorizing what I do, so I sit down next to Taylor at the table. I look over at him as he starts the patented grin and say sort of timidly "You don't HAVE to smile if you don't want to". He turns to look at me and says half-seriously "You GOTTA smile! It's a picture!" This cracks me up, so the photo actually turned out better than I expected:
I get up and we shake hands again, and I walk off he grounds in a daze. And later, I ran into the nervous girl. She thanks me, and I thank her (because I'd never have done the photo if I hadn't spoken with her). She said he spent a long time with her too, and it was great. Apparently, she went up to him and said that I was a tough act to follow because I looked so relaxed talking with him, and she felt like a nervous wreck. He smiled at her and said "Hey, I'm just a 30-year-old singer. Nothin' to be nervous about." and proceeded to put her at ease. What a cool guy. So glad I lucked out with the venue and his mood this time! We take a walk, and Brian finally gets his fried clams. As a bonus, we meet two ladies in the restaurant who liked Taylor from AI but had never seen him perform live. So we give them our extra tickets and all is well with the world.
So we stop at the box office and the venue is weird. The Melody Tent is literally a big ugly blue tent, with several open flaps to let the air and people in. I could hear some warming up going on, but I couldn't see anything from behind the barricades they set up. Nobody else appears to be picking up passes, and nothing is going on. So Brian and I went over to the bar at the hotel across the street where several folks awaited, including Linda and Karen (who had the tix). They were having a grand old time, and Linda's Sea Breeze looked so darn good that I tossed one down for courage before I went back over to the M&G
(you can't smell vodka on someone's breath, right???
So here I am, wondering if it will be a cattle call, or a good time. Hmm, STILL nobody around. Wait, here's one gal who looks even more nervous than I feel. Turns out she's never had the chance to speak to Taylor before. She makes me swear to go first. Though I usually hang back, I feel for her and agree to do so.
AH, here comes the jolly guard. Turns out there are only THREE of us. I'm beginning to get a good feeling about this. We go through the barrier and walk through a small maze of concession stands (this place does not miss a trick in terms of revenue-generating activities). Then I see a bunch of kids lined up. Shoot. No, wait! The guard is waving us AHEAD of them! We get to go first. And here we finally are, lined up like jackasses in the middle of this dirt area between port-a-potties and hot dog stands. And there's a table set up under an open tent. And here he comes- walking out from what I later realized was the back parking lot where the buses were. He's wearing a baseball cap and a tee shirt and looks pretty darned relaxed to me. So he sits down, the girl behind me gives me a poke (YOU go first!), and we're off!
Right off the bat, I almost fall over because he reaches out, shakes my hand, and says "Good to see you again!" And he's actually smiling. He is definitely in full relaxed mode. He's got both elbows propped on the table, and he's slouched down with his chin in his hands. He alternates between this position and tipped back in the chair for the whole session.
I welcome him back to the Northeast, and tell him I've missed seeing him onstage. I'm clutching a piece of paper, which I hand to him. I quickly tell him that this is a favorite quote of mine (having to do with zen practice in my case but it seemed appropriate), and that I want him to have a copy because it reminds me of him (I do this fast since I have been warned that when he gets into Machine Mode he just signs anything thrust into his line of vision, but this M&G is definitely different- he actually seemed very much in the moment). He reads the paper, which says:
"Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul.
-Simone Weil"
He looks up at me, nods his head, and says "Cool!" As he looks back at the paper, I start to babble a bit. I'm not sure how long this M&G will last, but so far it's been a far cry from the move-along-little-dogies I'm used to. I tell him I'm on the Season of the Soul, Boogie Board, and NESP, and that we have just three wishes about him. He looks up and asks what? I say
"First, we'd love you to keep giving these great performances.
"Second, we'd like you to write and give us new original music." I pause.
"And?" he says.
"And we want you to be happy."
"I AM happy. But man, I'm tired today..."
I try hard not to snigger. Caroline was at the show last night, according to rumor. He's rolling his eyes and he's got his chin on his hand with his head cocked sideways at this point. He's so tired he looks stoned.
In a happy way
"You LOOK happy" I say. I'm beaming at this point. We are having a ridiculous conversation and nobody has cut me off yet! Since we are outside, I can really clearly see the color of his eyes for the first time, They are not totally dark brown in this light- they have this beautiful kind of hazel ring around the irises with a thinner dark ring around that, and I am completely mesmerized...
He grins and I manage to snap out of the spell since he's talking again.
"You know, about the writing, " he says, pushing back the chair and alternately looking up in the air, head to one side, and then looking back at me, "I haven't been able to do ANY on the tour, You know, and the book tour is coming up, and they've got me doing all these performances..." He's looking pretty intense now. I think he's really frustrated by the schedule he's been on, This is interesting, since he's saying "They" have him doing things. Hmm, makes me wonder if this was more management's idea than his to extend the tour. But he's not finished.
"This fall I'm going to take time off. I can't write on the bus. It just doesn't work. Seems like no sooner do I get back on the bus, but then they call me out (he waves his hand indicating the M&G). I'm gonna follow the Van Morrison model. You know, I'm gonna hide myself away and just write for a few months. So I may only give two or three performances this fall." He stops and locks eyes with me. "You can tell everyone that!"
At this point I am shell-shocked because he has never said so much in one session to me (much less given me an explanation of his behavior) but it sinks in that maybe he's afraid the fans might take it the wrong way.
"We understand," I say. "Some of us were actually starting to worry about you, that you'd never get the time to commune with your muses. Although from a business point of view you sort of had to do this while the momentum was there. " I grin again.
"But now you've a got a good, solid fan base and you can relax, withdraw, and produce a really great second album"
He and Bill start laughing and he rolls his eyes and says something like "Allright!" with an expression that indicates he's been given a tall order but intends to do his best. There is a funny moment when I tell him I'll be seeing him in Elkhart and he and Bill try to figure out what and where the hell is Elkhart (they still have no clue). And then I hand Bill an envelope with my contribution to Kid One and he takes my camera and wants me to pose for a photo. Now, I've never posed for one of these M&G photos- I hate the deer-in-the-headlights look on Taylor's face. But this M&G is so relaxed and the nervous girl is looking at us, as if she's memorizing what I do, so I sit down next to Taylor at the table. I look over at him as he starts the patented grin and say sort of timidly "You don't HAVE to smile if you don't want to". He turns to look at me and says half-seriously "You GOTTA smile! It's a picture!" This cracks me up, so the photo actually turned out better than I expected:
I get up and we shake hands again, and I walk off he grounds in a daze. And later, I ran into the nervous girl. She thanks me, and I thank her (because I'd never have done the photo if I hadn't spoken with her). She said he spent a long time with her too, and it was great. Apparently, she went up to him and said that I was a tough act to follow because I looked so relaxed talking with him, and she felt like a nervous wreck. He smiled at her and said "Hey, I'm just a 30-year-old singer. Nothin' to be nervous about." and proceeded to put her at ease. What a cool guy. So glad I lucked out with the venue and his mood this time! We take a walk, and Brian finally gets his fried clams. As a bonus, we meet two ladies in the restaurant who liked Taylor from AI but had never seen him perform live. So we give them our extra tickets and all is well with the world.
~ LOL! Hope to see you guys again soon