I bought a beer for a Raconteur

I bought a beer for a Raconteur.

His name is Brendan Benson.

Actually, it was a glass of wine,

but guys don't buy other guys a glass of wine

--at least in my mind.

So, I often recollect it as a beer...

and then I catch myself, as I just did.

He was sitting just two stools down from me

at my favorite watering hole (Jackson's).

I was sort of in disbelief.

A regular guy at the bar,

with his girl & two of his friends,

whose band just happened to have put out 

one of the best albums of last year.

That album got me through a lot.

And they brought the word "Raconteur" back into the Lexicon!

A french-derived word used in Old England

to describe a man of great anecdotal prowess.

I'm not one to gush, 

and I don't want things from people I don't know.

So I asked Meg-O the bartender to let me buy their next round.

He seemed genuinely appreciative,

and we toasted to Memorial Day, 

of all things,

because it was, you see,

Memorial Day.

Jack White in the Rain

I do believe Jack White and his lovely bride strolled past my house today. He and his bandmembers had dined not far off the night before. I recognized them because, well, I've seen pictures--and also I'd seen him in concert. 

Anyway, it was pouring down rain and this tall, elegant and eccentric couple slowly began to stroll past my window. I was painting away for my next show with music blaring and some Betty Page loop playing on the TV, when I saw something entirely different from the Vandy set that often runs past. Here were two lovers taking their time in the rain, and walking hand in hand as if from another era entirely (the top hat was a clue). And, I might add, with no umbrella in sight. 

The rain really began to come down, and they sought shelter under a tree in my front lawn. I watched them for a moment and then decided they deserved their privacy, despite the public setting. 

As I returned to my canvases to paint Japanese robots from the 60s, I thought, "Brilliant! Jack's intellect has escaped his own fame. Nashville doesn't come out in the rain. The town is his, and therefore theirs. Well deserved!" It took me two years in a large state school to figure out rainy days are for the bold.