Overheard at Booth 2: Weekly Coffee with a Mentor

Weekly Coffee with a Mentor

It was getting late in the afternoon of my weekly coffee with my mentor, a poet of some stature in his younger days.  He was still affable, always quick with a quip, and his eyes always peering out the window as though searching for some new line of poetry.

He asked me if I were still writing, and I said I hadn't written much in the past few months.  He said, "A writer who does not write is only fit for the madhouse."   I knew he was loosely quoting Camus or Kafka, but I didn't ask because I needed to be heading home.

I left him at the table as someone came to take his coffee mug, and I consoled myself that at least he's in a place where he gets three meals a day and they make sure he doesn't hurt himself.

 

Overheard at Booth 2: Hand-me-down Kicks

Hand-Me-Down Kicks

Lyrics and Music: MR

2021-0131

Inspiration from Mauricio R, showing off some shoes his son had gifted him.


NOTE: I’d been knocking around the thought for awhile that the generation before us had been demanding us to decide what we wanted to do with our lives, when all we wanted to do at the time was drive fast cars and hang out at the mall.  Now that we are the same age as that previous generation was, we look at our kids and we WANT them to go drive fast cars and hang out at the mall, because all they do all day is play 1^st person shooters, text, message, eyes glued constantly to a computer screen.

 

4/4
Moderate tempo
Chord progression:
/Fm        /Cm       /Gm       /G#       
(repeat throughout – chorus ends with A, followed by a 4 beat rest)

In the Halcyon days of MTV,
They asked “What you wanna do with your life?”
You said … “I WANNA ROCK!”
But now you got a mortgage, two kids, and a wife

They say every dog has its day
And Life has its licks
But at least you got those hand-me-down kicks
 
Now your own kids just wanna stay inside
Eyes glued to a screen all day.
They don’t wanna go crazy, drive fast, die young,
They just wanna cash in on the Bitcoin trade.

Every rose got its thorn
And Life has its tricks
But at least your son gave you those hand-me-down kicks
And your day will come

And I got your six
As long as you got those hand-me-down kicks.

Overheard at Table 1: The Ballad of Hosea and Gomer

The Ballad of Hosea and Gomer

The day we got married, the good Lord said to me

You gonna love that gal, love her eternally.

He said it with a thunderbolt, and lighting from the sky

You gonna love that gal, til the day you die.

He said the only problem is, unfaithful she will be

She's gonna run around this town with every man she sees

She's gonna have their babies n you'll raise 'em as your own

Now take her by the hand boy, take her into your home

[banjo solo]

NOTE: NEED TO FINISH THIS SONG!

MR

2021-0608

Overheard at Booth 4: Wicktims (11-15)

WICKTIMS

Being a list of the 299 unnamed victims of John Wick across all three movies.

11. Mark Denton.  Thinks he really should have gone for that English major.  Maybe now, instead of being here, he’d be sleeping with some 21-year-old Teaching Assistant.

12. Carlos Piñeda.  Thinks now he will never the chance to go see his dying mother in El Salvador.

13. Mattia Spinetti.  Favorite memory as a child was the baker who used to give him and his little sister an extra donut each when they picked up bread from his bakery on 39th Street.

14. David Cole.  Hit his wife, but she gives as good as she gets.  He has the black eye and the broken rib to prove it.

15. Jamie Comal.  Has memorized almost every scene from Godfather I and II.  He tells his friends, “Godfather III?  There is no Godfather III.  Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Overheard at Booth 3: WICKTIMS (6-10)

WICKTIMS

6. Avilla Gosling.  Unmarried.  Looking for her future husband in mosh pits at Death Metal concerts.

7. Ariza Blazer.  Spanked her kids with a belt the night before because they wouldn’t turn off their iPads at bedtime.

8. Arella Jones.  Has been humming Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” to herself quietly all day long.

9. Mark Burnett.  Now regrets that the last memory his kids will have of him is upending the Monopoly board after his 8-year-old put a hotel on Park Place. 

10. Shannon Creek.  Last thought: who is going to feed my cats?

Overheard at Table 2: Vinnie "V.D." Vichey

Gotta great name for a character!

OK

Vinnie "V.D." Vichey.

I see where this is going.

He's a Mafia hitman.  Mother 3rd generation Italian, married a French immigrant - but Vinnie went into the "family business."  He's nicknamed "V.D." because he's like a disease that you can't get rid of.   Calls himself "Julius Caesar"

Delusions of grandeur, eh?

Yeah.  For realz.

[found this note, dated 2002-0703, in an old notebook]

Overheard at Booth 3: Defending US Against China

you know me, I usually am the first to slag on America and point out all it's various sins, but hell last week, I heard that China responded to something Kamala Harris or Biden himself said about China having a human rights problem in Hong Kong.  Some Chinese official came out and said that the US shouldn't be admonishing China about human rights violations when it also has a long history of the same.

well for starters, that's called a logical fallacy, right there.  Tu Quoque.  You too.   It's basically saying, "Well if you can do it than so can I" which is absolutely 100% WRONG!

and next, I'll say this to China and anybody else: yeah, American has done messed up and screwed over people for centuries, but guess what?  WE'RE TALKING ABOUT IT!  We're at least having the conversation!  We're talking about the Tulsa Race Riot, we're talking about red lining in 20th century housing ... Hell, China won't allow people to even say the word "Tiananmen"! 

so, excuse my French, but China can kiss my red white and blue American ASS!