Saturday, April 9, 2022

Guggenheim dark side...

  I fully acknowledge that I am intended to use my newly bestowed powers for GOOD and not EVIL...

  But last night, out dancing, with the Blue Gypsy, I remembered  a jam-out-darkroom-film-processing-session and realizing that a song I liked...was a PERFECT double-step.  

  Perfect.  I'm not guessing.

  The place we were in isn't a hard honky tonk.  It's about 1/2 Tonk on the English Honky-Tonk scale.  Maybe 3/5ths Tonk on the Metric.  Nice joint.

  So I stick a post-it with request on a dollar bill and stroll over to the DJ booth.  I just happen to know that the DJ has an art degree.  

  I hit him with the request.  His eyes go a bit wide as he reads and the first words he blurts out are "I don't think I can play that."

  This is a song by an American artist.  I'm in America.  It's Friday night in Texas, by god.  I want Nelly.  "Ride Wit Me."  I give him a poker face like I can see the Matrix inside him.

  "Do you know what a Guggenheim Fellowship is?"  He does.  "Well, grasshopper, I'm a Guggenheim Fellow.  Just announced.  And I want this song R...F...N.  I've requested and I've tipped.  And do I need to mention the Guggenheim Fellowship again?"

  Poor guy just crumbled.  Face fell apart.  Like watching a vampire burn away in daylight.  San Angelo State.

  Three songs later, in the middle of a country string, he plays the classic rap song.  The Blue Gypsy and I cut the rug UP.  It IS the perfect double-two.

  I know I should be ashamed.  I know this was wrong.  But God help the first curator I want something from.....

It must be the mon-ey.

  

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That's the proper way to throw your art weight around.

Robert Langham said...

Thats exactly what I thought...good practice if nothing else...plus, the Blue Gypsy can dance.