Daniel is Travelling Tonight on a Plane

This is very strange. Sitting in a Starbucks in Buffalo, NY.  Waiting for my nephew to fly in from California.  "I'll Fly Away" is playing. It's an old time gospel song.  I remember playing on the same stage as a gospel quartet... gotta be six or seven years ago now. They called us back on the stage to sing it with them for the finale.  I'd never played it, but I stumbled through it okay.

Crazy when you try to call back moments like that.  It was late summer.  Somewhere around Paris, Ontario.  Braeside: where there was a Pentecostal Family Camp.  We played several week-long kids' camps in previous summers and were called back to do a singles group.  Yup.  We did children's music and slapstick and we were called back to share the stage with a preacher and a gospel quartet.  Audience: single adults.  We learned pretty early in our musical career to just go with the flow.

It's a pretty cool version, this banjo, blue grass "I'll Fly Away" -- the one that's currently playing at this Buffalo Starbucks, just a few minutes away from the airport.

So here's the day and age we live in.  Who is this musical artist?  I start to Google it (I'm holed up here -- waiting for 10:15 to roll around -- with 2 books, my Kindle, iPad and iPhone... pretty ridiculous).  But then the song is over.  I should've used Shazam.  Missed opportunity.  

Then a strange thing happens.  The kids behind the counter start talking about it.  I catch them saying that that was "I'll Fly Away" by Julie W!@#$ (can't make out the last name) and some other name I can't make out at all. 

Then they play it again. This is my lucky day --  SHAZAM! ... Doesn't work.  Back to Google... Fail.  I could ask the kids behind the counter.  No.  I'll check iTunes -- Gillian, not Julie, Welsch and Alison Krausse from the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack.   Awesome.

I haven't journaled in I don't know how long.  I still have a half started writer's journal; I must've started it in 2009 or 2010, I don't know.  I think I started it because I told my Writer's Craft Class: "Look, I'll journal too.  See.  Here it is on the chalk ledge.  You can read it any time."  Then some smart kid asks, "Why don't you read some of it to us?" Before really thinking it through I say, "Sure."  I don't recall ever being so terrified.  My eyes were glued to the pages as I read. I didn't know where I'd look or what I'd do after I was finished reading an entry.  Mercifully, some student said, "Thanks, Mr. Maiolo."  And then another said, "Whoa, you write really well." I don't recall what happened after that.  It's likely I mumbled a thank-you and changed the subject.

I'd finish my "Blame it on Aristotle" blogpost if I had it with me, but I think it's saved in My Documents on my Mac.

O Brother Where Art Thou.  I have an iTunes card.  Don't know what to buy with it.  The kids gave it to me last Christmas. Maybe I'll buy the soundtrack...

When did I stop listening to music?  How could music be such a huge part of my life to the point of dreaming melodies, waking up and writing them -- fully fledged tunes?  And now nothing.  In fact, for the most part I find music annoying; it interferes with my concentration unless it's way way in the background.  Shakespeare would say I'm only fit for treason, strategems and spoils... Let no such man be trusted.

It's 9:04 pm.  I still have nearly an hour and a half to kill before going to the airport.

Cover of "Across the Universe" playing.  Let's see if Shazam is working... Nope.

I'm reminded that I used to sneak off to coffee shops all the time to write and read.  I haven't re-read my journals since forever.  I'm not sure why... well, that's not true.  I suspect that it's the same reason I don't look back at old photos, and family videos.  For me, reminiscing and getting nostalgic hurts to the core.  Not sure why.  Probably because it reminds me that I'm mortal.  

I can't get 1983 back... hanging out in that restaurant at the top of Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls that's no longer there with friends that I no longer see.  Joe Jackson not exactly blaring but not exactly background music either.  Album... NIght and Day... hit singles: "Breaking us in Two" and "Stepping Out."  I was 22 yrs old and felt like I was getting old.  Like Neil Young.  "Twenty-four and there's so much more".  

10:15 pm.  TIme to pick up Danno the Manno.

Incidentally, Daniel would've been one in 1983.