‘I Write In All Time Signatures’
I’m sure this has happened to me plenty of times in Melbourne, but I meet the best/worst people in Chicago.
Jenny and I met my friend Brandon (who, no matter what he tells you, callously abandoned me at a bar in 2005) for a couple of drinks at Nick’s. It’s not usually a place I go, given the large douchebag contingent after 2am, but I hadn’t seen Brandon since I’d been back. After Brandon abandoned us (seeing a trend?) we were joined by a guy we had seen double-fisting and generally looking like trouble brewing all night.
His name is Marty. He is a ‘composer’.
As Jenny rightly pointed out, I should carry my audio recorder on me at all times because the shit I run into is gold. Crap. This is the only quote I can remember:
I’m always thinking of music compositions or poetry or something philosophical for the modern world. Did you know that every time is the modern world for the people of that time?
That was amazing , but suffice to say, aside from the copious double fisting, he called the things on stanzas ‘dots.’ After he wrote down some ‘music’ for us, I asked what time signature it was in, since it lacked signature, key, and stanza. He remarked, ‘I write in all time signatures.’ I asked him what he really did for a living, and he insisted it was composing.
God bless him.
Anyway, at some point I went to the bathroom leaving Jenny to fend for herself. There, I met a chick to whom I imparted this story, and we became fast friends (girls in the toilet are like that, it’s a mystery of nature). Anyway, she came back to the table with us, and Marty, as you might imagine, was thrilled. After some question by Angela he remarked, ‘Wow, you girls just like me so much!’
Now look, responsible drinking is all about making sure you don’t get made fun of. I’m the first to admit that I’ve probably bored the pants off people in bars (hell, probably most of the people that read this blog), whilst being both drunk and overly friendly. But all bets are off when you think you’re awesome. And it’s a whole different tiger when you mistake smirks for interest.
Anyway, I think we disappointed Marty, but I did make friends with both Angela and a bouncer who’d also fought the city over a tow and won. That makes two of us.
I’m disappointed in my writing skills here. I don’t feel the magic of Marty has been brought home to the both of you that read this blog. Oh well. Good things happen, even at lameo late licenses.
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December 9th, 2007 at 5:16 am
Another gem that fell from dear Marty’s lips early on in the conversation went something like this: Brie - Do you worry about competition from other composers or the need to do something original? Marty - Well, I don’t really worry about what other people are doing, I think about the possibility of what could be done. Priceless. And by the way, I first noticed him as an example of someone who was far too drunk and continued to drink, even though he stared around without really focusing. Good times.