He delivers pizza for one of the local shops. He’s a little guy, short, probably late 50s, early 60s. I know him because he used to deliver the pizzas when we would order at the studio. Since I don’t have my studio down there and since we don’t really order delivery pizza anymore it had been a while since I had seen him. Now I see him at our neighborhood Starbucks all the time, as I’m rolling through to grab my coffee, he’s camped out at one of the tables with newspapers all spread out like he’s been there for a while.
Whenever I see him he lights up and acts like he is seeing an old friend for the first time in a long time. But I’m not an old friend. I’m just a guy he has delivered some pizzas to. Sometimes when he would bring the pizzas to the studio he would linger a bit and want to talk about music. I guess he thought we would want to talk about music because we were at a studio making music and therefore felt some solidarity with us around music, and assumed we would want to talk about it the way he did. He really loves music, jazz in particular.
On this particular day when I saw him at Starbucks I was in my own little world and really did not feel like making conversation, but he spotted me, and got up to come say hello. I tried not to act annoyed, I don’t think he could tell that I was. I was conflicted between compassion and wanting to give him some conversation on one hand, and just wanting to be alone with my thoughts in my own little world on the other hand.
Anyway next week he is going to New York to see some jazz. He showed me the Arts section of the NYT where he had circled in red some of the shows he would go see. Wynton Marsalis at the Lincoln Center, Heath Brothers, Al DiMeola. Vanguard, East Village, etc. He is literally taking a trip to NYC just to see jazz. I said man that’s awesome, have a great time, he said I will but I might be broke when I get back. I tried to imagine, is he going by himself? Some people might enjoy or prefer to go alone, but for him I imagined that he didn’t have anyone to go with.
I could be wrong. Maybe he’s got a wife or some friends that are going and he’s not lonely at all. But I don’t think so, I think he’s going by himself. And next time I see him at Starbucks, I’m going to hear all about it.
The truth is, I might be THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD HE HAS TO TALK TO ABOUT HIS JAZZ TRIP TO NEW YORK. I might be the closest thing to a person that gives a shit about his stories of jazz in New York.
There needs to be a digital platform where people like this can connect. Younger people use the web but a web platform built for older people that is not intimidating.
Polyphonic 