Okay, now that a few days have past since Warty's visit to the city, I believe I am now ready to relate some of the events of that monumental occasion.
Of course I got lost in the residential areas not even a block or two from Freddy's house. No problems whatsoever until I get to within a couple hundred yards from where I'm supposed to wind up. This is my luck as a traveler.
I was able to find the house with the help of Warty and a cell phone. When I arrived it was plainly obvious that Warty had been dipping into the ice chest for Budweiser all morning. He was by no means "drunk"...I've rarely seen him get to the point of inebriation, as he holds his beer well, but I most definitely have witnessed his descent into behaviors that will test a man's patience...The situation didn't quite progress to that point on Saturday night, but I would say that it got pretty damn close. At any rate, he looked a little confused, like a deer in the headlights, when I pulled into the driveway. At least I mean to say that he wasn't reacting the way you would think he would having just seen someone for the first time in well over a year.
Went into the house and said "hey" to Fred. He looked like he just woke up...maybe long enough to take a nice toke from his one-hitter. That would explain a lot. I like Fred a lot, so it was easy to just lay back and hang out for a while.
The OSU football game was either just getting started or had only been on for a short while. We watched a good chunk of it while doing some other stuff that I have no memory of. A friend of mine, who I'd hoped to meet up with later that night, was at the game. I was hoping he wouldn't be too tired to come around when the hassle of game traffic was conquered.
The Cowboys won their game, so spirits were high. I think it was at this point that Freddy began to prepare the BBQ ribs. I was a little disappointed because last year he made some steaks that I heard were quite good (I'd passed out before they were off the grill). I never eat ribs, so I tried to think of a way to get out of it. Why, you ask, do I not eat ribs? I don't know...it just seems like an awful lot of greasy work for such a little bit of meat. And I do not like eating meat off the bone. That's the bottom line...that and having to eat around fat and cartilage, yuck. I hadn't eaten ribs since I was a very young child and couldn't even tell you if I liked the meat or not...I'd forgotten everything about it except for the grease and the mess.
OU football was on the television when he came back. I think everyone in that house was under the impression that the Sooners were going to trounce BYU. It did not turn out that way, but I was surprised at how relatively well these OU Football freaks took it.
I should mention that it was at around this point when Fred's wife offered up a hot cream cheese dip that was uncommonly delicious. It didn't seem all that hot when you first put it in your mouth. It seems to warm up a little bit between then and when it's swallowed, but after that the heat creeps back in, stronger than before. Warty and I both had to restrain ourselves from eating the whole bowl (and it wasn't a small bowl, at that).
At some point during the game I broke out the guitar (with Warty following suit with a nice Gibson acoustic he had recently purchased). We fiddled around for a while with Fred listening. After a couple of these half-ass jams I was asked to sing a song, maybe something new I'd been working on. So I thought I'd give them "Runaway", which I'd ran through a lot in the last few days.
All appears to go well. I thought I'd get some compliments (as my friends generally enjoy my music), but instead I got a worried look from Wart. Apparently he had been offended by two lines of the song towards the end: "Crosses burn to the left/Hanging tree to the right". A heated discussion ensued, with me realistically inquisitive as to what was offensive about them? "Oh, it's not so much that I find them offensive," he said, "but there will definitely be people out there who would take offense at something like that". On and on the discussion raged, to the point where he actually had me convinced I need to write the entire song over. Even then, when his "logic" had won me over, he STILL wouldn't stop railing about it. I think a lot of it was just to freak me out, but you never can tell with Warty, because he always seems so serious and sincere. Long story short, the debate, having become one-sided long before it ended, tested my patience and my friendship with the guy, and eventually, after many repetitions of his opinion, died down.
Freddy's dad showed up just as the discussion was winding down...he only caught part of it so I had to fill him in on what the topic was and all that. I don't believe he thought the "burning cross/hanging tree" was too much to get riled about. He's a pretty laid back guy. He brought his guitar so the chances of another hoe-down were back up to 99%.
Of course, this is exactly what happened. It wasn't really much of a jam session, though. Warty seemed amused that Fred's 6 year old daughter was interested in his guitar. So all the time me and Fred's dad are trying to play he's over there on the edge of the couch "giving her guitar lessons". What a joke. Haven't seen the guy in a year, one of things we love to do together is play our guitars, and here he is giving that time to a little girl who will forget every single word he's spoken to her.
But it may have been all for the good. Fred's dad is a really good guitarist in many senses of the word. He has an impressive command of chords and he plays some lead stuff that sounds fantastic. I seem to have a hard time providing good backing rhythms for his solos. I admit that I am fairly rhthmically challenged when it comes to acoustic guitar. But I think I'm good enough to provide some bare bones padding. Alas, it just didn't seem to work right for me. If it wasn't my fault, it had to have been his inability to fit all those lead line notes into their alloted spaces. This is very possible.
By the time I gave up it didn't matter anymore, because he was pulling out songs from his repertoire of only slightly obscure adult contemporary fare. He plays it with a small bit of a "guitar jazz" flavor, but the songs themselves, from the likes of Kenny Loggins and James Taylor, are kind of bland, and are in need of much more than a "guitar jazz flavor" to gain any interest. It wasn't long before all guitars were returned to their respective cases, not to be taken out again.
The ribs were produced and so I politely declined. Warty started in with how there must be something "wrong" with me because I didn't eat ribs. He played on this riff for a minute or two, after the point had been made at least 1:59 earlier, and, to be honest, was a point that I dismissed, that he knew I would dismiss and so I have no idea why he decided to waste the breath to voice it when he could have brought back the Burning Crosses argument. (that's just a joke).
Freddy, however, was much more subtle. He didn't come right out and say it, but you could tell he was disappointed that it didn't look like I was going to eat. Maybe even offended a little, because apparently he has this reputation as one of the best BBQ ribs cookers in the immediate area. He was asking, sincerely at that, why I didn't eat them. Was it against my religion? Did I have a problem with eating meat off the bone? I tried to assure him that it was neither. Then he asked me if I had an open mind and if there might ever come a time when I WOULD try ribs. Maybe he caught me with that one. In the "condition" I was in, I couldn't lie and say, "no", because I was starting to get the munchies pretty bad and the prospect of not eating anything at all was not appealing. In the back of my mind I was thinking that, yeah, if it got much worse than this I would have broken down and tried some. So Freddy says that when that time comes he wants to be there so he can cook them (if you haven't eaten his ribs, he would say, you haven't eaten ribs period). I say, "Okay, sure"...To which his I-Should-Have-Seen-It-Coming response was "Why not tonight? You say you might do it some day, why not tonight?" The aforementioned munchies kicked in even harder as I contemplated the logic in what he said. I'd told him, when he asked whether not I eat meat at all, that I love brisket...he replied by making the grand statement that rib meat tasted better, not only than my beloved brisket, but that it was the best meat, period.
So I broke down. I ate some ribs. They were DELICIOUS!!! I don't know if it's just ribs in general that are so tasty, or if it's mainly Freddy's special sauce and cooking technique. Probably a combination of the two, but I was surprised that there was so much meat on one rib. I had been under the impression that it was scarce. My earlier fears of fat and cartlilage were founded, and I didn't enjoy eating around them. Still, it was a revelation. One more item I can add to my personal menu.
Most everyone was disappointed with OUs loss...perhaps this non-celebratory mood contributed to the relatively early bedtimes, but it wasn't too very long before the entire party had crashed out in beds or on couches (unfortunately I fell into that last category and, consequently, did not get nearly enough sleep).
My other friend had called at about 9pm to let me know that he would not be making it in but that I was welcome to come over to his house in the morning to take care of the business we had begun a day or two before.
That being taken care of I departed for home, and a pleasant trip listening to Joy Division on my mp3 player. Not only did I return with the spoils of the aforementioned business transaction, but Warty sent me off with about 9 CDs he'd burned for me. A couple are by Steve Earle's son (something Townes, I forget his name). I doubt I'll be listening to it anytime too soon, as such fare is not what I'm into right now (which is mainly opera). A few discs from another artist I'm not familiar with (couldn't even tell you his name at the moment). I don't even know what genre those fall into, though I suspect it likely does not veer too far from well-produced smooth jazz. I could be dead wrong about that. The guy might blow me away, but it will have to wait, because I am just not in the mood.
He also gave me a disc of songs that he and my other best friend Redd have been working on for who-knows-how-long. It has apparently reached a stage of production with which Warty is somewhat satisfied (which is saying a lot, because he is a demanding producer). In a couple of months I think I'll be spending a weekend in Texas (where Wart lives) and I have no doubt more work will be done on this project...I would rather kick out some new songs, but I kinda doubt that's gonna happen. Anyway, the CD...It has it's moments. Musically it all stands up. But I think Redd is inconsistant throughout. I never have enjoyed his singing voice, and nothing on this CD changes that (re-affirms my opinion, maybe). But I have always regarded him as a top notch lyricist. Unfortunately a good batch of the lyrics in these songs lack a similar depth. Not too many, to be sure, but enough to notice that he's "not on his game" (as the youth of today would put it).
Everything seems to have been consumed by a thick haze since that point so I'm not good for much of anything. I did, however, want to post this, seeing as how I would have forgotten it soon enough.
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