Nuremberg Sunday Afternoon

It’s Sunday in Nuremberg. The only things open are restaurants; bakeries until mid afternoon. No one works today except me. I will do the final vocal tracks for “After All” because I can’t get the mandolin and accordion players here until the middle of the week and I want to keep the inertia going on this song. I will also start on “The One”. I plan on keeping this one very simple with just guitar, harmonica and maybe a bit of dobro around the edges. We’ll see on that too because the temptation is always to keep throwing more and more on a song. This song is strong enough to stand on it’s own without a lot of tarting up. But first coffee. I don’t make coffee. I go out for it. I go to the same few coffee shops. They know me. I like that because there is so much transition and instability in my life that these stupid little rituals make me feel comfortable. When I walk in and the counter people ask me where I’ve been and do I want my usual I feel as if I am part of some community that exists in the half kilometer around my apartment. I sat outside. At the table next to me was a man who obviously had no woman. He had that ill cared for air about him. His hair was combed in front but not the back and a couple other things said this. Usually when you are leaving the apartment with a woman she will emerge, after 20 minutes, from the bathroom looking very pretty and then she will look at you. If there is toothpaste that has somehow made it to your cheek and dried there or you are wearing the shirt you found behind the couch backstage when you opened for that punk band in Serbia she will look at you with the LOOK. Yes, the LOOK. The LOOK speaks volumes. It says “You don’t really think I’m going out with you looking like that do you?” At this point I take the hint and change shirts, get the dried toothpaste off my cheek and we go out. Possibly I am being sexist. I’m sure I am but I tend to be with sexist women who, frankly, are a lot more fun than politically correct, unisex women. If the downside is I dress a bit better the upsides makes it all quite worth it.