I went out and did my civic duty tonight. I attended a meeting of the Ypsilanti Council of Elders, or whatever it is that it’s called. I made it two and a half hours, which I think was pretty good, considering that 75% of what was discussed had to do with a change in zoning codes for the lots behind the Dairy Queen. I did get to hear a man in the audience who sounded like Bobcat Goldthwait talk for three minutes about prostitutes and illegal drug use though. That was probably the highlight for me.
Remember about a year ago when I told you about the toxic cloud that was blowing through Ypsilanti and how there was a radio broadcast telling us to all go to the highest floors of our homes, breathing in as little as possible? (“Whatever you do, don’t try to run for your car.”) Well, I just got to hear their corporate attorney stand up in front of a room full of people and say, “Our company has been a good neighbor to this community for several decades.” He was lobbying for a zoning variance of some sort. I can’t imagine that people would have forgotten about the toxic cloud already, but no one else laughed out loud when he delivered the “good neighbor” line? Maybe the chemicals in the green fog affected their memories.
I’m exhausted from pondering the minutia of local government, so I’m going to go up and read books on how not to kill a baby now. (Linette’s purchased about 25 of them for us.) By the way, if anyone has an infant that they’d like to loan us for the weekend to practice on, we’d really appreciate it.
One last thing… And this is kind of cool. I just got a note from the lead singer of one of my all-time favorite bands, Pylon. Apparently she was here in Ypsi a few days ago and decided to try to track me down… If you’d told me fifteen years ago that she’d be trying to track me down in my home, I probably would have shit myself?
She apparently tried to get the guys at the local record store to tell her where I lived and then she and her husband and their kids went to eat Vietnamese food… At some point after that, her husband went hat shopping.
Here are a few of my favorite parts from her note:
Victoria had a pork chop. I had the #15 and Bob had the #18. They were both good. Bob went in the hat store, but the hats were too small for him… Ypsilanti appears to have some nice old houses. That water tower is interesting as well. I don’t know why Iggy won’t come back home for a visit or be interviewed by Crimewave. There are much worse places to be from.
I found out that they weren’t here from Athens, GA just to drop off Bob Hay and the Jolly Beggars CDs or to stalk me. They were here in Michigan to see her husband’s parents. (You should probably buy Bob’s record, by the way. All the songs are by famous Scotsman Robert Burns and they’re good.)
Here’s a good Pylon site in case you’re interested. And, if you’re really interested, here’s the interview I did with Vanessa and Michael (the founder and guitar player) when I first met them in Athens a few years ago.
Maybe you have to know Vanessa’s husband (Bob Hay, formerly of the band The Squalls) to really appreciate how funny the image of him trying on hats in a store that just has to be a front for something, but I just can’t stop chuckling when I think of it.
(note: Actually, I have no evidence that the Michigan Avenue hat store is a front for anything. I’ve just never seen anyone in it and I can’t imagine that the demand for men’s hats could be so great as to warrant an entire store… even if you add in hat-related paraphernalia, like hat pins and hat bands.)
OK, I’m going up to read now. Goodnight, my invisible friends.
