Tuesday 5 June 2007

Two pairs of trousers

So. Following on from my previous post, I met troUSers again, twice. First time, on Friday night at a club in another part of the country where he was due to play.

Second time, he came down here yesterday evening and we had a few beers and a good old chat.

How fitting that the weather has been warm and glorious for the events of the last few days, its provided the ideal backdrop for some golden moments on both occasions.

The Friday was hectic, quite an adventure, involving a lot of driving (thanks to a good friend who was willing to share the adventure), map reading, navigating through a relatively unfamiliar city, checking in and all the rest. Its one of the first times I've been on the guest list at a club - and how nice to confuse the people working the door, by having the same name as one of the performers.

I'm not going to describe the whole thing - I wouldn't know where to start. Definitely the best night I've had in a good while though, and very gratifying to be sat on a settee watching troUSers doing his stuff in front of an appreciative audience. He's got an amazing voice and his music was great stuff. Later on, after quite a few cans of Red Stripe, there we were dancing manically to a rather bizarre assortment of tunes, which makes me chuckle every time I think about it.

But I couldn't begin to do either meeting justice. I was sat on the bus back home last night after he got on the train back to where he was staying (he'll be back in LA now), and I sat there shaking my head in disbelief and wonderment. A little choked up, actually - at how a friendship which started as an oddity, a curiosity (see the previous post), was able to be sustained beyond the spurious but novel circumstances of its inception.

Years and years of letters, emails, tapes, cds, ideas, stories, opinions being exchanged. At times, months of silence - and then, a resumption of the contact.

Once, we hadn't spoken for about a year - then he split up with his boyfriend the same week I split up with my girlfriend, and we were back in touch, recounting our woes. We're very different in many ways and yet always able to get on - at least, within the confines of emails and the rest. I was a little nervous about meeting him again though. Twelve years had passed since I last saw him, and many things have changed during that time of course - what if, in real life, the conversation dried up, things fell flat?

No chance. Far from falling flat, it feels like our friendship has deepened, and blossomed. We could have great fun on Friday, well into the early hours. We could also slip easily into wide-ranging, mutually interesting conversation over some quality beer last night. I was genuinely sad to see him go last night - but we both promised that the gap between this and our next meeting will be much smaller.

Thing is, its really my turn to go over there to see him now. I'd better start saving for the air fare. That way, I can be sure that more golden moments lie ahead.

10 comments:

Fire Byrd said...

What a lovely testament to friendship.

I'm really pleased it went so well.

Music sounds as if it was good too.

And it's only about £800 for an airfare!

trousers said...

Thanks prada. I think its not difficult to reflect on this friendship precisely because of the sheer amount of oddities involved - it would be far from the truth to say I've taken much of it for granted.

£800? Maybe less if I did the washing up on the flight.

Fire Byrd said...

Meant to say thank you, you have really helped this weekend.

Hadn't realised how this blogging stuff gets inside your skin and contact becomes very important.

And you trousers have definately been there for me through the horridness of the last few days.

Not entirely shore of the protocol of blogging yet, so just going to go with what feels right for me.

And say I felt your care and friendship towards me and it felt great :)
Pixie x

Anonymous said...

I appreciate that, prada :)

Caroline said...

Awwww.
Please save you money and go and see him. Please.

Merkin said...

Go for it, big man.
Rumour has it that just such an unexpected situation arose with Anti, Lavvy et al which has led to interesting new horizons.
Itz all so new age.

trousers said...

Pixie - apologies for becoming shy and tongue tied!

Caroline, I fully intend to. I've been saying as much for a while, that I should head out there - but now it's even more of an imperative.

Merkin, I'm eagerly awaiting a full account, should one be forthcoming...

Merkin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Merkin said...

A full account, big man?.
The Google servers would crash in that case.
However, bitz and pieces will percolate from my direction and I am sure that The Anticant will provide a stormer when he recovers from the culture shock of 'Life with The merkin'

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