"I'm a Huge Metal Fan"

Saturday

When I first saw the modern musical Once I really enjoyed it for a number of reasons.  One of these was that the music flowed naturally from the characters, requiring no suspension of disbelief or acceptance of genre stipulations to understand or appreciate the film.  Jason seems like he could have walked off of the set of that film, for music flows naturally from and around him.  He brought along his Ukulele today, and was giving me some free lessons during the van ride.  He taught me a few chord progressions, and then sang some songs to them, and improvised lyrics for a few more songs.  When we ride in the van we usually have the radio on, and it is not unusual for us to start improvising additional percussive tracks for the music.  To Jason, music is intuitive, which is how we can have a jam session with Brother Lowe for an hour and a half, and it is how he can play beautiful music on the piano after only a year of piano, (despite the fact that he doesn't read notes), and it is how he can keep playing fresh styles of music on the guitar for the length of Mary's going away party, accompanied variously by accordion, singers, and miscellaneous percussion instruments (including wood blocks, plastic bags, sticks, a grill lid, a fridge rack, cinder blocks, and tin can shakers.

Jason even used to be part of Boston's Heavy metal scene, back when his hair was a little longer.  He hasn't forgotten either, as he pointed out at the market this morning.  We went into Gold Bell and a pallet sized cooling device was sitting in front of our normal pickup location, so Jason gave voice to what it was thinking...