August 17, 2003

He talked about his contribution to a particular genre of music. I stopped channel surfing for a minute because I heard him mention Kenny Burrell. "Nice, a jazz documentary," I thought.

The Martha Stewart lighting and his introductory story should have tipped me off.

I couldn't figure the speaker out. He said something about "those guys" and "straight up jazz," so I knew he was talking about something different.

Avant-garde perhaps?

He started to use the word - "genre" - excessively, as if it was free toilet paper at the nearest thirld world Wal-mart.

The gentle dude in soft lighting was acting a little defensive.

Curious, I listened on. He recounted the story of learning to play the guitar. It seems as though he had broken up with his high school girlfriend and was upset and emotionally charged. So he picked up a guitar and spent all night "messing around." A year later, as the story goes, he was playing SMOOTH JAZZ.

Then he went into some other story about a kid from around Eugene, Oregon playing unbelievable sax. Kenneth Gorelick. Hmmmm. Gorelick, gorelick, gorelick.

Gorelick was later dubbed Kenny G, best selling saxophone player in history. AAAAHHHHH!!!!

I was careful to note my reaction. Awareness opened its eyes gradually. Like the time, Krys invited K and me to her friend's party.

"Man, there are a lot of thin guys here with glitter on their faces." Five minutes later. It was "Oh, I get it" looks to each other with earnest congratulatory nodding.

This time, however, watching the program, I got it but was still really confused. Why was NBC giving EASY LISTENING the venerable genre treatment? I was confused.