A trip to the Chef's Market

The plan for yesterday, Friday, was to meet Mary Jenson at Jessel's and rehearse some stuff for Monday night. I called her just as I was leaving to find that Gordon Lustig, ace guitar player and ascerbic wit, had invited us to come over to his house to make a demo, since his wife and two darling boys weren't there. Cool. So I met Mary there and we recorded three or four tunes, which was nerve wracking, since it was decided that, to simplify things, I shouldn't sing along with Mary but should only play the guitar, which made me think a whole lot more about playing, which made it somehow harder. Like trying to write while looking at your hand in a mirror. But it worked ok. Mary had to leave for her musical Quilts rehearsal, but I didn't have any immediate plans.

So I never did get to Jessel's, but hung out at Gordon's, listening to piles of other stuff he'd done in Digital Performer on his Mac, as well as CDs he'd produced or that had folk on them he knew, until we went to get his older boy, Max, at daycare, since Gordon had understood his wife to say that she'd pick up one boy and Gordon should pick up Max. Only when we got there we found he wasn't there, so we went back to his house to find that his wife, Karen, who I'd never met, had picked up the kids and were going to the Chef's Market, (in downtown Napa) and didn't I want to go with them?

Well, I hadn't planned to, but I hadn't been to the Chef's Market this year, either, so I finally said, ok, only there was a pile of things that needed doing first, but by the time Gordon had played everything for me that he wanted to it was about 7pm, so I said maybe I should meet you there, but they said, no, you can come with us, it's ok, so we all loaded into the Lustig mobile and went to the Chef's market.

We parked in a parking garage, and I walked out of it about 200 feet and ran into Shawn, a former Ross Graphics Team guy whom I hadn't seen in maybe 10 years, and he was with one of the guys from APL, the old art group I used to be in, and we talked and talked and then the charicaturist who was drawing them wanted to talk to me and we talked and talked and meanwhile Gordon went ahead and I didn't see him again for another hour or more.

Meanwhile, my friend Keith arrived and so I hung out with him and made it all the way to First Street and we turned up to see who was playing at the fountain-- and lo and behold it was the Mystics, John Fittipoldi and Bobby Santa Cruz (who I hadn't seen for probably 7 or 8 years -- he was an original Falcon) and a guitar player who looked and sounded an awful lot like Sean Allen (only the APL guy I'd been talking to was his brother, Pat Allen, who said Sean hadn't played with the Mystics in years, but taught Rock and Roll Guitar at a music school in town.) About this time Keith and I ran into local realtor and fellow Napa High School Class of '69 grad Gary Rose and his wife, who were scoping out the Mystics, with the thought in mind that he didn't want to spend the $1400 John said he wanted for the Mystics to play at a Realtor's Client Appreciation Party at Silverado Country Club. Gary said he was probably going to hire Matt Applin, a great singer I suggested whom I had met at Jessel's. All the time I'm looking out for Gordon, only I never saw him until we start walking back down First street. Then Keith headed on and I told Gordon I wanted to say hello to the Mystics when they took a break, so we went back and on the way I got the food Gordon said he'd buy me when we got to the Chef's Market in the first place, only he said he'd have to get some more cash and I said don't worry, I have plenty, and bought my Ceasar's salad myself. So we stood around and waited for the Mystics to go on a break, only then they were on a break and I didn't see them and looked for them and finally heard Johnny and the guitar player getting ready for the last set and then saw Bobby returning from somewhere and I grabbed him and he said, "Why, it's Steve Della Maggiora!" and he asked if I could hang out afterwards, only I couldn't because I'd come with Gordon's family and they had to get home with the kids. Then John saw me and said, "Why, there's Steve Della Maggiora, best artist in the Napa Valley" right into the mic, only to me he said, "Hey! Get your keyboard!" and I had to tell him I didn't have it since I wasn't in my car, but that was so like Johnny, always wanting me to sit in, but almost never wanting to pay me for a gig. Then I said to the guitar player who was tuning up, "Boy, that sure looks like Sean Allen" and he turned around and it was Sean Allen, and we talked a little bit, and then Gordon and I hung out and listened to their first couple of songs, until it got too loud and we had to leave anyway and find Karen and the kids, who were down by Mervyns, eating cotton candy, and right near there was Kent the sax guy, who also hosts at Jessel's sometime, and Jay Goetting, the bass player who also works as a reporter for the Napa Register, and their old keyboard guy who's really good but I've never met him. We listened to a tune and then talked to Kent for a second, and then it was back to Gordon's.

Good. I could get home early for once. Only Gordon wanted Max to play something for me, which was quite impressive, really, and then we got into playing different things, and Gordon showed me how he'd showed Max how to find chords on the piano, and I showed him similar things I did, and we ended up playing a lot, and then the kids and Karen disappeared, and then Karen appeared coralling a buck naked kid who'd come in to watch tv, and then she made us tea, and then she disappeared again, and we kept on going and going until I said,"OK, I have to go, it's midnite" and Gordon said, yes, that's right, and so I left about 1:40am.

Good thing I didn't stay late.

I have to stop doing this. It's getting difficult driving to Petaluma at 2am.