One of the aspects I think I like about an insular world wherein my boundaries are largely dictated by pedestrian ways is that I get to watch people. A professor once gave that as an assignment, and I’ve been practicing ever since. But much to my dismay, there’s a limit since I’m pretty much shy of venturing too far from home.
There’s downtown, and its associated neighborhoods, but other than a couple of restaurants and bars, plus my favorite coffee stops, there’s not a lot. Usually, or so it seems during winter daytime hours, to be limited to “suits.” Usually.
As I was coming out the post office, I made a belated and lame effort to hold the door open for a busy-looking business woman. Just being polite. As I lingered, a typically casually dressed guy goes by. His hair was pulled back and he was sporting a ponytail. Another guy, obviously older, perhaps a little better attired, but not by much, slides in and nods a “thanks,” to me. So at that little intersection of pedestrian traffic, front door of the downtown post office, there were three of us with ponytails, all passing through the same portal.
And here I thought I was out of step with the rest of the world. But Austin’s a place where, I guess, a rebel 60’s ponytail isn’t so out of place. As I wandered the sidewalks toward the trail homewards, I wondered about the number of guys with ponytails and if it was really that unusual.
Stepping across the street, I noticed a wild mane of gray hair streaming behind a familiar face, as he went accelerating across two lanes of traffic to make the light, top down on his car. He usually wears a ponytail, too. Might be single again, too, hence no ponytail.
Now, the question is, consider the hair, the age of the males, and is this normal? Or is this purely a localized phenomena? An event that, stylistically, would only happen here? Or if any of the other guys with ponytails get asked if they are guitar players. Maybe they are.
Inbound e-mail:
On Jan 5, 2006, at 9:22 AM, ya’ll wrote:
>in the weekly vid (which i thought was great)
>you mentioned something
>that was “not a good idea at this time”
>
>sounded like ‘geil’ but that’s a brand of memory. what was that word?Guile. Deceit. Deception. Underhanded, devious (sometimes Scorpio) things.
Musical note for the answer, too?
“You know where you are? You’re in the jungle baby.”
Sandy’s:
It’s a venerable burger joint. I was, at one point, tempted to swipe the name, Thursday – Saturday Special as title for some project, but I lost interest. Plus there’s a Capricorn with a similar title, on a volume of work.
However, late in the afternoon, for just a moment, unconnected from the rest of the world, sunning my legs, while I was slowly munching on a cheeseburger, I had to wonder if it was paradise.
