Ingy As Muse

.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Ingy)


On May 8, 2009 I posted a blog entry titled "My First Friend, Ingy," a fairly lengthy narrative about, you guessed it, my first friend Ingy. That story won me considerable acclaim, and I am grateful to my immediate family members, an old fren, and my cat for the host of accolades.

Last month I was at the South Park Tavern enjoying a rock show when I was approached by a young man named Tyler. In addition to being one of my favorite Dayton people, Tyler is also the wildly talented musician/songwriter/performance con artiste/agitator of all that is subversive/apple cart upsetter/fly in the ointment of the musical status quo/provocateur/shamanistic mystic/charming songandance man for one of Dayton's most unique musical ensembles, Sitandance (as a musical reference point, imagine a wild-eyed, illegitimate love child of Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits, with Beefheart as father and Waits as mother).

. .... . . .(early incarnation of Sitandance w/Tyler in the middle)

Tyler seemed quite animated when he approached me. He proceeded to inform me that he had been reading my blog. Naturally, I immediately held up my hand, stopped him in mid-sentence, and offered my condolences for his misfortune. Tyler, showing incredibly good judgment, ignored me and continued. Apparently, Tyler had read the blog entry "My First Friend, Ingy" and it had inspired him to write a song.

To put it simply, I was both incredibly flattered and very surprised.

Now granted, a narrative set in Piqua, Ohio in 1960 is fairly far away - in time anyway (49 years), although perhaps not in space (about 30 miles) - but I had always assumed that Tyler's vision tapped into a space and time much, much further away.

I believe that I spent the rest of the night with a smile on my face.

I am proud to announce that the song the Ingy story inspired received its world premier performance by Sitandance at the South Park Tavern on Halloween. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the show, but my son Andy assured me that "the Ingy song" is very, very good.

For the record, "My First Friend, Ingy" was inspired by an emotional conversation I had with my good friend, Lauri. Had that conversation not happened, I would not have written the story. And I suspect that there is a human being out there somewhere who will hear something in Tyler's Ingy-inspired song that plants a seed in their psyche, and they in turn will create a song or a story.

If you ask me, that is what makes the world go round.

That, and love of course.


"What more can one human being do for another other than to inspire them?"
(B. Dylan)



. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . (a very cool Sitandance show poster)

.