Bus Story: Don

Wednesdays always seem to be full of interesting people and magical connections. This time it was on the eastbound 750.

On the way in to work I met a 64 year old guy in a florescent pink polo shirt named Don. He seemed like the kind of guy who doesn't have a lot of filters and will gladly spark up a conversation with anyone within earshot. He leaned over, curious about what I was watching on my ipad, but when I explained it was the selects from a casting session he suddenly lost interest in the video, but then launched into a full blown discussion about action movies. Naturally I turned off my ipad and settled in to hear what was on his mind. 

Apparently Don isn't a tv guy, but he's big into action movies. He's never heard of Game of Thrones, but he's seen every one of the Expendables and thought Ben Affleck actually did a decent job in Batman vs Superman. I admitted I hadn't caught the Batman one, and I didn't even know that there is an Expendables 3 so Don's excitement about the upcoming 4th installment was lost of me. I did concede that I really enjoyed 1 and 2 because who doesn't love a cartoonishly high body count and a fire walk? 

I also found out that Don loves concerts. He practically knows everyone whose playing at the Greek in the next few months and takes the bus to get there (which I didn't know was even possible). At some point there is a taxi ride involved which means to me that he is truly committed to both music and green commuting because if you have enough money to go to as many concerts as Don does, riding the bus is one of two things -- a choice or court mandated and Don seemed okay to me.

Here's the skinny on music around town: Bonnie Raitt is coming up and Melissa Etheridge was just there. Yadda yadda The Allman Brothers (I tuned that one out). And Don's taking a lady friend to Megan Trainor so despite his age and whatever else is going on in his life he definitely makes time for a show. Apparently there's even a concert series of cover bands at the Warner Center on the weekends which he made me promise to check out and he promised that I wouldn't be sorry if I did.

Besides action films Don and I figured out that we had something else in common -- Loverboy and Rick Springfield. Strangely enough he had just seen them in concert last weekend. Even more strangely, those were the first two concerts I ever went to as a teenager. I'll be the first to admit I like to make connections between things that may or may not be random coincidences and call it the universe at work, so here's one that just occurred to me about a minute and a half ago.

Don was also my dad's name. He's long since passed -- back in the 80s sometime. But more than that, I saw both of those concerts -- Rick Springfield solo and Loverboy when Huey Lewis and the News was opening for them in DC -- with my cousin Frankie who was big into music and whom I loved as much as anyone on the planet before he passed away a few years ago. I am convinced that Frankie lets me know when he's around because I usually hear one of the tunes we used to dance to together. It happens in weird times and usually when something else very Frankie is going on in my life. 

So here's where it get's interesting... the Springfield/Loverboy concert was last Saturday, July 16th. 

July 16th was Frankie's birthday. 

So, Hi, Dad. And happy birthday, Frank.