Life: Idiotropic

Do you know who Al Stewart is? I didn't until I married Kirk. He didn't until he lived in Germany his junior year of high school. Kirk is a fan. I didn't appreciate the music until now. So, do you know who he is? I'm not sure if half the Germans in Mechernich could answer that, but they were at his concert tonight with us.

Al Stewart is a translucently pale, willowy Scottish folk singer who plays the guitar and writes stories into songs, stories both geographical and historical, and stories whimsical like that of his ex-girlfriend that broke his heart, so he wrote a song and turned her into an old ship full of holes with a treacherous crew that sinks to the bottom of the sea and is eaten up by scampi. He's a poet.

Months ago Kirk found out that Al was coming. He was supposed to be coming to sing at Burg Satzvey - the castle in the photos. We went there tonight. It was quiet and cold, but one man was putting lights on the trees and decorating for Christmas. Another man seemed to be coming home and entered the big castle that is a private residence. The castle grounds are used now for jousting tournaments and celebrations of different types. It is a touristy thing, but why not? If I lived in a castle, I might do the same thing. So... Kirk was excited to go and see Al in a castle. We reserved tickets. The venue changed.

So we went to Mechernich instead - a town that has nothing noteworthy. I wanted to dress comfortably. Kirk wanted to dress up. So we both dressed nice - good, since we rarely go out anyway. We got to the sleepy German Eiffel town, just an hours drive from our home, a couple hours before the concert would start so we would have time for a nice dinner. We walked in the bitter wind to find a restaurant. One was a smokey bar, another was a tacky pizza place, another had slot machines, and one had a billiard table. Finally we found one that almost looked ok, and we were hungry, but I choked through my meal because the smoke was so thick and the decor looked like dated Florida beach decor - sage green and taupe walls with solarium windows and canvas sails draped from the ceiling. I know that Germany has more to offer than that. Even so, I had a mozzarella salad and pasta. The traditional German meal that I'd hoped for was not in Mechernich. [I could easily insert here a rather lengthy tirade about smoking in Europe, but I'll save you this time. Just know that it is extremely frustrating to try to eat your food when you can't even smell it, when everything is soaked in smoke and you leave reaking of it, when there are no options and no escape and the no-smoking section means two tables on one wall, with the smokers all around you secretly blowing it in your direction, or so it seems.]

The concert, not at the castle, was held at a very modern, rectangular, could-have-been-in-any-mid-sized-U.S.-city gymnasium (high school) auditorium. We waited outside the doors to wait until the opened it for seating and people watched as the crowd grew. The median age was 50. The dress was ultra-casual: jeans and flannel, leather pants with a sports coat, jeans and sweaters, jeans... Men had long hair. Girls had short hair. My little girls would have gone crazy pointing all those people out. It's safe to say that in that crowd of at least 400 people that Kirk and I were the only Americans in the audience. I heard one British accent in the crowd and that was it.

The German singer who was supposed to open was "krank" with a sore throat, so Al Stewart started early. Dave Nachminoff, an American singer and guitarist who tours with Al, opened with a few songs, then Al came out and jammed. There were some sound system problems, but other than that, it was a lot of fun and very entertaining. Al and Dave actually jammed with their dueling guitars on stage and they were laughing, telling jokes, and having fun.

It was entertaining watching them and entertaining looking around. Most of the Germans there I'm sure had some degree of English language ability and I think all knew at least one or two of Al's songs, but you could tell that it was hard for them to understand some of the English spoken quickly with a heavy Scottish accent, so in between songs, Al would talk and tell the story behind the next song. And, most of the time the audience was silent. At one point, Al asked, into the microphone onstage, "Do any of you know who I am?" But it was obvious by the applause when he sung a song they knew and every time he phonetically slaughtered the name of the town, the audience would erupt in peels of loud German guffaws. So we are most likely the only audience to hear the impromptu tune, "Seduction in Mechernich." Quite a gem.... If Al Stewart every loses his voice, he could get a job in stand-up.

At the end of a very nice evening, we waited in line to see Al. Kirk shook his hand, got his CD autographed, chatted for a minute, and gave him one of his flying patches. It was a nice moment.

At one point in the concert, Al began to sing a song that he had not told us about. Kirk leaned over and asked me if I knew what it was about. I didn't. I don't think many people in the audience did either. Driving home Kirk told me that "Running Man" is a song about a Nazi criminal hiding from the authorities after WW2. Al had said that he didn't play it much, but that Dave had requested it. It has a very catchy tune, but I wonder what the audience would have thought had they known. That's still a touchy subject here among some.

Anyway... if Al comes again, we'll probably go see him, but I won't be running to Mechernich anytime soon.