PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

The Erin Rose is my favorite bar in New Orleans. First time I went there, I snuck in and watched. There were attractive women and the music impressed me. Next time, I met Moe. He’d broken a blood vessel in his eye, it was RED, we did shots of Maker’s Mark. He looked like the original Terminator, and we laughed about it. Another time, I talked to someone about astrophysics and micro-geology in the same few sentences. He recommended going to Checkpoint Charlie’s, another nice place, good for music, always. I went there in the evening, riding my bike. When I left, it was well dark.

There were 5 or 6 people there when I arrived. Ruby Rendrag & Suki Kuehn are a band and couple and were setting up. Ruby plays guitar and sings; Suki plays cello, his instrument stands on a rod such that he plays standing up.

They played the first set, very well, then came to mingle. She and I were talking, it came up that I played classical guitar, in particular Beethoven. She had a moment, then called Suki over; saying something like:

“HEY- play your Beethoven thing for him!”

Me: “YEAH!”

To which, he replied: ‘No, I can’t...’

Me: “WHAT!?”

‘…the next act is coming up, it would be rude’…etc.

And that’s just business. The punch line: they played the next set, he asked the next act for permission, it was OK.

Beethoven’s 7th Symphony is popularly known as the ‘Funeral March,’ though he (Beethoven) preferred imaginative interpretation to title.

That night, Suki Kuehn played 8 or 9 minutes of the second movement. Then my evening, including the bike ride home, became such that all interference was gone: people, dirt, dust, gravity, traffic, weather, whatever... Beethoven was thick and rich in my head.

Interestingly, the piece came back to me constantly for three days, then sporadically for a week or so.