I moved to California in 1989, the same year that I graduated from college. The mom of a high school friend heard that I would soon be driving from Washington, D.C. to Berkeley, and she insisted that I look up an old friend of hers, public broadcasting pioneer Daniel Del Solar, and that I stay with Daniel until I get situated.
Daniel soon became my housemate, offering me a room in the basement apartment of a large home a few doors down from Indian Rock in North Berkeley. Later Daniel left Berkeley to live with his future wife, selling me his futon for $20.
Before he moved out, Daniel would post cards from his friends around the home. Frequently when I was brushing my teeth, I used to read a postcard over and over again that Daniel had propped writing-side out on the credenza next to the sink. It came from a friend of his who attended a party in Los Angeles.
I can still remember the writing:
And who do you think was the surprise guest at this party?
*M*A*D*O*N*N*A*
1989 was the Like a Prayer era, back when, according to the BBC, “critics first [began] to describe Madonna as an artist, rather than a mere pop singer.” The critics loved the release more than her previous albums, though it hadn’t thrilled fans as much as True Blue or Like a Virgin, each of which had sold more than 20 million copies. Even though the Queen, Whitney Houston, Mother Teresa and Princess Diana were all alive in 1989, back then Madonna was arguably the most famous woman in the world.
How strange it was for this guy from Washington, D.C. to move to California, where the aroma of star jasmine filled the air, where weekend athletes pretended to climb mountains on a rock up the street from my house, and where people attended dinner parties with Madonna.
I benefitted from a different California musical experience from this past weekend in Davis. To celebrate a birthday at Tres Hermanas restaurant downtown, a large party had hired a mariachi ensemble. Even though they were directed to serenade members of the birthday party, all the diners enjoyed the music as much as if management had hired the musicians to play for them. Total strangers were singing along with the performers or sharing their own uninvited gritos, those sudden vocalizations of joy that heighten the elation of the evening. As local hero Julie Saylor said to me as she was leaving the restaurant with her husband and daughter, “Isn’t this delightful?”
Impromptu singers hoping to harmonize with Mariachi did not hit all the notes with perfect pitch, but nobody minded. Joy trumps precision every time. Whether it’s a serenade at Tres Hermanas or a double rainbow above an inclusion rally in Central Park, you never know what unexpected gifts life might offer you.
If you are in Davis tonight at 7, please join us for the Pub Quiz at Sudwerk. Recruit a team, dress for sunset, and come by the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for almost everyone. Latecomers will find a table to play inside. Even though it is more work for me, we always have more fun with bigger crowds and more voices. As Walt Whitman says, “the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”
In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on silly outfits, first and last names that start with the same letter, the U.S. Senate, winners of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction, magicians, groups of animals, comedians, post-disco anthems, supersonic sounds, bandleaders, smiling blondes, measurements of temperature and other phenomena, Toronto Raptors, Ken Burns, famous fathers, queens, a kind of writing, the locations of famous fires, good luck charms, cats and dogs, magazines you may have seen in a supermarket, revenge tales, Pixar films, marketing strategies, worthiness, categories of Nobel Peace Prize winners, frightening statistics, local stars, the state of sports, expensive tissues, explorers, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare.
The Davis poet Beth Suter just signed up for the Pub Quiz mailing list at yourquizmaster.com. Welcome, Beth! Thanks also to The far-flung Original Vincibles, as well as to Quizimodo, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, Gena Harper and others who support the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I appreciate your backing this endeavor, and I hope to see you tonight!
Best,
Dr. Andy
P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Japanese Seasonings That Start with the letter M. What traditional Japanese seasoning is a thick paste produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and kōji (the fungus Aspergillus oryzae)?
- Pop Culture – Television. What odd number of months were the late night talk shows off the air because of the recent writers’ strike?
- Another Music Question. Born in 1933, what funk progenitor was known as “the hardest working man in show business”?
P.P.S. There will be no questions at this week’s pub quiz about the topic that most of us have been thinking about with horror and regret: the terrible loss of civilian lives in Israel and now Gaza. I feel for everyone grieving the deaths of innocents from this past weekend.