Protecting The Guilty - Including Me!

I have to tell you about the lunch I was invited to today. But in the interest of Protecting the Guilty, who really was mostly innocent, I'm not going to name names.

First off, I wasn't actually invited. One of my co-workers was, and I thought I was going in their place, but they went too. So really, I had no business being there. Ok. I crashed it. (Does it count as crashing if you call ahead and tell them you're crashing? I have no idea.)

Anyway. So lunch was at a very nice Italian restaurant. I don't usually do italian... but a free lunch is a free lunch when you're broke and awaiting to get downsized. So I'm not complaining. It was a media lunch, for an artist who's been off the radar for a while, and is now back on the scene with an Indy record deal. Lunch, an acoustic performance, and a round robin.

Well this lunch took FOREVER. AND EVER. (AMEN? - And no, it wasn't with Randy Travis.) We were there 40 minutes before we even ordered. And then it took light years to get our first course. Seriously, we got there at noon and didn't get dessert until 1:45. We had one waiter taking care of about 18-20 of us. And apparently, they had to grow the lettuce.

So during all this down time, you would think the artist would be making the most of it... shaking hands, kissing babies, talking to the assembled media. No. They were sitting at a corner table with their back to us, talking to their band members. Why were we there again? Oh yeah. Free lunch.

Now, I really like this particular artist. Which is why I'm not mentioning their name. And the people working with this artist are also very nice people. Just the fact that they thought to provide us lunch, unlike many other folks who schedule Round Robins right over the lunch hour with not even so much as a bottle of water, gives them bonus points. But there were definitely some things that could have been executed better. (Yes, I backseat produce EVERYTHING!) And I would never give this restaurant my business again.

To add insult to injury, the restaurant was nearly dead empty except for us. Can't imagine why. ..

We wound up having to leave before the Round Robin to get back to the studio for another session. So I crashed the event and didn't even get good audio out of it. That will teach me!

Believe it or not, that was not the most interesting part of my day...

Back in the office that afternoon, my cell phone rang. It was someone pitching me an interview with a brand new artist I've never heard of before. We had a lengthy, informative conversation about the process for getting artists booked on Highway 16. And as all conversations do these days, it made its way around to the merger. He was very kind, asking if my job would be ok (don't know), when I'd know (fairly soon), how the channels would be affected (can't speak to that either), and whether the Sirius folks would be moving into our new facilities (yes). As others have, he gave me best wishes, told me I did great work, he's enjoyed calling on me all these years and was sure I'd be fine because the cream always rises to the top. Told me to let him know if I needed anything. It was a lovely conversation, not unlike others I seem to be having about once a day these days. Except for one problem...

I have absolutely no idea who this person is, nor do I have any recollection of having talked to him before in my whole entire life.