On Thursday a few friends and I drove up to Duluth for a little overnight roadtrip before we all head our own ways at the end of the month. On Friday night after dinner we walked downtown to the Canal Park area. It was 9pm and there were still young kids rollerblading around town. We wandered aimlessly for awhile and then stopped at this small 50s gas station turned maltshop. My friend flirted with the ice cream girls (if it weren’t for his somewhat comical appearence he would have suffered many a slaps in the face in his life, this time being no different) and then we walked some more until I spotted a DJ playing a set outside this restaurant in a little ground floor patio. He was playing Kraftwerk. We sat down on a bench next to him (outside the small waist high fence enclosure.) I looked to the DJ’s right and standing next to him was a guy who looked like Alan Sparhawk from Low. So I say to my friend to ask him if he is in the band Low and when I turn back to get another look, his wife Mimi is standing next to them, and I’m positive
it’s them. My friend is the complete opposite of me and has no shame or qualms about embarrassing himself or saying the wrong thing, so he stands up and the little convo was something to the affect of:

Danny: (Looks at Alan) Are you in the band Low?
Alan: (Smiles) No, but she is. (Points to his wife)
(Pause)
Danny: (Obviously with nothing else to say) I’m starstruck right now.
Alan: (Smiles) Oh, thanks.
(Long Pause)
Danny: (Looks at the DJs Radiohead t-shirt) Down with Radiohead. (Gives the thumbs down sign)
Alan: Why?
Danny: Hail to the Thief? (Thumbs down again) I’m pro-Bush.
Alan: What? What’s that? (That loud music must have diminished his hearing)
Danny: Pro-Bush
Alan: (Walks over to the railing) What?
Danny: Pro-Bush!
Alan: Oh, well everyone’s entitled to their opinion.

During this entire exchange, I of course sat in half embarassingment, half awe. It’s so great to see that the band hasn’t taken off to California. They just hang around Duluth like anyone else. I wonder if many people approach them as fans or just as fellow Duluthians. Everything preceding that encounter paled in importance; being accosted by a female native American whino, the antique store with books and nacks scattered with willful abandon all over the massive store (I got some old 50s comics and books for 50 cents), the Duluth branch Electric Fetus, swimming in Lake Superior, and definitely the Black Bear casino. None of it compared to seeing my slightly overweight Asian friend hector Low.