Once upon a time, maybe 1982, I was still young, and in law school.
I went from Columbia down to Greenwich Village with a friend. This is in New York City— for those who aren’t familiar.
As we were walking along, on one of those narrow cross streets — I can’t remember which one —we came upon a young, street musician. He was playing the hammered dulcimer —very well The sound was fast, beautiful, harp-like.
There was some kind of fence behind him, so the space was small and it was a bit hard to squeeze past him.
He wasn’t very tall. I was still 5’7” then. I’ve shrunk since. He was about my size, maybe smaller. He had long blond hair, way past his shoulders, tho I think not as far as his waist. I like long hair on young men. I don’t remember for sure if he had a beard. I like beards. I thought him as beautiful as the music he was making.
I was too shy to ask his name, but I was definitely overcome with lust at the sight and sound of him.
Given that it was Greenwich Village, i suppose he might have been gay. Her might not have survived the AIDS epidemic.
I was thinking of him recently, because I finally gave in and subscribed to Apple Music. I requested hammered dulcimer, thinking of him.
I found a nice album called “Joshua Messick: Pure Hammered Dulcimer”. Some of it is like what I remembered, tho I fancy that the guy I saw was even better. Of course, that was a long time ago, so I can’t be sure.
Listening to that album made me think of him even more.
I started fantasizing that I might go on some national TV talk show and ask if anyone could help me identify him. I wonder if there are shows like that where people try to find others from their past. I was imagining the Kelley Clarkson show, because I imagined she would appreciate his playing even more than I would, assuming he’s still playing.
Of course, if I only had one moment on national TV, why would I waste it on this one guy, who I really never got to know? There might be a better use of my moment of fame.
Also, there was an inconsistency, in that, getting on national TV was somehow connected with a fantasy of dating Tom Cruise. And, if I were dating Tom Cruise, I shouldn’t be mentioning a fantasy of some other guy.
In any case, in the fantasy, she did find him and she had him in the show and his playing was extraordinary, even though now he was playing the piano more often than the hammered dulcimer. I suspect the tone of the piano is better at blending with other instruments or voices and therefore more broadly used. She has tears in her eyes because his playing was so beautiful — and he was grateful for the exposure
It turned out he was bi and currently single so I had a shot at him, but I didn’t get past that, because I started writing this.
I thought of this blog. In principle, everything on here is viewable by billions of people, who might find this guy for me. Of course, nothing like that many people ever in fact view it. I’m lucky to get a few dozen.
Well, anyway, if you do know him or of him, let me know
