The door opened and a few people came walking in; one dude was basically hugging the wall, almost like a cop would if he was sneaking up on someone. I did a double take…… it was freaking Donald Fagen from Steely Dan.
My mother-in-law and her last husband had built a house in Kilauea, on Kauai. Sasha and I went there as much as possible, and it was also one of the reasons we got married in that area- besides it being fucking awesome. They had been friends for a long time with Todd and Michelle Rundgren, who were living in a house in Princeville and also building a house literally right next to theirs. We were having dinner over at the Rundgren's; Todd was making saiman, which is like a gourmet udon and really common on the island.
No one in my family had any clue who the guy hugging the wall was, but I sure did. He is pretty unmistakable if you have ever seen any Steely Dan photos.
I had done a one-day, ill-fated session with Todd at SF Soundworks, acting as a consultant on setting up their surround monitoring so he could mix a live record. Apparently I was trusted in this area as I had already worked on a ton of surround stuff with Jerry, including the whole Talking Heads catalog….. so I got it all set up and when Todd finally showed up, he bailed after like an hour. None of his sessions could open properly, because the studio had failed to make sure they had a key plugin installed- which he had all over his tracks. I knew he remembered me from that session because it ended in flames, but other than that I think this was my first time hanging out with him at all. So it was pretty sweet that he was now making me dinner.
I, of course, was totally interested in the studio setup that he had in the living room; I guess he didn't want to talk about "work" too much, so I couldn't really get any info out of him. Needless to say, there were a lot of…….. things being consumed.
At one point after dinner we were all sitting around on the patio and somehow the conversation fell on either terrorism or flying or security or something….. and Donald mentions that after 9/11 he was always having the hardest time at airports because of his license. So he whips it out and passes it around…….. no wonder. For one thing, he totally looked Middle Eastern and had a full beard in the photo. Now, no racist stereotypes are implied here, believe me, but Jesus Christ…… if there was a picture in the dictionary next to the word "terrorist", it could have been his. Anyone who didn't recognize the name or face would have absolutely no clue that he was a Grammy-winning, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted musician who has sold more than 40 million albums.
I have no idea why he was hugging the wall. Like I said……… THINGS were consumed.
I don't have any pics of that night, so here is a shot of us taking the plunge.....
