Small World, Isn’t It

June 18, 2009 at 2:17 am (Uncategorized)

Photo by Matt Logelin

Some things are just meant to be.

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to figure out if I could get my friends Matt Logelin, Melanie Ciccone and Joe Henry in one place at one time for a remarkable set of reasons. Matt is a long-time fan of Joe’s. When we bought a house next-door to Joe and Melanie, I didn’t know who Joe was, but Matt did. Matt has all of Joe’s CDs which means, he has been listening to Joe for a very long time.

I went to a couple of Joe’s shows at Largo with Matt and Liz, and Matt and our friends/co-workers. I planned to introduce Matt to Joe, but Matt is kinda shy (well, he used to be). The last show both Matt and I attended, I introduced him to Melanie (we were working up to Joe).

Melanie has been reading Matt’s blog. Melanie has a special empathy for Matt’s daughter Maddy. When Melanie was born, the doctors wheeled her mother from the delivery room into chemotherapy. Eighteen months after Melanie’s birth, her mother lost her life to breast cancer. Melanie thought she might be able to offer some perspective as a child who grew up without her mother. Matt said he would be happy to get together with Melanie.

There were just three hitches. I was trying to arrange this before I move out of LA, Joe was about to go on tour in Spain and Matt’s tragedy has catapulted him to celebrity – which means he and Maddy travel everywhere all the time. So, as Melanie and I were emailing back and forth trying to plan a play date, Mel sent me a message that said, “my Joe had dinner with your friend Matt in New York last night.”

It seems that Joe was playing with Alan Toussaint at the Village Vanguard. Joe called his agent to invite her to the show and she brought her new client, Matt, along. The three of them ended up having dinner. Additionally, Joe introduced Matt to Elvis Costello, which made Matt doubly happy. Now these two men live mere miles from one another in Los Angeles but they met in New York, because it was meant to be.

Moon over Turret Last weekend was the Castle Tour. There are the most amazing apartments in this building, and the people who come to see them are all so very interesting. Somewhere between 800 and 1,500 fans of fine architecture attend. I mostly sit alone in my turret and write, so greeting and chatting with 800+ people is really fun, but pretty exhausting.

Early in the day, Devin Thor walked in and said, “This is fantastic, when can I move in?” I told him, “the first of July,” and soon after he and Willow Healy were signing the lease. Devin and Willow recently sold their home in Santa Clarita. He works just four blocks away at Parsons, and Willow is a mystery writer. And so the tradition of the writer in the turret will continue. The location is ideal. There are plenty of mysterious characters here. And so it was meant to be.

The architect, in the Moroccan room, with the T-square

Tired towards the end of the day, I closed up the apartment and went in search of the after-tour dinner. It wasn’t ready, but some of the Castle residents had begun to gather in the parlor downstairs and I realized I wanted to get my camera.

I returned to the apartment, leaving the door open behind me. I walked back from the living room, through the bedroom and into the dining room (this was a hotel, so all the rooms are adjoined in a straight line) and who did I find but Emilio Estevez and his girlfriend Sonja.

Now I can’t think of any other writer/director/actor that I’d have something to say to, but I was so moved by “Bobby,” which Emilio wrote, directed, and acted in, that I thought about writing him a letter to tell him so. So there we were, just the three of us, and I babbled and made a utter fool out of myself, but I had the awesome opportunity to tell him how much I enjoyed his movie.

If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it. Emilio’s homage to Robert F. Kennedy features an outstanding star-studded ensemble cast featuring some standout performances by Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Martin Sheen, Helen Hunt, Laurence Fishburne and Freddy Rodriquez. Put it on your NetFlix list today.

I later ran into Sonja and she told me how much it meant for Emilio, to hear how much his movie meant to me, and that a letter would be even better. And so Emilio, your letter is on its way.

Meant to be.