Moon Man and Me

Scot is the Moon Man. I catch him now and then peeking at me through the tree branches outside my window, on a silvery winter’s night—just like “The Night Before Christmas.” Today’s song, “Pinstripe Vest” is our first genuine Scot and John, Plank Road original. We start out with John’s groovy poetry, “There’s a scent in the air like ripening fruit, the trees putting on a pinstripe suit.” That is definitely John. “You know I love you baby, cause you put up with my stuff.”—clearly Scot.

I love the carefree way Scot sings out, riffing along with John’s kazoo, during the breaks. Scot would often improvise a horn sound, Ella-style, scatting and riffing--a cross between Louis and Glen Miller and a whole lot of other people! Scot and John were so completely comfortable with each other. It was a beautiful thing to witness--both guys, so friendly and so warm, but in a way, a little lonely. Scot was experiencing a very challenging internal reality because of the brain tumor. John and Scot developed a mutual love and appreciation society that created a comfortable home for them to settle in to a serenely productive musical collaboration.

The artwork today is an older piece of Scot’s work. He did this piece in say, 1999 – 2000. It is an example of one of his first forays into digital printmaking. The girl on the chair was a drawing, which Scot scanned. The digital gradations were some of the tools that fascinated Scot because he had long been an air-brusher. He loved being able to get the gradated effect without having to deal with a finicky airbrush.

I love this image. I love the sweetness of the girl, and the details of the chair and the whole idea of reading to someone. I did a whole lot of reading to Scot and James as we’d drive all over the mid-west doing art fairs. Scot loved my reading voice, because I’d put on all the voices—in the car. He always wanted to create a company for me to read. Of course, every time he’d try to get me to read in front of others, I couldn’t do it. I could see it was a somewhat of a disappointment to him. Not so shy now! Anyway, the image is called, “Story Teller.”