More Than Posts, There’s SJ’s Guitar Dave

It “occurred” to me when it was rubbed in my face that the posts here are only one piece of the SJ puzzle. There are a bunch of people who keep this hotel open, from the friends who fix the program when it goes awry to those of you who help pay the freight of keeping a website on the ‘net.

There’s my editor, Beth, without whom I would look far stupider than I do otherwise, and the bouncers in the hotel bar, Skink and Sgt. Schultz. And there are the voices of reason who talk me off the edge (thanks, Judge Kopf) and the voices of unreason who drive me toward it (I’m looking at you, Barleycorn). And then there are the SJ cultural muses, Howl and Guitar Dave, whose music video selections have become as integral to my doing this gig as the catharsis of writing posts in the wee hours of the morning.

But Dave isn’t SJ’s. He comes rolling in here just like anyone else, because he chooses to spend some of his valuable time making SJ a little better, a little more fun and interesting. As much as his musical selections, like Howl’s, have become an piece of SJ that I, like so many of you, have come to rely upon, he’s got a real life too. That life involves making a living and strumming a guitar. He didn’t come up with the name out of nothing, you know.

Sometimes I take people who contribute to SJ for granted. Remember FUBAR and his brilliant poems? He’s not around here anymore, and I miss him very much. Whether Dave chooses to stick around here is up to Dave. I don’t own him. I don’t pay him. He comes here out of the goodness of his heart, and I appreciate it.

Dave’s got other things to do with his time, like earn a living, write and perform great music, make some pretty cool furniture and enjoy life. There may well come a day that he no longer finds showing up at the hotel bar a good use of his time and attention. Should that day comes, we will all be poorer for it. I know I will. I just thought you should know. I want Dave to know too how much I appreciate his stopping by SJ when he has more important things to do. Thanks, Guitar Dave, for gracing SJ with your music, thoughts and friendship.