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I went to a guitar show on Saturday. These things are soooo much fun! Really, if you want to experience weirdness and the panoply of humanity and geekiness, a guitar show is a great way to do this. (Also, if you want to pick up a single guy – lots of them there. Seriously, I know women like music as well, but how many of them want to wax nostalgiac about the quality and sound of an original ’63 Strat versus the ‘unholy’ Relic Series reiusse ’63s? It’s largely a group of excited, if lonely, men.)

Anyway, lots of good fun and ogling to be had at a guitar show. There are all different kinds of folks milling about (with some fantastic hair styles, I might add), but this one woman stood out to me. She was sitting quietly off to the side with this instrument looking as if she might just be waiting for an opportunity to speak. I must have walked by her half a dozen times if not more, and I just sort of got curious. I kind of expected her to start playing it or something, and it was such an odd-looking instrument, not one that I remember having seen before.

Finally I just went over and asked her what it was. She smiled and said, “Oh, honey, I don’t know. I’m just holding it for my son while he goes to sell something.” She invited me to look at the tag, and it said that it was a 1967 Eko bass. She was such a sweet little thing that I just said a few more words, and then I asked if I could take a picture of it, and she obliged. She looks like she should be playing it, doesn’t she? I was kind of bummed that she didn’t burst into “Surrey with the Fringe on Top” or maybe “Foggy Mountain Breakdown?”