cenicero

You can setup drums in the basement should be New Jersey's state motto. Including the ellipsis and delivered by the official mascot.

The official mascot is a cartoon goldfinch with half-baked eyes, a full complement of sticks and brushes and a jean jacket with an illegible band patch. The official mascot's name is Max Finch. He's a fun one, at first, a real presence but after a couple days crashing on your couch he starts pawning every non-percussive item in your house to buy newer and better pieces for his kit. And he never remembers your name.

Tonight where we are there are drums in the basement. When I get to the house N. is eating noodles with cheese but discards that process and insists that we go and play.

The ellipsis in the new state motto is less a grammatical cop out, more a promise. The promise that if you move to New Jersey and setup drums in the basement, no evil will befall you and your spirit will loose from its shackles to become one with time. If New Jersey really is in danger of losing its millionaires, let them be replaced by two-year old drummers.

Q: What are drums like?

A: Drums are like horses and ice cream and TV on and noodles and books and Grandpa and friends and soccer balls and footballs and baseball bats and Grandma when it is dark it is time to notice and when it is light it's time to play and there are Mommy and Daddy and people and friends and there is chocolate ice cream play drums.

Max's tattoos:

a) cracked skull with eye sockets beset by hummingbirds;
b) lightning striking a man head-on; the man is stoked;
c) diagrams of drum-mic positioning (7).

What N. lacks at present in formal prowess he makes up for in fire. And in vision. He sees drums as they are, without a preconceived sense of which pieces to play when or in what combination, without an overriding sense of 4/4 guiding him. He is more of an off-road truck than a reliable train, and friends, I tell you, tonight New Jersey is a beautiful state.