I call him so
I attended Mr. Jacob “Shakin’ “ Woods memorial service Sunday. I took Uncle Bunny as he has known Mr. Woods as well.
It was not very elaborate, yet very well attended as one would naturally predict. There was a lot of his family there which was really very nice. The main “host” was Keith Hafner. He is not my cuppa tea whatsoever. Very, very, Xtian.
I saw many, many people that I haven’t seen in years. Including one person I hadn’t seen in about 30 years. I also saw the usual parade of human behavior which I (naturally) will kvetch about.
What is it about such an occasion that makes many people act so weirdly? They either make it all about themselves or all about God. It’s as if they can’t focus on the dead at all. I overheard much social “jockeying”. The whole “I am actually important here” thing.
I also have to notice that Jo Mathis excluded my interview from M-Live because it was a real story about real street life (which is where Mr. Woods spent his reality) and the real Mr. Woods. It was not some sanitized, charmed up, version of how some shopkeeper imagined his life to be. It was about how Mr. Woods saved my ass from a serial rapist late one night around ‘79 because one of the things he did was look out for the little, lost, kids. This is why Mr. Woods knew that anything he needed or wanted, if I had it to give, was his. Not the least of which is the title of Mister.
Labels: Personalities
posted by Stella Magdalen @ 9/25/2007 09:36:00 AM
10 Comments:
I had never heard of him before Michigan Radio began eulogizing him, but if he saved your hide I would have liked to have known him.
whatcha got against shopkeepers? Napoleon didn't think much of them either and look what happened to him!
god-dammit. shakey still owes me a pack of camels from one night at the pan tree in the winter of 85.
fucker!
hafner is a fundichrister mcmartial artist like
his buddy chuck norris.
no thank you.
heart,
barry
I have absolutely nothing against real, live, non-corporate SK's. Even the ones I don't personally get along with or don't appreciate their approach to doing business.
You, my friend, are definitely not in the category of unrealistic, white washing, unexamined life, shopkeeper.
Carol Lopez also got right in and put her money where her mouth was/(is?) by becoming Mr. Woods Payor/payee (whichever way you say it). My friend Nina Juergens is another SK of whom I heartily approve. As well as Elmo Morales, and the woman who runs 16 Hands. I would also cheerfully endorse many other local SK's.
I probably should have qualified this piece by stating specifically that it seemed a conspiracy on the part of the Snooze to only use the glib, "Ann Arbor is so very squeaky clean and safe", and "Mr. Woods wasn't really a real street person" ops in their films on youtube as well as many of their recent articles.
It just smacks of much patronage. As well as using him as a stick to both measure and chastise other street folks for not being attractive or industrious or creative or reasonable or non-threatening. Or of bolstering one's own hipness or liberal quotient by saying "Hey I loved a weird old black man"
IDK. Is this making any sense at all?
Hey Barry
if you write off the Kamels to him lookin' out for me, I'll endorse your view of Hafner. You put it so succinctly in a way I don't have the cajones to do. My brother taught there for awhile. I never could reconcile that with what I know of my bro. I guess he dealt with it for the sake of his kids who were students there as well.
DONE. i hardly ever smoke anymore ennyhoo.
barry
Good for you. I smoke more than ever now with all the other "give ups". I'm so very ready for some "take backs".
Nige did you see Terry Gross is lecturing somewhere around here soon?
Whew -- I was worried for a moment there that I'd failed the Stella keepin' it real test. And, yes, as usual you make perfect sense. You're right about the Snews coverage. Everytime there's something I know anything about in the paper I realize how full of beans (and themselves) journalists are -- it makes me wonder about the things I don't know anything about. That said, check out the October Current for an edited version of my Jake Memoriam. I'd love to read your account of how he saved you that night...and also what song you're named after...
Yeah, don't think I'll get my interview though.
But I did find that the pal from high school (Gabby) I've been looking for is a local indie film maker. Huh.
Man you guys are burning up the sitemeter lately.
Barry - Good man, I knew you had it in ya.
UBU - Yay I'm glad I've redeemed myself from meeting a Napoleonic doom.
As well as that I should admit my bias in that I've been super pissed at the snooze ever since they printed that my Mom was a suicide and inferred that my Dad abetted, in a huge article on physician assisted suicide. Not that I would have had any issue with that actually occuring but it just didn't. They then offered only a one or two sentence buried retraction.
Someday, probably in person, I would divulge to you those other 2 items. As the song would reveal some of my secret ID.
Nige - Ya never know, all possibilities abound. I've met a lot of interesting folk by interesting circumstance.
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