The Warp and the Weft

I first met Gerry McNeil at Mr. McCobber’s pub across from the Queen Street Station in Glasgow in the Fall of 1996. Gerry was a personable fellow with a vivid imagination and a sense of humor that evoked a feeling of nostalgia from a begone era: “The best TV that I ever saw was on BBC Radio” he would dryly comment. Gerry taught me how to make a proper cup of Scottish tea with Glaswiegian tap water piped straight out of the Highlands. The more time I spent with him, the more I realized that McNeil had an uncanny sense of the future that I could only describe as mildly prophetic. When I returned to America and mentioned McNeil and his sixth sense to a friend from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, his reaction was without surprise: “McNeils are known for their second sight.”

It was Gerry who first taught me how to listen to DJs mix live drum-and-bass music on 2 and 3 decks. Drum-and-bass music – or jungle – was a form of techno music that originated out of the underground rave scene of the late 1980’s in London. We would stay up late and listen to DJs weave intricate rhythms at 160 beats per minute – sonic, silver sound waves.“The DJ will give you just a taste of the next album that follows. Do you hear it?” Sometimes I heard it; sometimes I didn’t. Gerry taught me how to listen for the big musical picture in the minute changes.

I returned home in March 1997 then moved to South Korea to teach the next August. I visited Gerry in Glasgow in the summer of 1999, but when I returned to America in May of 2000, I somehow lost contact. I didn’t hear anything from Gerry for over 8 years. I had already begun to relinquish that phase of my life when I received this email:

So, do you remember those nights we would break down the jungle? if you do, there can only be one guy who can. And that guy is you...?

I was gobsmacked, for want of a better regional idiom. A quick, email exchange of phone numbers, several weeks of Skype phone calls and video conferences and an exchange of transcontinental packages (me: maglights from america, gerry: shortbread, tea and whiskey from Scotland). In addition, Gerry sent me a link to his web blog on Blogger. I had no idea that he was even a writer! It seemed a perfect way to collaborate using Blogger and Skype to communicate and reciprocate. Gerry has even offered to write a column for my newsletter on how to make a proper cup of Scottish tea (it's a good idea to start with good tea and a better idea to start with good, Glaswegian water!). Possibly, in the future he will even tell write down for all posterity how to break down the jungle.