When: Monday, July 21 7:30PM ET

Where: https://youtube.com/live/bteaRbBWedI?feature=share

Who gets 10%: https://www.massaudubon.org/ protects 38,000+ acres throughout Massachusetts, saving birds and other wildlife, making nature accessible to alll—a vision shared in 1896 by two extraordinary Boston women.

http://paypal.me/vancevancevance or https://venmo.com/vancevancevance or VanceFunder P.O. Box 17, Arlington, MA 02476

*PRIVATE COACHING AVAILABLE - Contact me (vance@vancegilbert.com) for songwriting, performance, and voice coaching.

***CUSTOM SONGS - Expensive, but sure, you want one about you or your family or something.

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***HEY BRUH. NICE RIDE

I was waiting for my car to be done getting cleaned like I do once a year before my airplane nationals (don’t worry, I have a friend driving me) across the street at Belmont Car Wash, when this young Black man with 1 inch pre-dread twist, muscle shirt, a few delicate chains, and sweat pants pulled up in a white BMW next to the chairs where I was sitting under Star Market's trees.

What I really noticed is the this car looked like someone had put time into its design., unlike the recent Porsches and Jaguars that are uninspired 2000 Toyota/Honda Sedan carriage plop downs over a Land Rover chassis. The hood was a 3 tiered affair - three levels of bends and facets, and still an effortlessly subtle blending into the front lights.

As he got himself together to shop, even before he got out of the car I waved over at him, and sorta 1/2 ASL-ed him how beautiful I thought the car was. He mouthed "Thank you”.

He stepped out of the car and I said “Hey, Sir, I love this body styling - that three-tiered hood makes it all come together...It’s like someone was really thinking in their design office”.

“I agree”, he replied.

He faced me, introduced himself as Robert. Said he had just finished a drive from Ohio, Masters degree and work-study fresh in hand, to work in the Boston area public schools as a mental health counselor grades 9-12. I queried him about the most pressing issues today for these kids and he said: “Some of the same as we all faced, exacerbated by the perfection they see in media and the lack of real interaction because...” and we said it together,

“Of being on the phone”.

His wife just started a job at Mass General/McLeans mental hospital. “That has to be some dinnertime conversation”, I snorted. He says they both are learning how and when to leave work at work and find time for themselves and stay off of their own phones. We went on and on.

I handed him a Mother Of Trouble CD, the last in my fannypack, (fannypack...that’s how cool I am), and said maybe track one should be played on a really “good” day. He managed not to chuckle when he said, "I’ll hit it up on Spotify, but thanks, I’ll also take this..."

As we said goodbye, we both marveled at how we were just two Black Men chatting, the conversation veering but started by one of us noticing the body styling of the other’s car, the other saying, “Thanks”.

CD. Fannypack. Dear God I hope he didn’t notice my fully cleaned Dodge Minivan as I was about to be brought around.