Daily Archives: December 26, 2024

It was time for yellow to finally shine. And shine he did (!). He helped me more than anyone else on this list because he observed my creativity in action more than any of the others. Yellow Guy, as we’ll call him (Jack Yellow?) was quite the character. He went by a name that indicated he spoke more with action than words, or spoke his words quietly. We bonded originally, as the Green Dude coming after him, through a particular band/musician, in this case the enigmatic yet eternally relevant, jack-of-all-styles Frank Zappa. I can’t remember exact stuff we spoke about but it was just a general resonance with a lot centered around this 3rd, absent figure, just like with the Green Dude and The Kinks and Bowie later on, almost 10 years later on if I’m counting correctly. And like Green Dude with Bowie in particular, this Yellow Guy, who I’ll keep calling that for convenience sake, knew more about Zappa than I did. I was learning, I was grokking. Now by this time I’d done at least one larger, what I call audiovisual synchronicity with Zappa as a major player, this being “Head Trip” from late 2004. Then “Frank’s Moving Mtn.” where he was also heavily involved came along in 2005 or 2006 — I’m having a hard time pinning down the exact year according to my records. And I’m not sure if I knew Yellow Guy at the time or if he was a direct influence on it. I suppose that would make sense. Anyway, so we have this bond. He was our office’s recycling guy, also serving a lot of the campus as I recall. But when he stopped by he’d always make time to talk. Then lo and behold a vacancy occurred in our office for a part time helper for me. He just happened to be good friends with the person who’d filled that spot for the prior 1/2 year, and, by that time, he’d also befriended my boss who was mainly responsible for the decision to hire him. Took him out of recycling, gave him his own desk and computer, and put us squarely as team moving forward. This arrangement continued for almost a year’s time. We were still friends at the end, but working so closely together in the morning had taken its toll — too many flaws uncovered in both directions, a relationship damaged enough that we haven’t kept in strong contact through the years, although I hear from him every Blue Moon still. I miss the guy.