Last time, I had us in the town of Wimberley. And we had just drawn abreast of a glass booth.
Actually, that’s kind of misleading. The booth didn’t just appear in the street. It was part of a newish, larger building that is along the street. Specifically, it is 111 Old Kyle Road, a.k.a., The Lumberyard Office and Retail Center (https://thelumberyardtx.com/home-1). This is, obviously, an office and retail building, and presumably the name comes from the fact that once, long ago but not-so-far away, there was a lumberyard there.
There are several things in that particular structure. There’s Community Pizza & Beer Garden (https://communitybeergarden.com/), for instance, at which we’e never eaten. It looks nice, but much of their seating seems to be out of doors, and it has always been too hot whenever we visited, but...one of these days.
About the Photos: Three today. First, the famed glass booth outside KWVH. Second, Mad Roosters. And, third, my obligatory picture which has nothing to do with the story but which I just happen to like. This is Martha and her sister/friend Judy in Old Town in Albuquerque a few years back. I think they look smashing here, don’t you?
There’s also a liquor store -- Mad Rooster’s, which doesn’t seem to have a website, but does have a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/MadRoostersWimberley/). I have some good feelings about Mad Rooster’s. I was introduced there to some batch Texas whiskeys which I hadn’t really tried before. (For years, my liquor of choice was Canadian Mist, which wasn’t bad, wasn’t enormously expensive, and made a good mix with Ginger Ale. However, more recently, and for reasons I don’t really understand, I’ve found myself drifting towards On-The-Rocks. I’m not quite ready to go Neat, but a cube or two will do nicely. And, in the process, I’ve become fond of more American whiskeys, particularly Bulleit and Maker’s Mark. But small batch whiskeys are still a fascinating mystery to me.)
In the same building, there’s a few women’s boutiques--Annie James (https://www.shopanniejames.com/) and Vintage Lilly (https://vintagelilyboutique.com/)-- which I don’t know anything about, but where Martha has shopped a couple of times. I believe that there is a CBD shop (Wild Organics) present on the first floor. Also, there’s some offices in the place--as of the last I checked (June 21, 2023) there was Motto Mortgage, KKDW Studios (a design firm), and Cypress Creek Integrative Medicine, which does things like wellness and acupuncture.
And, finally, there’s the local radio station--KWVH (https://www.kwvh.org/).
The glass booth is part of the radio station, and it is actually where the the DJs sit and broadcast. It can be kind of wild to walk past and watch while a man or woman is at a desk and addresses the whole world. You wonder what it is they’re saying and why. Perhaps, since you’re not able to hear them (though everyone else can), UFOs have landed in Washington, the world reels in shock and awe, and you alone don’t know it.
Or, maybe they’re just playing the latest from Taylor Swift. Six of one...
Anyway, here, finally, we get to the Paul Simon thing that I’ve been hinting at all this time. You remember I said he just moved to Wimberley? Well, it turns out that he showed up here, at this glass booth, in June of 2022, and not only did an interview with the hosts of a regular program, but also provided an impromptu concert.*
I gather that Simon’s appearance wasn’t entirely unexpected. One of the hosts of the program, Todd Crusham, has a brother, Kyle, who had helped Edie Brickell, who is married to Simon, produce her last two albums. So the family connection led to an offer to do the interview. But, I gather, too, that the concert that followed was a complete surprise, and even if it hadn’t been, well, imagine being a DJ and having one of the greatest living musicians of the last half century walk into your studio...and then imagine knowing that you’re going to have to interview this individual in real time while all your friends and neighbors cluster around the windows of your glass booth and stare at you.
In a word, yikes.
But, I gather the interview went great, the concert went better, and Simon cemented his status as a Wimberley resident. There is art, and there is politics, and sometimes the two are the same.
Anyway, that was the tale of our (second hand) encounter with the Musician In The Glass Booth...and the concert that came out of nowhere.
Next time, we do lunch...with olives...and oil...and a very snotty trio of tourists, even more objectionable than ourselves.
More to come.
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Footnote:
*See “Paul Simon graces radio waves of his new little town,” by Colton Mcwilliams, The Wimberley View, 6-16.2022, https://www.wimberleyview.com/news/paul-simon-graces-radio-waves-his-new-little-town
Copyright©2023 Michael Jay Tucker
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