Every week, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 42-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
continued from last week
Soon after Buddy’d stopped playing harmonica to listen to a guy talking about fake news, Denise rolled up with a kid in the stroller, another beside her and a third on her back. Buddy didn’t acknowledge her. The fake-news guy was tripping. On and on. Buddy laughed here and there. Denise smiled and said something about alternative media.
“That’s commie bullcrap!” yelled the fake-news guy.
“I read The Tyee,” Denise said cheerfully, much to Buddy’s amazement. In his experience, most libtards walked away at this point of escalation.
“Never even heard of it,” said fake-news guy, in such a way that was meant to totally dismiss the publication’s value.
“Find it online,” Denise said. “T-Y-E-E.”
“Oh Christ, here we go! I don’t need you to spell ‘Tyee” for me, doll.”
Buddy laughed and rose up on his toes with a sense of glee that Denise had been put in her place.
“You might be surprised at the things they cover,” Denise said with a smile, apparently unaffected by the general mood of the conversation.
“Is this your first day on the planet, lady?” fake-news guy asked.
Denise laughed in such a way that positioned her as in-on-the-joke as opposed to a sworn enemy, as if she really thought first day on the planet was funny. By this point, a few people has stopped to see what the yelling was about.
Buddy frowned as he rethought his plan for getting rid of Denise. He’d anticipated a simple insult would be enough for her to volunteer to leave him alone.
“Note to self,” Buddy said under his breath. “What the hell is The Tyee?”
“Kingdom Without Weather” from The Eagle And The Poodle (Matador, 1996) (download):
