Pearl Doggy: Grand Rapids Intermezzo

Pearl Doggy: Grant Rapids Intermezzo 

I originally wrote down my thoughts on this special show in January 1995. I wrote a draft about 20 years ago on this blog. I've been experimenting with AI, so I put this post into Google Gemini and asked it to write this in another writer's style. So, here goes ... 

January in Michigan. You get rain, you get ice, you get snow. You get anything. Today, it was rain, like Florida in July. But this was Grand Rapids. This was January. This was Pearl Doggy.

We stood in line, me and Don, John, Paul, and Marc. Four hours early. A thousand-seat club. Pearl Doggy"s first time. A rare thing.

"Major act, thousand-seat club," I said. "Doesn"t happen."

Don agreed. "Incredible."

The line grew. Pearl Doggy fans. Whatever that meant.

"Pearl Doggy rocks," Don said, Beavis-style.

"Cool," I said, Butt-head-style.

The class reunion came up. A weasel for a president. Don didn"t want to go. Neither did I. A deal.

A guy with a sign. "Hundred bucks." Tickets. I had an extra. Thought about it. Briefly.

A green mini-van. "That"s him!" I yelled.

Don, sarcastic. "Mellencamp, driving."

I left the line. Ten people followed. Back doors. Autograph.

"John, autograph?"

"What the **** is this?"

"Fan club thing."

He signed. Scrawled. Illegible. But signed.

Back to the line. The autograph. Showed it off.

"Wow. Mellencamp"s autograph."

They touched it. Like it was some relic. It wasn"t. Just a scribble.

"Can"t read it," I said. "He was in a hurry."

They didn"t care. They saw the name. Pearl Doggy. Grand Rapids. January. A brief intermezzo.