Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 27, 1994 TAG: 9409290018
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Only the King would know for sure. Especially if he's in this witness protection program the Presley Commission swears they've discovered.
Either that, or I was having one of those Dan Rather ``Kenneth, what is the frequency?'' moments.
This year's Skyline Jazz fest was as much fun as its predecessors, but it sure produced some strange conversations.
Like the one I had with the man to tell him he was a dead ringer for Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, except his glasses weren't as Coke bottle-thick.
Now, as a Penn State alum, I've met St. Joe, so I knew it wasn't he.
But there was just no getting a straight answer out of this guy.
``I'm an undercover agent,'' the man said, explaining why he couldn't give me his name.
After some whining on my part, he finally told me his name was Andy.
``Andy of Mayberry,'' he threw in just when I thought I was getting somewhere with this guy, who's a better liar than Jon Lovitz or Joe Isuzu.
``Actually I'm in the music industry,'' he said. ``I'm in Roanoke to book a Stones concert. They'll be here. One night only. October 15. It's all very hush-hush. Tickets won't go on sale until the day before the concert.''
Oh, puh-leez!
``OK, you're right. I'm really Mick Jagger in disguise.''
Law firm Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore - which has growing cult following who refer to the firm as ``Gentry Rock Scissors Paper'' - sponsored this year's jazz fest fund-raiser thrown by the Young Art Patrons of the Art Museum of Western Virginia.
With some promotional help from WROV-FM, the turnout must have been great.
The crowd grazed through the food donated by local restaurants in a New York minute.
Dave Trinkle, Mark Knoff and Stuart Revercomb - three married guys out on the town without the wives - were there to celebrate UVa's victory over Clemson earlier that day.
``It was an ugly win, but we won,'' said Stuart of the Wahoo's three-point victory.
Mostly, Dave told me, he was there to support fellow psychiatrist Lenny Marcus, who was playing the keyboards as part of a trio backing up singer Heather Banker. As a psychiatrist, could Dave point out any benefits jazz might have in his line of work.
``Look at these two guys,'' he said, pointing to Mark and Stuart. ``A few hours ago they were all depressed about maybe losing the football game. Now they're totally calm and having a good time.''
``Yeah, it's like playing quarters on a Bugle box,''explained either Mark or Stuart.
(Must be some UVa frat thing. I didn't get it either. But then again, I had yet to have a straight conversation with anyone at this event.)
Jeremy Mason and Kim Dillon heard the music from the street and came up to check out the scene, but were checked out - given the heave-ho by security guards - when they arrived carrying skateboards.
``Man, it's not like we're packing six shooters. They're just skateboards,'' Jeremy tried to explain.
The youngest Young Art Patron I found was 10-year-old Janette Hawks, who was serving up soda to help out her dad.
I finally caught up with psychiatrist Dave's friend, psychiatrist Lenny the keyboard player, and asked him if there was any connection between jazz and mental health.
``Well, jazz disturbs some people,'' he said. ``So that's good for my business.''
His fellow musicians were Charlie Perkinson of WVTF on bass and Dave Bryant, a music therapist from Radford who was playing the drums.
In Bryant's line of work, he really does use music to help people work through their emotional problems.
Skyline Jazz and ZooDo shared something I really like in a party.
I hardly knew a soul. As I've said in the past, so many times it seems the same people are migrating from one social event to another. Only wearing different clothes.
Many were first-timers to Skyline Jazz, which bodes well for the Young Art Patrons and the museum.
Next year everyone hopes Mother Nature will be a little more cooperative so they can have the party on the roof of the Center in the Square garage as intended. Under the stars. (This year, because of iffy weather, the event was held on the fourth floor of the garage.)
As for the conversations with people swearing they were undercover agents, playing quarters on a Bugle box and toting skateboards, there seems to be only one explanation.
The ``pre-full moon'' as one person put it.
Sort of frightening to think about how much weirder the conversation might have been on a night when the moon was really full.
by CNB