They evicted the raccoons!

N'Gai stopped through to see me yesterday. He bought a cargo van last month. Says he's putting together plans to launch a magazine this summer targeting black college students around the state.

Ohmigod, he cut his dreads off! They're totally gone. Completely. He looks just like he did when I first met him, back before he first moved into the Pink House.

I also had an encounter earlier this week with the maintenance guy who works with Jim Lilley, the property manager hired by Sylvia Chi to care for the Pink House. He walked into the store, checked it all out, got a membership, rented some movies, and was running his mouth to me the whole while. Very talkative character.

He told me all about how they renovated the place after Jay and the remains of our crew moved out. They put in a new heat pump, ran power lines from the garage to the back of the house and installed a washer/dryer unit in the kitchen closets, put in a dishwasher, replaced the refrigerator and range, cleaned out the entire basement, put in fluorescent lighting down there, redid both bathrooms, and redid all the heating ducts.

And explained what the problem was with the fucking heat. All the ducts that led up from the furnace had interior valves that were closed. I couldn't believe it. I lived for three years in a house with fucked up heat. Oh, and they evicted the raccoons who used to live in the chimney.

Then he rented She-Devils On Wheels, told me how it reminded him of growing up as one of the leaders of a biker gang in Miami in the early seventies, and started spinning tales about drunken biker parties from back in the day. Right on!

Mel back in town, Jay heads to Berlin

Do you realize I don't even have your new phone number? Are you really back in town, or is that just an illusion?

Information still gives out your old Pittsboro #, 542-5805, so that's no help. And on a night like this (Saturday the 20th), when I was trying to call you to invite you to a going away party for Jay Murray (he's going to Berlin for like six months) at his house so you could hang with lots of fun people, it poses problems (I would have tried to reach you about this before, but I've been out of town a couple days this week and just found out about it myself in the last day or so).

So step up, girl, and give me a call or something! Otherwise your slack ass is gonna be in heap of trouble!

- e-mail to Mel

Jay was a bass mechanic

alt.music.chapel-hill, 1/22/99

From: cat...@email.unc.edu (George J.A. Murray III)
Subject: Re: Bass stuff for sale!
Date: 1999/01/22
Organization: Chapel Hill Music Lovers
Newsgroups: alt.music.chapel-hill

In related news:

Ibanez RB800 bass for sale. Pearl-white finish, active electronics, very
playable two-octave neck. Very Berklee-style music-school bass (which is
why I'm selling it). $400 with hardshell case OBO.

Jay Murray
967-8969

Jay on the bass in his room at the Pink House circa 1994. Photo courtesy of Mel Keister (Lanham).