During setup day, Kevin Johnstone, NAMM's director of trade shows, was zipping around the hall on this two-wheeled scooter thing I'd never seen before. It's called a Segway, and it is quite the rage in Austin. Later that night, I saw dozens of them humming along the sidewalks around town.

Kevin gave me a lesson on how to ride it. It turned out to be pretty intuitive, and didn't take long to feel fairly comfortable.

 

While I was away from the booth, we had a visitor who bore a distinct resemblance to me. Or at least, to me when there were a few more dark hairs. He even dressed like I do. When I returned to the booth, I saw the picture below, but received no explanation. On the small display of the camera, it looked just like me, a few years back. Puzzled, all I could say was "what the hell ...?" An hour or so later I met the guy, who complimented me on being a good-looking fellow.

Raul Reynoso, Not Rick Shubb, Dave Coontz

Richard Gilewitz arrived at the NAMM show around 5:15 on Friday afternoon, and I asked him if he'd like to play a few tunes on our John Jorgenson concert that night. That's pretty sort notice, but he quickly rounded up his gear from a hotel room and a couple of NAMM booths, and made it over to the ballroom just in time for a quick sound check.

A real pro, Richard remained unruffled and played beautifully on the show.

Early in the show, John broke a string on his new signature Gitane. While a pit crew of three was busy replacing his first string with a second string, and then again with a first string, John treated us to a little more clarinet than usual ...and a little earlier in the show than usual.