Thursday, April 17, 2003

A KICKY LITTLE ENSEMBLE We

A KICKY LITTLE ENSEMBLE

We were having a cup of coffee in the local Notbux, a sunny ex-bookstore with charmingly clumsy murals of a coastal mediterranean village and a long rank of tall windows looking out onto Geary.  There were about 10 of us in the store and we all noticed when *he* showed up on the sidewalk.  He had hefty, well-defined muscles and no shirt; black hair to his shoulders and bangs to his eyes; not a big man, nonetheless he took up a lot of space.  He was jumping and kicking, acrobatically but martially.  He clearly had some serious fighting skills, and equally clearly had very few social ones. 

A young woman in pink was standing at the bus stop in front of the coffee house.  He jumped up, spinning and kicking, his heels butterflying in the air in front of her face.  She cringed; landing lightly, he bowed and extended a chivalrous hand to her.  She declined it and began to walk away.  He followed for a few steps and then let her melt into the throng; instead he started doing frantic flying spin kicks and katas in the middle of the crowded sidewalk.  Pedestrians who looked up from the pavement to see him in their paths looked back down again quick and hoped for the best.  I didn’t see anyone get kicked or knocked over.  The only real take-down I witnessed was credited to the woman in pink who got away.  Looked like that one hurt.

MORAL: Try not to introduce yourself with an instep to the face.  No matter how well you do it, you’re not putting your best foot forward.