CHAPTER 49

RESTAURANT OWNER: Good afternoon, Dr. Murphy. We wanted to let you know that this evening we will have another artist. Your style is unique and confrontational, which is good to have, but the clientele that we have slowly forming may not be as appreciative as we are. As business owners, we have to cater to the public with the type of music we play as we do with food and drinks. I think we all agree that people have been becoming more and more sensitive regarding people's opinion, but since we are just starting, we'd rather play it safe for now. I personally didn't hear any religious comments, but a guest informed us of that there were several anti-God lyrics. We are just trying to create a more comfortable place for everyone.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Not everyone shares the Doc Sully Blues Band's vision. As the singer for this group of iconoclastic troubadours, I sometimes enter a trance-like state when mota, pastillas y birongas induce a transcendent euphoria. I begin to sing in tongues. I can't remember insulting God or Trump or anyone's mother that particular evening when my stint with the restaurant came to an end, but it was brought to my attention later that a customer who had ordered a basket of fries and a cold beer--a bill that totaled less than ten dollars--was the arbiter who doomed my act at the establishment. It isn't the first time that others haven't shared my vision. Commissioner Ben Neece, my old friend and personal lawyer, threatened to kick me off his stage at the Spanish Moon if I didn't bowdlerize my lyrics. A wife divorced me because she didn't share my appreciation for a novel I had written. The past BISD superintendent expressed categorically that I faced termination with the school district if I continued along the fictional path that I was chopping through the brush with my machete. And Facebook constantly finds faults in my reporting and I'm sentenced to silence for a period of time. But, in the end, there have been victories. I have emerged on the winning side in campaigning for candidates and arguing issues on numerous occasions. The great writers of the world seldom have my everyday experience. I walk into The Library or the Vermillion or Mi Pueblito or any number of bars and establishments and inevitably I'll encounter an individual who tells me how much he or she enjoys my writing. I can handle the setbacks. They only make the triumphs that more savory. Then it's on to the next challenge. On the positive side, there is no dearth of places that would proudly feature the Doc Sully Blues Band although the proprietor might add, "Can you tone it down just a little bit, Tommy? There are children in the audience.")  

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