Caught in the Act
October 13^th, 2007: Starbucks Coffee - Humble, Texas

     Many have asked ‘Why doesn’t George Poe Trio play Jitters anymore?’ The answer is that three had decided it was best to bow out of playing the monthly engagement because one of the female barristers had become increasingly antagonistic towards the trio. Following her lead, some of the workers had even begun to be unpleasant to the group’s supporters. The undeserved treatment of the band’s friends displeased Lee and George very much, and they felt something had to be done. The store’s management was always cordial to the group, but they were absent on the weekends when the band would perform. Rather than complain (and possibly get the girl reprimanded or worse - fired) the boys decided to quietly ‘dismiss themselves from service’ to pursue greener and more welcome pastures. August 18^th marked their final visit, and George Poe Trio was able to graciously end the relationship peacefully and without incident before tensions escalated. Since there was never a formalized agreement between Jitters and GP3, the guys simply just stopped coming. They chose a more centralized location in Humble to make it more convenient to the group’s supporters. A Starbucks Coffee on FM 1960 (dubbed ‘The Lab’ by George) is the new home port for the group.

     It’s a very refreshing change as Lee and George are eagerly welcomed by Chip the weekend manager (and his crew). A few handshakes later, the two go into ‘Battle Mode’. Within moments the GP3 calliope is ready to go again. Matthew arrives and already is sampling the coffee delights of the venue even before his bass is out of the car. He notices that Lee has managed to cut his finger on something and is bleeding out like a sieve. George and Matthew consider it a bit of a christening to this new locale. George helps by tying off the bleeding finger with something that looks like a fabric softener sheet -but it works and Lee will survive (at least through the evening).

     Randy, Jacob, and Teresa drop by along with her in-laws. Teresa’s visit is significant to George since she was at the very first Nothing Special event nearly a decade ago. For those of you GP3 historians, Nothing Special was the precursor to George Poe Trio. It was started by a singer Todd Gill and George. These two played Houston area retirement homes until Todd was ‘extradited’ back to Louisiana . So in 2004, Matthew joined forces with George to continue the NS legacy. Both played convalescent centers, coffee bars, postal expos, etc. until an unsuspecting Lee saw them one night and asked to join in. Footnote: Nothing Special was pretty much same thing as GP3 just without all of the ‘Bigelow’ on it. The point of all of this is Teresa was there when all of this silliness began. Some say it’s taken her 10+ years to gain the courage to return, but George would like to think that she’s just been really, really busy.

     Tonight the guys ease into the groove like the first smooth sip of a warm mocha. Understated elegance of tunes made famous by Gene Kelly, The Platters, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra resonate off the stone walls of the shop. A soft breeze finds its way down the hill to the patio basin past and envelopes all of the outside patrons. A beautiful evening.

     Eileen arrives towards the end of the first set (Robert is away in Lee’s hometown of San Diego at an I.T. conference). By now Teresa’s 7 year-old son, Jacob has been flirting with little girl whose mom finds it endearing. But Teresa’s father-in-law, Steve is hungry and is ready to leave. George promises to play THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS if Teresa will stay. Even though it’s her favorite song, she knows George well enough to know he’s bluffing. They leave as others assume their table.

     The trio decides to ‘test drive’ TIME OF THE SEASON by the Zombies. Eileen gives the lukewarm performance an “Eh…not yet” wrinkle of the nose. No problem. The guys press on with a soulful and slightly slower version of SPOOKY by the Atlanta Rhythm Section. This one hits the mark, and they’re back on track.

     Becky Sue arrives soon after, and she and Eileen resume their monthly rummy tournament. And even though Robert is nearly 1500 miles away, they still accuse him of cheating. George announces the evening’s trivia question: “The Heather Mills/ Paul McCartney divorce settlement was awarded a few days ago. If Heather Mills was paid for each day of marriage, what would that amount to in American dollars? Think about that as we play a song which was written by Sir Paul for his first wife, Linda” The guys proceed to perform a string-rich version of MY LOVE as ‘contestants’ attempt to work out the solution.

     At the conclusion of the number, George shows off a VHS copy of SPICE WORLD. “Gratefully, this is the only movie that the Spice Girls were ever allowed to make that we know of. And it can be yours tonight if you can guess how much was granted to Heather M. in a per day amount over 4 years.” A few feeble guesses later, and George reveals the answer: The equivalent of $93,000.00 US dollars per day or 1.7 billion for a little over 4 years ‘work’. Gasps all around. Then he foolhardily asks: “How much should I have been paid, being married to Sabrina since 1989?”  This is a dangerous question since Sabrina and the kids have just arrived and are walking up. “What did he just say about me?” George manages to wiggle out of this precarious spot by answering: “Aw, Come on…you can’t put a price tag on that!” But Sabrina is not satisfied with this contrived reply. She fires back by smugly walking up and placing an odd looking red business card in the tip jar. “This is what it’s worth.” George pulls the card out to see that it’s a Jitter’s Coffee ‘Frequent visitors’ card. The guys laugh – it’s a slam dunk for her.

     George’s children, Faith and Joel come in Halloween costumes the family purchased earlier in the day. Joel, age 3, is dressed as X-Man Wolverine; while Faith (7) shows up as the Velveteen Rabbit. George announces that GP3 are avid supporters of the arts, and there is a local artist competing for the band’s tip jar this evening. He brings Faith up to the ‘stage’ and announces she has some of her overpriced drawings for sell, and purchases are likely to go towards a college fund or maybe just a WebKinz doll. [See a rending of George Poe Trio that they were tricked into buying here]  

     After another set of songs, Matthew’s new feature is showcased: “What in the World Happened Today in History?” segment. He musters his finest oratory voice: “Today marks the release of the 1957 film The Amazing Colossal Man It’s the story in which Lt. Col. Glenn Manning, a soldier in the U.S. Army suffers serious burns over 90% of his body following inadvertent exposure to plutonium radiation from a bomb blast. The radiation causes him to abnormally grow into a 60-foot-tall giant. At this size, his heart is unable to supply sufficient blood to his brain and he gradually goes insane and wreaks havoc in Las Vegas before being cornered by the Army at the Hoover Dam.  

     “Also on this date, Marie Osmond and Paul Simon were born. We want to honor them both now buy playing two songs – two Paul Simon songs that is. We just couldn’t bring ourselves to play PAPER ROSES.” The band launches into SLIP SLIDDING & AWAY even though they’ve never rehearsed it. Though Lee is apprehensive about it in the beginning, it sounds good. They play the last verse twice as Matt nails the harmony –very nice. This is followed by another Simon hit, STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL OF THESE YEARS.

     George’s mother, Mary arrives. His younger brother, Nathan is also down from Austin . George adds to Matthew’s This Date in History announcement: “It’s Nathan’s birthday today!” Matthew asks “Did he write any songs we can play?”  “No, but he was born on this day in 1974.” Nathan replies “No I wasn’t.” “You weren’t?” “No, I was born in ’73.” “Are you sure?” “Of course, I’m sure.” “Oh…I’ve thought that for years now you were born in 1974.” “Nope.” “Well, what happened in 1974?” Matthew chimes in “Ed Sullivan died on this date in ’74.” Mary joins in “Your other brother was born in ‘74” “Really? Are you sure?” A resounding “YES” from all involved. George plays HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Nathan who by this point is trying to turn invisible.

     The band takes a brief intermission to greet their guests. George starts up some pre-programmed music. Faith and Joel dance spasmodically to the quirky POPCORN song followed by Herb Albert’s A TASTE OF HONEY. Their Uncle Nathan talks to Matthew about conspiracy theories on Austin radio. George apologizes for date of birth mistakes, and decides not to ask to see Nathan’s driver’s license for confirmation.

     The trio return from the break playing OVERKILL. Joel has terrorized just about everyone here with his mock-metal alloy adamantium claws and Faith has made a killing of $6.00 on her art. She hands a $1.00 bill to Joel to put in the band’s tip jar - A heart of Gold. Sabrina and kids head out to Denny’s for a dinner with Mary and Nathan. The band plays MARY’S PRAYER and WIND CRIES MARY in honor of George’s mom as she leaves. Sorry, no TAKE FIVE tonight.

     The sun has completely gone down now. The coolness of night is setting in. A car alarm horn echoes in the distance, probably from the Deerbrook Oaks strip center across 1960. Matthew and George attempt to match the rhythm and the key. “It’s an Eb I think”. This leads into Matthew leading into a preview of Christmas song parodies that he and George have written. Matthew has changed the lyrics of the Police song ROXANNE into “Santa…You don’t have to put on the Red Suit…” It sounds pretty good considering they haven’t played this in about a year. Next is a new favorite by the group of HOLDING BACK THE YEARS. This leads into an impromptu version of Pink Floyd’s Breathe from Dark Side of the Moon. Chris arrives during the song with his barefoot son Xavier. Named after Dr. Xavier of the X-Men comic (It’s a shame he wasn’t here to see Joel as Wolverine).

     After the song, Matthew decides to strut his linguistic stuff that would make Gilles Fauconnier proud. He gives a dissertation about the origins of words used in the song: “The lines ‘Strangled by the wishes of Pater, Hoping for the arms of Mater” Pater means "father" in Latin, Greek, and Umbrian and may refer to: Dis Pater, a Roman and Celtic god of the underworld, later subsumed by Pluto or Jupiter. While the term Mater is a formal term for mother, from Latin… blah blah blah. While Lee and George are secretly impressed, this is too good to pass up! Both start to give their theories as to what the lyrics ‘really’ mean. “Mater  is the tow-truck in the Pixar movie CARS . Because he is a tow truck, his surname is TO’Mater, as in Tomato.  He is rendered as a 1958 International Harvester tow truck…blah blah blah.” Matthew gets the point – Shut Up and Sing!

     Loretta, Cindy, and her mom arrive as the band plays THAT LUCKY OLD SUN (Tim is away tonight painting his son’s room). Cindy requests HONKY TONK WOMAN. This is one of the top 5 songs of all time that features the cowbell.  “More cowbell!” yells Chris. “I’ve got a fever and the only cure for it is MORE COWBELL!” That’s all the encouragement Lee needs. Chris requests Frank Sinatra’s COFFEE SONG but Matthew’s mic is not loud enough to deliver the full effect. Chris is pleased even so.

     Matthew makes an offhand comment about how Starbucks is named after the character in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. George is dumbfounded to learn this “I didn’t know it was named after the whaler when I read Moby Dick. Are you sure that it’s not named after the character on Battlestar Galactica played by Dirk Benedict?” “You’ve read Moby Dick?” “Yes, why does that surprise you? I read it about six months or so ago.” Matthew is surprised that George has read Moby Dick. George is surprised Matthew has seen the original Battlerstar Galactica. The two look suspiciously at each other and then look away.

     The trio starts the final set with THINGS WE SAID TODAY.  Despite George’s efforts to encourage them, Lee and Matthew offer the most unenthused band introduction solos of all time – Matt doesn’t even play. George laugh’s it off and the three finish up with HALLELUJIA, I LOVE HER SO straight into WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD. The crowd acknowledges that they’ve had a good evening.

     As the guys begin packing up their gear, George is enchanted by the sense of community forming between the group’s supporters. It’s more than just people milling about, there are genuine connections forming. He tells Lee “This is what it’s all about.” This epiphany is interrupted as shouts of “Hey you…Hey guys!” coming from the drive-thru exit area. Matthew is puzzled as he leans towards the open car window. The unknown voice continues “Hey what are you guys doing here?” George and Matthew simultaneously recognize the driver. They look each other then back to the driver. They can not believe there eyes – It’s Frank! The coffee barrister from Jitters! He repeats “What are you guys doing here?”  Matthew laughingly replies, “What are WE doing here? We should ask you - What are YOU doing here?” A bewildered George adds “Yeah, Don’t you WORK at a coffee house?” A smiling Frank attempts to defend his hypocrisy, “Yeah, but they closed at 9:00… it’s after 10:00 now.” “Frank, you should have come up. We would have bought your coffee for you.” Frank goes on to say how the female barrister that had given GP3 such problems (who will remain nameless in order to protect her from GP3 fan retaliation), has been fired from Jitters.

     As Frank’s car disappears into the darkness Matthew and George are still in disbelief. They return to wrapping up mic cords and eventually meld into the many conversations of the night. It was nice to see Frank – maybe they’ll go back to Jitters some day. Maybe they will…but for now…for now they’ll call this place their home.

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