Years ago in New Orleans for one week, mixing our record at Danny Lanois’s studio, I would walk three blocks to the health food store and strangers strolling past me would say How Ya’ll doin’? I wondered what they were up to. Was it so obvious I wasn’t from here? What did they want from initiating something between us? By the 4th or 5th time, I realized these people are raised this way and I tried beating them to it, How Ya’ll Doin’?, I’d offer quicker than them, With no missed beats they replied, Fine. How you doin’? Maybe they would also smile. This was more fun than the drama back at the studio where other people, who didn’t generate the solo, debated which solo was the best one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the years I questioned how I grew up, like how did I come to believe it unwise to talk to strangers? Back in Canada I started testing it out on many more tours and encounters passing strangers. Predictably, I got the same dismissive reaction I myself supplied those first New Orleaners, yet soon, from my unscientific collection of data, I found two trends. The first was this: more often than not, people of colour would return my greeting, like 90% of the time and people who were white would return it maybe 15%. The second was in Newfoundland: it was about 96% everyone said Hi, How are you? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last night as I walked through a recently colder midnight High Park, in the silent distance a man was coming towards me. It’s always a bit distracting in an isolated place, in the dark, away from everyone else, coming from our culture with its zillions of stories of violence. As the guy got closer to me I looked him in the eye and smiled, I said Hi. He scowled and looked aggravated by this liberty I took. He might be thinking the same bullshit as me, about walking at night alone near the city forest, he might want to know it’s cool and safe but he hasn’t figured out that if he just returned my hello, it would do so much work for us and even the world. What’s more important? Back in Louisiana, other people decided which of the solos was the correct one, careful to ensure power structures not deviate from the norm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"