This is how the headliner becomes a policeman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You walk toward the stage
wearing the invisible badge
of contractual responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You become Officer No Encore,
Sergeant That\u2019s Enough,
Chief Inspector We Discussed This.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You tap the musician on the shoulder
and say quietly,
\u201cTime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They look wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not angry\u2014worse:
artistically misunderstood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For one terrible moment
you are no longer their musical hero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You are the landlord
turning off the electricity
during the final chorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They leave the stage
to enormous applause,
partly for the songs
and partly because the audience
has seen the rescue party arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then you walk out smiling,
already forty minutes late,
and say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGood evening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As though you have not just
arrested a folk singer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is how the headliner becomes a policeman. You walk toward the stagewearing the invisible badgeof contractual responsibility. You become Officer No Encore,Sergeant That\u2019s Enough,Chief Inspector We Discussed This. You […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[240],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-rockbob","post-9737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-performing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}