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DAVID LESTER ART GUEST EDITOR

Normal History Vol. 308: The Art Of David Lester

Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 30-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.

Facebook is great for my cardio. I’m almost always leaving home late for work because I just want to post or read one more comment. This means I have to run most of the way to work.

Three blocks from work yesterday, I stopped to unclog a storm drain beside a large park. There was a giant pool of water on the street with a short and sturdy stick beside it, on the grass—no doubt a toss-and-fetch stick for the dogs that frequent the park on less rainy mornings. I started poking around in the water, looking for the drain, flinging semi-rotted leaves out into the middle of the street. What fun! The water began flowing as I freed up the grate from my crouching position on a slight incline on the muddy grass. This is when I slipped and went down right on my butt. Happily my foot didn’t go into the freezing water. It was quite funny, really. Fifty-five-year-old lady on her ass at the side of the road. It took me back to when I was about seven years old—playing in the mud after school with a boy named Danny Dennett, re-routing streams in a section of the school playing field that was mostly clay and horsetail. We stayed way too long, and my mother came looking for me in the car. Kids teased me at school the next day, saying Danny was my boyfriend. I was mortified. I don’t think Danny and I ever spoke again, but I still remember pushing that smooth, grey clay around with our sticks and boot heels.

Anyway, I ran faster than usual to make up the time, but I was totally smiling—still feeling like a little kid. When I got to work, my hands were all dirty from the stick and I had mud on the back of my jacket and my packsack. My shoes were soaking wet, but luckily I brought dry socks!

“Throw Silver” from Dovetail (K, 1992) (download):