Sunday, September 5, 2010

Bathroom Blues

I have a friend named Mark. Mark visited, purchased something & at least partially consumed said something from every single Starbucks in Manhattan in 1 day. He lived in an IKEA for a week & on an airplane for a month! Mark is a comedian. Mark is brilliant. Mark is brave, curious and a little insane - which is why he and I get along so well. Mark is a Christian in the New York City Church of Christ. Mark is my friend.

Last week Mark decided to do a 5-day fast from all technology to help break his social networking and other online addictions. In order to execute the ambitious campaign of ill-communication cleansing, he needed the proper and sacred venue to help hermit himself off from the world for all 120 hours. It was concluded the perfect place would be his pink-painted, 6x9 Queens, New York bathroom.

With all that extra time, Mark made a bucket list of all the things he’s always wanted to do but hadn’t yet...a list limited by what he could accomplish in his lav. The list included writing down all the reasons he loved his wife, memorizing the map locations of all the nations in the world, memorizing the US presidents in order and, perhaps most lofty, learning how to play Poison’s #1 hit “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn” on the guitar.

Enter me. It became my privilege to be the guitar teacher. Bret Michaels had written the tune in a laundry mat after learning that an ex had left him for another man. It’s a song of brokenness, sorrow and loss. Quickly this musical exercise became a metaphor for all that Mark was doing these few days. It was time for him to divorce from his techno bride. 5 days for grieving and then gain. The question was....can it be done? (both the G to C chord progression & the fast itself).

I’ll let you find out what happened. Just google “Mark Malkoff” & “bathroom.” Also check out all the YouTube videos of his other work. Amidst the viral news buzz this all got, there was a little article on the inside cover of AM New York that showed 1 of our guitar lessons. (yes, the names are mixed up in the caption...but you get the picture)

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