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The death of the Tuba Man...
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Ed McMichael 1955-2008
I write out of Seattle Washington. Who the hell am I kidding... I blog out of Seattle Washington. I get alot of emails, or I get quoted on other entertainment web sites that I'm from Des Moines, Cleveland, Miami, etc. but that's because this is a National column and when you read it you might think I'm from the city closest to the city you happen to live in. But truth be told I'm Pacific Northwest and have been from birth.
The reason I mention this here, and the reason I write this totally off topic piece this afternoon in what is probably the biggest news event day in... Sh!t maybe ever...? Is that I wanted to make sure that the death (murder) of local personality Ed McMichael got at least some small coverage, everywhere this column gets posted Nationwide.
Ed McMichael was known around this city as the Tuba Man. I remember this cat from as far back as I possibly can stretch my still semi-functional brain cells to recall him from. If you went to any sports event in this city, or to the opera house, you knew who Ed was. He's the dude with the Tuba, sitting out in the sun, the snow, the gawdamn never-ending rain, plowing his way through classic songs to a tempo only he could negotiate or possibly even understand. It didn't matter though, local people loved this guy. Especially those mad hats he wore. He was often on local radio shows sometimes arguing with that other local musical personality Richard Peterson, from the documentary Big City Dick. (I knew I could muscle some movie info in this thing somehow- please check out the youtube video I posted below that Todd Pottinger co-Director of Big City Dick was absolutely generous enough to cut together for this column - Todd launched this video just two hours ago) and he was always stationed out in front of every home game, Seahawks, Sonics, (before Starbucks heel Howard Schultz sold the only professional sports team in Seattle that ever won a championship to Oklahoma City...) and Mariners game - where he played faithfully at every single home game, sh!t-season or not since 1990. The cool thing about his Mariners gig is that some fan always gave Ed a ticket to the game so he could get inside Safeco field with the rest of the fans, and maybe get out of the weather between Tuba playing sessions before and after each game.
The sh!tty thing about this news is that Ed the Tuba Man didn't just die of exposure, or cancer, or car accident or anything else that insurance actuary tables could have predicted a 51 year old man of Ed's fitness and diet might have died from. Ed was killed while waiting for a bus on the 500 block of Mercer Street around 12:45 a.m. He was robbed and beaten almost to death by five young gang members. For what only they can know, Ed wasn't weighted-down in gold and silver, that's the reason why he played the Tuba in front of ball games for spare change. He managed to survive the initial attack, but died yesterday morning from his injuries...
And Seattle used to be such a great place to live.
Some locals think Seattle changed during the WTO Riots, (affectionately called The Battle in Seattle - yes there is a new film based on the event) a moment in time that caught us in the Northwest with our pants down. Once again we got a bit more embarrassed by the Fat Tuesday Riots, which no one in the press had the sand to call an official "race riot". Both these events caught this community completely by surprise. We do after all consider Seattle a city of normally good people set up against the big bad vibe that seems to be seeping into every crack of modern American society. If the murder of Ed McMichael the Tuba Man isn't the last call for a city obese on its money, its politics, its totally lethal cocktail of apathy, self-righteous posturing and narcissism, then I don't know what is. Our mayor officially believes we don't have a gang problem or a drug problem. And that we're a peaceful, often beautiful, (we are - we use the myth of year-long rainfall to keep you all out of our gorgeous city) community 98% of the time.
We gave the world Jimmi Hendrix, Cameron Crowe, Starbucks, Boeing jets and an era of music that still echoes today in Modest Mouse, Sleater-Kinney and Death Cab for Cutie. Hell we even gave the world Dwight Schrute. But I'm thinking this senseless murder of one of this city's last real human personalities, Ed McMichael the Tuba Man, might wake our ass up to finally deal with a problem we're too perfect to have here.
Violence.
It's not just the WTO riots, the Fat Tuesday riots, the time Seattle Seahawk Ken Hamlin got his ass kicked in a bar brawl, and whose attacker ended up shot dead in Seward park, or when radio shock jock Tom Leykis got 17 stitches from an assault outside a local bar, or the recent gang attack and murder of this city's last really good human being.... Oh wait, yeah it is because of all those things.
I know I'm looking for something to blame, someone to crucify, some useless law to poke holes in, some way to vent a cloud of wrath that's almost too big to release, but none of that matters. What does matter is that I'm finally really p-ssed off about some poor guy's senseless murder to actually feel something for the city I live in. Yeah it hurt when we sold the Sonics to Oklahoma City, and it kinda' hurt when Kobaine killed himself. And this year's Seahawks season is a painful reminder of how tough it is to be a sports fan in this location, but the murder of the Tuba Man is simply heart-breaking. It's a genuine tragedy. And it's a shame nobody ever really wrote anything worthy about the guy (me included - if I can be included) until five gang bangers stomped him to death while he was waiting for a ride home. A home I now hear is absolutely packed full with Seattle sports memorabilia... Unlike most of the people that live around here anymore, I seriously doubt that Ed was ever a fair-weather fan. Check him out:
So RIP Tuba Man - There really isn't anyone left around here that could fill your spot out on the sidewalk... And sorry for going off topic today movie fans, I tried to pry some movie stuff into this, but that isn't what this was about anyway. I think this poor guy's death is a reminder that maybe the good guys haven't won just yet - even on Election day. There is good news though, I'm hearing lots of talk all over the local airwaves of regular people putting together a fund to pay for Ed's funeral, and maybe even something further. Hopefully a commemorative plaque or a big gawdamn bronze tuba sitting on that spot he used to hang out in... If one Seattlite deserves a landmark it was Ed - local living landmark and genuinely sweet human being.
I want to whole-heartedly thank Todd Pottinger for cutting together those really great clips from his documentary Big City Dick. Thank you so much Todd.
NOTE- Since I wrote this yesterday a fund has been set up for Ed's funeral and memorial. Here's a link to Art Thiel's amazing eulogy to Ed McMichael that he wrote in this morning's Seattle PI. Donations can be mailed to Edward the Tuba Man McMichael Memorial Fund, PO Box 4935, Federal Way, 98063
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