Adele and I ordered a Panini and salad dinner from two Mexican guys behind the counter at Café Triest on San Pablo. We got espressos to go and met Giti, who is from Iran, and her husband Bob at Strings, a converted laundry, which has been hosting two-to-four house concerts a month to crowds of up to a hundred for twenty-three years.
Last night’s show was a four-woman flamenco group. The singer was a gypsy. One dancer was from Turkey. The other dancer and the guitarist were Spanish-born. They were great. The place was packed. Two weeks before it had been three men (Yoruba) originally from Nigeria. They were great too.
It occurred to me that if Donald Trump had been president, none of the people I have mentioned in the above two paragraphs, except for “Bob,” would have been barred here.
Hell, if he had been president in 1890, Adele and I wouldn’t be here either.
BOB LEVIN’S BOOKS are available from www.theboblevin.com.