Dry Ice Factory

So on Thursday I received a package in the mail from ron_drummond. It contained multitudes. There were DVD birthday gifts, there was another DVD he had borrowed from me, and there were two nearly-identical CD-Rs of music by Roy Harper. One was for me, but of the other Ron wrote, "Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to track down Marc Olsen and personally give him one of the two copies here enclosed and tell him that I made it just for him."

Marc Olsen is a local musician who was one of my favorites in the late '90s and early '00s, starting with the band Sage and continuing with Marc's various post-Sage ensembles, especially the one that included the violinist, Anne Marie Ruljancich. I got to know Marc from hanging around with him at the Big Time Brewpub in the U District (both of us longing after the bartender, Hazel), and Ron got to know him too, and we went to a lot of Marc's shows together. Marc eventually stopped playing gigs around the same time that I stopped going out to live shows, and I only saw him sporadically after that. The last time I saw him may have been over a year ago, when I ran into him on the Ave and he told me he was studying urban horticulture at a community college.

So when I got Ron's package, I wasn't sure that I would choose to accept the task of delivering the CD. I had no idea where Marc was anymore. I had heard that Sage had gotten back together and played Bumbershoot over Labor Day weekend, and that was about it. I checked Marc's MySpace page, but I didn't see any other shows listed. Well, maybe I could try the e-mail address listed, but I didn't really feel like it. That was all the dead past. Why stir it up? I have a lot of other things on my plate as it is.

Last night I met holyoutlaw in front of the Majestic Bay Theater in Ballard with the intention of catching Burn After Reading. But the 7:30 showing was sold out, so we decided to have dinner instead. We ate lovely linguine al pesto at the Palermo, and then, since it was still early, we decided to wander over to Historic Ballard -- aka Ballard Ave -- and have a drink somewhere. I mentioned Hattie's Hat, which I hadn't been to since I was catching shows (including some of Marc's) at the Tractor Tavern. We hit Hattie's, sat down at the bar, and ordered drinks. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a familiar face. Wouldn't you know it!

"Marc!" I cried. "Marc!"

Turns out he's a bartender at Hattie's now, finishing up his bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies and Environmental Resource Management at the UW, married, the father of a six-month-old boy. He showed me a picture of his son on a cellphone. Sage is playing a show in Ballard next Saturday. It's in the afternoon, too, so even an old fart like me might make it.

So now I know where to find him to deliver the CD, but what do you call that? Synchronicity? Coincidence? Fate? The Mystical Power of Ron from a Distance? It's a trip, dude. That's all I'm saying.