via KUT Flickr page
Dear John Aielli,
A few weeks back, I saw you for the first time out in this strange and beautiful world. I was walking into the alley below UT’s School of Communication as you were shuffling out.
A smile was playing on your lips– not a smug, pretentious smile, but a smile of someone who appreciates life, the birds in the trees, the geckos on the sidewalk and the clouds above our heads.
Seeing you smile to yourself made me smile to myself– you were exactly how I pictured you (this is bordering on slightly creepy, but something makes me think you’d appreciate “borderline creepy”).
When I first arrived in Austin 4 years ago, you were the jovial “is he drunk or isn’t he?” uncle figure that welcomed me to the city with your weekday morning program “Eklektikos” on KUT.
I’ll never forget the first time I felt the uncomfortableness of your dead air and the sounds of you mispronouncing a band’s name or accidentally playing the same song over again, even though (more…)