First time I met Troy, I thought he was just blasted high. Like, he came in an hour or three late to personal development week and was on the phone for most of it. It looked like he was over the whole thing, was a real conversationalist over the phone, and a local to Harlem.
Throughout the past two weeks, I’ve realized he was completely involved in his job: as family coordinator for the school, all he did was call hundreds of parents daily to get kids on our roster. His repertoire is pristine. I’ve learned how to talk to folks and neighbors and moms in Harlem just listening to Tory.
My dream is to have a handshake with Troy. He’s 35 and has an 18 year old girl. And an 11 year old. Not only is he the nicest guy in the office to me, but he’s also generally curious in conversation while professional and ethical about getting work done.
He and I were the last people in the office today. He knows I write for a music site, and most of today we listened to a bunch of new mixtapes Mr. P downloads off DatPiff for us. All Troy was talking about was splurging on his wife this past week, having gone on their first vacation in six years three weeks back. I told him all I do is splurge on records and cassette tapes. “You said cassette tapes?” Troy asked.
There-after, Troy divulged about his 700+ cassette tape collection in his family closet stacked into eight large boxes. His wife wants them gone. He told me he took the Metro North to his grandmother’s (when she was moving back to Florida) to take three large suit cases full of reels on the subway, cab, bus and train home.
So I continued to tell him all about how people are still selling music on tapes. For the rest of the day, we listened to Chungking Mansions’ There is Truth in Fiction off Antifur. In reflection of the releases’ sounds, we were challenged by what we were listening to, but also intrigued about WHY this is being put on edition of 85 tapes. Aside from trying to figure out what’s up with this sound being on tape anyhow.
But it was all settled about three tracks in when we both decided There is Truth in Fiction was getting all our work done. Shouts-out to Antifur for the productivity. Mega feel-vibes to Chungking Mansions for housing our minds for a minute or three.