Hanging Out with Stuart Davis

March 3rd was a memorable evening for a lucky group of people in Seattle, me and my wife included. We got to hang out with musician and artist Stuart Davis before his show at the Tractor Tavern.

I discovered Stuart through his work at Integral Institute, especially Integral Naked. As I was eagerly awaiting his Seattle appearance I discovered that there is a local group of Integral fans, Seattle Integral, and that several of them were planning on getting together for dinner before the show. So I told my wife, Evelyn, that we should drop by the Tai restaurant and see if we could figure out which table was the Integral table. Unfortunately, I had never met anyone from the group and had only found one picture online of one of the members named Gary Stamper. As luck would have it, there was Gary looking just like his picture, sitting right by the window.

Evelyn and I introduced ourselves and started talking with the great folks from Seattle Integral (all of whose names I do not remember) when this very tall young man came in and started giving hugs all around the table. It was none other than Stuart Davis, the man we had all come to see that evening. Stu sat down next to me and we talked and ate dinner together.

Stuart talked about a movie project he is working on. Evelyn and I gave him advice on parenting two girls, something we have in common. We talked about music, film, art, kids, relationships, Mormonism, Ken Wilber and lots more. I found him to be as intelligent, funny and articulate in person as he is in his work. Everyone at the table had a fantastic time, including Stuart.

Stuart left after another round of hugs to go do his pre-show sound check, and we all settled up our bill and walked down the street to the Tractor Tavern for the show. See the next post for details of the show. After the show most of us got together with Stuart at a nearby bar and shared some more stories before the evening came to a close.

A good time was had by all and I look forward to getting together with the Seattle Integral gang again in the near future. I’m also looking forward to a new live CD Stuart recently recorded and any other new work he blesses us with. Sometimes it pays off when you just barge in and introduce yourself to strangers.

Thanks Stuart for being such an open and sharing guy! We hope to see you in Seattle again as soon as possible.