Moving to New York City to be among the club kids had been David's dream ever since he was a closeted teenager living in San Antonio Texas. When he first arrived in the big city, he could barely contain his enthusiasm: Big buildings! Movie stars!!! Rats the size of cats on the subway platform!!! The thing is, he arrived too late for club kid culture, and learning to blend in in the big city is, essentially, a process of learning to be (or at least to pretend to be) unphased. So when David's chronically underwhelmed coworker (a retired club kid named Wallpaper) finally invites David to lunch, will he keep his cool or will he lose his mind to the sounds of Bjork's 1993 hit?
Everywhere you go in the "storytelling business" you run into people who have been touched by David's work as a teacher, writer and performer. His talent is easy to see, what's less obvious is how warm and charming a human being he is. A genuine pleasure to work with.
If you want to learn more about David and his work, a good place to start is his his memoir, Bad Kid; a gentle, honest, funny and (if you grew up a little weird in a town smaller than your ambitions) deeply-relatable read that I'd highly recommend. Be sure to check out his website for more information about opportunities to take his storytelling classes. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
I felt a titch intimidated putting together a playlist based on David's story but my take (called The Dreams of an Octopus) has been on high rotation in the Serry household (and car) in the last couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy it. Can't get enough of that Robyn track...
Make sure you follow The Volume Knob on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or at our website volumeknob.net.
And if you have a story about the song that saved your life be sure to send it to me at volumeknobpod@gmail.com.