Tracy

A dear friend and tortured soul, Tracy Thielen died last week.

Tracy was a genius. He was constantly creating, and you could almost see the sparks shooting out of his head when he discovered a funny turn of words or an offbeat metaphor. He channeled it into his writing, and he left us with a lot of amazing music and poetry. I'll hang onto those and all the crazy times we shared.

I have a vivid memory of picking up the phone on a hot summer day and talking Tracy into meeting me at El Coyote. It was the best place we could think of with air conditioning and cheap drinks.

He picked me up in that old car he had. I think it was a Dodge Dart. I remember the way the afternoon light was pouring through the stained glass in the bar, and I recall thinking how great it was that we were there so early. We had the place to ourselves, so we settled into the biggest booth.

We traded stories and laughed until the sun went down and the place filled up. By then we were crammed together, surrounded by other friends. Everybody was smiling.

That's the way I'll remember Tracy.