I became friends with Stephen Mejias a long time after
he became friends with my close friends.

A few years back he joined my old school chums Pete,
Dan and 2-Dick in their new (and current) band, The
Multi-Purpose Solution. For whatever reason, it took
me to move from NJ to California then to Ohio for me
and Stephen to become good friends. Maybe we were
scared of each other. Maybe we were freaked out by the
fact that in a bizzarro world we could be brothers, I
don't know. But now we're tight as two peaz in a pod.

At any rate, I'm happy to announce Stephen as the
newest contributor to donewaiting.com with his column,
Bridges + Tunnels. As Stephen puts it: "Fueled by
oatmeal, hope, expectations, and disillusionment,
these are Stephen's musings while he commutes from
Newark, NJ, to New York City and back, an honest
attempt to bring together the worlds of living and
loving music to the worlds of culture and ideas."

Cool, right?

You can get the brand new Bridges + Tunnels here:
http://www.donewaiting.com/nyc/

Check it out, and then head on over to the
donewaiting.com message board (there's a new B+T
folder) and say hello to Stephen. He goes by the name
Brother Stephen, but trust me -- it's the same guy.

Stephen's a great writer (a lot better than me, trust
me), a great musician, and a great guy. I'm excited to
read about music from a musician's point of view, and
not just a hyperfan like me. On top of that, while we
love a lot of the same bands (Yo La Tengo! Wilco), we
also have very sharp disagreements about others (The
Strokes), so it'll be good to have another person on the site
who isn't a carbon copy of myself.

And who would want that?

i will now show off my fine writing skills:

This is radical!
woo!

Hello Stephen, from Rob's girlfriend Kiesha.

Hola Kiesha! Last time we spoke, it was via Rob's magic notebook thing, while he and I devoured 24 ounce steaks at Arthur's in Hoboken, before being rocked by Yo La Tengo at Maxwell's.

I think you guys are great. I can't wait to meet you in real life.

Good start on your column Stephen. I like what you're saying about the meaning of Rock & Roll. I always suspected Rock was just about getting laid which, after all, is only another way of saying "I love you." Heh. Can't wait to read more.

When are you coming back to Columbus for a visit? This is Rob's friend Brandon by the way. I haven't seen you since we all serenaded Kevin with the death song.

Thank you, Brandon. Ahh, that was such a great night. I could have stayed there forever. I loved sitting in your apartment with everyone, drinking, laughing, watching as you played DJ, throwing your arms around and singing along with Wilco.

Don't know when I'll be back in Ohio. If the terrorists bomb us, maybe I'll hightail it outta here sooner than you think.

But let's not tempt the terrorists.

On behalf of our drummer, David Caldwell, I must say he hates to be called "2-Dick."

Conversation between me and Areila, via AIM, earlier today:

Areila: You have a friend named 2-Dick?
Duffy: Yeah, you don't even want to know why he has that name.

Please do. Whether you agree or disagree, or are simply moved to respond in whatever way, I'd be very happy to hear from you. I think it's great that there can be this interaction between friends, readers and writers. Making this resemble something closer to a true discussion. Alive.

Forget it. Dave is gonna be pissed.