Okay, once again I want to point out that I started writing the Kowalski story in the fall of 2005, for National Novel Writing Month. I had all my characters (well, except Adrian) and their relationships and knew what some of their guitars looked like and a bunch of their cover songs. Draft completed, you know?

And in the fall of 2006, I started following Gloryhound around.

And the first thing I noticed was Adam's guitar. I had decided Jordy's main guitar was a particular type of red Gretsch, and I toyed with the idea that he got a deal on it because it was hard to keep in tune, but he liked its sound. I abandoned that idea as the type of over-engineering that dooms some specialty mysteries.

Adam... has a red Gretsch that looks exactly like the one I picked out for Jordy. If it isn't the same guitar it's a very similar model.

Adam seems to like it, but he has remarked that he gets frustrated with it because it's really hard to keep in tune.

!!!!!

The issue of cover songs is a little less creepy--Kowalski and Gloryhound both play versions of "The Shape I'm In" and "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere," but given their influences the second cover isn't much of a surprise, and the first one is only slightly less obvious.

Okay, yes, if Kowalski breaks out in a cover of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," that will be deliberate.

The fact that Harbourfire has a female keyboard player and so does Kowalski is only a little tiny coincidence. And I don't think Sam is related to any of her bandmates.

Also, the fact that Jeremy from Gloryhound is a MacPherson, as is Jordy, is the sort of thing that's bound to happen in Nova Scotia.

However, a few months ago, for no particular reason, I got thinking about the song "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da." I remembered that the title supposedly comes from an expression (I just looked it up and it's apparently Yoruba) that translates as "Life goes on." It crossed my mind that, if I could use it without over-engineering again, I might give that expression to Devin or Kenny. You know, [frustrating thing happens], Kenny shrugs and remarks, "Eh, ob-la-di..."

It was a thought.

Until the last couple of Thursday nights, both of which have featured Adam telling a little story about something that happened that was weird or frustrating, and his conclusion was, "Oh well. Ob-la-di, ob-la-da..."

Jesus, man, you're killing me here!

I have no conclusions to draw about this, except that I certainly did not intend to write real-people-fanfic when I started this damn story.

And yes, okay, there is something a tiny bit funny about all this.