Jonny Pickett

Person & Song

On the freeways of southern California, my sister Joanna used to do this thing when traffic was bad where she’d stick her head out the window and point to where she was (attempting) to merge. Now if you’ve ever driven in such a situation, you’ll understand that people don’t tend to enjoy another car taking up one more space between them and their destination. In fact, they’ll often speed up just to make sure it doesn’t happen. However, when she stuck her head out and looked at the person in the lane over, she was given the space to merge, every time. Any short or long term Angeleno knows traffic in LA is miserable, but this plea always proved undeniable. So why did this happen? When Joanna did this, her car was no longer a piece of metal getting more in the way of someone’s destination. It became a person, with a face and a destination as well. She made the situation a conversation between people. By talking to individual people from different places, news stories, stereotypes and a color distinction on a map becomes a person, with a face, with stories, families, loves and hates. We begin to see ourselves. I understand the sentiments of people I talk to don’t represent entire countries, states or even cities. However they give others a glimpse into another place– something that might be unknown to the listener. Some of the ancient Greeks believed stars functioned as holes in the dark sky, revealing only specs of a bright, unknown fire on the other side. I hope these interviews, may serve a similar purpose. This is a podcast about people, from different places, talking about music and whatever else may come up.