November 13, 2021:

I stood by him for so long. When his band fired him and he had no prospects.

In part because I recognized his brilliance. His genius for decoration, a master pâtissier of other people's music. The role he'd played in his band, replaced by others who did the same thing impressively but never as well.

Yet also because I needed those skills. To provide the musical knowledge which I lacked.

Where our musical sensibilities blended into something new, and occasionally extraordinary. Where his pâtissierie took my ideas into wholly new and superior dimensions of interest and accomplishment.