Trash what?

The dispatcher said "253 Church for Matthew." When I got there, a guy in a purple shirt with shaggy, longish hair walked towards my cab. I asked him if he was Matthew. He said yes. I said cool. He was going to a hotel downtown. He had an accent that I thought was British or Australian. I wanted to ask him where he was visiting from. I wanted to ask him if this was his first time in San Francisco. But I wasn't feeling talkative. Sometimes I don't. It's nothing personal. I liked his eyeliner.

We drove down Market all the way from Church to 4th Street. He didn't say anything either, just looked out the window. At some point I had to talk though because a guy in a van pulled up next to us and said "Excuse me, where is Mission Street?" I said "It's the next street over. Make a right and you'll get to it." I was relieved that I had an answer because two people had asked me for directions on Wednesday and I had drawn total blanks.

Around 7th or 6th Street Matthew said

"Is this the main street?"

"Yeah. It's Market Street."

"I just got here last night, so I haven't seen much yet."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I'm in a band and we did a show last night. We're from the UK."

"Oh yeah? How cool. What's the name of your band?"

"Trash Fashion."

"Trash what?"

"Trash Fashion."

"Trash Fashion. Okay."

"We flew in to New York first and we played there, and then we were in LA and next we're going to San Diego and then back to New York. And after that we're going to Germany or something."

"Wow. You guys are getting big, huh?"

"It's getting there."

"I mean, I have never heard of you guys but if you are playing in all these places.. That sounds so exciting."

"Yeah, it's quite cool." The humble, shy and almost doubtful way he said this surprised me. It was as if the popularity of his band hadn't quite sunk in it.

"So what do you do, do you sing or.."

"I play the drums."

As we made a right on 4th Street, I said

"I am going to write about you if you don't mind. I write a lot of taxi stories down."

"Where do you do that - do you have a blog?"

"Yeah."

"Cool."

"It's not every day that I have a famous band member in my car."

Before he got out, I wrote "http://daycabbie.blogspot.com" on the back of one of my business cards and gave it to him.

Hi Matthew!