Mystery Man

I brought the rain into Starbucks with me, dripping off me like a waterfall, puddle on the ground.  As much as I don't like the idea of corporationization (help me out with the right word) I do reap the benefits.  Shelter from the rain, free wifi, rombus tea, good music, not to mention that Starbucks is the only place in the city to relieve the urinary system.  I am grateful every time, and torn.

Ok, I've got two stories in the making, I will introduce them both in separate posts.

The first one revolves around a mysterious man I met last night.

After eating a very authentic Korean meal in Korea town, complete with whole minnows, and bibimbap, Kate and I walked to Madison square park to take advantage of the warm night.  We observed the people walking by and connected with the ones with dogs who weren't afraid of the fact that we were strangers.

We sat on a bench at the bottom right of this shot.  Around midnight a puggle wiggled up to us.   His owner, a middle aged man with mid-length, straight hair smiled.  He had dark skin, and he had a warm presence.  His name was Tony.  Kate asked the dog's name, he paused, almost sheepishly and then said Enrique.  "It fits him," said Kate.  " Does it?"  he seemed relieved.  "I named him after Enrique Iglesias.  I'm actually his voice coach."  My mind jumped to the next gear.  Enrique Iglesias's voice teacher just stopped to talk to me?  That was just the beginning.  As we spurred him on with questions he got into his story.  He started telling us about his relationship with Enrique.  How Enrique just bought a new multi-million dollar mansion with eight gardeners and a bowling ally.  Tony said he pressed him on this decision.  "Why do you need all of this?"  "It's an investment," Iglesias responded.  Tony went on to tell us that Justin Bieber just committed to train with him three times a year to improve his voice.  He told us how his best friend is Cristina Aguilera.  He told us how he got into Juilliard because of Mariah Carey's mom, who coached both of them.   The story kept going, more and more names.  "The interesting thing about Madonna is that she is shy when you get in a one-on-one."  He told us how he grew up with Tommy Hilfiger.   At this point I was starting to get skeptical.  If this guy is who he says he is, how are we talking to him in Madison Square?  But he didn't seem deranged.  He seemed put together, and his story was so in depth. It was pretty good acting if that's what it was.  As Enrique mounted Tony's leg, Tony told us that he has gotten 5 guys modeling jobs at big agencies, he said he has an eye for it, and he told me that I have the face and build for it.  If I was two inches shorter it would be more ideal, but he gave me the name of a few agencies to check out.  "If they take a snap shot of you, it means their interested.  You won't even need to tell them why you're there, they'll know."

He started talking philosophy of life, saying that all these successful people he knows got there because they picked a coarse that they wanted and they didn't waver.  They believed in themselves.  Eventually the right connections and circumstances will arise.  It was obvious he cared about helping people choose their path in life.  And regardless of wether or not it was a hoax, I was inspired by the time he left.  When he did leave, I looked at Kate and said, "was that real?"  We both started laughing real hard.  It was 2 o'clock in the morning, the park was closing.  We vowed to get to the bottom of this, to figure out wether he was who he said he was.  He gave us plenty of material to begin our detective work.

As I walked back to Central Park through Grand Central station I thought of my plan of attack for the next day.  But something happened that changed the cards...