I had never met Julian before… Joe and I were hanging out at this sort of odd yet completely regular part of the landscape neighborhood bar called “The Esquire” which is a hop-skip-and-a-jump from Bakersfield Community Theatre.

I mentioned it seemed like the perfect Bakersfield place to take a Rumi Photo. We had just finished with karaoke there (the KJ company was called something like “Pure American Karaoke” which I found offensive but somehow in this setting, not surprising.)

Anyway – Julian read some Rumi and Joe read some Rumi aloud and he was entranced by it, which is what usually happens when folks are exposed to his work.