Book-By-Its-Cover moment

We had a bit of car trouble this weekend, and I called for a tow truck.

When the truck arrived, he pulled into the gas station across from us. "Uhh, that's the southeast corner, not the northwest corner, brain surgeon." After a bit of futzing, he made it to our spot and loaded the car onto the flatbed. He was a old, oddly dressed, white bearded man, with one of those knit hats that holds dreadlocks. After he was done, I signed the order, and my girlfriend and I packed into the cab of the truck.

As he started up the truck, I prepared myself for the small-talk that invariably accompanys a tow. I'm not really much of a talker anyways, and I'm even less of a talker when the talkee looks like a steriotype. For a while, he was quiet, and I noticed what was playing on the stereo; it was some kind of opera. As I listened to the beautiful music, I was tempted to ask him who he was listening to, but was afraid he would take that as an opportunity to strike up a conversation. The song ended, and a radio announcer called the song "Song to the Earth." Kinda hippyish, but still good. Why was this guy listening to his music? I eyed his headware and realized that it was very likely full of dreadlocks. Suprised, I tried to picture how he would look without the hat when he spoke.
"You listen to this station? KCRW? It's based in Santa Monica college I think."
KCRW was an independent station that played a very odd mix of music of different styles and genras, I rarely listened during the day but I used to listen to their late night electronica shows "Metropolis" and "Nocturna".
"Yeah, actually I do listen to KCRW."
"I listen during the day sometimes, but I usually listen to the music at night when they play trance."
Whoa. This guy's into trance? I love trance.
"Yeah, you listen to Metropolis? I love trance."

He talked for a while about some of the music from the seventies, and somehow got on Sci-Fi. He told us about an instrument called a Theremin (which is played without touching it) which made all those outer-limits UFO sounds. Interesting stuff!

We got back to music, and he told me that he picked up interest in trance after hearing it on an episode of Samurai Jack. (!!!) I LOVE Samurai Jack!

Crazy! This guy's awesome! It'll be quite some time before I judge a book by its cover again!