Twins but not

Los Angeles.  Some time in the 80s.

I'm working at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (LAICA).  Once in a while I go upstairs to visit Gerry Driva, this artist who does all their graphics and publications.  One day Gerry brings in these photographs a friend of his has taken of a local band, Levi and the Tribe.  I'm really struck by one of the band members, this guy with the greatest style - he has a Dr. Seuss Cat-in-the-Hat tattoo and a raccoon tail hanging from his leather jacket.  A shock of dark hair cuts across his angular face.

I make a point of going to the Cathay de Grande where the band is playing and dig on watching this guy, I think he was playing sax for them.  I meet him briefly after the set.  This is a time when I'm out in clubs a lot and over the next few months I see the guy around.  But something odd happens.  I keep seeing this guy but I can't figure out if he's the same guy from the band.  But he is.  But he isn't.

This continues for the next year or so.  Finally I see the guy again at a Jonathan Richman show at McCabes, and I decide if I ever see him again I'm going to ask him if he's the same guy from Levi and the Tribe.

The next night I'm at the Music Machine on the Westside - I think the Minute Men are playing - and sure enough there he is.  I go up to him and say "Excuse me, you remind me of someone..."  But before I can finish my sentence this other guy comes up and I point to his friend:  "...THAT guy."

It's the weirdest thing.  I'm looking up at these guys (they're pretty tall) and I'm amazed to see that they look NOTHING alike.  One guy, the one I'd originally seen in Gerry Driva's photograph, is dark featured, semetic, brown eyes and angular cheekbones with a large nose.  The other is Korean-American - a round face with Eurasian eyes and a tangled rats nest of hair, died white, gray, green, blue.

Strangest thing.  They're best friends.  They look nothing alike.  And I can't tell them apart.

p.s. The internet is an odd place.  I just looked around and I'm almost certain the guy in the above picture is Guy #1.  I'll leave his name out of it for his own privacy.