The other week, I was driving to my 2nd job at
Malarky’s Sports Grill. Wednesday to be exact. I noticed a man standing at a
bus sign waiting for a bus. I recognized the man right away. It was Kenny, The
Dancing Wild Man of Factoria. It’d been a minute since I’ve seen him on the
streets of Issaquah, I was growing concerned that something awful happened to
him.
I was thankful to find him once again, and within the same
area I “met” him the first time… hilarious story.
I remember distinctively. It was my first summer I spent in
Issaquah. The sun was out, so relatively warm. I was bombing around in the
Sapphire Sled [an arctic blue, 2004 Acura RSX Type S] with the windows down,
the tunes up. I was stopped at the traffic light on the corner of Front Street
and NW Gilman Blvd; the busiest intersection.
From out-the-cuts, I heard someone screaming! I pull off my
shades immediately. I whip my head around trying to seek out the source of the
noise. I turn down the radio as I desperately scanning the intersection,
thinking, “Please God protect any pedestrians that might’ve been hit by a
passing car!” My mind was racing through my first aid checklist, recapping my
CPR skills, where to pull over to grab my go-kit in the trunk.
I locate the source of the noise. It was a tall, skinny man
wearing a sandwich board sign, with an old-school CD player from the 80’s,
headphones on, dancing and yelling like the cover of “Where The Wild Things
Are”.
He’s smiling, singing, and dancing on the street corner. I
sighed in relief. SCARED THE BEEJEEZUS out of me! Thinking… “That sonofab –
scared me. Who does that?!”
It wasn’t until weeks later that I learned the name of the
man from my personal trainer during a power workout. I was sharing my story,
and he quipped, “Oh yeah. I know him. His name’s Kenny – like me. I live around
there. Scared the hell outta me the first time I ‘met’ him.”
We laughed, then after my workout I Googled him!
Sure enough, there’s an article about this man. Here it is
below this entry. The point I’m making is I hope you dance! Just like the Lee
Ann Womack song, “I Hope You Dance”. I hope you dance and sing as if no one is
watching or listening every day you’re alive.
Let's dance, shall we? This has been your C-Note.
'los; out
Article about Kenny, who I believe has relocated to Issaquah.
The Dancing Wild Man of Factoria
Factoria, the southernmost neighborhood of Bellevue, is
known mainly as a tightly packed retail center where parking is as hard to find
as a reasonably priced coffee. But to one wild-maned, hyper-energetic maverick,
Factoria is the ultimate dance floor! Along the office parks of Southeast 38th
Street, Kenny Nagamatsu gets his groove on daily, with a wild abandon that
constantly turns heads and slows traffic.
For about a decade, Kenny has publicly hopped, bopped, shimmied
and shook to the tunes on his portable CD player. His enthusiasm has
doubtlessly inspired countless smiles and just as many double-takes among the
throngs of white-collar workers who drive by. During dance moves, he’ll often
wave at passing cars, getting friendly honks in return. When he really gets
going, he yells an emphatic “OWWW!” and performs an odd, hopping pirouette.
This, coupled with his somewhat feral appearance, has earned him the moniker
Dancing Wild Man in some circles.
For all his boisterousness, Kenny is remarkably
soft-spoken. When approached by your friendly Weird Washington representative,
he seemed taken aback that anyone would be interested in learning a little
about him. With an oddly British accent and a surprisingly shy demeanor, he
offered his basic motivations: “I don’t care what people think of me, and I
don’t care what I look like.” As he explains it, he simply loves his tunes and
doesn’t care who knows it, volunteering that The Beatles and the Monkees really
get him going. He also offers that he has two jobs. That is, two different
eateries pay him to do his unique dancing while holding advertising signs.
So in short: he’s got the look, the moves, the
recognition and steady work doing what he loves best. By any standard, he’s
good to go! Rock on, Kenny!
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