Philippa Hughes smashed my pink guitar. She smashed it with complete visceral reckless abandon, and a dangerous disregard for her own personal safety. 

 I didn’t mind her smashing it, because I asked her if she wanted to smash it. She said yes without hesitation. 

  Philippa has a blog, the Pink Line Project, which she uses to promote the arts and artists in Washington, DC. I’ve observed her repeatedly be a willing participant in artist’s crazy schemes, attend everybody’s events, and open her home to help promote artists.  She also inspired me to write, which is how I started this blog. Philippa is an art enabler. Recently, in one of Philippa’s blogs, she mentioned a wish that she could feel what it’s like to be a performer, so I gave her my guitar to smash. It seemed like the thing to do.

  I gave Philippa a quick guitar lesson the night before, warned her about flying shrapnel, and hurting her eyes and hands. When the time came to smash, Philippa took TEN mighty swings in front of 300-500 screaming people before the guitar broke. Her hands were black and blue and bleeding. I admired her complete conviction. All my leather-jacket-wearing, Harley Davidson-riding, punk rock, dude friends could learn a rock and roll lesson from this woman in a pink skirt.

After the event, it felt strange to pick up my guitar case, and it was so much lighter than usual, but It felt really good to be the enabler. The roles were reversed. This time, I got to be the enabler, and Philippa was the artist. This event has been somewhat transforming for me. I got a taste of what it’s like to do something that’s bigger than yourself, and to revel in somebody else’s experience. I think I want to do that more.

Here is the video of the smash: http://friendsofbud.tumblr.com/post/47586693039/philippa-hughes-smashes-a-pink-guitar-at-cherry