Today I attended a rally down at the nations Capitol that was put on by our favorite political humorist John Stewart of The Daily Show fame. They did an excellent job of leaving the politics out and focused on reminding everyone that as Americans we work together everyday and solve a lot of problems and this bitter devisiveness that is going on is being fueled by the media of which they are considered part of. They had a great message about how the majority of our country are able to come together and be tolerant of others. It has become a sad day when the media coverage is spent on the extremes rather than the majority. The favorite quote for today was "If we amplify everything, then we can hear nothing." The suggestion they presented was when you feel yourself getting disgusted with what you are seeing on the cable news channels, grab the remote and switch to something else. It is very obvious why John Stewart is the most trusted person to deliver political news even though he makes it out to be comedy. John is the only person that will ask the hard questions and not let anyone get away with anything regardless of which side they come from. It was a great day if you overlook the standing in a crowd for several hours and the bit of sunburn I got, I will add a couple of pictures of the crowd later.
This says it best:
Jon Stewart being Serious
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
An Attempt at Something Different
In the eyes of one I have not yet
met I see the lies of my life
projecting onto me the struggle
each must face to find the freedom
to release.
It is time to fortify the fingers of
fate and let loose the force held in
bondage of expectation, restrained
expression reaching for peace.
Feeling the presence of a billion
souls bound by their own belief,
aching for a breath of air not
fouled, to drink the water of truth.
Found remnants of a dream long
dispersed, wanting more while
taking less, enslaved by
attachment to that which
cannot be obtained.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
At a Loss for Words
I find myself at a loss for words lately so I have decided to recycle by putting some links to some things that seem to still be on my mind that some may have missed. The election season will be over in a week and I will hopefully find something else to occupy my fascination for a while.
Here's the old stuff.
Living a Plan B Life
Rescinded Transcendence
Fear of Wet Feet
I can't explain why I chose these but hopefully it will make sense to somebody. I'll be back with new stuff in a few days.
Here's the old stuff.
Living a Plan B Life
Rescinded Transcendence
Fear of Wet Feet
I can't explain why I chose these but hopefully it will make sense to somebody. I'll be back with new stuff in a few days.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Losing our Legends
I have been a very fortunate through my life because I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of the legends of the music I love so much. I have even had the opportunity to have some extended friendships with some of these giants. Yesterday I got news of one of the legends that was a great friend to me several years back, someone who wasn't too proud to help out the up and coming musicians at the time, had passed on. Sadly I lost contact several years ago because I chose to move across the country but he has always been a hero to me where ever I have been. It is so rare to only have happy, fun memories about a friend but that was the case here and I do miss him.
One thing that I keep getting constant reminders of is that we need to let those we admire know how much we appreciate them more often. I have learned that everyone in my life deserves to be elevated to the legendary status, allowing me to be able to tell of epic adventures with them to others. If a person has earned my respect and has become someone that I call a friend, that is a truly special person. Everyone deserves to have friends like the ones I have had through the years, friends that will support you in your adventures and who won't laugh at you too much when you fall. I really wish I could pay tribute to everyone of them while they are around to see how much I appreciate them, but there are a few that slip past and for that I feel remorse.
I have lost many friends over the years and it doesn't get any easier. I have lost friends to accidental causes, from illness, from their own misadventures and one of the most difficult, at their own hand. I have chosen to no longer concern myself with to details of how someone left us and I try to just appreciate that I had the opportunity to know that person. A few years ago I found out that a friend was in very poor health and things were getting worse. After she reached a certain point she begin to talk to her mother, husband and doctor about it being time to go on and that she would like her pacemaker disconnected. It took a while but she was able to get everyone to agree and she went out with her pride intact. It was really difficult to accept that she would have made that choice but after much thought I have accepted that she made the decision to take control of her end of life situation and I can't say that it was wrong.
I have been trying to focus the last few years on being a better person than I was before. This is a very difficult challenge because I have had to learn how to remove the negative thoughts and emotions from my interactions with others. This is really difficult because I not only wear my emotions on my sleeve but I have the whole suit, there is never any mystery about what kind of mood I am in. I am trying to be more like those who have given me the best memories and to bring the best attitude to the adventure that I can. Sharing a positive experience with someone is one of the things that we hold on to for the longest, I want more of these memories. Having turned around a personal health crisis I now feel like I am able to do more than I have been able to for quite a while. This is motivating me to do the things I find most important and to share them with the people I enjoy having around me.
Treat all of those in your life as a legend. If you don't have an epic tale of adventures you and a friend have been on, don't put it off. The most important thing I have learned is that I get to choose the scale with which I measure everything. While I have met a lot of the musicians that I have idolized, they have taught me that everyone is of equal importance in this world. Because of this I have chosen to start everyone off much higher up the scale than I did in the past and I am very proud to say all of my friends are legends, maybe not to anyone else but they definitely are to me.
One thing that I keep getting constant reminders of is that we need to let those we admire know how much we appreciate them more often. I have learned that everyone in my life deserves to be elevated to the legendary status, allowing me to be able to tell of epic adventures with them to others. If a person has earned my respect and has become someone that I call a friend, that is a truly special person. Everyone deserves to have friends like the ones I have had through the years, friends that will support you in your adventures and who won't laugh at you too much when you fall. I really wish I could pay tribute to everyone of them while they are around to see how much I appreciate them, but there are a few that slip past and for that I feel remorse.
I have lost many friends over the years and it doesn't get any easier. I have lost friends to accidental causes, from illness, from their own misadventures and one of the most difficult, at their own hand. I have chosen to no longer concern myself with to details of how someone left us and I try to just appreciate that I had the opportunity to know that person. A few years ago I found out that a friend was in very poor health and things were getting worse. After she reached a certain point she begin to talk to her mother, husband and doctor about it being time to go on and that she would like her pacemaker disconnected. It took a while but she was able to get everyone to agree and she went out with her pride intact. It was really difficult to accept that she would have made that choice but after much thought I have accepted that she made the decision to take control of her end of life situation and I can't say that it was wrong.
I have been trying to focus the last few years on being a better person than I was before. This is a very difficult challenge because I have had to learn how to remove the negative thoughts and emotions from my interactions with others. This is really difficult because I not only wear my emotions on my sleeve but I have the whole suit, there is never any mystery about what kind of mood I am in. I am trying to be more like those who have given me the best memories and to bring the best attitude to the adventure that I can. Sharing a positive experience with someone is one of the things that we hold on to for the longest, I want more of these memories. Having turned around a personal health crisis I now feel like I am able to do more than I have been able to for quite a while. This is motivating me to do the things I find most important and to share them with the people I enjoy having around me.
Treat all of those in your life as a legend. If you don't have an epic tale of adventures you and a friend have been on, don't put it off. The most important thing I have learned is that I get to choose the scale with which I measure everything. While I have met a lot of the musicians that I have idolized, they have taught me that everyone is of equal importance in this world. Because of this I have chosen to start everyone off much higher up the scale than I did in the past and I am very proud to say all of my friends are legends, maybe not to anyone else but they definitely are to me.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Campaign Pains
Well I have been trying my best to lay of on the politics for a while but there is something going on that has diminished to value of each persons vote. Our new law that allows the 501(c)(6) organizations collection money to be given as political donations without disclosure of the source of the money. This is allowing these organizations to also provide funding for candidates in various states which is allowing the big money groups to spend millions on a candidate that will agree to their agenda. Some of the organizations made up a template for TV commercials where they can easily drop in the local candidate and have a nicely produced commercial. This has become the biggest nightmare for democracy that has ever come forward and if we don't get some of the control back I fear where this will lead us.
Since the Supreme Court decided that it is appropriate to allow 501(c) organizations to accept large contributions from undisclosed entities which includes corporate interest. A 501(c) organization is a tax exempt organization classified by the type of groups that it supports. The classifications would be followed with a number to designate which groups. More information on 501(c). By allowing political campaign funding to be supplied without disclosure of the origin is allowing the campaigning to be skewed to favor those with money and greed as a motive. There is even suggestions that there is money coming from outside of our country that is being funneled into state level elections making it highly unfair for the competition. Our government has turned into a battle of which agenda gets the most money behind it seems to be what becomes our direction.
Recently I have made a few comments that suggest that they B movies from the 70s seems to be becoming reality. Rollerball had the setting that corporations had taken over the different countries and the competitors would skate for the corporation that would pay them the most. I also belief that the food that is affordable for the less affluent is rapidly approaching soylent orange, chicken nuggets in particular. A more recent movie that seems to also be prophecy is Idiocracy. Idiocracy begins by showing the educated, bright minds would have 1 child later in life while the uneducated, low income people were cranking out the children at an alarming pace. The premise is that the collective intelligence level was being bred out of our society. These movies seem to be more real than not these days.
We seem to be getting our lives slowly taken away from us of this legislation for pay program that is going on. I would be wrong if I said it was primarily on party because both parties are deeply involved in taking money from special interest. Too many people will allow their political decisions to be made based on what one person says about another rather than looking at the qualities of the people involved. Obviously integrity is not a requirement to hold public office and the masses seem to prefer someone who can stand there looking into the camera telling a totally fabricated story than someone who will actually represent the wishes of the citizens. The hens are letting the foxes into their house and laying down in front of them.
There are a couple of things that must change if we are going to continue to have the liberties that we have paid such a price to receive.
One thing is the money is going to have to be removed from the politics. The television ads are non-productive and should be discontinued all together. Each election should be provided a fair and equal forum to present their agenda for public examination and not allow these nasty attack ads to be aired as often as the time slots can be purchased.
Another suggestion I have would be to require candidates to be examined by an independent group of professional evaluators who will test their values, integrity and ethics, etc. The results or these examinations should be made available as part of the forum mentioned above so that while a person is studying the agenda of the candidate they can read their personality profile to determine who is most likely to do what they say.
I think if both of these concepts were implemented we would be able to have elections that didn't make us feel so slimy that we have to rush home to bath after voting. There are suggestions that we need more than 2 parties which would be nice as long as they money doesn't rule out the fairness of the campaigning. The current path we are on is not one that will allow us to continue for much longer. Our political environment keeps moving further and further to one side and there is no way to drag it back to where all of the people are being properly represented. The terms liberal, conservative, centrist, etc. all have very little meaning these days due to the fact that our legislation is influenced by money rather than an informed citizenry. This has to change before we lose the option to change it.
Since the Supreme Court decided that it is appropriate to allow 501(c) organizations to accept large contributions from undisclosed entities which includes corporate interest. A 501(c) organization is a tax exempt organization classified by the type of groups that it supports. The classifications would be followed with a number to designate which groups. More information on 501(c). By allowing political campaign funding to be supplied without disclosure of the origin is allowing the campaigning to be skewed to favor those with money and greed as a motive. There is even suggestions that there is money coming from outside of our country that is being funneled into state level elections making it highly unfair for the competition. Our government has turned into a battle of which agenda gets the most money behind it seems to be what becomes our direction.
Recently I have made a few comments that suggest that they B movies from the 70s seems to be becoming reality. Rollerball had the setting that corporations had taken over the different countries and the competitors would skate for the corporation that would pay them the most. I also belief that the food that is affordable for the less affluent is rapidly approaching soylent orange, chicken nuggets in particular. A more recent movie that seems to also be prophecy is Idiocracy. Idiocracy begins by showing the educated, bright minds would have 1 child later in life while the uneducated, low income people were cranking out the children at an alarming pace. The premise is that the collective intelligence level was being bred out of our society. These movies seem to be more real than not these days.
We seem to be getting our lives slowly taken away from us of this legislation for pay program that is going on. I would be wrong if I said it was primarily on party because both parties are deeply involved in taking money from special interest. Too many people will allow their political decisions to be made based on what one person says about another rather than looking at the qualities of the people involved. Obviously integrity is not a requirement to hold public office and the masses seem to prefer someone who can stand there looking into the camera telling a totally fabricated story than someone who will actually represent the wishes of the citizens. The hens are letting the foxes into their house and laying down in front of them.
There are a couple of things that must change if we are going to continue to have the liberties that we have paid such a price to receive.
One thing is the money is going to have to be removed from the politics. The television ads are non-productive and should be discontinued all together. Each election should be provided a fair and equal forum to present their agenda for public examination and not allow these nasty attack ads to be aired as often as the time slots can be purchased.
Another suggestion I have would be to require candidates to be examined by an independent group of professional evaluators who will test their values, integrity and ethics, etc. The results or these examinations should be made available as part of the forum mentioned above so that while a person is studying the agenda of the candidate they can read their personality profile to determine who is most likely to do what they say.
I think if both of these concepts were implemented we would be able to have elections that didn't make us feel so slimy that we have to rush home to bath after voting. There are suggestions that we need more than 2 parties which would be nice as long as they money doesn't rule out the fairness of the campaigning. The current path we are on is not one that will allow us to continue for much longer. Our political environment keeps moving further and further to one side and there is no way to drag it back to where all of the people are being properly represented. The terms liberal, conservative, centrist, etc. all have very little meaning these days due to the fact that our legislation is influenced by money rather than an informed citizenry. This has to change before we lose the option to change it.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
A Lonely Road
Today I have decided to take on a topic that is kind of difficult for me because I can't really hide behind twisted, cerebral babbling or dodge reality by spinning a little humor. The most difficult is that I have to be honest and reveal a little more of who I am than I normally do. I have decided to do this because it has been an overwhelming week that has made me take a serious look at the way I choose to live. In the last week I have had the best experiences of my life and at the same time I have had to acknowledge that the life I have constructed does not allow me to enjoy those feelings very often. This has caused me to reflect on how I got here and to contemplate where I am headed.
Perhaps this is a sequel to Living a Plan B Life or maybe it's just a snapshot of this moment in time. Either way I woke up this morning and turned on the TV while I gathered my thoughts and there was a movie on that reflected much of my life back to me. The movie was Up In the Air and I saw a lot of my life being played out there within a little abstraction. This was after a long night of realizing that while most of the time my choices have served me well by simplifying life to allow me to invest more time into exploring my mind, I realized that there are times that it would be nice to share a few memories with someone who was there. I have a long list of things I would like to do or see but I often tell my friends that I will not go until I can find the person to go with me that will get an equal amount of joy from the experience as myself. For me it's about sharing the experience more than just having it. Yesterday I decided to venture out alone and it left me a bit empty at the end of the day.
Yesterday I spend a full day driving through the country in search of the best place to take a picture of the evidence that autumn is in progress. I was driving through the mountains and enjoying the beauty that has been millions of years in the making, searching for the ultimate picture location. After several hours I did finally manage to take this picture which completed the objective I had set out with.
Perhaps this is a sequel to Living a Plan B Life or maybe it's just a snapshot of this moment in time. Either way I woke up this morning and turned on the TV while I gathered my thoughts and there was a movie on that reflected much of my life back to me. The movie was Up In the Air and I saw a lot of my life being played out there within a little abstraction. This was after a long night of realizing that while most of the time my choices have served me well by simplifying life to allow me to invest more time into exploring my mind, I realized that there are times that it would be nice to share a few memories with someone who was there. I have a long list of things I would like to do or see but I often tell my friends that I will not go until I can find the person to go with me that will get an equal amount of joy from the experience as myself. For me it's about sharing the experience more than just having it. Yesterday I decided to venture out alone and it left me a bit empty at the end of the day.
Yesterday I spend a full day driving through the country in search of the best place to take a picture of the evidence that autumn is in progress. I was driving through the mountains and enjoying the beauty that has been millions of years in the making, searching for the ultimate picture location. After several hours I did finally manage to take this picture which completed the objective I had set out with.
I was able to capture my evidence worthy of stopping to take the picture. I continued along the same road after taking the picture and saw some even more amazing sites but nothing worthy of stopping to photograph due to the amount of time it would take to get in the position to take the proper shot. I finally reached a place where I decided to turn around and return home. The drive home was around 4 hours long and the music I had enjoyed going up the mountain no longer made me smile. The sights coming down did not make me feel the wonder it had on the way up. The return home was a long, lonely road.
Over the last week and a half I have been allowed to visit my past and be reminded of a wonderful time when me and my old friends would get together and enjoy hanging out and sharing parts of our lives. This was such an amazing feeling because I have not had that connection for a very long time. The empowering feeling that can only come from those who you share a mutual admiration and have allowed each other past the surface of who we appear to be. The indescribable feeling that if you were about to fall that you were surrounded by people who wouldn't let you hit the ground, those who would hold you up with support to do the things you might otherwise abandon.
As I returned back to my current life, I return to the simple existence I have carved out for myself that allows me to dig deeply into my thoughts but has limited room for time for others. I frequently quote Francis Bacon with "He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief." Most of the time I am very content to enjoy my time without interruption and value the opportunity to indulge in the pursuits of my whims. The quiet time to think deeply and follow the thoughts to the end of their path. The freedom to spend an evening playing video games even.
I sit here reflecting on how I policy of not doing some kinds of things alone is probably one of my better ones. The long drive home yesterday would have been very little effort if I had taken someone along to share in the experience. It has caused me to admit to the number of times recently I have expressed my desire to share some of the things in my life. This is a challenge because there are parts of my life that I also choose not to share which limits the availability of having someone to share the parts I want to share. Today I am struggling with how to find a balance with my need to share and my selfish need to be alone. Today I am conflicted about the virtue of my choices.
I took many pictures yesterday and the largest quantity were taken out the window of my car at highway speed. I was able to get many great shots without having to stop along the way because I was on the quest to find the perfect shot for yesterday. If I would have had a companion on my trip I am sure there would have been many more stops along the way and it would have been a wonderful time. I also consider that if I would have had an companion along for the ride that I might not have made it to find the perfection that I did. There was sacrifice of companionship for the purpose of completing an objective but also for the purpose of knowing where to go when I choose to take a companion along for the next expedition. My experience yesterday has given me insight into things I know to share when I find a companion to explore these wonders.
Reading David Foster Wallace a lot lately, I like how he referred to an ex-girlfriend from high school who accompanied him to an even that he was writing about for Harpers magazine as his Native Companion. While she has her own life and family, she was his guide to the first day of the state fair he was covering. He had never been when he was a resident of the state and she was able to buffer is return to a world he had forgotten or ignored when he was there. I sometimes wonder which is better for exploration, a native who is already familiar or for both parties to be seeing things for the first time. Either way, one of the things I enjoy most in life is the look on another's face when we are participating in a new experience.
As one who has isolated myself in pursuit of artistic development through years of learning to play an instrument to the endless hours I strive to find words to express the thoughts swirling around in my mind I have always known the importance of sharing the fruits. I am also aware that you have to play to the audience you have and not the one you would wish for. Performing a master piece is a wasted affair when everyone is just wanting to dance. Taking pictures out of the window was my way of playing for the dance but I did take the time to pause for the photo that I spent a full day searching for. This is how I found my fulfillment in my expedition yesterday and how I have chosen to share was the picture of perfection will only be seen here while the rest will reside on Facebook.
Meanwhile I will continue to be conflicted about how much of my time should be divided between the solo creative endeavors and how much I will devote to sharing with others. Finding myself chasing my thoughts through the playground of my mind while wondering which would even have any meaning to those around me. For today, you are my audience for this part I have chosen to share. It is my wish for you to see that my life is not without commitment even though the commitments that I have are not those considered traditional but the ones I treasure the most.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Bass Guitar Collection
I have been promising for some time to show pictures of the collection and the time has come. These are the instruments I have collected and played over the years. Some of them have a lot of memories and some are extremely beautiful, all of them are very special for one reason or another. I hope you enjoy seeing them.
This was my first real bass guitar. It is a custom made 4 string Kramer Pioneer Carrera.
All black with ebony finger board, P/J pickup configuration and one of the sweetest playing and sweetest sounding basses I have ever heard. The jazz pickup is actually 2 that have a 3 way switch that allows single coil, humbucker or out of phase settings. This bass will always be my favorite. Purchased 1984.
This was my first real bass guitar. It is a custom made 4 string Kramer Pioneer Carrera.
All black with ebony finger board, P/J pickup configuration and one of the sweetest playing and sweetest sounding basses I have ever heard. The jazz pickup is actually 2 that have a 3 way switch that allows single coil, humbucker or out of phase settings. This bass will always be my favorite. Purchased 1984.
This was my first 6 string bass that I got in 1988. It belonged to my good friend and mentor Steve Bailey. This is a custom Laravee (famous for acoustic guitars in Canada). This is a neck through body with ebony fingerboard and EMG active pickups. This bass was pearl white when I got it, another friend of mine wanted to paint a guitar he had that was damaged in an earthquake purple so... well there was a little left over when I finished the other one.
Dean 6 string bolt-on neck ebony fingerboard with EMG passive pickups. This bass is a very pretty transparent blue and I played this bass for quite a while. It was really cool because I got it brand new for $500 and it was totally playable, even for someone as picky as I am about how they are set up. I like this bass because if someone was to steal it at a gig I wouldn't be nearly as upset as I would some of the others (especially the Spector below). Purchased 1997.
This is a sweet bass that I adopted 2nd hand from the guitar center. It is a Tobias 4 string with rosewood fingerboard and a compound radius neck with Bartolini active pickups and concentric tone knobs. I rescued this bass from a life of dust collecting in the store and have become very attached to it because it is so much fun to play. It has a 24 fret fingerboard which gives it a lot of range for playing in the upper register.
Adopted 2006
This beautiful piece of wood is a hand crafted, custom 6 string custom Stuart Spector Design Ltd. U.S.A. fretless with active pickups including the piezo bridge pickup. I got this bass 2nd hand for about 1/4 the price of a new one but it was so well cared for that it was in new condition. I got this in 2007 and it is my first and only fretless bass. I was really surprised at how fast I was able to adapt to playing in tune, even after years of not playing. this is such a wonderful piece of wood, you can feel it's presence in the room when you walk in.
This is my most recent acquisition. This is a Fender 6 string Jazz bass Steve Bailey signature model. The friend that I took a few lessons from many years ago was finally able to get Fender to design his dream bass. He used to show me a 1966 Jazz bass he had that was worth a small fortune and when Fender approached him about a signature model he showed it to them and said make a 6 string just like this. It turned out to be quite the engineering feat by the time they finished it and I am very pleased with it being part of my collection. I got this one in 2009 because it was back ordered for a little over a year but well worth the wait.
This concludes the tour of my bass guitar collection as it stands today. There are some new additions that are in the works but I will keep those under wraps for now. I promise I will start spending more time playing each of them, the issue with the pain I as having in my hands and elbows seems to be gone so now I can return to playing and enjoying them. Thanks for coming by, leave me a comment or ask a question about them. I like to talk about them.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Photo Log of My Trip
The whole trip got started a while back when me and my friend Stephani connected on FB and decided that it had been too long since we had seen each other.
We met some time in the 80s through our friends that were in a rock band that we used to see regularly. I was going to originally go to visit her, and her mom Jacky, in Florida since they made a trip to visit me many years ago when I lived in California.
Stephanie to the left and Jackie below.
Stephanie was also planning a trip to visit family in Texas and decided to plan a couple of gatherings with some of the old group. I decided that would be great because I could also schedule a couple of more and be able to see a lot of people that I have not seen in varying measurements of time that extend past 20 years. So we decided to make it happen.
This is George who is one of my best friends who just happened to be responsible for me becoming a musician. Something like 27 years ago we met at a basketball game and he said "I play guitar and so does this guy, that guy over there plays drums with us but we need a bass player." I responded with "I will go pick one up on Friday when I get paid." George and I then spent a long time and had a few bands that were lots of fun. We played a lot of blues together and have many stories about our trek. George plays with several bands now and hosts a blues jam on Sunday nights so this one one definite item to schedule.
This is Dave who is also a guitar player that I played with on a few occasions (he is in costume for a band he plays with now, explanation below). Dave and I have such a great time because we laugh at some really abstract things that we have observed and I knew that I was going to have to see his new bad while I was on the trip. (I was so tired in this picture).
Metal Shop does all the 80s and 90s hair metal better than the original bands did it. They make you feel like you got into a time machine and landed in the spandex zone. More fun to watch their show than is legal in a few states, a must see if you are traveling through Texas.
Matt is a great guitar player I also had on the list to see when I was there so I was really lucky and he came out to the blues jam and we got to play together a little and talk a bit. Matt is playing with a few different acts that are all very close to being names you will recognize and he too has a wit that makes for endless laughter.
P.S. Next time I will make stuff up about those of you that can't make it.
And with my favorite quote from Barfly -- "To all my friends"
Stephanie to the left and Jackie below.
Stephanie was also planning a trip to visit family in Texas and decided to plan a couple of gatherings with some of the old group. I decided that would be great because I could also schedule a couple of more and be able to see a lot of people that I have not seen in varying measurements of time that extend past 20 years. So we decided to make it happen.
This is George who is one of my best friends who just happened to be responsible for me becoming a musician. Something like 27 years ago we met at a basketball game and he said "I play guitar and so does this guy, that guy over there plays drums with us but we need a bass player." I responded with "I will go pick one up on Friday when I get paid." George and I then spent a long time and had a few bands that were lots of fun. We played a lot of blues together and have many stories about our trek. George plays with several bands now and hosts a blues jam on Sunday nights so this one one definite item to schedule.
This is Dave who is also a guitar player that I played with on a few occasions (he is in costume for a band he plays with now, explanation below). Dave and I have such a great time because we laugh at some really abstract things that we have observed and I knew that I was going to have to see his new bad while I was on the trip. (I was so tired in this picture).
Metal Shop does all the 80s and 90s hair metal better than the original bands did it. They make you feel like you got into a time machine and landed in the spandex zone. More fun to watch their show than is legal in a few states, a must see if you are traveling through Texas.
Matt is a great guitar player I also had on the list to see when I was there so I was really lucky and he came out to the blues jam and we got to play together a little and talk a bit. Matt is playing with a few different acts that are all very close to being names you will recognize and he too has a wit that makes for endless laughter.
Wild Bill is another friend from days of long hair and loud music. He and I shared an appreciation for a few movies and were known to quote or even re-enact scenes from these movies when at a bar to see our friends play. Barfly was our favorite movie to mock. Many fun times we had.
Meet Lisa, she has always been a blast to be around. She is still making sure that everyone enjoys their nights out and get in the proper frame of mind to forget that autumn is just around the corner in more ways than one. One time I made a greeting on Lisa's answering machine in the character of a minister and gave a testimony of why the caller should leave a message. She said that she went 4 or 5 months before she got a message where someone quit laughing long enough to speak.
Jody is another person who is always able to make everyone enjoy their night out. Jody is a little quiet sometimes but she is one of the kindest people I think I know. We have known each other so long that I can't quite put a number on it. All of us think she knows where the fountain of youth is and not letting the rest of us in on the secret. She has always looked perfect and has been a great friend through the years
Kelli is the newest edition to my lovely collection of friends in Texas. Even though we just met on Saturday we immediately had much to talk about and noticed we share some odd habits like the use of lemon with ice tea (no details, you have guess). Kelli was granted full member status into the club with in a very short time and I will imagine she will be part of it for a very long time in the future. Neat person.
Kelli's son Nate plays drums so we had him come out to the blues jam and play a few songs with us. He is equally as charming as his mother and he is a very good drummer. I can see great things in his future.
So we got a lot of the old friends together and had a few laughs and talked about old times. If you think that is a good looking group now you should have seen us 20 years ago. One thing for sure, nothing means more than having friends that will be there when you get the chance to go back.
We played lots of music and had a wonderful time. This was great because I have really not played much in the last 10 years and I have lost a lot of my dexterity. I am still in a great deal of pain from having played for so long sans the callouses required to do so. It was such a great few days, the feeling of all the love we all have for each other and the encouragement for everyone to have a great time and express themselves was just incredible.
After seeing everyone and catching up on each other's lives it was time to wave good bye to everyone. I have to say that Dave expresses how great I felt in this picture as I said my good byes. I got a little reminder of the life I used to have with the music career and how much respect and admiration that we all shared with each other and how it is all still there and even stronger because we have all been enough miles to understand how much it means to have this kind of friendship. It was so hard to leave on my return but I was so exhausted I had to get home and rest.
I have recently begun to appreciate the phrase "person of interest". All of these people qualify but they all so qualify as interesting people as well as people who are interested. The circle that binds our friendships happens to be a band. This is one of the greatest fan clubs to ever exist, each person is a fan of all the others. The greatest support system for a creative type in that we applaud each other for making that face while playing that note. It's all about the fun, having it, delivering it, sharing it. This was my vacation and will be used as a template for future trips.
P.S. Next time I will make stuff up about those of you that can't make it.
And with my favorite quote from Barfly -- "To all my friends"
Monday, October 4, 2010
Face First
While on my mini-vacation I had the most unusual experience that I am still a little confused about. I found myself on Sunday night simultaneously living my past, my present, and my future all at the same time briefly. I am sure there is some kind of wonderful meaning behind that experience but it allowed me to feel a kind of peace that I was unaware even existing. It was the kind of thing I can only describe as face first in that caution was not required in cranking the personality up all the way. Restraints not needed in avoidance of offending one a first opinion, face first and face to face. It's such a rare thing for me to feel so much in my element that I am totally comfortable letting everyone see me in the imperfect state that I am in without fear, shame or concern of the perceptions being formed. Face first could be defined as self-unconscious in a way. If only I could acquire this level of comfort more often, it has really opened me to some new creativity.
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