Talking to yourself

In this techno age where everyone's walking around with Bluetooth earpieces on, it's getting harder and harder to distinguish the "normal" people from the "crazy" people...

My first encounter with someone on a hands-free cellphone was in a supermarket parking lot. This lady was talking loudly to no one I could see, moving her hands all around. Oh great, I thought, here comes a wacko. Surprise! Just a high-tech lady on her high-tech phone headset.

I remember not too long ago when you could easily pick a wacko person out because they were the ones walking down the street, talking to themselves and making hand gestures. Today, I see someone walking down the street and I still can't tell if they're crazy or just talking on their mobile phone until I get a look at one of their ears. Maybe we should give all the crazy people Bluetooth earpieces so they'll fit in with the public better and give the aura that they're important people too, with the need to be in constant touch. (No one will know there's no one on the other end.)

Or maybe the ones on their phones ARE the crazy ones.

One reason I love Apple...

Last Friday morning, my "left Mac", the iMac G5, went down for the count. I got a kernel panic on the screen, shut it down, tried to start it up and...nothing...dead. No light, no sound, no power.

I went to the local Apple Store the next day after diagnosing that the power supply was fried (and also with checkbook in hand, prepared to buy a new Mac, rather than shell out $ for a new power supply and who knows what else -- the computer ended its warranty a year ago). I was told that Apple had an extended warranty on my model for defective power supplies and logic boards, and they would repair it for FREE.

I dropped it off at 2pm for repair and to my surprise, got a phone call only two hours later, saying it was ready for pickup! I got it home with a new power supply and logic board installed, it started up just fine with all my data intact, and I was ready to continue computing.

Now THAT'S customer service! Thank you, Apple. I've been a long-time customer and shareholder, and have now turned into a super-evangelist for your products. (That's also the reason I have 5 Macs in the house--plus an old SE30, a Newton Message Pad, an eMate, and various iPods--and not a single PC anywhere!)

Cub Camp

This past weekend, my family and perhaps 400-500 other families went to an overnight Cub Scouts Campout (my son is a Wolf Cub). Now, in Virginia, you wouldn't think it gets VERY cold in October, but it does. The daytime was nice & sunny, and he did lots of fun activities like BB guns, archery, fishing, etc. But as soon as the sun went down, nature turned the air conditioning on High. After freezing around the campfire, we went to the tent to try and sleep. Keyword = TRY. I was awake most of the night, since it was so cold. I know that when we left at 9am Sunday, it was only 40 outside, so it MUST have got down into the 30s overnight...

So there we were, the four of us squeezed together in a supposedly 4-person Wenger tent, dressed in multiple layers, in our sleeping bags, freezing to death. The ground outside the tent was completely covered with cold dew, which in some areas, was iced over. The tent itself was a dew collector to the point that water started leaking into the sides, causing some extreme drips and dampness. Of course, at 4:30am, my son woke up, stating he had to go to the bathroom...

In the morning, the breakfast was a cholesterol-fest of eggs & bacon (since all the dads arranged the pack's meals). So, I had to be content with a blueberry Pop Tart we had brought with us and a small cup of coffee I stole from the mess hall.

The last time I was camping, I was a teenager and I now think I know why... Nowadays, "camping out" to me means staying in a nice hotel with a lobby, room service, restaurant and wireless internet. I'm no Nature Boy, that's for sure...

49+1

This Saturday night was the gig in White Sulphur Springs, WV. It was rather long -- we played 7:30-12M with only a 25 min break at 9pm. Whew.

I'll say this: while I thought I bought a quite-comfortable D.W. drum seat, sitting on ANYTHING for 2-1/2 hours straight will cause a bit of an ache. ;)

Good thing I was staying overnight, cause it was pouring at the end of the gig, and a 3-hour drive home at 1am in the dark and the rain wouldn't be too appealing. So on Sunday, I woke up in a Hampton Inn in West Virginia and aged a year. Yep, I'm now 49+1. How the heck did I get this far?? Someone up above made it a pleasant day, as I drove back home escaping any rain. So, thanks, whomever you are.

Good gig

Did a fill-in gig in Charlottesville VA last night with Big Ray & The Kool Kats. A wedding gig -- one of those tux shirt/bowtie/white dinner jacket gigs. Wedding gigs are sometimes painful if the crowd is dead, or they can be a lot of fun. This bunch started out a little blasé, but soon got worked up into a fun bunch, thanks to the professional patter of Big Ray himself.

I hadn't played with these guys since last Fall, but everything just clicked into place. I thought we all sounded great, (especially since I was faking my way through some of the tunes). I even got to channel the late Gene Krupa in a rendition of "Sing Sing Sing" -- a song I'd never played before in my life -- and I pulled it off perfectly.

Anyway, at the end of the gig, the guys in the band applauded me. The Sunburst drumkit sounded good, the band sounded good, and I drove home feeling good.

I just realized...I've done over 1800 gigs in my life! wow...

An Evening of Choreographed Violence

My wife got me two tickets to the WWE Supershow for Valentines Day, so that's where we went last night -- 110 miles to the MCI Center in Washington D.C. to witness 4-1/2 hours of professional wrestling. I've been a closet wrestling fan for many years--merely for the entertainment of it all -- so this was an opportunity to validate.





The show was a TV taping for "Smackdown" at 6:45pm and then went live for "Monday Night Raw" at 9pm. Our seats were quite good -- we were next to the runway that the wrestlers walked to the ring. We were also near the "stage set" and as a result, next to all the pyro they set off during the show. A little loud perhaps? I've been in rock bands for years so my hearing can take it, but my wife would flinch every time they set something off. I will say that the heat of the pyro flames got pretty intense -- now I know how the guys in KISS must feel...

A few observations:

1. Wrestling fans like beer. Everyone around us was drinking beer. Including a girl that was seated next to me. After drinking 4 beers and falling over the seat in front trying to get out of the row to get even more beer, she disappeared, never to return. But not before flopping in her seat so that her elbow cracked hard into mine, causing my forearm to hurt for the rest of the show.

2. Wrestling fans like cellphones. Camera phones to be precise. Since we were near the runway, everyone came running over whenever the wrestlers would make an entrance or exit, all pointing their little camera phones and snapping away. All for a crappy-resolution blurry photo to prove they were there. I wonder how stupid it looks to the wrestler, seeing all these people just holding their cellphones up in the air. Hey Verizon, there's a good ad idea for you. Of course, there was also the guy in back of us who was gabbing away on his cellphone all through the evening. Dude, why are you on your damn PHONE??????

3. Wrestling fans like to bond. Everyone was intent on touching a wrestler as they walked by. Thus the squeeze at the runway railing all night. One guy was able to get Ric Flair's sweat on his hand, and in a rite of male bonding, high-fived his buddy to share that special perspiration.

4. Wrestling is much better on TV. They juice up the audience sound on TV, and get all the good closeup shots -- something sorely lacking at a live event. Half the time, the action was on the other side of the ring and we had to watch the "Titantron" screen to actually see what was happening. Hey, wait a minute -- we paid big money and drove 220 miles roundtrip to watch a big TV???

5. Wrestling fans like beer. Did I already say that?

All in all, it was an experience. Getting home at 2am and then having to get the kids off to school in the morning and go to work was not too fun though. But I went to a live wrestling show and lived to tell about it. ;)

Here's a not-so-brief musical history:

Born in Pittsfield, Mass., I got my first kid's drumset at the age of 8 and promptly destroyed the paper drumheads in about an hour. Before that, I had a cheap chrome snare and cymbal. I took about 4 weeks of lessons from a jazz clarinetist who lived a street away. He would constantly yell at me that my double-stroke roll wasn't correct, so I promptly quit and taught myself how to play. I later progressed to a "real" drumkit (a 4-piece Kent champagne sparkle) and played drums in my first band comprised of other neighborhood kids, appropriately named "Thee Band". Our one big gig was a talent show at a junior high school. (I think we lost.) After that, we went on to become "The Rising Sun" for a year or two.

In 1971, my dad got me a four-piece set of 1959 blue sparkle Ludwigs and I joined a band called "Blackwood" -- all the other guys were in college, and I was only in my first year of high school. We'd play bar gigs in Vermont until 1AM, they'd drive me home, and I'd wake up and go to school the next morning. It was during one of those bar gigs, that my whole bag of cymbals got stolen -- devastating to me of course, because I had to scrape together money for new cymbals.

Various other bands followed that (including an incredible group with my high school buddies, called "Woodrow"), until my "big break" in the Berkshires! I was asked to join the top rock band in town, "Zarvis-Allen Band", at the age of 19. I played with them for two years, then formed another local band called "Falcon Eddy".

Jazz/fusion guitarist Joe Beck saw the band and immediately recruited me and the guitarist for his new touring group. I spent a year in New York City playing and recording with "Joe Beck & Leader" until the band self-destructed after a gig in Woodstock, NY where the entire equipment truck got stolen and was never recovered. I stayed in Manhattan for another year, went on various auditions, and played the city clubs with songwriter/singer Nick Holmes.

After that "brush with stardom", I came back to Western Mass. and continued to play in rock (The Odds, The Wait), funk (Kasyopia), and wedding bands (Third Avenue, The Wanderers) throughout the 1980s, including a long stint at Eastover Resort in Lenox, Mass. in the "house bands" there.

Eastover was a wild gig, especially during their "Singles Weekends". We'd play "Happy Hours" from 4-6, then return at night to play from 10PM to sometimes as late as 5AM, alternating sets with another band. During this frantic period, I'd drive across the state to Boston once every two weeks to study with Gary Chaffee, a true wizard of polyrhythmic drumming. My studies with Gary were rapidly getting me in shape for my dream--to play in Frank Zappa's band. I was also very fortunate at that time to be in contact with Steve Vai, who sent me tons of transcriptions to rehearse. Unfortunately, Frank passed away way before his time -- and before I could ever audition for him. (Maybe Steve Vai needs a drummer sometime? Hey Steve -- call me!)

During the hectic '80s, I also played in theater pit bands for local productions of musicals such as "Jesus Christ Superstar", "A Chorus Line", "Chicago", and others, gave private drum lessons, did tons of studio session work, and wrote a monthly product review column for "Modern Drummer Magazine" for about 10 years.

I even appeared in a Japanese drum magazine in the mid-'80s as a Pearl Drums endorser. In the late '80s, I became a Remo Drums endorser, and I'm now back to playing Pearl again with a new birch-shell Sunburst lacquer finish kit.

In 1989, I moved to Long Island to work for Korg, Inc. who handled Sonor Drums, and I was Product Specialist. Two years later, Sonor got sold off to Hohner/HSS in Ashland, VA, and I moved along with it, landing in Richmond, VA. I became Artist Relations Director for Sonor for four years -- a lot of the time, the job mostly consisted of hanging around backstage at rock shows around the country like Phil Collins, Cher, Living Colour, etc., making sure the bands' drummers were happy with their Sonor equipment endorsement. I soon also took on responsibilities of National Marketing Manager and Advertising Designer. While at Sonor, I invented a 5x12 "soprano" snare drum (that all other drum companies have since copied).

I realized that while I was working with drums and drummers on a daily basis, I didn't have time to play anymore myself. So, I made it my mission to seek out a Richmond-based band to play with. A wedding/party band called "After Dark" needed a drummer, so I auditioned for them in 1994 and got the gig. (The "most memorable occasion" of my time with that band was playing at White Tail Park in Ivor, VA -- a private nudist camp -- definitely the strangest [and ugliest] gig I've ever played!)

Funny how "destiny" works out... I married Catherine Berlin, the singer in After Dark in 1995 and we now have two cool kids: Rhiannon and Rowan.

I began to get burnt-out on the music industry, and left my job at Sonor in 1995 to become a full-time Graphic Designer/Art Director. I've been doing so ever since, and have been working in the Creative Department at a "credit card giant" for the past 8 years, as well as doing freelance design from home.

After Dark disbanded in mid-'95, and I packed away the drums until early 1999, when I joined "Daddy-Oh", a rock band in Richmond, for about six months. The band ended up cutting into my rare family/leisure time, so I quit the band, and didn't play again until July 2005 when I traveled back up to Massachusetts for some 30-year reunion gigs with Zarvis-Allen Band. For only 2-1/2 days of rehearsals, the band was smokin!! It was like we'd never lost a step.

Lately, I've been doing some sub gigs with Big Ray & The Kool Kats (a 12-pc. band from Charlottesville VA), and am looking to join a working band again in the Richmond VA area.

More later...stay tuned!