March 2008
Monday, Mar 31
In today's mail was the latest issue of "Edgehill", the alumni news magazine for University School of Nashville, where I attended high school. I had submitted a little blurb about myself sometime last fall (which I'd completely forgotten about), and they printed it. I was the lone representative of the class of '77.
So, for anyone reading here as a result of that bit of information, this entry is for you, to address any trivia/minutia you might wonder about.
Although I was ultimately incompatible with formal education, I will always appreciate all the kind, intelligent people I went to school with. Thanks for tolerating my mood swings.
I'm still a drummer, but not quite professionally. The band Cloverbottom is back together, as a result of a Nashville band reunion gig that never happened. We've kept rolling, and will be playing out in random places in the very near future. Here's the band web site. That's me on the bottom right, in 1980.
Mr. Gee, the math teacher, still lives on my street in West Meade. I never took his classes, but he remembers me, and we've conversed on occasion over the years when he's out walking with his wife. They're very nice people. He is bald now. I think he still has that light brown Chevy pickup.
Andy Martin ('78) lives near me, across from his boyhood home. Andy remains a fine fellow, smart and kind.
A couple of weeks ago, I experienced the inestimable delight of a surprise encounter with the ever-lovely Jenny Bell ('77) on the Richland Creek greenway here in Nashville. I knew that she's been based in Utah, hence the surprise factor. Hi, Jenny. It was really nice to see you and your fine young son.
Last year's 30th class reunion was my first. I skipped all the others, as my life at those particular times was not anything I was proud of. A bit selfish perhaps, but I was generally not happy for different reasons, and would not have been good company. Better late than never.
I still do not know what happened to Alan Rivers. Alan, if you're reading, please get in touch. I'm in the white pages and would love to see you.
I guess that's all for now. I encourage anyone from USN to call me. I'm easy to find, but do not offer email addresses here. I personally hand-coded this website back when I was really into that stuff, but the spambots eventually managed to contaminate my form mail and comment functions, so I removed them.
Thursday, Mar 13
Greetings everyone, and apologies to anyone who unsuccessfully tried to visit or send email for a couple of days. There was an issue with domain name re-registration.
Wanda Land's mixes are coming along. Let me remind everyone that there is no deadline; otherwise the album would now be available from Tunecore, CD Baby, and other portals. It is nice to be able to take my time, to take breaks from working to go for long walks around the neighborhood, and return with a new perspective to make further refinements.
I prefer to walk at night, by the way. Part of the reason is that I don't want anybody to think I'm retired or just don't work. And the vibe is different at night. Of course, the streets are well-lit by the pink-ish sodium glow, that became ubiquitous in the late seventies around here. I remember that someone said it might have been a plot by the electric utility and the street light manufacturers, to plant lots of news stories about nighttime crimes that could have been deterred by having well-lit streets everywhere.
It makes night strolling easy, but when I was growing up, there were no street lights anywhere in this neighborhood. At night, until I was about nineteen, the only ambient nighttime light came from people's eve lights, and whatever reached the street from their windows, as well as any moonlight that might be available. It made bicycling to friend's houses (and occasionally, the curb market over on Harding Road) an exciting prospect, and on moonless nights, the only visual reference was from the faint grey asphalt in the nearly pitch dark. Memories, memories...
Wanda's album is close to being ready for mastering. I have one more song to mix, and we'll make final minor tweaks. There is one song that is not quite finished. We think that we might re-record the guitar parts, and possibly do some editing. It's a beautiful song, but was not executed completely.
So, for your dining and dancing pleasure, here's where we are:
Do What You Want
Click Click
Neon Green
And a little bonus: Wanda and I first met in 1995, through our mutual friend Terry Wilemon, to realize "Neon Green" together. Terry did guitars and arrangements. I did synth and hammered dulcimer. We recorded and mixed it in a media production studio, with Pro Tools 2.5. Here it is, from the summer of '95: the original Neon Green.
to top of page