A Bump in the Road [Abstract]

Yesterday I sent an e-mail to two married friends I recently located after years of trying. N [not her real initial] was diagnosed with diabetes two months ago. She is understandably concerned because of the way diabetes has impacted her family. I remembered how I felt when I was first diagnosed. I told her that I first reacted to the possibilty that my life might be shortened. . . .

Misnamed Symphony [Abstract]

The joke is on me. While I was stationed in South Korea from 1970-71, I would escape to the Service Club with my friend Dennis "Moby" Wales. Moby's nickname derives from his last name . . . you know, W(h)ales. He aspired to be a writer, for which he chose the more literary-sounding D. Scott Wales. I'm sure he left "Moby" behind when he returned stateside. At the club we would shoot pool, play table tennis, or watch TV. We also enjoyed looking at fresh silkscreen prints, drying from an ongoing class. . . .

[To listen to my "Two-Minute Symphony" click here.]

Friends and Fatigue

I spent the last twenty-four hours with my best friends from high school. I always enjoy our get-togethers. They usually consist of catching up, reminiscing, socializing, and making music. We are, after all, confreres of the legendary – a term usually reserved for deceased musicians – folk group, The Balladeers.

Part I was an overnighter at Gary Chicoine's. We chatted, dined, bragged about our children, and I coached him on his banjo playing, resumed after a 44-year hiatus. He is playing well, due less to my coaching and more to his resurrection of past skills. Next day we joined Mike Burak and John Gunther at Mike's for Part II. This gathering featured Mike's handcrafted, pH 1.8 chili con carne, our usual minstrelsy, and a spirited round robin of joke telling where successive jokes were often conjoined by a common theme. I myself offered a joke of my own creation. It did, I must say, receive a response as glorious as the period at the end of this sentence. My setup was complex and protracted, I forgot some essential details, and it was a pun, a pun so fetid that it didn't merit even the customary groan. We had a grand time.

I returned home exhausted. I love these guys, but there is a kind of intensity to being with them that consumes energy and demands sharp mental focus. It's the same kind of happy fatigue I often get after spending time with my family. Maybe it's because these relationships are so important that I want to remember and savor every experience. Maybe it's because I want to make the best possible impression. Either way, it's a small price to pay for the love and solace of family and friends.

Six Degrees of Separation

You know how degrees-of-separation works, don't you. You know someone who knows someone who knows someone. In theory, each of us is linked to everyone else on the planet by no more than six degrees of separation. It's always more interesting if the last person in the chain is someone famous. Here are some examples that begin with you:

1. You know me. I once told a joke to actor Eddie Albert, star of the 60's TV show Green Acres. You have two degrees of separation from Eddie Albert. [Here's the "joke" I told while serving him coffee: "This coffee tastes like mud. It should, it was ground this morning."]
   
2. You know me. My ex-wife, Judy, taught with and was friends with Judy Nabors, the first cousin of Jim Nabors, the actor-singer featured on The Andy Griffith Show and star of Gomer Pyle, USMC. You have four degrees of separation from Jim Nabors.
   
3. You know me. A one time co-worker is the son-in-law of Alistair Cooke, journalist, broadcaster, and former host of PBS's Masterpiece Theatre. You have three degrees of separation from Alistair Cooke.
   
4. You know me. My manager was Richard Hunter, the son of Evan Hunter, the novelist who wrote The Blackboard Jungle and the screenplay for The Birds. You have three degrees of separation from Evan Hunter.

If you've been paying attention, you'll have noticed that you also have close connections to Eva Gabor, Andy Griffith, Alfred Hitchcock, and Sesame Street's Alistair Cookie. But I digress. In fact this entire post is a digression. I had intended to write about a recent experience that involves degrees of separation, but I got caught up in these examples. Tomorrow I'll tell you about the links in that experience, which include a movie, a director, an actor, a short story, an author, and a book.

If you have some close connection to a celebrity, send a comment and share it with all of us. It will bring us all closer together.

Ghost Riders Revisited

I should have mentioned in my previous post that Matthew, my son, enhanced the Balladeers arrangement of Ghost Riders in the Sky. Starting with my MIDI file and using Garage Band™ he chose alternate instruments, then added a drum track and some special effects. The result is a much darker and dramatic version of the song that I think you'll like. Here is the link for playing or downloading his version of Ghost Riders.

Ghost Riders in the Sky

Back in high school three friends – Mike Burak, Gary Chicoine, and John Gunther – and I formed a folk group called The Balladeers. Last Fall we had a musical reunion. Since then we've gotten together several times to jam and reminisce. One of our old songs was Ghost Riders in the Sky. It had a simple arrangement with a Buddy Holly-esque thing in the chorus. Yipee-I-Ay-ay-ay-ay. Ghost Riders is one of about ten songs that we decided to focus on, in case the desire and the opportunity to perform ever comes along...

Click here to listen to my arrangement of Ghost Riders.