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Return To Music

Sunday, Mar. 08, 2009 - 4:53 a.m.

Saturday, I returned to my music for the first time in nearly two years.

After the hard drive crash in May of Aught Seven wiped my existing album data and half of my new album's data, I just kind of didn't do much of anything with my music again for ages.

Until Saturday.

And it was with Alan Brownlee, who has known me since I graduated from high school and was dating his older brother Michael, that some creative doors were cautiously reopened and joyously entered.

---

In 1983, I was in poor heath, recovered, got into an automobile accident, received major abdominal surgery which has resulted in me wearing an ostomy pouch since April Fool's Day of that year, (with my 18th birthday six days later on the 7th, which I spent in intensive care in the hospital) and just generally don't have too many nice things to say about the first portion of that year.

But in June? Michael Brownlee's younger brother Alan asked if I wanted to sing in his band with him sometimes.

I said yes.

And so, there were two things I did in the summer of 1983 to recuperate from my operation.

1. I played twiddly billion games of Crystal Castles, and

2. I played and I sang with Alan's band.

We only really had one public performance at an end of summer party, and despite the fact that we practiced, we still admittedly stank a pretty considerable percentage of the time.

But it was fun.

Now, a Funny Aside That Could Only Happen In A Small Town: The place where the band practiced was a borrowed garage that happened to be the home of my anesthetist. As in, the guy who gassed me for my ostomy surgery. I have no idea how the fellas scared up the practice space to begin with, so I am at a loss there, and I didn't find out who owned the property until I actually saw him face to face sometime in mid July.

I looked at him, recognized him and said "Hey, Doctor Lastname! Good to see you again!"

He paused, standing on his porch in his camp shirt, shorts and long white socks... and said "I know you from somewhere, hello." and over his head appeared a voice balloon with a scribble mark which morphed into a question mark as he puzzled and puzzed.

I introduced myself by name and said "I was the colectomy and ileostomy on April First!"

His eyes and mouth opened wide. "Hey, how ARE you? Wow, you look SO HEALTHY!"

As I recall, the other members of the band were ranging from perplexed to nonplussed.

I still marvel at the connections within a small town.

---

Any WAY, back to yesterday. Spiral wipe, please... thank you.

---

John was good enough to drive me up to Vacaville on Saturday, and Alan drove me home.

Between those two events, many things happened. All of them excellent.

I got to meet Alan's wife, Dee, who is as perfect a match for him as I could have ever hoped he would find. The amount of relief that he's ended up with somebody who absolutely respects and understands him has nearly brought me to tears. He's just so utterly deserving of her. He's got four beautiful daughters, one of whom happens to have perfect pitch like her her father.

This was where I got my perfect pitch; from my Dad, so needless to say, I felt instantly at home.

---

For our first time working together again in a quarter of a century, we tackled a pre-existing song to see if we could come remotely close to being able to reconstitute a dormant work relationship.

I'm giving this one a tentative thumbs up. Alan has infinite patience, has repeatedly admonished me to remember that this is for FUN, and that even if any song we were to work on became a dead end for any reason? For heaven's sakes, so what, because we had fun trying.

With that kind of ease of attitude from him, I don't stand a chance at getting away with a thing, because frankly, there's no point.

He's just too mellow and good-natured.

One of the real personal treats I received was to hear a complete version of a song that Alan had been noodling around with when I'd been in the band those many centuries ago.

And yes it's here on the hard drive now and it's heading straight into the heavy rotation list on the Nano.

---

When he brought me back to SF, we went a slightly circuitous route that included a crossing of the Golden Gate Bridge at night.

There had been a clear day, and hooray, the night was clear, too.

So darn purty I forgot to take a picture!

---

To say it was a good day is an understatement, but it will have to do.

---

That's it! Have a good Sunday, and did you who are in a Daylight Savings Time area remember to set your watch ahead?

Yeah, me neither.

Take care.

---

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