RIP Ray Manzarek

 2013, All About The Author, Music  No Responses »
May 212013
 

The+Doors

When I was 25 I discovered The Doors. The Doors were a lot darker than a lot of what I had been listening to before then. Their sound was magic.

Their sound is still magic.

Being 25 was a weird age for me. I felt out of phase with everyone else and the rest of the world. Adrift in my own life. A rebel without a clue.

The Doors music and Jim’s voice touched something in me. It awakened my inner hippy. It spoke to me in a way that no other music had ever done, I felt connected to it. To something bigger than myself. I’m sure that sounds really weird.

I was sad to learn yesterday of the passing of Ray Manzarek who played keyboards and founded the band with Jim Morrison back in 1965. He was 74 years old.

John Densmore (the drummer) has said about Ray: “There was no keyboard player on the planet more appropriate to support Jim Morrison’s words. Ray, I felt totally in sync with you musically. It was like we were of one mind, holding down the foundation for Robby and Jim to float on top of. I will miss my musical brother.”

The music industry and fans have lost another music icon to the Gig in the Sky.

“The movie will begin in 5 moments”
The mindless Voice announced
“All those unseated, will await The next show”
We filed slowly, languidly into the hall.

The auditorium was vast, & silent.
As we seated & were darkened
The Voice continued:
“The program for this evening is not new.You have seen this entertainment thru & thru.

You’ve seen your birth, your life & death; you might recall all of the rest
– (did you have a good world when you died?) – enough to base a movie on?”

- Jim Morrison

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 Posted by at 6:00 pm

Winchell’s Donut House

 2013, All About The Author, Family, Family Journaling, Oral/Written History  No Responses »
May 202013
 

IMG_0047

When I was a kid there was a Winchell’s up the road from us. I can remember the place looked a bit rough but I think it was just a bit worn out. If I remember right the place was decorated in yellow and brown tiles with yellow and brown plastic tables and chairs. You know the picnic table type table and chairs, the whole thing bolted to the floor.

The smell of the place was of course amazing, but it’s so hard to describe exactly what that smell was. It smelled of strong black coffee, cigarettes and of course donuts. But there was another smell as well and I wish I could find the words to describe it.

It was a big treat to go there and I think I mostly went there with Pop. I have one clear memory of going there with Mom though. It had snowed a lot and so we decided we’d walk up there for a donut and a hot chocolate. As we started walking up the alley Mom slipped in the snow and fell. We both started laughing really hard, so as she was still laughing she was trying to get up and fell again. Which just made us laugh harder.

I want a donut now. Drat!

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 Posted by at 7:38 pm

Socks

 2012, All About The Author, Blogging  4 Responses »
Dec 012012
 

Socks and I have always had a very tumultuous relationship, well really if I’m honest I’ve hated socks for most of my life.

I’ve flatly refused to wear them at any time of the year. I’ve gone outside in the middle of winter with no socks on, or shoes for that matter. But something has changed in the last two years. First it was just an attempt to stay warm in the house during the winter, then it was to help keep my feet moisturised as part of keeping healthy for my diabetes.

Now I’ve discovered my feet are much happier warm and not cold like they used to be. Not even shoes keep my little toes warm enough these days. So tentatively I am beginning a new relationship with socks. Not any socks though. They have to be silly, quirky, or very bright colors, average socks will never do. They need to be an extension of me. I’m not sure if this relationship will last or if it is a transient affair.  For now, I’ll carry on collecting crazy socks.

You can never have enough socks right?

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 Posted by at 3:04 pm

41.9

 2012, All About The Author, Family, Family Journaling, Oral/Written History, The Keeper of the Archives  1 Response »
Aug 062012
 

Tomorrow is my birthday. I’ll be 42. So it’s weird thinking about tomorrow.

When I was a kid, I had some fantastic parties. I was lucky with my birthday being in August I didn’t have to worry about it ever being on a school day and I can only remember one birthday that it rained. Gramma always planned all the games at my parties when I was a kid, they were always fun games and everyone got a prize. One year my cousins Cary and Mike came dressed up, Cary was a clown and Mike was dressed up to look like Snoopy. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 2:15 pm

Writing To Reach You

 2011, All About The Author, Blogging  No Responses »
Oct 172011
 

This morning on BBC Breakfast there was guy talking about writing a letter to his 16 year old self. It caught my interest mostly because I’ve found that writing is the most therapeutic thing in the world to me.

I have journals and notebooks full of streams of conscious, I’m writing whatever comes into my head, I’m working out a problem, or how I feel about something. If anyone ever reads any of that stuff they’ll discover two things. 1) They’ll think I’m far more crazy than they ever thought and 2) They’ll be able to see my thought process at work and wonder how I’d avoided the nice padded cell.
Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 8:53 pm

Dusting Off

 2011, All About The Author  No Responses »
Aug 012011
 

*blows dust off blog … chokes and sputters*

Hi!

So I’ve been ignoring this blog, I think it’s because I wasn’t sure just what kind of direction I wanted it to go in. I had wanted to to write about important things, to have some sort of theme. But having spent so long avoiding writing things because I was worried about it not fitting into a theme I’ve decided that since this is the story of a geek in a strange land I will write about me. Hows that for self centered?
Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 7:04 pm

Through The Windshield Next Stop 2011

 2010, 2011, All About The Author  2 Responses »
Dec 312010
 

Looking back at 2010 I realized that I actually managed to accomplish a lot without even trying. I managed to work out how my brain ticks a long with learning some very valuable lessons. So with that in mind I wondered what would happen if I actually tried to accomplish things.
Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 12:05 pm
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