As long as I can remember, music has been an important part of my life. Now some might think that odd considering I do not know how to play an instrument nor do I sing, but music is universal and I think that we all on some level enjoy it.
My earliest recollection of music revolves around Saturday night television. My mom and dad were big Country and Western music fans and watched "Hee Haw" and "The Grand Ol' Opry" rather religiously. My mother enjoyed watching "Lawrence Welk" (I think that came on Sunday nights) and I can remember sitting and watching all three quite frequently when I was young.
Orchestra, Big Band, Country and Western, and Gospel was the only music I can remember listening to as a small child. That was until my parents gave me an old AM transistor radio with an earphone. My friends (I must have been 10 years old or so at the time) asked me what station I was listening to and I told them WPDX, the local country station. They gave a chuckle and told me that there was better music available and quickly gave me the frequency to the local AM rock station, "13 Rock" and I was hooked. I quickly abandoned C&W and Big Band music and became a rock and roll rebel.
It was also during this time that I became a fan of the "Dumb Ditties" type of songs. You may know what I an talking about...the kind of songs Weird Al or Doctor Demento would play. My mom and dad bought me several of those and I have to admit that I still like them to this day. Oddly enough, so did my buddies Rycherox, Knightmare Duck, and M'Wonga.
I soon became a die hard fan of Bill Mahoney, the morning DJ at 13 Rock. I called in to his show frequently to answer the trivia question of the day and soon was banned from calling because of my penchant for getting through with the correct answer more often than not. Getting banned from calling did not bother me much because the notoriety of being blacklisted went pretty far.
During my early years of listening to "13Rock" I began my love affair with harder, guitar oriented rock and roll. Queen, Eddie Money, and Billy Squier were among my favorites. Air guitar in my bedroom in front of the mirror was a common activity for me (and for quite some time I must admit).
By the time I was in Junior High (now referred to as "middle school"), MTV was on the air. Now I know you younger people will have a hard time believing me, but at one time, MTV played nothing but videos. Mind you it was not 24x7, (I think they stopped programming at 1 or 2 AM) but they had "VJ's" (video jockeys), which were the video equivalent of "DJ's" on the radio today.
I loved MTV. They played a huge variety of music from pop and dance to rock and metal. They had a weekly show called "The Headbanger's Ball" that showed nothing but hard rock and heavy metal videos for three hours. It was great!
The older got (think high school), the heavier the music became that I listened to. While I still liked good ol' rock and roll, my favorite music was "heavy metal" and many of its varients. Iron Maiden, Metallica, Ratt, Def Leppard, and Saxon were some of my favorites. My buddy RycheRox shared this love and he and I spent many hours watching The Headbanger's Ball and listening to hard rock mixes.
I think it was during this time that hard rock infused with other elements began to intrigue me. One band in particular, "Momma's Boys", infused Irish fiddle with their pop metal sound. This fusion stuck with me but did not surface again until many years later after I remarried.
We (RycheRox and I) were also fans of Circus and Hit Parader magazine. We litereally could not wait until the next issue would be published so we could see when Queensryche or Def Leppard would release their next album. We had to rely on magazines because back then there was no real organized online information. Oh, the internet existed, but we only had access to BBS's.
After I graduated high school I still was very interested in the heavier music, but I had turned my attention to MOD, SOD, and Anthrax aka hardcore music. It was fast and it was aggressive...just perfect for an angry young man like myself.
After I got married the first time, I was asked to front a fledgling hardcore band called "Ded Horse" as vocalist. My stint with them was short...I recorded a very poor demo with them in my house. The song was "Grip of Death", one of many I had written but the only one that ever got recorded. I was told to "sing" in a very gravelly throated voice that sounded rather horrible, but it was what the Hall Brothers (John and Rob, the Saltwell Hardcore Duo) wanted so that is what I did. After we recorded it, I could barely speak...my throat was raw. While writing and recording were fun, I realized I could not sing, even for a hardcore band so I gave it up. I wonder if that demo will ever turn up one day...
As I grew a bit older, my tastes in music began to mature somewhat. While I still enjoyed hard rock and heavy metal, I began listening to musicians who were gifted/talented/geniuses in their craft. Joe Satriani and Steve Vai became commonplace on my playlists and bands (no matter what style) who had really talented guitar players (U2, Big Country, Yes, Testament, Metallica, Pink Floyd, etc) were the ones I wanted to listen to.
After I started dating and later married Mrs El Gee,my musical tastes began to evolve again. I was in a video store at Northgate Mall in Durham, NC when I heard what sounded like a cross between Celtic Folk and pop-rock. It was an interesting sound so I stopped to see where it was coming from. The obviously gay associate at the store pointed me to one of the larger TV screens showing a group of Celtic dancers. When I asked the guy what it was he said, "The Lord of the Dance", obviously one of his personal favorites from the way he sighed when he said it.
Whether it was a gay favorite or not, I liked what I heard, so I bought a copy and took it home. My wife and I watched it that night and we both loved it. She really liked the dancing and I enjoyed the pop-rock/celtic folk fusion that Ronan Hardiman created.
It was also during this period that I began to expand my musical tastes into the area of Christian music. While I never have been a big fan of gospel hymns, the merging of Christ centered lyrics with rock music really lifted my spirit. Soon I was gathering as much Christian rock as I could.
After "OD-ing" on Christian themed music (yes, you can have too much of a good thing), I began to balance my listening choices a bit more. I will go back an listen to all the fun 80's music every now and then and later on listen to as much Contemporary Christian music as I can find.
Every now and then I catch myself listening to a little Bluegrass or Celtic folk.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Holiday Photos
I saw this in the produce section of Kroger's this evening. Heck of a bargain, eh?
And I know this is a bad photo, but I had to at least try. It is a Christmas Cactus. My wife and I both want one.
Monday, June 24, 2013
All Hail the Class of 1983
On June 22 and 23 of 2013, I attended my 30th year high school reunion. I missed our 25th due to scheduling issues (I live about 1200 miles away from my hometown nd it was finalized only two weeks before the event) and when this one was announced I had mixed feelings about attending. I assumed that many of the people that came to the 25th reunion would not make the 30th, but my wife encouraged me to go. I am glad she did. It was memorable.
The reunion dinner/mixer was held at an establishment owned by one of my classmates (20 miles away in another county) and it was coordinated by a few of the others. The following day a family picnic was held in a park very close to my mother's house, again coordinated by a few of my classmates. While I was hungry before I went to both events, I did not go for the food. I wanted to reconnect with a few of the people I had lost contact with but still remembered. With the internet age you would think it would be easy to find someone you went to school with but it turns out that many people don't use social media and some did not even have/use e-mail.
There were a few surprises at each event. A few people I did not expect to attend showed up and then some people whom I expected to see did not attend. One of the best surprises was being able to see someone whom I have known since I was TWO but had not communicated with much since graduation. I had her e-mail but she really did not make an effort to keep in touch, or so it seemed. After Friday night I understood some of her reluctance to stay connected. It is a bit of an ironic story that I will try to tell later. I would have liked to pick her brain more but time would not allow for that. I am having a great deal of trouble processing most of what she said and reconciling that with her current situation.
One of the other surprises was seeing someone whom I had completely forgotten about. The last time I saw her was 20 years ago at the 10 year reunion and that was a pretty brief conversation. She hadn't changed much since then. She still was polite and soft spoken, although when she wanted something done, she had a way of making it happen. I met and spoke at length with her husband who was in a similar line of work that I am. They attended both functions and while I did not talk to either of them much the second day, we did chat a bit.
A few of the coordinators were people that I had lost contact with, but still followed on Facebook. They had not changed all that much and were just as polite and giving as they were 30 years ago when I had them in class. A few of them were ones that I helped through English (which is ironic since my grammar is atrocious), but at least they passed the class.
I reconnected with a guy I worked with right out of high school. We spent a good part of Sunday chatting. He was always polite even though our boss was not the most pleasant person on the planet. He works for a turbine engine manufacturer, which is interesting to me because a few other people in my graduating class work in the aerotech industry as well, bit in different parts of the US.
I saw a lot of people that I did not really associate with in high school for various reasons and most of them did not make any attempt at saying high. It may have been that they did not know my name and just did not want to appear foolish. Maybe I was still beneath them on the social ladder.
I was able to estimate that about 40-50 percent of our graduating class moved out of state at some point after graduation. WV is a rather depressed state to live in, generally speaking, and I am sure that the lure of greener pastures enticed them to move away. With that in mind I found it interesting that most of them said if they could do their job from anywhere, they would move back to WV. At least one person who can work from anywhere (like their spouse can) stated they only reason they stay where they are is because of their spouse. That was pretty enlightening.
There was something I noticed and after thinking about it, it must be a female thing. I had at least 5 people tell me they recognized me the minute they saw me that first night. I thought that was kinda odd since I have beard and have lost a lot of hair and I don't think I look anything like I used to. My weight is a bit more (+20 lbs) than it was when I graduated but it does not look bad on my frame. I was told that people recognized me because of my eyes. I have had, since I have been little, pale blue-gray eyes. They are not bright blue, not deep blue, not pale blue, but a pale blue-gray. People have always commented (okay, moth females) on my eyes. I remember once when I was 10 or so an older girl, maybe 14, told me I had the nicest eyes she had ever seen on a boy. I had actually forgotten about that until Friday night. I guess it kind of felt good.
One other surprising comment that was made to me was from a woman I only had one class with that I can remember and that was drivers ed. She came over to me and asked me how I had been and then said she was just talking to a couple other people we graduated with about, "I wonder what ever happened to..." then named 3-5 people. Mine was one of the names she was curious about. One of the other names on her list was also on mine, so we traded info but we both had the same data so it really did not help either once of us. Luckily one of our former classmates knows someone who probably can help. She promised to keep us in the loop.
Most of the females I was friends with in high school brought their spouses (almost all of them were married) and I made every effort to talk to then when their wives wandered off to hug and old friend (speaking of hugs, I was hugged so much that night it almost became an expected form of greeting). I think everyone is aware that a spouse at a high school or college reunion is doomed to hold purses, drinks and take pictures most of the night. I wanted to at least give the husbands of my classmates someone to talk to.
I spoke with the event coordinators and they were a bit disappointed at the number of people who either blew off the event or just did not want to come. There was also a large number of people who just could not be located. The team used all of their Google-fu but nothing turned up. I told them that once they sanitized the list I would help if I could.
Overall we had about 60 of our 221 graduates attend the functions. It was not a stellar turn out but for me it was worth the drive. I may have not seen everyone I wanted to but I saw many that I had not expected and that made it worthwhile. A lot of what I saw and heard did not surprise me but there were things that did.
The reunion dinner/mixer was held at an establishment owned by one of my classmates (20 miles away in another county) and it was coordinated by a few of the others. The following day a family picnic was held in a park very close to my mother's house, again coordinated by a few of my classmates. While I was hungry before I went to both events, I did not go for the food. I wanted to reconnect with a few of the people I had lost contact with but still remembered. With the internet age you would think it would be easy to find someone you went to school with but it turns out that many people don't use social media and some did not even have/use e-mail.
There were a few surprises at each event. A few people I did not expect to attend showed up and then some people whom I expected to see did not attend. One of the best surprises was being able to see someone whom I have known since I was TWO but had not communicated with much since graduation. I had her e-mail but she really did not make an effort to keep in touch, or so it seemed. After Friday night I understood some of her reluctance to stay connected. It is a bit of an ironic story that I will try to tell later. I would have liked to pick her brain more but time would not allow for that. I am having a great deal of trouble processing most of what she said and reconciling that with her current situation.
One of the other surprises was seeing someone whom I had completely forgotten about. The last time I saw her was 20 years ago at the 10 year reunion and that was a pretty brief conversation. She hadn't changed much since then. She still was polite and soft spoken, although when she wanted something done, she had a way of making it happen. I met and spoke at length with her husband who was in a similar line of work that I am. They attended both functions and while I did not talk to either of them much the second day, we did chat a bit.
A few of the coordinators were people that I had lost contact with, but still followed on Facebook. They had not changed all that much and were just as polite and giving as they were 30 years ago when I had them in class. A few of them were ones that I helped through English (which is ironic since my grammar is atrocious), but at least they passed the class.
I reconnected with a guy I worked with right out of high school. We spent a good part of Sunday chatting. He was always polite even though our boss was not the most pleasant person on the planet. He works for a turbine engine manufacturer, which is interesting to me because a few other people in my graduating class work in the aerotech industry as well, bit in different parts of the US.
I saw a lot of people that I did not really associate with in high school for various reasons and most of them did not make any attempt at saying high. It may have been that they did not know my name and just did not want to appear foolish. Maybe I was still beneath them on the social ladder.
I was able to estimate that about 40-50 percent of our graduating class moved out of state at some point after graduation. WV is a rather depressed state to live in, generally speaking, and I am sure that the lure of greener pastures enticed them to move away. With that in mind I found it interesting that most of them said if they could do their job from anywhere, they would move back to WV. At least one person who can work from anywhere (like their spouse can) stated they only reason they stay where they are is because of their spouse. That was pretty enlightening.
There was something I noticed and after thinking about it, it must be a female thing. I had at least 5 people tell me they recognized me the minute they saw me that first night. I thought that was kinda odd since I have beard and have lost a lot of hair and I don't think I look anything like I used to. My weight is a bit more (+20 lbs) than it was when I graduated but it does not look bad on my frame. I was told that people recognized me because of my eyes. I have had, since I have been little, pale blue-gray eyes. They are not bright blue, not deep blue, not pale blue, but a pale blue-gray. People have always commented (okay, moth females) on my eyes. I remember once when I was 10 or so an older girl, maybe 14, told me I had the nicest eyes she had ever seen on a boy. I had actually forgotten about that until Friday night. I guess it kind of felt good.
One other surprising comment that was made to me was from a woman I only had one class with that I can remember and that was drivers ed. She came over to me and asked me how I had been and then said she was just talking to a couple other people we graduated with about, "I wonder what ever happened to..." then named 3-5 people. Mine was one of the names she was curious about. One of the other names on her list was also on mine, so we traded info but we both had the same data so it really did not help either once of us. Luckily one of our former classmates knows someone who probably can help. She promised to keep us in the loop.
Most of the females I was friends with in high school brought their spouses (almost all of them were married) and I made every effort to talk to then when their wives wandered off to hug and old friend (speaking of hugs, I was hugged so much that night it almost became an expected form of greeting). I think everyone is aware that a spouse at a high school or college reunion is doomed to hold purses, drinks and take pictures most of the night. I wanted to at least give the husbands of my classmates someone to talk to.
I spoke with the event coordinators and they were a bit disappointed at the number of people who either blew off the event or just did not want to come. There was also a large number of people who just could not be located. The team used all of their Google-fu but nothing turned up. I told them that once they sanitized the list I would help if I could.
Overall we had about 60 of our 221 graduates attend the functions. It was not a stellar turn out but for me it was worth the drive. I may have not seen everyone I wanted to but I saw many that I had not expected and that made it worthwhile. A lot of what I saw and heard did not surprise me but there were things that did.
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