As always, on this day, I raise a toast to my grandfather. He would have been 92 today. He was one tough guy (WWII bomber pilot, shot down and survived), but he had enough of a soft spot to help me get started with some of my first usable music[…]
History
69: BJ
Captured this one a long time ago, but had to resurrect it. I was playing a gig in Akron, adjacent to the Akron Beacon-Journal building. As you can see, on top of the building is a rotating tower with the temperature on two sides and “BJ” on two sides. Who[…]
A blast from the past: Mike Farley Band
I can’t believe it’s been ten years since the Mike Farley Band released their album Halfaworldaway. Around that time I was playing keys in the Tony Lang Band, playing guitar and producing music with Tom Smith, and writing and performing with the nascent version of drunkdude69. The TLB split a[…]
Happy Birthday
Today would have been my grandfather’s 90th birthday. Every July 10th I tip back a few manhattans in his honor. When I was in my early teens I desperately wanted a pro synthesizer. I had my Casio, of course, but I wanted to get into the realm of real gear.[…]
Happy drinking holiday
I read somewhere that Cinco De Mayo is actually only celebrated in one state in Mexico (Puebla, the state in which the Mexican army bested French forces on the 5th of May in 1862). Thanks goodness tequila companies have appropriated the holiday and sanctioned it for celebration by drunk dudes[…]
Sitting in
Generally I’m not big on sitting in with a band, or going to jam nights. Even though I guess I can hold my own when it comes to playing, I’ve never felt like I’m good enough to just randomly jump in. However, there are exceptions. Last weekend I had a[…]
Time flies: a look back (part 2)
The other remaining blog entry from the old DD69 blog, recently unearthed. This one is from 3/8/2006. Entertainingly, the album I referred to (Funk Out With Your Junk Out) wouldn’t be completed for another two years. I’m simple; everything else is complicated Agh. Mixing work, music and drinking all in[…]
Time flies: a look back (part 1)
I got an email from Blogger today that indicated that I had some accounts that are set up to publish via FTP, and that Blogger is no longer going to support that. I had forgotten completely about even having those accounts, so I logged in to check them out. Turns[…]
Whole hog ‘er none
A few years ago I was inducted into a super-secret society comprised of folks that just won’t let winter bring them down, which is a philosophy I can get behind. The centerpiece of their revelry is an extensive celebration of Groundhog Day, complete with feasting, drinking and barefoot running in[…]
The long and grinding road
A while ago (in ‘dude time that would be after Foonspeeders but before the other bands that came later) Mike and I recorded and played with a great songwriter and brother-from-another-mother named Thomas Reed Smith (find the first TRS record “I Need A Change” in the iTunes store). The remnants[…]