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My Top 15 Concerts of the Past Decade

Posted in Good Times, Reflections with tags , on December 22, 2009 by Verge

A top (fill in here) of the (fill in here).  What a great stop-gap solution for a blog that hasn’t a topic tonight.

Well, in agreement with a conversation I had earlier this week, while it is terribly difficult to rank your favorite moments of an entire decade, simply listing an un-ranked version is a cop-out.  So, I will try, as impossible as it is to rank memories. I want to also stress that I choose, and rank, these concerts not on the quality of the show alone, but have taken into account, heavily, their sentimental value to me personally.  That doesn’t mean that “at this show was the first time I kissed so-and-so” will rank highly, but it certainly does account for the fact that there are exactly 3 Radiohead shows on my list.  I like ’em, I won’t deny they have an unfair advantage, and my list doesn’t pretend to be unbiased–on the contrary, my list is heavily biased.

Before we get started, here’s some brief stats:

77 Total concerts attended in the last decade

13 Radiohead shows attended

7 Shows containing at least one member of the Grateful Dead

4 Smashing Pumpkins, Roger Waters and Mojave 3/Neil Halstead Shows attended

3 Spiritualized, Beth Orton, Bob Dylan, Ozric tentacles, and Ravi Shankar shows attended

13 Shows at E-Center/Tweeter Center/Susquehanna Bank Arts Center

9 Shows at The Electric Factory and The Theatre of Living Arts

5 Shows at The Tower Theater

4 Number of different girlfriends I’ve had over the same time period.  I married the last one.

# 15  Saturday, June 21, 2003     Peter Gabriel     Tweeter Center     Camden, New Jersey (Not the first time I ever saw Peter Gabriel, but he always puts on a damn fine show, and seeing him perform some of the Ovo songs live was pretty amazing)

# 14  Saturday, April 08, 2006     Death Cab For Cutie     Tweeter Center     Camden, New Jersey (Great seats for this one.  Franz Ferdinand opened up.)

# 13  Friday, June 02, 2006     Radiohead     Tower Theater     Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (Tons of new material in such a small venue.  Tickets were damn near impossible to get)

# 12  Thursday, March 19, 2009     The Ting Tings     The Starlight Ballroom     Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Small venue to see a band I still believe is going to blow up.  We sat maybe 20 feet from them as they performed.  This show was originally supposed to be at the First Unitarian Church, which would have been great, but the Starlight has 2 dollar Pabst shooters, and you can’t go wrong with that.  Was amazing to see how the two of them alone can pull their music  live.)

# 11  Friday, September 25, 2009     MuteMath     Theater of Living Arts     Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (First and only time I’ve seen these guys.  They pulled off some pretty neat tricks themselves, and the sound was spot on.  I love seeing shows at the TLA and always have, but the new and improved TLA is an absolute pleasure.)

# 10  Thursday, April 15, 2004     Damien Rice     Tower Theater     Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (Didn’t think this was going to be one of the besgt shows I’d even seen.  Perhaps it was my low expectations or the 2nd row seats–Damien Rice absolutely rocked, which took me by complete surprise.)

# 9  Friday, August 10, 2007     Muse     Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing     Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Outdoor shows are a bitch for sound.  The week before this show it was dreadfully hot, but all of the sudden, the heat broke and it was cool down by the water.  Cold War Kids opened up, but Muse blew them away.  These guys are amazing.)

# 8  Sunday, August 13, 2000     Summersault 2000     Rideau Carleton Raceway     Ottawa, Canada (I saw two of these shows up in Canada.  The lineup was amazing:  Smashing Pumpkins, Catherine Wheel, who I met, A Perfect Circle, Foo Fighters.  Beautiful Canadian summer festival weather.)

# 7  Sunday, August 05, 2001     Radiohead     Parc Jean Drapeau     Montreal, Canada (Technically not the most amazing Radiohead show ever, but that damn little island, with Montreal as the background, and the hill to relax on..this venue is hard to beat.   If you ever have a chance to see a show here, do it.)

# 6  Monday, June 07, 2004     Les Paul and his Trio     Iridium Night Club     Manhattan, New York City (Seeing Les Paul at all was amazing, but this was his 89th birthday and he definitely was having a celebration.  Afterward, I helped him to his seat to sign autographs, and I now have a Les Paul pick guard that says “To Ryan, keep rockin.”  Perhaps someday I’ll have the guitar to put it on.)

# 5  March 25th, 2009     Neil Halstead     Talking Heads Club     Baltimore, Maryland (This is perhaps the smallest venue I’ve ever seen a concert in.  It wasn’t at the club so much as it was in the basement of the club.  I love Neil Halstead and I really don’t understand why he would fly from England to play a show to 30 people if not for the love of music.  We got him to sign a bunch of Slowdive stuff for us, which he thought was pretty funny.)

# 4  Monday, October 30, 2006     Massive Attack     Tower Theater     Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (These guys, like Portishead, were a band I just figured I was never going to get to see live.)

# 3  Tuesday, June 20, 2000      Ravi Shankar with Anoushka Shankar     Barbican Theater     London, England (I had been in London for three weeks and I really wanted to catch the Ravi Shankar show.  I had checked for tickets and the ones that I could afford were the second balcony at hall which is an opera hall.  Didn’t want to be that far away.  That morning I called and got a pair in the second row!!  Second row to this show was hundreds of dollars, but they let them go for the balcony price as last minute tickets.  It was amazing.  My clothes made it so obvious that I didn’t belong that close to the stage!)

# 2  Saturday, October 08, 2005     Dead Can Dance     Radio City Music Hall     Manhattan, New York City (I saw these guys once before, and then they split up.  Ten years later, they reformed only for this series of concerts and I was thrilled to get to see them again.  And I finally got to see a show at Radio City.)

# 1  Friday, October 10, 2003     Radiohead     Madison Square Garden    Manhattan, New York City (This is a fairly odd choice as it’s the only show I saw alone.  No one wanted to go to NYC with me to see them, again.  I’ve seen them 14 times now, and this is they only time I’ve ever seen them play Creep.  The crowd was so into it, you could barely hear Thom.)

There were a ton of other, very memorable shows in there.  But, then again, the original name of this post was supposed to be Top 10 Concerts…it’s just too damned hard to choose.

If you went to any of these with me, leave me a comment and tell me how the show ranks on your lists.

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More Scams and Ripoffs

Posted in Grinds My Gears, Reflections on December 15, 2009 by Verge

This one is kind of tricky in that this scam really seems like it’s okay.

Back in college I worked for for a “non-profit” organization called NJPIRG.  There’s a so-called PIRG in almost every state, and some are part of a national organization, and some are only state wide.  They bill themselves as “public interest research groups,” and claim to be grassroots organizations to be a public watchdog for the best interests of the common citizens.

And, in fact, they have a pretty good PR face, and manage to make it into the news pretty often.  Most times, they manage to find a product that’s dangerous, or a stream that’s polluted, or a business that rips customers off.  When they actually do find a golden egg, they don’t hesitate to contact the local media ready to claim that they are the heroes of the innocent public, ever defending the regular good-guy, and helping to destroy the evil corporations, polluters, and exploiters.

That’s very cute and all, but let me school you.  I truly am sorry if you’ve supported these groups in the past.  I don’t mean to demean your good intentions, or make you the fool.  In the end, these organization do indeed accomplish a marginal amount of good, but they are not the all-benevolent organizations they make themselves out to be.  While occasionally they actually do accomplish something that is indeed good for the public, most of the time, these are PR stunts to legitimize their full time bullshit ring.

So, this is how this one works.  Pick a hot topic.  Let’s say, global warming.  That sounds good.  People are a little sensitive to that subject right now, right?  Okay, in a PIRGs eyes, that’s opportunity.  People want to do good, and if we can convince them that they are helping the environment by giving us a few bucks in the name of progress instead of actually helping the environment, then we’re in business.

This is where door-to-door canvassing comes in.  Canvassing is the bullshitter’s name for door-to-door harassment in the form of first, begging, then arguing, then guilting, then demanding money from you.  The skill of canvassing is like the 101 class for Con Men.  Unfortunately for me, my ongoing degree in Philosophy at the time (read: the art or argument) made me all too apt at this lowly act.

So, to make it short and sweet, this is how this works.  PIRGs print up some facts about actual global warning.  They hire college kids, or hippies, or some combination of the two, and give them said flyers.  They then grab quick, legal permits to canvass in a certain town under the guise of public awareness.  A couple of idealistic kids knock on the doors of unsuspecting housewives who are told about the problems of global warming.  But, the problem can be helped, if only enough people know how to fight it by buying the correct light bulbs, installing programmable thermostats, and carpooling, to start.

Now, if enough people in the state are “properly informed” by having college kids give them fliers, then all humanity may just be saved in the nick of time.  But who will pay for all the fliers, the gas, and the time of the “informers?”  You guessed it:  the unsuspecting housewife.  But, the scam is this.  The more money canvassers collect, the more money they personally earn, and the bigger bonuses their bosses earn (the ones that actually graduated to printing the fliers instead of begging for money).

Now, do a lot of people actually get fliers telling them about global warming?  Yes.  But if anyone actually cared about global warming, they are already well aware of how to help the cause.  And everyone else is just being hassled.  Hassled to the point that most of the time it’s easier to give some college kid 10 bucks than to argue with some idealistic asshole with a stack of fliers.

The money that is donated pays people to go to another neighborhood, another day, and harass those people.  That money doesn’t clean up waterways, or install solar panels on the roof of the local library, or find corrupt politicians, or test toys for lead content.  It pays hard-up college kids to learn how to annoy homeowners to the point of giving up their money.

Like I said, once in a while, they actually do stumble upon something that actually does help the “public interest,” but I assure you, that is not their goal.  Fliers don’t clean up the environment or clean up waterways!  In fact, driving all over the state to distribute what will essentially be trash in a landfill, with toxic ink to boot, is quite the opposite of helping the cause of greening our planet.

As I said in my last post, for the most part, with very few exception, donating money is a scam.  Most organizations become so full of bureaucracy that they cannot possibly fulfill the goals that they once hoped to fulfill.  Donating clothes to Goodwill is direct.  Giving a sandwich to a homeless person on your way home from work one day is direct.  Spilling a pint of blood for a kid with leukemia is direct.  Volunteering for a local soup kitchen is direct.  Our friend Danielle even suggested helping out no-kill animal shelters for the Holidays (I suggest calling them and asking what they need most).  Dropping a check in the mail just because some crap organization says that 100% of donations go to a good cause IS NOT DIRECT.

There’s a lot of email chains that go around this time of year.  They ask that you send a gift to an orphan, or send a card to a serviceman, or forward an email to every0ne you know for a free donations to some fly-by-night organization.  These emails are fairly obviously scams.  I just wanted to point out that they’re not always so easily spotted.  Some of these organizations have been around a long time, and their occasional good deeds gives them some staying power.

In the end, time, more than money, is what people in need really, really can use.  Time to give blood, or serve soup, or clean out your closet.  Time to visit the sick in hospitals, or give some stray, unwanted dogs some exercise, or time to spread the sentiment that I’m trying to convey rather that hitting the forward button on some bullshit email.  I’ve done most of these things, at one time or another, and I assure you, the former is far more rewarding than the latter.

http://www.redcross.org/

http://www.goodwill.org/

http://www.hud.gov/local/nj/homeless/shelters/camden.cfm

http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/awa-voorhees.html

PS, I’m not saying we do more than everyone else, because that is FAR from the truth, but what I’m saying is that, if we all do just a little, then that will make a big difference.

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Christmas Trees

Posted in Reflections with tags , on December 11, 2009 by Verge

When I finally lived on my own, years ago, I inherited all the furniture, dishes and silverware, and knick knacks from my family.  Sure, my parents bought things they couldn’t kick down, but most of it, destined to be abused by a college-age kid anyway, was second hand items from my parents younger days, or the college wares of my older brother and sister.

I still have most of those things.  In fact, our current house is a pretty stylistically disastrous mish mash of furniture and decorations from vastly different genres and eras.

When I was finally out on my own, I got to start making decisions for myself.   When it came to food, I started to realize I really didn’t like supporting the meat industry.  And when it came to Religion, I started to realize that I didn’t really like supporting the Catholic Church.  I didn’t give up on faith, but organized religion rubbed me the wrong way.

But, I’m certainly completely guilty of celebrating the season of Christmas.  I love it because it has so many great memories and moments I will never forget.  So, I still decorate and set up a Christmas Tree because that is what my family has always done.  Back when I was in college, my older brother had moved into his first place, and upgraded his tree.  I inherited his little 6 foot artificial tree.  I’ve been decorating that tree with the ornaments my parents had bought me every year since my first Christmas.

I did a pretty good job making that little abomination look good.  And, it’s always the thought that counts.  Now that Monika and I have our own place, I finally decided that we should upgrade to a better tree, especially since we have way more room and ceiling clearance in our house.  Now, when I was young, my parent always had a real tree, not the perfectly manured, straight-out-of-Macy’s tree they have now (which, no doubt, is beautiful and picture perfect).

Real trees are not as easy as the fake ones.  You have to water them.  You have to pick up damn needles for four weeks.  You’ve gotta throw it away at the proper time so that they actually pick it up.  And, you have to make sure the damn things doesn’t catch on fire and burn your house down.  When it came to buying a new tree for our new home, there was no decision to be made–we HAD to get a real tree!

So, now it’s the third year we’ve had to set up a tree at this house.  I think it’s partially awful that so many people buy cut trees for Christmas and then just throw them out in January.  Only partially, because tree farms grow trees specifically for Christmas, the same way sod farms grow grass for front lawns and plant farms grow annuals for our flower beds each year.  It’s not as if some lumberjack is going out into the great forest of Blue Spruce and clear cutting Christmas trees each year, evicting countless numbers of animals and destroying the ecosystem.

Nevertheless, it still rubs me the wrong way and I always thought it was a much better idea to buy a live tree with a root ball instead of a freshly chopped tree.  I’m not much of a romantic, but it did seem quite quaint to enjoy a tree through Christmas and then, in January, plant it in my yard while my wife stood by in her hat and mittens, looking forward to the day when we could point and say, “that one was from Christmas 2009.”

It’s not as easy as it should be to find a balled tree.  But, I did find a place that’s close, and usually pretty cheap, and also a local enough business that I feel good supporting.  I dropped by on my way home to scope out the prices for the plantable trees, just so I knew what I was getting into.

Now, of course I knew that it was going to be more money that a regular tree.  After all, the time it take someone to chop a tree is exactly 5 seconds, and the time it takes someone to ball a tree, even with a machine, is considerably more.  And then, there is the materials, and labor.  So, I can certainly understand why they would me more expensive.

They last two years we got our chopped trees form a local market.  They have a huge selection, are family owned, are nice people, and they only charge $25 per tree.  That’s for any damn one in the whole place.  That includes them trimming it to size, and bagging and loading the damn thing.  The prices on the live trees were way more than I expected.  The Charlie Brown size tree (I’m not kidding) was $115 and the kind of tree that I wanted, to match the size and fullness of what we’re accustomed to, was $165-$185.

Decision made.  Definitely not a real, live, plantable, environmentally ideal tree.  We just can’t afford that, future nostalgia or not.   So, this year, like the last two, we’ll be back in that parking lot, under the pale glow of an overhead spotlight, under the crisp cold of the onset of Winter, choosing our 30 day housemate.  In the end, that’s pretty romantic, too.  I’ll still remember that moment just as well as any other.  Sometimes we can’t “buy” everything we’d like for the Holidays, but, it’s never been about that.  Memories don’t have a price tag.

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On Being a Masonic Officer

Posted in Masonic Insights, Reflections on December 3, 2009 by Verge

Tonight, I was installed as the Junior Master of Ceremonies in my Masonic Lodge.  My wife was there with me, which is a rarity in any Masonic Lodge, as they are usually closed to non-masons.  Once a year, at the discretion of our Master, we hold our annual installation of officers in a “public” fashion, thereby allowing our friends and loved ones to share in our pride and honor of being a part of this fraternal organization.

It’s not a secret to my friends or family that I’m a mason.  And, I will freely talk about it when I’m asked.  I can answer most questions, and when a specific question arises that I cannot directly answer, it’s regretful that it piques curiosity because it is usually such a mundane little idiosyncrasy that it hardly deserves inquiry.

The most often pondered question that arises with my wife, my best friend, and my family, is “why do you do it?”  I’ll admit, sometimes I bitch about having to attend a masonic obligation.  Sometimes I legitimately cannot attend.  Sometimes, I don’t attend because I don’t feel like the fun I will have with my brethren will outweigh the fun I will have with my wife and friends.  Sometimes I’d rather sleep, or do a shot, or watch a movie, or clean my house and fold laundry.

But, this year, I could have easily walked away from my responsibilities with my Lodge.  I’m newly married.  I’m working hard to advance in my career.  I’m in a working cover band that is learning new songs all the time, and playing several shows a week at this point (and hopefully continuing in the new year).  Another responsibility, one that requires at least one night a week, could easily have been denied with no shame.  I did not turn away from the challenge, but instead, chose to take on a higher responsibility in my Lodge than was required of me.

My best friend has asked, as have I, “what do I get out of the effort and time I put in?”  What he wants to hear is that I can speed and never get a ticket, or break the law and never worry, or get discounts where others cannot, or have access that others do not.  Well, it’s not exactly that way at all.  Is it possible?  Well, I can’t deny that it is.  It’s no different than any other “perks” someone might receive from knowing a police officer, or a restaurant owner, or a lawyer.

The perks are never what you expect.  I have taken on a responsibility of helping new masons learn.  That, to me, is extremely satisfying.  I have always enjoyed teaching in general;  in all its forms, it is a great satisfaction to help another individual in need to finally learn, to understand and to grasp knowledge that you have imparted to them.  My bonus is this:  I’ve got a unique, often unusual, skeptical and alternative view of what so-called “normal” people believe is universal.  This, to my delight, is a viewpoint that I take a particular pleasure in sharing with my brethren.

I think they appreciate it, as well.  That is the perk for me.  In masonry, you cannot challenge someone politically or religiously, and you always respect your brother, no matter the differences.  The opportunities in the loopholes for me to inject some of my own weird impression of our world gets me off…it really does, especially when I see someone walk away nodding their head like “shit, that makes a whole lot more sense than what I believed was reality.”

That perk alone doesn’t keep me going to meetings, or rituals or communications, though.  So, what is it?  Well, I’m still in my infancy of masonry, but I have my theories.  It’s the ritual.  The masonic degrees, for those of you unschooled, are basically plays, performed live in front of an audience.   I love to do that already.  It involves memorization to a great degree.  That is what I have to do every time I learn a new song for my cover band.  It involves acting out, and I have no problem being a showman when it’s appropriate.  It involves impressing great gravity, and I think my seriousness lends itself to that task.

Most of all, it involves brotherhood.  I may not be the best of friends with my Lodge brothers.  I may not attend Lodge functions as often as they do.  I may not agree with them on any number of subjects.  But one thing remains that masonry undeniably can teach us.   That the one thing we all share undeniably is our bare humanness.  We all make mistakes, none of us can be perfect to all people all of the time, and that, in the end, we will all ultimately answer to our fate, whatever that may be.

What keeps me going is that undeniable awareness that we are all nothing, and that sharing in that nothingness turns it into, at the very least, something we can share with awe and reverence.

–~r

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Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Holidays

Posted in Good Times, Reflections on December 2, 2009 by Verge

On Black Friday, a day that I used to utterly despise when I worked as a manager of a retail store, my best friend, wife and I went out shopping.  No, we didn’t wake up early, at three in the morning, to battle anyone for door-buster deals or the chance at a 200 dollar netbook.  We simply woke up, decided we didn’t care about shopping this year, and went to enter the lions’ cage of retail shopping.

Of course, we did have a few things to look for.  I had my eyes on an 80 dollar blu-ray player at Best Buy, but I had plenty of questions to ask if I could manage to track down an associate.  I was also looking to replace my recently broken display in my studio computer with the 20″, 80 dollar Acer display that they were also advertising.  Kreg was looking for a nice new dummy desktop for his new HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer).  No monitor needed, just a good internet connections, and a good video card.

So, we headed out on Black Friday at 1 PM, and hit up Best buy.  Not crazy crowded, but sold out of monitors and got some info Blu-Ray players;   Kreg checked out some comps, Monika checked some games, and we all left without spending a dime!  First success, as far as I’m concerned.

We hit up BJ’s and Target for some regular shopping, and then moved to the Deptford Mall, an adventurous endeavor.  Honestly, as much as this sounds shallow for us, Monika and I were looking to hit up the fragrance counters for some new perfumes.  I ran out of mine several months ago and haven’t found a new one to replace my old.  Monika, on the other hand, has plenty of her Flowerbomb, but that’s not exactly an everyday, going to teach at a High School kind of fragrance.  We were both in search of something new.

Well, we did find some nice new possibilities, but by the time we ended up in the car, we had pocketfuls of samples, and literally, I was wearing 6, and Monika 8 different fragrances!  This made our car smell like the bathroom at an upscale strip club at best, and at worst, you could only imagine.

Monika and I decided that our cash that day was best spent at Produce Junction on some nice, fresh veggies…34 dollars worth, which is a hell of a lot at that place.  The three of us stopped by the liquor store on the way home.  Kreg and I decided to build our own HTPCs, complete with full internet access, hard drives, HDMI outs, Blu-Ray players and all the bells and whistles.  It’s not only a good deal for the the money, but a fun little hobby that our friends are helping us build.

That night, we hung out with those friends, discussed the specs of our custom comps and played Rock Band for the first time of our lives.  They were well versed, of course, but Kreg and I, lifelong musicians, had never really played.  It was good fun…not as good as the real thing, for sure, but a new experience to share with friends.  And maybe that’s what Black Friday should be all about.  Not about shopping, but remembering that this is the first day of the final days of the year, when spending time with close friends is the warmest, and most memorable time of the year.

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Nuclear Heart

Posted in Reflections on November 19, 2009 by Verge

So, this one isn’t so heavy with metaphysical rhetoric, it’s truly about the facts.  I’ve gone through several months of medications, and finally had two doctors agree, there’s something odd about my heart.  So, I fast and try to relax in the waiting room while I pour over some Sookie stories.

I’m eventually shaved, and poked, and wired, and scanned, and turn radioactive.   Sometimes I lay as still as possible while a robot circles me with his eyes to see inside of me;  sometimes I run, further and further uphill, faster and faster, until I soak my hair and top out my rate.  Then I can hear my heartbeat amplified while I’m coated in jelly and photographed from the inside.

And I wait.   In fear, for two weeks, I wait.  It’s not what they thought.  It’s nothing.  It’s something, but something else completely.  I don’t know what and I don’t know whether to be relieved, or be more worried.

The health of my heart is certain, but that is about the only thing so far.

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Kaleidoscope

Posted in Reflections with tags , , on November 16, 2009 by Verge

“And he was right. With a feeling of cold water rushing through his head and body, Hollis knew he was right. There were differences between memories and dreams. He had only dreams of things he had wanted to do, while Lespere had memories of things done and accomplished. And this knowledge began to pull Hollis apart, with a slow, quivering precision.” …

“He fell swiftly, like a bullet, like a pebble, like an iron weight, objective, objective all of the time now, not sad or happy or anything, but only wishing he could do a good thing now that everything was gone, a good thing for just himself to know about.

When I hit the atmosphere, I’ll burn like a meteor.

“I wonder,” he said, “if anyone’ll see me?”

The small boy on the country road looked up and screamed. “Look, Mom, look! A falling star!”

The blazing white star fell down the sky of dusk in Illinois. “Make a wish,” said his mother. “Make a wish.”

-Ray Bradbury, “Kaleidoscope”

Tonight, my wife of exactly 6 months and I stand in an open field not far from our house, whispering as I carefully unfold our two canvas chairs, hoping that we’ll be lucky enough to avoid the rolling-in clouds from Philadelphia and see a millisecond flash of green cut the black of emptiness, and exasperated, point in glee and whisper, “you see?”

Each year, for the rest of our lives, the newspapers or the internet or the popular media of the day will remind us that midway through November, if you look to the skies at just the right moment, under just the right conditions, you will see the leftover dust of comet junk that circled the sun 3 hundred or 4 hundred or 5 hundred years ago.  At the same time, I will remember the leftover memories that manage to leave a dusting of nostalgia, forever recalling the delicate teetering of fall and winter, half a year after marriage, dissolving into the night, hand in hand, with my wife in a field.

We both silently hope that we are not Hollis, not regretful that we’ve failed to live our dreams, if even just a sliver of them, a fleeting glimpse of fulfillment.  As we tumble towards our eventual end, hand in hand, we can always strive to be even just a flash of light in someone else’s life, inspiring optimism in the face of eventual demise.

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old friends

Posted in Reflections on November 16, 2009 by Verge

This weekend has been filled with a lot of old memories and friends.  To begin, Monika and I have a house guest.  My good friend for many years has fallen on some very tough times, and has precious few people to turn to.  I can’t say that we’ve been the closest of friends in the last few years, sometimes going several months without even a phone call, but true friends always find a spare bed for each other when the time finally comes.

It wasn’t all that long ago, when I was going through a particularly difficult time in my life, enduring a break up with an ex and a love affair with something completely different, that a true friend put me up for a while.  At the time, he was dating his future wife, and was living in a rather small apartment with his cat, and wasn’t exactly in the best of health himself.  But, against all good judgment, he knew that I needed a friend to be a crutch, and looking back on it now, I know that without that, I may have never made out as well as I did.  So when a friend needs a place for a minute or two, I feel somewhat honored to give back to the karma pool of just “being there.”

Tonight, I continued a reconnect with my life-long friend.  It is truly amazing to be able to reach that far back into my past with friends who were there to live it with me.  And, as much as the east coast, and NJ, and all the fast paced living can really get to me, I don’t think I will ever leave here because this is where my family and friends live.  Even after years, and circumstances, we can still pick up right where we left off, and I think that is the mark of true friendship.  And, I’ve decided, that in the coming months and years, that I will value the Brownies oath of “make new friends but keep the old.”  But, instead of reliving past memories, I’d like to make new ones with my friends, every day, so perhaps we never have to talk about yesterday, but tomorrow instead.

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Hello world!

Posted in Reflections on October 19, 2009 by Verge

Okay, so, we decided to start a blog because blabbing on Facebook can be plain intrusive.  This is mainly for our friends who are into the music we like, the activities we like, and to a certain degree, the vegetarian and vegan lifestyle, or otherwise healthy and green living.  We’re not trying to be authorities on any these subjects, just two people who try and live the best we can!

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