Since it’s obviously been a while, there’s quite a few things I guess I can cover.
* Fairly recently, I was shocked to see that someone I had met had passed away. Frankie 45, lead singer/guitarist of Spector 45 passed away on New Year’s Eve/Day. I had met him at Club Dada, when Unknown Hinson had swung through. Or at least I think that’s when I met him….
He was tending bar, jumped from behind the bar to play a set, then jumped back behind the bar. I asked him how he liked his Electromatic 5120 – he said that he loved it. I was tremendously impressed that he did that – returning to tending bar covered in sweat after frantically jumping, singing, and soloing all over the stage.
One of the things that struck me about his passing was my reflection about how I’ve never really accomplished what I wanted to do in a musical setting. Here was this kid MAKING it HAPPEN. Seems that all my musical heroes had the drive to get it done – it’s what they pursued. While Frankie wasn’t a hero of mine per se, I gave the guy a lot of credit for getting out there and doing what he obviously loved. I now wish I had that kind of drive at his age. Until he passed I didn’t realize what a fixture he was in Deep Ellum. Extremely nice guy, and a loss to the Dallas music scene.
That being said, I look back at the wasted years of much of my youth and wonder what I could have done with myself had I pushed myself. Did my upbringing contribute to my lack of focus? I’m sure it did, but quantitatively, how much – and how little? My limiting thought process holds me back, as I’m sure it did back then too.
* We’ve been working on a bunch of different rooms in the house, but because we’ve spread the work around, there’s no one “complete” room ready for photography. My house is definitely becoming a very swank pad (thanks babe!). My daughter, who is typically the one who has seen the worst then the “big reveal”, has also been tremendously impressed. Of course, she’s also semi-patiently waiting for me to finish reworking her bathroom – which is taking some time while I strip some more tile out.
* I’ve been doing a ton of work on another portion of my blog, “So you wanna be in a band?” – in which I’ve reworked a lot of graphics and images and cleaned up formatting at least twice over. I contacted J Yuenger (the writer of the material) and he kindly linked his blog to mine – his original plan was to scan the magazines in after retrieving them from storage. I personally know how much of a pain that is, so I’m glad this ended up being helpful to him. I added some scans of Tattoo Magazines that made an impression on me around that time too.
* The Wanda Jackson/Jack White album is pretty cool. I dig it.
* Lastly, I had a hernia check by my General Practicioner when I was eight or so. I then some twenty years later stood behind him in the Montrose Disco Kroger in Houston, trying to figure out where I knew him from. It’s a little disconcerting when you realize that the dude you’re standing behind had his hands on your scrote at some point in your life.
