One Funeral, One Wedding, And A Concert

I’ll tell ya. When it rains it pours. An icon of my childhood passed away this week in my Great Aunt Delores. They lived in Blackwood, NJ, and still do, near the future ‘first’ home of the gagliarchives. Her daughter, my cousin Gayle, is one of my favorite cousins. One of the coolest chicks I know. We are literally the same age and had the same experiences in life. My Aunt was very cool. Generous, tough, fair, and caring when she needed to be. My Great Uncle Tony passed away when Gayle was very young. I can’t imagine not growing up with a father. Despite the circumstances, Gayle turned out perfect. My Aunt was sick for quite some and Gayle and her husband did the best they could do to care for her. What saddened me the most, were two things: The first being that I didn’t spend enough time with my Aunt Delores to appreciate her more; she was a very strong woman. Secondly, in recent years, I have lost touch with my cousin and missed watching her kids grow. These are just a few of my hidden regrets.
Chaos On Shirley Avenue
All week long the buildup to my brother’s wedding got more intense. It was all a blur. On top of prepping for the Nearfest broadcast coming up at the end of June, having this all fit was clearly going to be a challenge. Once the wedding day arrived (and careful mopping of the floor) it all fell into place. I love my brother to death, so besides him driving me absolutely nuts leading up to this day, I just bit my tongue and devised my words to be said at the ceremonial toast. I had my best man speech ready and it went like this:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and for those than don’t know me, I’m Bink, Mike’s brother….and I have been given the honor of being Michael’s best man. I want to thank both my parents, and Kristen’s family. What can you say about a guy who came from humble beginnings and is now quickly rising to the very top of his profession based solely on intelligence, grit and the willpower to push on where others might fail? A man who is beginning to distinguish himself amongst his peers and where none can say a bad word against him? Well, that's enough about the best man. I'm here to talk about Michael. No seriously, Michael and I are Irish twins…being only 10 months apart. Despite being close in age, Michael and I are very different. But there is one thing that we share is a sense of humor. No one can make me laugh like Michael…but then again no one makes me want to beat someone unmercifully like Michael. I can’t think of anyone else who would call me 15 times in the span of 45 minutes at 7 in the morning to see what I’m doing. Mike’s obviously taller and had better raw talent in sports. Michael could throw a baseball across 3 baseball fields. Unfortunately he would do it when all we needed was him to throw it to the second baseman to get the guy out. It was pretty embarrassing when the players from the other field would walk our baseballs back to us.
All came down to glasses.
That Michael still won’t wear.
He said he didn’t like the way he looked in them. Well I could understand that concept.
Until Michael wants to have me drive with him somewhere.
Especially at night. Back in the day we would go to adelphia’s in depfort and Michael would insist on driving. I don’t know what was scarier. Me driving drunk, or Michael sober with his face as close to the windshield as possible asking me which lane we were in on route 42. This drive usually had my arms pressed against the ceiling and sobering up real quick. Michael can make you laugh your ass off. And honestly, I don’t think he realizes at times.
Nobody in our family has had more injuries than Mike. Broken wrists, toes, teeth, scars…but Michael’s always been a good sport. Even in his travels in life, Michael has always rebounded from the worst of situations. A few years back Michael was challenged with a rough situation….a real test. But Michael has a beautiful way of not letting grass grow under his feet, and making lemonade out of lemons. He always looks to the brite side of life with a sick twist. I admire that. When Michael first met Kristen, I was in awe of how much love he was in and envied that in a good way. 5 years later, their love hasn’t wavered. I see it by the way they look in their eyes, and the things they that they do for one another. Kristen is a one of a kind…special…beautiful and a great match for my brother. I can only hope one day to have what you two have. I mean that. May you be friends to each other as only lovers can; and may you love each other as only best friends can.

Cheers

Food, people, tuxedos, dancing, cheese cubes, rain storms, Cassady walking in with me, quiche hors d oveurs, more dancing, then passing out. That was my Saturday.

Jacka Plays Jacka
My engineer, the whacky jebster, contacted Roger and I a month prior to let us know that we would be going to see the greatest show ever in Zappa Plays Zappa. He was so pumped, he bought the tickets. I knew this had to be good. And guess what. It was. Worth every penny and every minute of the 3 ½ hour set. We had excellent seats and lots to drink. I was a bit buzzed by the time we walked in. In the beginning of the set, the spotlight went to an 11 year old named Eric who was witnessing his first concert. And this was it. Totally awesome. His dad rules. The concert was at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia, PA and featured the centerpoint in Dweezil Zappa. Dweezil was great. He pretty much did the best interpretation of his father’s music than anyone I have heard or seen embark on. He stood in the center of the stage and at times reminded me of his father with his calm mannerisms as he played. Look he’s not Steve Vai, but let me tell you, it had to be a challenge to master all the changes of Frank’s music. Imagine having him as your dad. But Dweezil was truly superb. My respect for Dweezil multiplied 4 times as I watched. As I mentioned, Steve Vai was introduced in the second set after Terry’s drum solo leading into the Black Page. What a buildup leading to it. The crowd went nuts. The whole concert featured the animated vocals of Napoleon Murphy Brock, who is timeless with his intensity. Terry Bozzio began the second set on drums with the song I’m So Cute. But I don’t think anything compared to Punky’s Whips. That’s totally Terry. I could not get over how amazingly powerful he still is playing all this stuff. Very impressive. I can’t say enough about Joe Travers. At first, I knew I hadn’t seen Terry in a while, and was unsure of how he looked up to this point. I turned to Jack and said, whoa, Terry looks different. He laughed and goes, dude, that’s Joe Travers. Joe did a lot of the spoken parts as well and was mind blowing. When both him and Terry were playing together (Which I love watching) the band and energy swept off the stage and made the audience go nuts. Another gem on stage was Pete Griffin on Bass, who was probably my favorite during the show. He was stellar. Very busy the whole show. One player I wish I had heard more of was Keyboardist & Vocalist Aaron Arntz. He was excellent during Cheepnis and Inca Roads. I also can’t forget Billy Hulting on Percussion and Jamie Kime on rhythm Guitar. But what I have to say who I watched the most was Scheila Gonzales. She played assorted Horns, played Keyboards and sang backup vocals. She was hot. A Latina that plays Sax, sings and is sexy? And mastered Zappa music??!?? Oh boy. She made my night. I think I’m in love. Here was the setlist:
SET 1
Imaginary Diseases
Hungry Freaks Daddy
Let’s Make the Water Turn Black
Florentine Pogen
Pygmy Twylite
The Idiot Bastard Son
Cheepnis
King Kong
Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow
St. Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfast
Inca Roads
Eat that Question

SET II
I’m So Cute**
Trying to Grow a Chin**
City of Tiny Lights**
Punky’s Whips**
The Black Page** (just Drums)
The Black Page*** (full band, intro of Steve Vai)
Peaches En Regalia***
Montana***
Village of the sun***
Echinda’s Arf (of you)***
Zomby Wolf***
E: Camarillo Brillo
More Trouble Everyday (great solo battle btwn Vai/Dweez and Bozzio had a nice solo)
Token of My Extreme (Outro)*

(Legend)
*with little Eric
**with Terry Bozzio
***with Steve Vai

Dat’s How I Roll, Yo
All in all, it was a perfect night. And people know me for getting up during many concerts because I can’t take sitting too long without my legs hurting. This one? I stayed the whole show except for going to the bathroom and intermission. It was great. Roger disappeared during Punky’s Whips which Jack and I were thoroughly disappointed with, but eh…that’s life. As the concert ended, we rolled out to see loyal listener Billy Cyr from Washington Township outside. It was cool. He was doing well and looked forward to seeing us at Nearfest. On the way back, Jack’s back seat broke. That’s when Roger did a forward roll from the front seat to slam into my seat to hopefully snap it into place. That didn’t work, but we almost flew off the Walt Whitman Bridge. Now THAT would have been cool. With King Kong on in the background no less. Yeah that would have rocked. We got back to my place and finished the Weis beer that Jack brought over for the Echolyn show. The lights shut off, and on to sleepville. What an ending to a wild weekend. My brother got married, didn’t meet one person at his wedding, and finished out the humdrum weekend with a bang in Zappa Plays Zappa. All in all, it was more introspective than anything. I am dozing now thinking of Scheila Gonzales playing in an open field…...I am smiling.

That’s how I roll.