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Do You Think Of Me With A Smile?
I’ve been taking a lot of time off lately from work. I have tons of vacation time. I mean tons. I could take a whole month off and still have time. So I figured this summer, dude, relax. Take some time to just chill. So Thursday, I hung out at home and took care of some CD organizing amidst 3 loads of laundry. Laundry is therapy. Quiet time. Later, we had our monthly station meeting. Lots of great things happening. Frequencies, equipment, software, range, events, etc. Should be a lot of fun going down the road. So, Friday arrived and I gave up my Eagles preseason tickets to my nephew. He has never been to the Linc, and I hate the Steelers anyway…so why not let his dad give him something to remember? It wasn’t like I didn’t have options if I didn’t go to the game. There were a few bands I could see, and Echolyn was playing in Newark, DE. So, amidst a third round of laundry, my cell phone rings. It’s our buddy Pete. Pete loves ripping on music I like, but I must say I was shocked to hear he was actually interested in seeing Echolyn. Roger loves surf music so he was in a win-win situation. How nicely this all came together. So, Roger and Pete show up, and we leave for the country of Delaware. I sit in the backseat among stacks of Roadhouse Reports, folders, clothing, and 3 week old cheesy poofs. I study my cell phone during the Phillies game against the scummy New York Mets. (we’re winning 4-1 as of now). We arrived in Delaware quicker than I imagined and headed to a bar called the East End Café. We pull up, and notice the motel next to us….I couldn’t help but think we were going to be assassinated by the creepy look of it. It wasn’t a bad neighborhood or anything, but it just had that…you know…that look. Then some guy walks buy us with a shopping cart of glass beer bottles and goes behind the dumpster and just disappears. I mean it. He just vanished. So…I started walking towards to bar to see Ray Weston walking towards me. We rapped for a minute and discussed the trip to Montreal. I am still on the fence on whether I am going or not, but I want to go. We’ll see. Anyway, I walk up to the front door and see Paul Ramsey, the drummer of Echolyn. We talked about the last show and how he had the flu real bad. Click here to read about that wonderful night. Anyway…I walk in to meet Brett’s girlfriend, guitarist of the Elk-Tones, Jacque Varsalona. Jacque is a cutie and celebrates the same birthday as me. YAY! Libras are cool. We are such artsy, smart, sensitive, brilliant people. I am a bit stuck up about that. October is the greatest month of the year. Anyway, we chatted and I realized I was starving. Like dizzy starving. I wanted to drink, but insisted on putting something in my stomach first. So, I sat next to Ray’s wife, blabbed while I ate chicken fingers. You’re probably wondering where Roger and Pete were at this point. Well, so was I. They eventually arrived by the time Echolyn started. They were the opener. They kicked off the show with Georgia Pine, and the rest went like this:
The Cheese Stands Alone
The End Is Beautiful
Segment of Mei
As The World
Brittany
Arc Of Descent
Halo (ray sabbath)
I may have missed a few. But none the less, another fine performance. The Elk-Tones took to the stage and rocked the house. Even breaking into a Dark Side Of The Moon piece with Brett on Keys. It was nice. I was buzzed…but no matter how much I drank, I wasn’t getting anymore buzzed. Throughout the night I searched for Roger and Pete. I found them outside on the deck enjoying the weather. Then they disappeared. I was still hungry. I walked to the shopping center next to the dingy hotel next door, after the midpoint in the Elk-Tones set. Here is this eerily quiet and barren shopping center with a packed pizza joint on the end. I walked down and ordered 2 slices of plain. The girl behind the counter must know everyone that comes in…she looked at me as if to say, “You’re not from around here are ya..” Then she actually asked me where I was from. Surprisingly, she grew up a mile from house before her family moved to Newark. Small world. As I sat down and ate…it reminded me of being down in Ocean City, NJ. Kids running around with slices in their hand…some looked like they were 11 years old…and its 1:30 in the morning. I thought…where are there parents? Then I stopped and said to myself, who are you to judge? Huh? You cut school, lied about where you were staying frequently on sleepovers, did horrendous things when away from home and got away with it. Shut up and eat your pizza. I walked back to the East End Café with a full belly, and yearning to head home.
You’re Smart In A Silly, Stupid, Inane Kind Of Way
I walked back to the East End Café to find Roger and Pete waiting. They were hammered. Good thing I stopped drinking. I took the keys, adjusted my seat, and drove Rogers’s love mobile back home. Imagine if you would, Rogers’s driver’s seat is bent on an angle. Like another words, if I lay back on the seat, I am literally looking at the passenger. How does that happen? Every car Roger has ever had, it does the same thing. It’s amazing. Pete was trashed. I looked in the rear view, and I could see that he was absolutely done. We arrived home safely with no injuries. Pete got sick and sounded like a turkey vulture in my bathroom, while Roger and I rapped on the couch about his weekend plans. I fell asleep with the cool air breezing through the sliding door…
Night And Day
For program 967, I decided to do my 10th annual Progday spotlight. Progday is an event I regret to say I have never attended. It’s more or less like the Woodstock of all the progressive rock festivals that is the current longest running of all. Bands have come from all over the world to perform in Chapel Hill, NC. Some bands have come from as close as Raleigh, North Carolina, and others from as far away as Sweden, Italy, Japan and Indonesia. And that’s just to name a few. As the weekend approached, so did Ernesto. The storm is bound to make Progday a washout, sadly. I pray for good weather for Michael Bennett and the rest of the gang. Silly hurricanes. Before the radio show, Innovator decided to smoke pork in the Traeger. It was so good, it was a tear jerker. Tia battled for pork with the neighbor’s dog, while I battled with my stomach to see if I could conceivably fit more into tubby body. I even got leftovers! YAY! He even helped with getting one of the best new CD’s of 2006 out on the air with fusion/Zeuhl band One Shot and their new powerhouse release titled Ewaz Vader. I featured the track Phat because it’s uhh…..fat. Genius CD. Climbing the top 20 in requests before I even had it. I went back and tracked the new Derek Sherinian CD Blood Of The Snake which features Simon Phillips, Yngwie Malmsteen, John Petrucci, and many others. I like the disc a lot, except for the remake of that silly summertime song. My 4th Hour Space Out spotlight went with new music from Morris Pert and his Desert Dances CD which I must say although not a raging progrock or jazz release, it was a nice touch to round out the show in a New Age, spacey kind of way. Another disc I was happy to get on the air before most was the new collaborative work of British band Magenta with Annie Haslam titled Night And Day. This EP features a few cuts in alternate mixes as well. Nice work.
No Reason, No Rhyme
A few weeks back, I pulled out some old discs from the mid 90’s I was featuring on the program, and a renewed a love affair with the music of Billy Sherwood, World Trade, and more recently, Conspiracy. World Trade’s Euphoria to me was exciting in 1995. The new dawn of the radio show was rising as were the availability and contacts. This CD always reminds me of the humble beginnings of what the show was. There were songs on this CD that moved me then, and upon listening now, continue to do so. So as I listened to this along with some of the collaborative work that Billy did with Chris Squire, and realized that his interview from 2003 would make a nice reflective spotlight tonight. Billy was cool. Not to mention, me being a fan, made the interview more interesting on both sides. For those that don’t know Billy or Conspiracy’s music, it’s not the normal run of the mill progressive rock. Billy is clearly Yes inspired, both lyrically and harmonically. But Billy does some amazingly sonic work on his recordings. The pieces are more song driven but to me, and this may sound far out, but I think that Billy does the best things that Chris never did. His production is phenomenal, and the depth of the songs are unforgettable. I don’t know, but it just strikes a nerve with me and brings me back to a different time. We touched on his love for Star Wars, touring with Yes, writing with Chris, and his gift of being a decent multi instrumentalist. It was a fun interview. And that’s why I do this godforsaken show.
Crossroads, Will You Ever Let Him Go?....
As usual, the post show brings me to Big Bob Lovin’s. They listened in and gave me their assessment. As I entered his new abode, it was filled with spirits. Drunk spirits. One in particular, the ever popular J Dean. Bob was fired up, and the funniest he ever was in a post game wrap up. He was on fire. Bob bounced from room to room screaming, hollering, touching, burping, hugging…it was the happiest I had ever seen him. Meanwhile, Roger asked me to devise a route that would be the quickest to get from our position, to the New Lisbon area. I gave Roger 3 different routes, and he seemed to have caught on. I light up when people ask me for directions. Especially in Burlington County. East Burlington County J. Anyway, seeing that I am the only sober one of the group, I decided it was time for me to head home. I will say this, there is a beauty about the Red Lion tract of Burlington County. As I drove, I began harkening back to days of George and driving down New Road en route to surprises to be aired that night….that no one had…I took those days for granted like growing up watching Steve Carlton pitch and Mike Schmidt hitting homer after homer…I feel that way now. I should have enjoyed those times more. And made sure I appreciated them more. In the beginning of your life, people tell you how to live and how to do what’s right; for the second half, they tell you all the things that you should have done. The scary part is, I think I agree in some cases.

This Program Ran 4 Hours And 11 Minutes.