04.30.06
Posted in Uncategorized, life's stories at 9:21 pm by Deb
X liked to call himself a “road scholar”, as opposed to a Rhodes Scholar. I guess after this journey, I’d have to say the same thing. The next morning we left bright and early wandering the streets of Pittsburg waiting to meet up with X’s sister. We arrived at our meeting place and were met by her friend, a Marxist. “A what?”, I thought to myself. Having been brought up in a very conservative Republican family, if I’d ever even heard of Karl Marx, I’m sure I would have thought he was pure evil. After about a half an hour, I realized why I had fought so often with my family over politics. I was fascinated and starved for more. The only class I’d actually heard a name for was the Middle Class, though we lived in a mostly Working Class neighborhood. I’d always been very confused about where we fit in. We were much poorer than most of my parent’s friends but were trying to live in that world. We had to keep up appearances at all cost. I learned very early on that appearances can be very deceiving.
This man was only the first of many incredible characters who would entertain, educate me, and radically change my life. Unfortunately, we had very little time with him. Meanwhile, I was concerned about how tired I was all the time and other body issues that were going on. The next day I went for a pregnancy test, which came out negative. Whew! Being relatively close to home, I would have felt pressured to go back there if I was having a baby. My spirits perked up a bit more, and I was ready to go back on the road.
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04.28.06
Posted in Uncategorized, life's stories at 10:32 pm by Deb
I consider myself very lucky to have made it through those early years alive and relatively intact. Many of our friends either died or got locked up in some kind of facility. One friend escaped from a Halfway House to hide out with us only to be locked up in a Mental Institution months later. He is another story, but I’m feeling anxious to get on the road. There are actually many stories to be told from that year, but most are drug related and I don’t want people to think it was all one big happy party. It was always hard, sometimes dangerous, and often ugly. It got so ugly that we decided the only way out was to go on the road. New Year’s Eve of 1974 we threw a big party in our empty apartment and, without sleeping, left the next morning for parts unknown. We not only left the apartment, but left it full of people crashed all over the floor. Some friends drove us from Connecticut to just outside of New York City, about an hour away. I hope you’re thinking, “They must’ve been crazy to try hitchhiking from the Northeast across I-80 in the middle of winter.” For those of you reading this who are not from the US, it is verrrrrry COLD that time of year. We had full packs, though no tent. We were counting on being able to stay with people along the way and had been given gifts that came in very handy later on. We also didn’t have a whole lot of money, but had faith that we would figure it all out as we went along. X had been on the road ever since he ran away from home at 14 years old. He knew all the tricks like sleeping in the clothing donation boxes to stay warm and dry. Our first ride was a couple of young men who were traveling aimlessly with the goal of making it to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. I have still never made it to Louisiana, one of only 5 states I haven’t yet visited. We were invited to come along but decided at some point to stop off in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to visit X’s family. We got dropped off in the late afternoon, managed to call one of his sisters who didn’t want us to stay with her but was willing to squeeze us in for a short visit the next day, couldn’t find the other sister, but finally found a friend of his who said we could stay if we split very early in the morning so her husband didn’t get upset. By now it was late at night; our packs were feeling very heavy; we were cold and hungry, and it started snowing gray snow as we trudged our way to her apartment. (Pittsburg is the only place where I’ve experienced that phenomena. They have done a lot more to clean up the pollution since then.) I didn’t think I could walk another step when X stopped at a set of very steep stairs that went up the side of a small mountain. They had to be 7 or 8 flights, and to me it looked like Mount Everest. “She lives just a little beyond the top of those stairs,” he said. I collapsed on the bottom step and cried…
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Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 8:07 am by Deb
Well, the sound angel came visiting on Wed. to help me figure out how to make my recording stuff work. Even he couldn’t figure it out. Now I don’t feel so badly. I’m back to where I originally was - it looks like it’s recording but won’t play back. Oh well, back to the drawing board. The fact that the angel couldn’t quite figure it out either made me feel much better about my own abilities. I can usually figure this stuff out pretty quickly. Hopefully this week I will start from the beginning again! As soon as I’m successful, I will post some music for you to hear.
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04.27.06
Posted in Uncategorized, life's stories at 10:37 pm by Deb
I want to caution anyone stumbling upon this blog that these are stories from my very colorful past. I do not suggest that anyone make these same mistakes or take similar chances. I consider myself very lucky to have survived some of my adventures. Not all of my friends were so lucky.
Once X moved in, things really got crazy. My mom always thought he was a bad influence, but he actually straightened me out in some ways. He got me to give up the really bad drugs and got me back into music. He also got me to stop hanging out in the neighborhood bar taking bets with the macho older men that I could do more shots of tequila than them. I was, and still am, rather petit and innocent looking. I also look younger than I am. I could pound down those shots though and usually made a lot of money in a night. Anyway, our drugs of choice at that time were pot and acid. We found a dealer who had the best prices and the best stuff in town. He was also very generous. None of our other friends wanted to buy from him though. He had a reputation for being unpredictable and violent. Rumor had it he had shot his wife. X and I weren’t afraid of much at that time, so we arranged a meeting. He showed us around his apartment, showed us where he kept his guns and where his escape route was - just in case we were ever there when he got busted. Once he found out we were musicians, he handed X a guitar and had us play “Down By the River” and “Hey Joe”. He could listen to those two songs over and over again. We always left with much more than we had paid for. I told you he was generous. Well, one day X called to make an appointment but got delayed and showed up about 10 or 15 min. late. When Dealer’s girlfriend opened the door, there were many guns pointed at X from the staircase above. We realized that this guy would have blown his girlfriend away in an instant to protect himself. He was very upset that X was late and cautioned him to never be late again or call before just showing up. We never showed up there again. Calls or no calls, that was enough to scare us off. Anyway, we had an entire freezer full of acid, and pot was easy to find. Who needed Dealer anymore.
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Posted in Uncategorized, life's stories at 11:50 am by Deb
I thought about where I should start my stories and decided to start at the beginning - the beginning of my real life, after years of wondering who I was and why I was even here at all. My high school years were a complete nightmare, filled with abuse, ridicule and isolation. Someday I may tell some of that story, but not today. After high school, I found alcohol, drugs and sex. By the time I was 20, I was well on my way to becoming an alcoholic and drug addict, using them to try to forget just about everything. My music was taking a backseat to my “self-discovery”, though I had reconnected with an old friend from junior high school who was also a musician. New Year’s Day in 1974, she called me to tell me about meeting a grungy young hippie in the laundromat. He had asked her if she thought his clothes would get clean if he just ran them through the washer without any soap. When she loaned him some soap, he offered to get her high. That shows where our priorities were back then. He had money for pot but not for laundry detergent. They got to talking about music, realized they both played guitar and made plans to get together later to jam. Did I want to go? Sure I did. We jammed for hours with him and his roommate and had a great time. The next evening, he called me to see if I wanted to hang out again. Thinking, by the sound of his sexy voice, that he was the yummy roommate with the straight long dark hair and dreamy eyes, I of course said yes. Boy was I surprised when I answered the door. Much to my surprise, we had a wonderful time and stayed up all night talking. We were both exhausted, so I called in sick to work and asked him if he would like to see the mural painted on my bedroom wall. I quickly fell in love with the first man that ever acted like he wanted to really be with me. He enjoyed my company, laughed at my jokes, and put no real demands on me. I didn’t think such a person existed. They certainly hadn’t so far in my life. Actually, looking back, I realize that there were two other men that I considered friends who treated me very well. One of whom may have been in love with me, but never did anything about it. At that time I was very naive and, having never dated nor had any interactions with boys in high school, except for their abuse, I didn’t and still don’t know how to flirt. I just don’t pick up on the signals. My sexual experiences so far had been getting picked up in bars, having quick, unfeeling, usually not very good sex, then going home alone. Before long this new man in my life, now my ex who I will call X, moved in.
More to follow…
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04.26.06
Posted in Uncategorized, babble at 8:18 am by Deb
I just wanted to put out a big thanks to everyone who has visited and commented on this blog. The internet is such an amazing resource. We are able to reach out to people from all over the world with very little effort. In my younger days, I hitchhiked around the US with my ex-husband. Our most important possession was our address book. Back then anyway, it was fairly safe, and most of the people who picked you up were friendly and helpful. We had a network of friends all over the country. Now we are able to have a network of friends all over the world without ever leaving our homes. The down side is that it takes some of the adventure out of it all. In writing this, I’ve decided to start telling you about some of those adventures in this blog. We’ll see how long it takes for me to get bored with it - having already had the adventures myself. I have had a very exciting life and rarely tell my stories. I don’t know what I’m saving them for. Maybe I’ve been saving them for you.
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04.24.06
Posted in Uncategorized, babble at 8:22 am by Deb
I have really been enjoying randomly surfing the web for blogs. I have come across some fascinating sites. Some are very cool to look at, others are very cool to read, and there are plenty that don’t interest me, but I’m glad people are out there writing and being creative in whatever way suits them. I appreciate all the effort regardless of whether I like the content. I originally started doing this because of our music, hoping to keep people informed about gigs and other music related things. It’s turned into so much more. The really funny thing is that most of the people reading this have never heard us play and probably couldn’t care less about that part of it, though I promise music links soon. I keep a journal almost every day and thought this might take away from that or the other way around. Not so. When I’m writing here, I have the knowledge that it’s very public, and that shifts my writing. It’s been a very interesting process. So…why do you write and what got you started? Has your blog changed over time?
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04.21.06
Posted in Uncategorized, babble, music news at 11:38 pm by Deb
It’s been a few days since I’ve written anything because, well, life just keeps happening doesn’t it? In these past few days we’ve celebrated two birthdays and a birth day. Welcome to the world to the newest member of our very extended family. We’ve also had a friend’s house burn down. Yes, they lost everything. And…I’ve been dealing with a pretty sick child. My little grandsweetie is not so sweet when she’s sick. She goes between wanting to be physically attached to me - as close as possible at every moment - to pushing me away and screaming at me to leave her alone. Thank goodness she’s recovered, or seems to be anyway. So, what does all of this have to do with the Universe providing? My previous post was about our recording capabilities that were just out of reach and extremely frustrating. I was going to spend these couple of days figuring it all out - or at least trying to figure it out. Obviously, I haven’t had a moment to spare. The last time I had tried working on it, I lost all sound out of the computer and all signal from the recorder into the computer and couldn’t figure out why. When I woke up the next morning, everything worked again. No, I had not restarted. I was much too frustrated and was going to try that in the morning rather than throwing the whole set-up out the window if it didn’t work. I sat down to start my figuring, when I suddenly remembered an appointment I was dreadfully late for and ran out the door. After the appointment, I met Dick for lunch at the food coop and was telling about the whole computer saga when someone came up to us and asked what was going on, explaining that we were talking about his favorite subject. It turns out he was an operations manager at a local radio station and runs a recording studio at home. He has offered to come over and show me how to set it all up. He was familiar with my hardware and software and also a very nice guy. Knowing that I would have his help made it possible for me to just relax and do the caretaking I needed to do without any resentment.
The night our friend’s house burned down, Dick and I had been talking about possessions and our attachment to them. He asked me what I would do if I suddenly lost everything, though he included the people in my life as well. Would I try to replace them, start new relationships, buy new things? Would I see it as an opportunity and do the things I’ve put off for whatever reasons? It made me think about what is really important and how my attachments run my life. Interestingly, my friend told me she sees this as a bizarre chance to start over. She’s lost all traces of memorabilia in addition to her musical instruments, recorded music, clothes, everything. It’s hard to fathom. Yet, at least for now, she is looking at it as an opportunity. An interesting thing to ponder. Most of us have been posed the question, if you had 30 seconds in a burning building, what one thing would you grab? My question to you is, what would you replace, if anything? If the people in your life were also gone and you had no attachments, how would you change your life?
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04.17.06
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 6:10 pm by Deb
Well my daughter, the computer whiz, installed our sound card today. Our 4-track recorder is now hooked into it all, so we should be able to record and dump it into the computer for mixing and burning to a CD. Notice I said “should.” It is very complicated and frustrating. Luckily, Dick is pretty good at mixing the sound on the 4-track and I’m generally pretty good at the effects, etc. I can usually figure out computer stuff, too. I guess we’ll see. Hopefully, we should have some sound bytes on our website soon. The sound card we have is E-MU. I only have outdated software as an extra, so if anyone has any good advice on how to use all of this or recommendations for a good software package, please pass it on. As overwhelming as it feels right now, I’m actually looking forward to figuring it all out.
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04.15.06
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 4:39 pm by Deb
I must be out of mind since I keep booking these multiple gigs in one weekend. I just don’t like to say no. Nancy Reagan would be rolling her eyes or worse. Well, here we go into Round 2. Last night’s gig went well, though we didn’t really make any money once again. Good thing we don’t do it for the money, though being able to pay for the gas it takes to get there would be nice. Tonight is a paying gig and closer to home. I did the same thing for next month - not only two gigs in the same weekend, but in the same town. I guess I’ll have to pay more attention. Oh well, it’s like getting lots of practice in - and we do keep getting more and more people on our mailing list. Now, if they only come out to hear us again…
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