Reverend Ken's Blog: December 10, 2012

December 10, 2012 (Monday)
(Post 675, Day 344 of 2012, 709 days since starting this blog)

Daily Comment

I have a wild, crazy idea.

Okay, if you know me, maybe not so wild or crazy, because that's relative, right? And relative to me, maybe it isn't so surprising.

Yesterday, spending my (maximum) fifteen minutes on Facebook, I saw that down in Raleigh, a singular event is being planned. It is a reunion jam at the Berkeley Cafe in Raleigh.

There used to be a weekly jam there on Tuesdays. I was a regular from the mid-90s until about 2004, when I got sick, and got involved with the woman who would become my ex-wife. That jam was one of my all-time favorite events, and the fact that it was weekly never seemed to mean it got old. I looked forward to it, and the cast of characters, the musicians and fans and hangers-out, all of them.

When I moved down to NC at the end of 1986, I had not been playing bass regularly for about five years. I was doing the family-career thing, and it didn't seem to have anything to do with my having been a musician.

That continued, only more so (I don't think I ever unpacked my equipment from the move down), until I was in a car accident in 1991. I sustained some nerve damage in my neck which was manifested in numbness in my left thumb, forefinger and middle finger. Surgeons did not like the odds for surgery. Since it was not my dominant hand, it was recommended a device used by guitarists for finger-strengthening so that the muscles (undamaged) would not atrophy.

I asked, what about just actually playing? The surgeon said, that would be as good or better.

So I picked up the bass again. Before I knew it, I'd found a bunch of people at work to jam with. It wasn't great, and it was all rock, which wasn't really what I liked (for one thing, I'd been on a steady diet of jazz and classical listening since around 1980, and was totally ignorant of just about anything that happened in rock for the last ten years), and the drummer and singing (mostly me) was weak. So, it was fun to play, but it wasn't good. I called the garage band of IBMers I played with "The World's Worst Rock and Roll Band, Did I Mention Worst?"

During a brief period of unemployment in 1993, after leaving IBM and my playing friends, I got more into playing and started finding and regularly attending jams.

There were always a lot of jams in Raleigh, and I tried to go to all of them. The people who ran and played at these jams became my friends - a completely different circle than those I met at work. It was only rarely that there was any intersection. As the other musicians started recognizing me, my playing time and opportunities increased.

As I began to play more, I realized how not playing, or playing in less than satisfying situations, had been a drag on me for more than ten years. People who came to see me play commented on how happy I looked when I was playing. I began to see how essential it was to my happiness.

When I got sick and tried to keep playing, I hit some obstacles, including being fired from the band I was in. It became more and more difficult to keep playing. A few of my favorite jams, including the one at the Berkeley, closed up shop around 2007-8. I always felt that the scene going away - getting away from me - was a major contributor to leaving North Carolina, to closing out that scene. I missed the way things used to be.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

I'm going to Raleigh. I'm going to play in the one-night-only Berkeley reunion jam. Try to catch a little piece of the way things were before they went seriously bad.

I have no regrets about the way things turned out. I can honestly say I'm happier now than I ever was in North Carolina. Not that there weren't good times there. There were, and over the almost twenty-four years I lived there, there were lots of them. But overall, my last three years up in the land of the Golden Snowball have been my happiest.

Crazy, huh? Maybe not so much.

Please leave a comment if you visit my blog. Thank you!

Food and Diet Section

Year 2012 daily weight from December 31, 2011

Today's Weight: 208.0 lbs

Yesterday's Weight: 208.0 lbs

Day Net Loss/Gain: + 0.0 lbs

Diet Comment

My fast, which was followed by a rather immoderate quantity of food, did absolutely nothing. I think today's normal eating - even with the little late-night-snack fail - will have a positive effect.

Food Log

Breakfast
Cocoa-kale protein shake (almond milk, whey protein (36g protein), kale, 2 jumbo eggs, cocoa, cinnamon, stevia-inulin blend).

Lunch