Sunday, May 25, 2008

Memorial Day weekend reflection

As many of you know, I finally lost my Pop just shy of three weeks ago. One year ago today I flew him out of Melbourne, Florida to Vegas on Delta, by way of Atlanta (what an adventure that day was, LOL! Above, Pop in the MD-80 1st class cabin outa MLB). I am so grateful to have had the past year in close proximity to him. (April and I then went back down to Florida and fetched my Ma on July 15th. I continue tend to her closely, in fact later today I'm gonna try to get her to agree to get out of the nursing home for at least a ride in the car for a while.)

My Dad and all of his brothers (as well as his brothers-in-law) all served throughout WWII. Pop left a leg behind in Sicily after crashing his glider one night.

(Dementia, man: One day this past year he tells me "I crashed my glider in Korea, and I've been in this hospital ever since." Right, Pop.)

When I first saw the movie "Saving Private Ryan" I thought "man, this is way too close to home, yikes..."

Last year I put together a short Ken Burns'ish video clip to quickly show off one aspect of my take on Nathan's arranging talent (I think the cat could/should be scoring films; this music is of his "Crossings" original tune). I'll re-post it, apropos of this holiday.



I shot those stills of the D-Day cemetery in Normandy four years ago. Incredibly moving experience, that place.

On Memorial Day, amid your leisure time, devote at least a moment in reverential reflection toward those who have and who continue to pay the terrible price of defending freedom. When I hear some local news TV talking head lamely wishing everyone a "Happy Memorial Day," I lament that we've made this largely just one more 4-color ad insert Dollar Daze Blowout!!! day off.
__________

UPDATE, PODCAST No. 6

Almost done, just gotta lay in the V/O. "Friends of Santa Fe, Volume Two." Thirteen cuts, ten artists: Michael Ruff, Tim Scott, Marco Mendoza, Ronnie Gutierrez, Mike Gutierrez, Enrique Corro, Darryl Williams, Tim Leinhard, Ricky Peterson, and his brother Paul Peterson.

Looks like there will necessarily be a Volume Three as well. So much great material.

Other news: Steven Lee (below at The Springs Preserve opening last year) will graciously open the show tomorrow night subbing a few tunes for Jerry 'til The Lopez can make it over from the Wayne Brady Show gig. You don't wanna miss this cat.

5:45 PM, PODCAST No. 6 IS NOW ONLINE


More detail (e.g., links & stuff) on the cats and the tunes to come...and don't laugh at my lame-assed Irish pronunciations of salsa titles.

PODCAST DETAIL UPDATE

The cats and the cuts:
Total podcast length is 1:06:45 (~91 meg mp3 file). The intro and exit chase excerpts are, of course, from the Santa Fe 2005 live CD tune "Just Kidding."

Enrique is the only cat lacking a web presence (the link from his name is to a scan of his card that I did). He needs to at least put up a MySpace music page, his stuff is so good.

ERRATA: COLDPLAY iTunes TV SPOT

If you've watched any TV lately, you may have seen this beautifully done TV commercial for "ColdPlay."



Interesting that they're going exclusively iTunes on their new release.

1 comment:

KayInMaine said...

Great post, BobbyG! Sad about your Uncle Eugene but wonderful how your father at the end of his life remembered his service to our country...well, kind of remembered. ;-)

Hugs to you.