This past weekend, Mrs. Dubbatrubba and I took a trip that was short in duration but long on connections.
We drove to Saint Louis Friday afternoon and met up with my high school friend John “Frez” Fresneda and his wife Kim.
John and I made up more than 10% of our graduating class at Sacred Heart HS in Morrilton, Arkansas (2 of 19) but it’d been many moons since we caught up in person. And our spouses had never met. But at our high school reunion seven years ago, we talked about meeting in “the Lou” for a Reds-Cardinals game (he’s a huge Cards fan). This year, we finally made it happen. And I’m so glad we did. John and Kim couldn’t be nicer, and we had a great time exploring the city a bit. (For the record, the Reds won the game we attended!)
On Saturday morning, I caught up with Alicia, who was a Miami University student co-op waaaay back in the early 90s when I worked at 97X radio in Oxford, OH. I hadn’t seen Alicia since our mutual friend Joe’s wedding 20+ years ago. (She and Joe co-hosted a show on the student radio station called “Night on Disco Mountain.”) She’s now the GM of the NBC TV station in St. Louis (her hometown). I wish I could say that her radio station mentors (my morning show partner “Rictile” and I) taught her everything she needed to succeed in media, but the reality is we probably taught her everything NOT to do!
Despite the fact that she’s now a captain of industry, Alicia carved out some time to meet us at a coffee shop. Because in addition to being a captain of industry, she’s also one of the nicest folks you could ever meet.
On Sunday morning, after we parted ways with Frez and Kim, we had brunch with Mrs. Dubbatrubba’s niece, Libby (our goddaughter) who works as a nurse in St. Louis. We’ve spent a lot of time with “Libbo” over the years, mostly on shared summer vacations as she and her siblings and our kids were growing up. It’s great to hear more about her life now that she’s “adulting.”
[Yes, we put Libby in charge of taking the selfie – she’s a pro.]
Since our route back to Cincinnati would take us through Louisville, I texted my college friend Walter early last week to see if we could pop in on Sunday afternoon. Walter and I text quite a bit and talk on the phone occasionally, but despite the fact that Louisville is a mere 90 miles from Cincinnati, somehow it’d been seven years since we saw each other in person. And despite the fact that Wally is a movie star (he was one of the kids in the cab in Stripes) he and his wife Blakey welcomed us into their home on Sunday afternoon.
Here’s Wally’s scene in Stripes:
It’s a lot easier to say “we should get together” than to actually do it. But honestly, it just took a few texts to set up a wonderful weekend of rekindling connections.
Go through your list of contacts. Who can you carve out some time for? Give ’em a text or a call. Make it happen. You’ll be so glad you did.
When I was growing up in Arkansas (back in the Mesozoic era), we’d see TV commercials for a grocery chain called The Mad Butcher. Every commercial ended with a caricature of “the Mad Butcher” accompanied by some maniacal laughter, straight out of the Vincent Price bag of tricks:
My dad could imitate that laugh perfectly – it cracked us up as kids.
We’re not laughing anymore.
This was a week ago. In Fordyce, Arkansas, a town of 3,000.
Normally the folks roaming the aisles of a small-town grocery store are called “shoppers.” In the blink of an eye, they became “targets of opportunity” and “victims.”
The perpetrator didn’t really have a criminal record. It’s doubtful tighter gun restrictions would’ve prevented this tragedy. Meanwhile, closer to home last weekend:
This one could’ve been prevented.
A bottle of water. Kids arguing. It should’ve been nothing more than a petty squabble. But add a gun to the equation and it ends with a teenager dead. Yet the story gets even sadder:
[Full story from the Cincinnati Enquirer is here.]
Three generations of gun violence. We can do more to stop the cycle. We should do more to stop the cycle. We must do more to stop the cycle.
Our grandkids aren’t old enough to know better. What’s our excuse?
Gather round, kids. Grandpa Dubbatrubba’s gonna tell you about a time when there was this thing called “radio.” You could listen to “stations” that played different types of music – you know, like those Spotify “Daily Mix” playlists.
And certain stations — they were usually the small ones, semi-neglected ones, with weak signals, would play all sorts of music that other stations wouldn’t. Up-and-coming bands with weird names. It was called “college rock” and it was amazing.
And if you were a “college rock” band and you wanted to tour, you had to make connections with other like-minded bands. And maybe your parents helped out:
So much has changed about the music business. But there’s still room for “college rock” bands. And they still need friends and family to help promote them.
Buffalo Tom‘s new album Jump Rope came out on May 31st.
They’re still great.
They’re doing a bit of touring, mostly the East and West Coasts, with some European dates, and then a three-night homecoming festival near their Boston hometown.
Tell a buddy, and bring a friend.
Oh, and a bit closer to home, a band called The Collies has been added to the bill for a show at Madison Live in Covington, KY this Sunday. Father’s Day. My oldest son is in that band. They get a cut of the tickets they sell. Want one? Call the drummer’s dad. If you sound like you’re from the South, I’ll talk to you for an hour.
Wussy rocks! Tonight, they’re going to bring their amazing songwriting to life in an intimate setting. And that gets me right where I live.
The show is part of Chuck and Lisa’s house concert tour. A company called Undertow organizes these tours for Wussy and several other artists. They take care of ticket sales and all the other details. You can host a show… or see one. Check out the current roster here. In my email exchanges with Jayne from Undertow, I thanked her for what Undertow is doing to bring great artists to folks all over the country. Her response:
She’s right, I do give a damn about artists like Mark, Lisa, and Chuck. (They also happen to be super-kind human beings… a huge bonus!)
Music is my happy place. Home is where the heart is. Tonight, I get the best of both worlds. It’s gonna be beautiful.
This past Sunday, I went to the initial “Grateful Gathering” in Cincinnati. It was organized and led by my friend and co-worker Susan Jackson.
It was just 14 folks at a coffee shop, chatting. Actually it was much more than that. Thanks to Susan’s prompts from the Grateful Gatherings guide, the conversation got pretty deep quite quickly.
Sharing with strangers can be daunting. And the whole concept may seem a little too “woo-woo” for you.
I get it. Getting deep with people you just met at a coffee shop may not be your cup of tea.
But this Grateful Dude is here for it… all of it. Anything that adds more positivity to the world is much-needed these days.
Here’s the welcome session video:
“Everyone will be blessed by you, just by your presence”
Next session is Sunday, June 30, 10 a.m. at Moonflower Coffee Collective. Please join. I’ll be grateful if you do. And even if you don’t!
It’s not my podcast, actually. It’s the podcast that Dave Tellmann and I do… or did, rather. But we’re still hauling in the hardware (“we’d like to thank the members of the academy…”) and reaping the accolades (“none of this would’ve been possible without your support…”).
The latest shout-out came courtesy of Cincinnati CityBeat.
Our “97X Rumblings from the Big Bush” podcast has run its course. (We did do a bonus episode recently after Mojo Nixon passed away.) But maybe a few more fans of the station will find their way to our little ol’ show. Which is the point.
“Rumblings” has a lot in common with a kid’s fort.
You can tell a lot of time and effort went into the construction of it, but it’s still clearly quite amateur. And that’s OK. For the few folks that tuned in, it was a time capsule from a time in their lives when the music and the people who shared it mattered a great deal to them. Those connections still matter.
We appreciate the recognition from CityBeat. Now if you’ll excuse us, Dave and I have to go put on our tuxedos for the awards ceremony.
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