Love and Mercy

Thank you, Brian Wilson Biopic, for casting my 16-year-old self to play young Brian!

I, Handicapped

Almost 15 years ago, I was felled by a herniated disc for the second time in my life (the first was in 1988) and suddenly, because of nerve damage, lost the ability to lift or pull back my right foot and toes. This is called a "Dropped Foot".

My Doc rushed me into surgery, hoping to fix my back AND my foot, but only the back pain went away - my right foot remains "dropped" to this day. I can push down without any problem, meaning that driving is still part of my routine, but I had to learn to walk quite differently, and that first year I tripped at least two or three times a week until I got it down.

Years have passed, and most people have been unaware of my dropped foot unless I point it out. I love walking barefoot, but need to be extra careful since my toes can easily curl under. I've tripped on occasion when my foot got tired, but for the most part I was fine.

Then, I did two stupid things.

First, I tried to run. BIG mistake! It caused a ham string injury that took almost a year to heal. Then, on Fathers Day last year, I tried stepping over a velvet rope at Universal, and immediately fell flat on my knees. That was painful enough, but because I'd weakened my knee, I started tripping all over the place and injuring my knee over and over until it required surgery.

I'm now fully recovered, though I carry a walking stick most places because falling down just isn't an option anymore.

Anyway, while recovering, my knee doctor got me a temporary handicapped parking placard.

OH MY GOD…

If there is such a thing as Nirvana within day-to-day city life, the handicapped placard is the Golden Ticket.

Los Angeles is a car town - end of story. Driving and parking is 95% of our daily reality. Parking is the Wild Card that can make or break a day trip or nighttime date. If you can't Park, you can't DO.

The Handicapped Parking Spot was SUCH an unattainable thing, that even after getting my placard, I kept forgetting to use it. But once I started, I knew I could never go back. Not only do you park way close to wherever you're going, even on a crowded day, but you also get to park for free, ALL DAY LONG, in front of parking meters. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

My original placard was good for 6 weeks but took 4 weeks to get to me. When I returned to my doctor, I made the case that my knee injury was the result of my dropped foot, and having a "Compromised" extremity is all you need for a permanent placard. Surely I qualified? But no - he felt that since he wasn't the doctor who diagnosed my dropped foot, he couldn't use that to get me permanent free-spot status. He did extend the temporary placard for another six weeks, however.

Not to be deterred, I then visited my GP, and she saw the logic and signed the form immediately.

I'm now waiting to see if that blue placard does indeed show up in my mail. If not, I'll be fighting to get it however long it takes.

Having a dropped foot is certainly not the worst thing that could befall somebody, and I've always been grateful for my relatively good health. A few surgeries, meningitis, and diabetes are child's play compared with all the debilitating shit that's out there.

But I feel I've been a stoic and uncomplaining member of this city for the 15 years since my foot injury, and if the injury is now threatening to pop up and derail everything I've worked for, I think it's totally acceptable to use any assistance that's legally and morally available to me.

And also… I WANT THAT PARKING SPOT.

40 Years In The Time Machine! 1975-2015

Happy 5th Wedding Anniversary Sharon!

Sharon, thank you so much for marrying me and STAYING married to me! I cherish every single day, especially the good ones but even the tough ones, because they have all been spent with YOU!

Thanks so much for being so generous with our Saturday anniversary so that I could attend my band's reunion, and instead spending a fun Sunday with me at the Rose Bowl swap meet and then early dinner at The Smoke House.

Love You 4 Ever Baby!!

xoxoxox

Highway Star 40 Year Reunion - April 11, 2014

\All the original members in the original photo lineup!

Let's Buy A Record Collection!

So... just got back from my latest Craigslist Record foray... and let it be clear that this is the FIRST time I've met a less-than-stellar fate doing this.

Iranian or Indian woman, living up in an Uncle Joe DiMuro-like estate above Valley Circle in Woodland Hills. 

She lets me in, and her records are nicely displayed in piles of 100 around a pool table.

I give my little speech about how records are usually worth less than one thinks, picking up a DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED that I sold for $5 ("Oh, but that's GOOD!" she chimed in). Then I asked about the history of the records, and it turns out she has them from buying up collections herself!

As I make my way around the table, I find I'm only taking one record per pile, and even some of those are Hail Marys...

At the end, I have 26 in a box. She had wanted to dump the whole collection of 800 for $800 ("...though I'm negotiable...") and I immediately pissed her off by offering $15 for 5 sealed classical LPs and a buck each for the rest.  She countered with $20 for the sealed records, and $3 each for the rest. But boy, she was PISSED!

"You go through, you pick and choose. I need someone to buy the collection! I KNOW it is worth money! I KNOW someone will buy it! What will this get me? Almost nothing, and you pick and choose!"

I said: "Honestly, I mean no disrespect, but I've owned or seen every one of these records before, and I just can't sell them. For example.... (I pick up a double Dan Fogelberg concept album).... see this one? I had a mint copy, WITH the booklet (she had no booklet), and it was a beautiful record, but in the end I had to GIVE IT AWAY.  And your sealed classical records? Frankly, I buy sealed classical records for a dollar all the time."

Well, blah blah blah, you come here and pick and choose, you said you would take 100 or 200...

"Look, I came here in good faith. I WANTED to buy a bunch of records!" I pulled out the wad of 20's in my pocket. "But I just can't sell these. I'm sorry I wasted your time."

So I went to Mr. Records and picked 22 from the Heartbreak Bin, which had recently been replenished.

The Surprise Reunion Talks

Finishing up at the Fairbanks Building here on the Formosa Lot - back to Editorial next door on Monday.

When I say Fairbanks Building, I do not mean a nice, new, glimmering structure built in honor of Douglas Fairbanks. This WAS his building, and I am just on the other side of the wall from a 1920's soundstage that may be haunted. I liked this corner, especially when I'd walk out and see somebody famous like Chris Schauble from Channel 5 News.

Two days ago the nominees for this year's Golden Reel sound editing awards were announced. I had no idea I'd been nominated in the Direct To Video category - 2 out of 5! - so now it looks like I must go, one way or another.

I started getting Linkedin emails from my old drummer friend John Privitelli, and he was asking what year our band Highway Star opened for Van Halen (it was 1975). Everybody but John and I thought VH sucked, so they left the dance hall; John and I sat right in front and had our own, private Van Halen concert. But, back to present.

Our band had 5 members, and soon two of the other guys joined in the conversation. At once point I said: "Maybe we should pick a night, get together, and drink responsibly." Somehow this turned into a band reunion, and now I've desperately got to learn how to play guitar again by late March.

However, I can't think of anything more fun to do right now, even though we were a short-lived band that split up acrimoniously in early 1976 - 39 years ago!

We were basically a band for hire, but there were tensions about how much of the new "disco" sound to adopt, and how much to stick with Hard Rock. I remember the bass player Gary saying we needed our own, signature sound, but I had no idea what that meant at the time. How could I play guitar any differently? Gary was right: what we needed was a singular vision that we could all adhere to. But I was basically along for the ride, so we just tooled along until the tensions couldn't be ignored.

Probably our best performance was our last: an audition for Marlboro High School, near where I'm living now. I have that (and most of our shows) on stereo cassette, and will hopefully be able to clean that up digitally by the time of the reunion.

(The photo above is from our last performance.)