by Christine | Jun 4, 2010 | Welcome Column
(“Brooks, if you get tired of walking, walk faster.”) Buzz Judd, circa 1958) Item 1: During January-March of 1963 (my freshman year at Hayward High) a strange phenomenon was occurring. President Kennedy, our youthful president, had chided Americans, especially the...
by Christine | Jan 3, 2013 | Welcome Column
“Don’t quit your day job!” Contrary to that old saying among professional, semi-professional or (in my case) semi-amateur musicians, I am quitting my day job in 60 work days… or one fiscal quarter… or 13 weeks… I could break it down to minutes but I’ll spare you my...
by Christine | Nov 2, 2017 | Welcome Column
My birthday is next Tuesday and besides completing another revolution around the sun, I’ll tell you what it means. I’ll stop getting so many phone calls asking for money for any election that is being held anywhere in the country on that day. It’s good that some of...
by Christine | Nov 19, 2015 | Welcome Column
I came across an article the other day that really hit home and made me think about some feelings I have been experiencing over the last couple of months. It’s called “The 9 Phases of Post-Concert Depression” by Cassie Whitt and was posted on the Alternative Press...
by Christine | Jan 8, 2017 | Welcome Column
Today is a special day and a day to play a special tune. I first remember hearing this tune as part of a popular recording made in the late fifties by Johhny Horton:In 1814 we took a little trip along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty MississippiWe took a little...
by Christine | Sep 24, 2020 | Welcome Column
Daily grist; no matter how slowly the wheels turn I refused to be ground down, and eventually will die a complete person. JD RhynesA memory from 70 years ago still haunts me. The setting was the middle-class neighborhood of East Stockton in which I was raised. It was...
by Christine | Jan 12, 2012 | Welcome Column
For various and sundry reasons I had not previously attended a Great 48 Winter Jam before. But this past summer was notable for a combination of babysitting responsibilities and conflicting band gigs and other commitments, which meant I missed Plymouth and Hollister...
by Christine | Mar 20, 2011 | Welcome Column
If you google “A Beautiful Life” a pretty diverse list of websites falls out, including a site for cosmetics and several hits for a movie directed by Alejandro Chomski…but not the gospel song done by Bill Monroe. For that you have to include an additional term like...
by Christine | Nov 1, 2009 | Welcome Column
“Hello! Anybody home?” Of course, nobody was home this time in the afternoon. It was my sophomore year in college and I was dropping by my parents’ place hoping to snag the Sunday dinner leftovers before anybody came home. Something, however, felt out of place. The...
by Christine | Nov 2, 2014 | Welcome Column
There’s two things that all 13 to 14 year olds really enjoy: hearing horror stories and telling horror stories. A few weeks ago, we read Poe’s “Tell Tale Heart” in class. Naturally class participation and test scores just leaped through the ceiling for this unit of...
