Item 1: Good news! Our fearless leader is out of the hospital. I am currently verifying reports of videos that are currently streaming on the web showing Mr. Cornish singing “Achy, Breaky Heart!” and then doing his best Herman Noone impersonation singing, “Can’t you hear my heart beat?” when asked by the emergency room doctor what was wrong with him. If Rick hasn’t related to you his recent serious medical emergency, “8 seconds to Nirvana,” I’ve been told he will do so shortly. Welcome back Mr. Cornish.
Item 2: Excellent musical lyrical alliteration: “I am a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.” “I Am a Rock” Simon and Garfunkel 1966.
Item 3: Haunting image created by Gordon Lightfoot: “Does anyone know where the love of God goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?” Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Item 4: My sister, Maria Naydauld (Above the Bay Booking) recently phoned and we chatted. She informed me she was checking on my lapsed CBA membership. She told me I would be getting a formal reprimand in the mail and that I should respond with due diligence and a check for the required funds.
I quoted the late great Groucho Marx,“I don’t want to join a club that would want me as a member.” The sound of one hand clapping was deafening.Maria then related to me that she had sent out several copies of the same letter to various CBA members who had let their membership lapse. Apparently this recent push by a newly elected board member has reaped huge results.I was not the only CBA member to renew.In fact there were many, many renewals. Good work big sister!
I do not wish to brag or boast but I made a prediction many years ago when Rick Cornish ran for a position on the board. I stated quite publicly (putting my sterling reputation on the line) that Rick would (with the help of other board members) bring the CBA into the twenty-first century. The fact that you are reading my column confirms that prediction.We have a web site that is top of the line. I could go on but the last thing I would want to do is make Mr. Cornish blush.
I will say the same thing about my sister. She will confidently take the baton of a CBA Board Member and help incorporate changes and bring in new ideas (with the other CBA Board Members) that will maintain the CBA as the model for bluegrass associations around the world.
Item 5: Pearls Before Swine: (Stephan Pastis)
First pig: (to pig in overalls) “Hey pig, why the farmer clothes?”
Second pig: Farmer Bob hired me to herd his flock of sheep. But it is hard.
First pig: How come?
Second pig: Because I need to move the flock.But there’s a barbed wire fence blocking one direction and now there’s a winery’s grapes blocking the other direction.
First pig: So what did you do?
Second pig: I Herd It Through the Grapevine.
First pig: Ewe make me sick!
Item 6: David Grisman/Gary Vassal (Red Dog Ash): What could these two musician/songwriter/mandolin players have in common? Well, most of us are aware that the great David Grisman will be performing this June at the Fathers’ Day Festival. Most of us also know that Red Dog Ash has also performed at the Father’s Day Festival.
Here is where it gets interesting. Gary not only runs his own music shop in Modesto but he is also an experienced fiddle maker.A few years ago Gary felt that since he was a mandolin player (among other instruments) maybe he should take some time and build a mandolin, so he did. Gary did not make it for himself.Do you see what is coming? The first mandolin that Gary made was sold to the one and only David Grisman! As my father the late great Buzz Judd would say with a slap on his thigh and a wide grin, “Well, how do you like those apples?”
On a more somber note. It’s been twenty years Dad. Love and miss you. Give Mom and Lisa a hug.
Item 7: Speaking of Red Dog Ash. My good friend Jason Winfrey and I shared a beer a couple of days ago at the Dust Bowl Brewery in Turlock.He told me he was looking forward to the spring campout.Jason is also looking forward to Red Dog Ash performing with Dan Crary and Thundernation at the Newman Theater on May 2. Sounds like a great show.
Item 8: Good riddance to the Panda. He now joins Brian Wilson as a once beloved Giant who just didn’t get what being human was all about by failing to show even the smallest dash of decency and humility. Thank God our bluegrass musicians are not like that. Luckily the Giants have Posey,Pence,Bumgarner,and Boche to set fine examples. Throw in Kruk and Kuip to do the games on TV and what could be better?
Item 9: The Bay Area has another team to be proud of.I am not a basketball fan but I have been watching another class organization these past few months the exciting Golden State Warriors. They are the classiest team in basketball 2014-2015 with the best record with a loyal fan base. I haven’t watched a complete basketball game since 1975 when the Warriors won it all, whereas the Warriors fans have been selling out their home games for the past twenty years. They too are a class act.
Until Friday, May 1…. Read a book, hug a child, pet a dog, stroke a cat, eat a bar of chocolate and smile.