2013: The Never-Ending Search for the Never-Ending Search

There’s no rule that says you have to get introspective at the close of a year. When I was young and single living in San Francisco, working at KPIX-TV, the end of the year just meant I could work all of the holiday eves and holidays for triple pay, get a big fat check in mid-January, and then bounce down to Disneyland in February. As you can imagine, the Magic Kingdom was pretty deserted in February. All the kids were in school, and most vacationers were on a beach somewhere under a tropical sun. College kids were maybe planning on heading Walt’s way for spring break, but that wouldn’t be until April. So that meant that I and whoever I could convince to go with me, had the parks practically to ourselves.

Introspection didn’t come along until, really, just a few years ago. I had scraped through a couple of serious health-related issues, and I started to think “Fudge-if I’m gonna do this I better do it now!” I had seen quite clearly that I did not have a lock on another New Year’s day. An ambulance ride from one hospital to a second hospital will open your mind to that possibility. I wouldn’t say I felt a sense of urgency, but more a narrowing of focus. Places to go, things to do, new skills to learn, things I wanted to accomplish began to swim more clearly into focus. Some stuff dropped off the table. I guess those things were not really important. 

I have seen some dreams come true by either accident or intent. 

I have seen my little infant children grow into responsible, thoughtful adults. 

I've been married to the same wonderful, patient woman for 27 years.

My parents have passed on to the next dimension of existence secure in the knowledge that I am not incarcerated, insane, or an insufferable asshole. At least I wasn’t around them. 

I have attended eight Formula 1 Grands Prixs. As someone who until 2002 had only seen Formula 1 on television, this is pretty fudgin’ cool to me. I used to have repetitive dreams where I was walking through a dreamscape forest with crowds of people and getting ready  to watch a Formula 1 race somewhere on some dreamscape European road course. This last summer, Gail and I walked through real forests in the Eiffel mountains, with crowds of people, to watch the real German Grand Prix at the real Nurburgring. 

I finally got to walk from Vauxhall to Lambeth Bridge along the south bank of the Thames, and I can honestly say now that London is my favorite city in the world. 

Many years prior to this, I owned and raced a G production Triumph Spitfire in S.C.C.A. races. I still think racing is the most fun you can have out of bed. Too bad I wrecked it. The car, not the bed.

I once fell down some stairs at KTVU in Oakland, smacked my head on a wall, and two weeks later bought an Aston Martin DB4. (serial #DB4901R)

I smooth-talked my way backstage to meet Chuck Berry, and concurrently had my first taste of escargot. 

I won an Emmy award.

I’ve shaken hands with Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and been within six feet of Barack Obama on three different occasions without getting arrested. 

I saw The Who for $4.00 and the Dead for $3.00. I also saw Billy Preston. I've finally seen Living Colour.

I threw marshmallows at Strom Thurmond and played “Dixie” on a kazoo when he appeared at CMU back in the day.

I saw Jimi Hendrix at an anti-war demonstration in Washington D.C.

I saw James Brown (Mr. Dynamite!!) twice before he died. 

And there’s a bunch of other stuff I shouldn’t  talk about that still puts a twinkle in my eye. 

"We will not regret the past or wish to shut the door on it."

So the denouement of 2013 brings with it my retirement from the daily grind of the work world. December 31st, 2013 is my last day of work. As of January 1st 2014, my alarm will not go off before 6AM unless I am flying, driving, walking, biking or getting picked up to go somewhere far away. 

Retirement  was never a gauzy dream that I had, but I knew one day that it would come. I never thought about it a lot, even though Gail and I have been saving up for it for thirty years.  Checks will come in the mail. When I meet strangers and they inevitably ask me what I do, my sentences will start with “I used to…” or “I was a…” or “I get to…” I already feel stress melting away like that last icicle hanging from the eaves in late March. I take deeper breaths, drink more tea, and read more of the paper. At the same time, more options are opening to me. Should I volunteer at the local food bank, nursing home, or public access TV channel? Should I dust off the Stratocaster in the corner of my office and really learn how to play? Should I blow a couple of grand fixing up the old Jaguar? Can I somehow take the horrific faith-shattering experience of owning a coin laundry and write a brilliant novel to purge the poison from my wounded soul? Well? Huh? Should I?

Standby. I’m about to find out.

One of the things I learned fairly early in life is that you can either have time or money, but rarely can you have both. I know I’m not going to live forever, and not many people duck when I swing my wallet around my head on a string. But if I’ve got a little time, and enough money, and that’ll do pig, that’ll do.

Speaking of Music…

My favorite album of the year is “Electric Lady” by Janelle Monae. The best I can do to describe it: the soulful, psychedelic symphonic soundtrack to a rerun of an old  science fiction film that’s playing in a dream. The main character is a rebellious android (an alpha platinum 9000) named Cyndi Mayweather. The songs range from guitar-driven rock, to traditional sambas and ballads, to Motown, and old school soul, interspersed with clips from an urban android radio talk show (DJ Crash Crash) and a pops orchestral suite straight from a spacey 60s era Italian comedy. Yet, it is very…musical. Whoever produced the album is a firkin genius, using real instruments-not cheap synthesizers, weaving elaborate melodic themes and vocals into a mind-blowing yet humorous coherency. Yes, I do dig me some female vocalists. Janelle Monae has an amazing voice-at times powerful at other times very sweet, dynamic, and with a soaring range. And the backing vocals, whether by her or other vocalists harmonize the way God and Leonard Bernstein intended. I listen to “Electric Lady” about twice a day. The songs are stuck in my head and I like it.

I also revised my Top 3 Best Ever Concerts list:

1-Billy Preston

2-Iggy Pop

3-Living Colour

Living Colour played at the Park West in Chicago in April. It was the 25th anniversary of the release of their first album "Vivid." They played the entire album plus a couple of songs from a new album to be released in 2014. It was such a good show that I almost went to see them in Las Vegas, and again when they played in Evanston in November. However, the stars would not align. Damn you universe!!

Have a great, wonderful, magnificent, engaging, productive, glittering, spectacular, satisfying, rewarding, eye-opening, laugh-filled, forehead-smackin', power-packin'  booty-shakin', memory-makin' twenty-fourteeeeen y'all!  

Everybody say: "Bayyyy-bay!!"*

(*DJ Crash Crash)