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To the guy who practises random acts of kindness

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I hereby announce the winner of this years “Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty” award is R. JACKSON the proud owner of Prestige Glass International!

Ok everyone … please calm down and take your computer seats!

It wasn’t hard to come to this decision. You see … Earlier this month I was ill and we thought it might have been a heart problem that had plagued me a few years ago. You might have heard about this on my wife’s blog You are in my World Now. During the short period of time that I was ill, I’m better now, I found out that one of the greatest keyboardist in Rock history, no it’s not Robert even though he is an accomplished keyboardist in his own right, Rick Wakeman, is playing a concert this Sunday at the Danforth Music Hall here in Toronto.

The prices for these tickets were quite pricey and at the moment I couldn’t afford them. The concert might even be sold out by now too.

Now this is where Robert comes in. He was searching for information about the Rick Wakeman concert and he came across the post on my wife’s blog that discussed how much I wanted to go to the concert. He read it and then replied:

I just realized that Chris is ill, by looking at this site a little closer. The spare ticket to Rick Wakeman is yours for free.

Now that is the reason why he is this years recipient! The man went way out of his way to provide me with music that will sooth my ill heart!

At the beginning of this post I mentioned that Robert has a company called Prestige Glass International. Well I took a moment to visit his company site and his company makes some very cool stuff that you should check out.

My favorite pieces are under “Canadiana” Inukshuks (in-ook-shook) and Vases & Bowls. The Vases & Bowls remind me of some of the ones that my relatives make in Ireland.

I don’t think that I told you about my family roots, but we are from Waterford Ireland. Yes, the place that makes the world famous Waterford Crystal. As luck would have it, I still have 2 cousins that do the glass blowing and cutting at the plant. Too bad they weren’t there when we were doing the tour of the factory a few years ago.

Since my cousins weren’t at the Waterford factory when we visited we did a tour of the plant with the regular tourists. While watching some guys do their work on their benches I kept asking the the tour guide some detailed questions about cutting and the tools they used. After a while he kept wondering why I had many questions I told them that I was a goldsmith and diamond setter. I also said that during the tour we saw some pictures of our cousins through out the plant. He then laughed and said “Oh ya, they did say some of their cousins were going to show up some time.”

At this point we were nearing the end of the tour and he said why don’t we hang out and talk to the boys on the floor, and that’s what we did. After being introduced to them the tour guide told them who we were and they said “Do you want to take a crack at it?” and I said “Why not!”

So cheers to this years recipient! Maybe he’ll let me take a crack at glass blowing behind his bench.

Keep on Jammin’




The Grand Old Danforth Music Hall

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The Danforth Music Hall is quite the fixture in my neighbourhood. It’s been around since the 1919 and originally called “Allen’s Danforth theatre”.

It had it’s hey day back when Vaudeville acts where all the rage! It changed it’s concept and purpose a number of times and eventually was called the “Century” but kept it’s distinctive beauty intact.

They’ve just renovated this gem on “The Danforth“, known by the locals, and is fully up and running. They have underwent extensive renovations from top to bottom that reflects it original Grandeur. New state of the art sound/lighting system, new seats that are wider (now that’s worth it weight in gold in itself), updated lobby/washrooms and bar area!

This is the kind of jewel that you pass everyday and say to yourself, ” I gotta get in there some day!”. Well, hopefully I will not have to wait that long.

I just went to their site and found a treasure trove of musical talent that is just screaming out to me to go see! Besides, there is tons of parking and seconds away from the subway.

These are a few of my choices that have caught my eye!

Rick Wakeman, the man is a musical genius and machine when it comes to the keyboard (Tony, you gotta see this guy to believe him)

Stephan Stills, now this is a guy you want to go camping with, imagine the sing songs around the fire! (Stevie my favorite brother-in-law, keep this date open)

Rickie Lee Jones, she would be a nice addition to one of my backyard parties. (Jon, will we see you there?)

Just to name a few! My eyes are on Rick Wakeman.

Their site is easy to navigate plus there are some video’s of the artists in their “Events” section, just in case you want to refresh your memory of who they are.

So if your in my neck of the woods, check out this Grand Old Lady and hope to see you there on Aug. 17th/07 when Mr. Wakeman is playing.

Keep on Jammin’

My first Rock Bands Concert … a KISS tribute one at that!

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I mercifully skipped grade 7 for you all and went right to the good stuff.

Well I just have to let the cat out of the bag and swallow my pride on this one! Yes I was playing in a KISS tribute band and was Ace Frehley. Well in all honesty, the majority of the tunes were KISS tunes. I was the only one in the band who did not belong to the KISS Army though.

I was into more challenging music but the only guys I knew that could play were these guys! Don’t get me wrong, these guys were my best friends for the longest time! Eddie, was the drummer and had extensive gigging with a “Polka Band” and Brian, the guy in my previous posts was the other guitar player. We didn’t have a bass player at the time due to the fact that no one we knew played the bass.

When I was in grade 7, I remember playing with the Muroz brothers. It was fun because they had taken lessons and could play their instruments well. I think we played some Queen, Led Zeppelin and some pop tunes of the day. I forget why we broke up but I guess that is how it goes. Sorry, I just had to write a bit about the grade 7 thing!

Anyways, we would practice and practice for hours on end. I keep trying to get these guys to slow down and take apart the songs that we were playing and it did sink in to some degree. I’m sure that they would tell ya differently but it’s my blog so there!

As we grew older we found that other schools had band and that they were playing live at their schools so we had no choice, let’s do a live show. Our first and only show was to be played at “St. Bernard’s” school. This was what we thought was our big break!

During this time I had been introduced to another band in the making. They were both in high school and they were just who I was looking to play with. They were Tony, the keyboard player who sounded like a god on that thing, and Harry the guitar player who could play quit well technically but lacked the feel that you need!

Anyways, when we played the show, I had a blast! My soon to be band mates where in attendance and the show went on. Brian, who was like Gene did this wild guitar solo in the audience with the help of MANY GUITAR EXTENSION CHORDS while i was lying on the stage moving these knobs on my old ” BOSS BF-1 FLANGER”. Our band was named “Duce” and when we played it to start off the show, the words go something like this, “Get up and get the hell on out of here!” and there goes Brian singing it directly to a nun, I almost blew a nut laughing so hard on stage!

So, how was that?

Oh my God, what the hell, it’s got 2 necks

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Now that I was in grade 6 and my brother was in grade 8, other musical influences came into view for me. My brother Tim was the popular guy in school that everyone wanted to hang out with. He was an unreal defencemen in hockey, good looking and a very likable link of guy.

I too played defense and was quite talented. He had won more valuable defense men awards then I did but I had to try harder because I was much smaller then him. He was a rushing type of defense men and I was the crazy stay at home and take no prisoners type. As usual, I tried to be like my older brother, like most people in the pecking order of life. I always strived to catch up to him as much as I could. I even played on his team one time and that was really some so I thought.

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Anyways, he started out listening to music that did not get much airplay. Bands like early Zeppelin and bands of that era. I thought that if it was good enough for my older brother then I got to listen to this stuff!

At first, I was a bit of a pain asking him to replay some songs so I could think of them in my head and for the most part he did because some of the girls in his class thought that I was cute and that I was a good guitar player and in those days guitar players were someone who they liked to hang out with. So I ever so slightly gravitated towards hanging out with my brother and his circle of friends.

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One day one of my brothers friends, whose uncle happened to live on the same cul-de-sac as we did, had heard that I played guitar. As luck would have it, my life long friend John E., lived right beside him. We were playing soccer in his parents back yard when I fired one into the back yard of this guy.

When I went over to get the ball I met this guy, real skinny and with long black hair. He said “you must be Tim’s little brother?” I never met this guy so I said ya? He said that people on the street say your player too? I thought for a second and then said “oh ya, guitar”. He just laughed and said do you want to see something that I just bought, and I said sure! So off he went, inside his home, he lived with his parents and they of course knew my parents VERY WELL through the church.

It was a very warm summer day with a bit of a breeze, honestly I really do remember it, no shit! He came outside with this big black skinny box. I thought that it was one of those keyboard/organ things that was in the band that I saw, but it wasn’t!

He walked over to the standard back yard table in the 70’s, and placed this big black thing with one handle on it, on the table. He said “stand back because this thing will blind ya!” What hell is he babbling about! He was washing his motor cycle at the time and I saw a couple of dead soldiers beside the bike so I thought he was drunk or something. So I moved back and he began to open up this thing.

As he opened it up, the glare that this thing gave off was unreal! I was slightly blinded. When my eyes started to re-focus, I saw what I believed to be as a guitar but this was VERY, VERY DIFFERENT! Oh my GOD, what the hell, it’s got 2 necks on it!!!

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It was a candy apple red double neck guitar. The name on the top where the tuning heads were said “Gibson” At that moment, I realized that it was the same guitar that the guitar player Jimmy Page had! Holy shit, this must be Jimmy Page that I’m talking to!!!

I started to get that same feeling that I had, had when I saw that Christian Rock Band, flash pots went off to start the show. Now I know what their called, at the time, I had no idea what was going on but it looked sooo cool. I slowly approached this mythical device with eyes and mouth WIDE OPEN! He then said “What do ya think of it kid?” He then brought it out of it’s strange home and begun strumming it! He was strumming the 12 string part of the guitar and it was a strange but wondrous thing that I heard for the very first time. He began to play “Stairway to Heaven” and in my mind that clinched it, he was Jimmy Page, but his face was off a bit.

Has anyone had an experience like this before?

The Christian Rock Band

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Mrs. Lord, I think, arranged for a Christian Rock band play at our elementary school one time and this is what sent me on my journey to where I am today. To this day I am still trying to to find out what the the name of that band was.

They had showed up at our school with this touring bus that looked like the Partridge Family bus and it was amazing to look at. It had real groovy colours and patterns in the design. It looked like the Big Top just pulled in, well to a little kid anyway.

They were a 5 piece band with long hair. There was 3 men (guitar, drums and bass) and 2 women(Keyboards,flutes and tambourines).

When we went into our class, after the beginning/morning bell rang for us to go in, the anticipation was so thick that you could cut it with a knife! The morning had pasted and we where called in for the afternoon. As they were doing their sound check, my heart was racing so fast and I was literally bouncing off the walls! Mrs. Lord knew that I was going to go inter ballistic so, to make sure I wasn’t anymore of a distraction then usual, she asked me if I would see how the band was doing. Thank God the door was open or I would have bolted right through the damn thing.

As I entered the gym, the regular lights were out, the bands lights were being worked on and they were tuning and talking to each other. It was at this time that I think that I had an outer body experience!

I just stood there right in front of the stage and absorbed everything I could. I saw these glittering drums these big tall black things with lights and knobs on it (it must have been a Marshall, full stack) these things that a women was playing on the right side if the stage, that sounded like an organ one time and then the next moment sounded like a whole herd of violins that sounded much better then the grade 8 class ever did!

I had never heard a keyboard with such a full, wild sound like that before. Our church organ/keyboard had a traditional sound and feel, but seeing and hearing this electric keyboard\organ thing was wild! This was a change from the organist at our church which was always a man. I was trying to listen to both the guitar player and keyboardist but I was just in ahhhhh with what they were doing.

Finally the whole school was asked to go in and the event that was going to change my life was about to start!

When we were all seated on the floor, I didn’t sit with my classmates. I sat right in the middle and if anyone would have tried to ask me to go to where my class was sitting, I think that … well they wouldn’t be with us anymore.

The lights then went down and this very eerie music that made me feel very strange and scared, started to play! Then after minute pasted, a flash of light appeared and the transformation had begun. The lights were flashing and the POWER CHORDS brought me to another place in my mind!

Throughout the whole show I thought that I was the one that they were playing for, nobody else! I watched intensely as they played, the drummer was sooo powerful and the guitar solos made me feel like I was literally floating in the air. I finally looked around and saw kids holding their ears and running out of the gym, what the hell where they running from?I thought, GREAT, I hope they all leave and I can have this experience all to myself.

When the show was over I started screaming like some crazy girl at a Leif Garret show. For those not familiar with this guy, go and google him! Then everyone started screaming and screaming! Finally they came out for an ovation! They did this acapella thing that was a lot better then the harmonies that we did for mass and that stuck with me too!

After the show, we could go up and ask them questions and I told the guitarist that I too was a guitar player and he said that was great! He said keep practicing the basics and go VERY SLOWLY with it at first and then I will get faster later. Mrs. Lord then added that I was a good guitar player and she wanted to see if he would listen, and he said yes. I wasn’t nervous about anything back then so I played the band some songs and they liked it!

I got a chance to see them pack things up, and I watched them drive away. The guitar player drove away with one of the women in the band on the back of his motor cycle, wow, I knew then that this is what I wanted to be!

Has anyone ever had an experience like this in their life that changed them in such a drastic direction?

Keep on jamming everyone!

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