My Effin' Life

 We are approaching the end of yet another year. As I get older, I become more thankful for another precious trip around the sun. I know time is temporary and we all need to enjoy every moment. So easy to say, so difficult to do. But I try.

I finished yet another book. My Effin' Life by Geddy Lee, one of the co-founders of the band Rush. Now, full disclosure here, I fell in love with Rush when I was 13 or 14 and I have followed them ever since. Their music was so influential on me that I named my only son after the band's drummer, Neil Peart. In my opinion, I believe Peart to be the greatest drummer of all time. And no, I'm not forgetting about the great Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Chick Webb, Louis Bellson... or even Jeff Porcaro and, of course, John Bonham. 

I recently was reading an argument about the greatest rock drummer of all time and, as usual, it came down to Neil Peart and John Bonham. Someone said Peart could do what Bonham could do, but it is doubtful Bonham could do what Peart did. That was pretty profound statement to me, and it sealed the deal.

Anway, back to My Effin' Life. The book was -- trying to find the right adjective -- delightful. It was written in a very casual manner, almost as if Geddy was writing an email or text to you. He takes you on an engaging journey from his earliest memories, and includes a somber chapter about his parents' nightmarish experience in concentration camps during the Holocaust. The book is full of highs and lows, joys and sadnesses. He's lived quite an effin' life. 

~

I was looking back on my posts this year. Ten posts in total, seven were since November 1st. Most of those entries were about books and music. What a surprise. My New Years resolution will be to blog more. After all, it is nice to see what happened during the year because my memory is frequently a blur.

We had our own private little Christmas on Saturday morning (23rd) before heading to my in-law's cabin on Pierz Lake. This was the first Christmas in my life where I was awoken during the night because of rain pelting the roof. The year 2023 was most definitely the Rainy and Foggy Christmas (just like the song, "then one foggy Christmas Eve"), as it poured rained from December 23 through Christmas Day and not a lick of snow on the ground. Speaking of, if that pummeling rain had been snow, we probably would not have gotten together for Christmas because the roads would not have been passable.

Lookin' out my backyard, 30 December 2023

I had taken in my rain gauge in October so it wouldn't freeze and break, so I can't say how much rain we actually got, but all that water had a chance to evaporate (thanks to "warm" temperatures) before anything had the chance to freeze. We would've been in major trouble if it had -- downed power lines, downed trees, not to mention sheer ice on roads and sidewalks. Yeah, it could've been bad. Luck was on our side this time. 

I have no plans to see in the new year. Staying home and watching football on the tube sounds magical. The coming week and month will be full of activity and I will try to document it here as a record for myself (I get motivated to document after reading a good memoir). It will be February before I know it... and I believe this is a leap year, so we get a bonus day to 2024.

Living the Beatles Legend

 Another nice day today; it is 38 degrees and sunny. You won't break a sweat taking a walk, but you also won't freeze to death either. We finally got a dusting of snow a few days ago, but it hasn't taken the grass over yet. And there are just 12 days until Christmas. What a mild winter.

I finished Living the Beatles' Legend, The Untold Story of Mal Evans today by Kenneth Womack. I may have mentioned earlier that the Mal Evans story is one the long lost puzzle pieces to Beatles history. His story seems like some kind of fanciful, poorly written novel, but it is completely true. In fact, it make be a great movie "based on a true story."

This book is a well-researched, well-written page turner. I loved it. 

Prior to joining the Beatles, Evans trained as a telecommunications engineer for the General Post Office in Liverpool. He had a perfectly respectable job with a decent pension, a wife and a child on the way in 1961. 

Then one day in that year, he took his lunch break at the Cavern Club in Liverpool and his life changed. Because of his size (he was 6'3" which, at the time, was a massive man) "Big Mal"  stood out. He took a liking the band on stage, rather oddly called the Beatles, and quickly befriended them. 

Before he knew it was was moonlighting as a bouncer at the Cavern Club and, as the band's popularity spread, began working as their second roadie, taking care of the band's equipment while original road manager Neil Aspinall took care of the Beatles themselves. Along with band manager Brian Epstein and Derek Taylor (later Tony Bramwell) handling the press, these four made up the entire Beatles "entourage" during the touring years. Hard to believe, but it is true.

Evans was indispensable to the Beatles. He was also embarrassingly underpaid his entire life by the Fab Four. 

When he was home, which wasn't often, he appeared to be a doting father and caring husband. 

But he was out the door the moment the phone rang, whether to buy new guitar strings for George or accompany Paul on an African safari. Sadly, he lived a compartmental life and truth be told, he was a shitty father and an even shittier husband.

Evans lived the life of a rock star away from home, or at least lived on fringe benefits of being part of the inner circle of the biggest band in the world. Evans was unfaithful to his wife any chance he got (which was often) and he would be away from home for months at a time. Sure he would call home and write letters, but was known for his hard-partying ways and womanizing. And truth be told, the Beatles themselves were hardly choirboys. 

When the Beatles stopped touring, Evans tried his hand at record producing (in fact, he produced Badfinger's "No Matter What," a song my own band plays), and he liked to think of himself as a professional lyricist, which is what he focussed on "later" in his life. 

I say later in quotes because Evans only lived to 40 years old. Evans had alienated his family and moved to L.A. after falling in love with a younger woman. He was already struggling with drug and alcohol addiction when his wife filed for divorce. This should hardly have been a surprise to Evans. but he felt he could have the best of both worlds. At this point, in late 1975, he started spiraling out of control.

He wrote a last will and testament on a piece of tablet paper while inebriated on January 3, 1976. The "will" rambled incoherently and he asked the Beatles to play at his funeral. 

The next day, January 4th, he called a friend and asked them to look after his wife and children, should anything happen to him. 

That evening he proceeded to get drunk to the gills and high on cocaine and loaded a Winchester rifle, which he kept in the bedroom. His live-in girlfriend begged him to put the gun away and then called police when Evans locked himself in their bedroom. When police opened the bedroom door, Evans was sitting on the floor with the gun pointed downward. He was told to drop the weapon. He told the police "No. Blow my head off!" and he suddenly raised the rifle to a shooting position...

My guess is Evans probably did not have mettle to turn the gun on himself, but he knew the police would end it all if he pointed the weapon at them. It is clear he was suicidal and had a plan.

It is strange to think that four years and 11 months after he died, one of his former employers, John Lennon, was also killed by gun violence. Lennon was also 40 years old.

KISS's Finale and Other Thoughts

 I have to admit, I do enjoy standing out on my deck in a t-shirt and slippers on December 2nd, and not freezing my ass off... and not finding myself knee deep in snow. In fact, there is no snow. This isn't unprecedented; I remember some years ago video taping (yes, video taping) our yard on Christmas Eve, and not a single flake of snow to be seen. 

As I've said before, each day that passes with no snow means winter is one day shorter. It could be way worse:

My backyard on this day in 2019. 

Better news still, in three weeks the days will start getting longer again. I think my vitamin regimen is helping, probably especially vitamin D, which makes me encouraged.

I've waited to go on my "health kick" until I got my lab results back. I got my blood drawn yesterday and things are exactly as I thought they'd be. High cholesterol, really high triglycerides. My fasting glucose is high, which has been the case for several years. So I've earned "pre-diabetic" to my list of titles. Not one I want... but like I said in my last post, I can do something about all of it.

Tonight we are kicking off the Christmas season by attending the Madrigal Dinner, produced by the high school choir. We attended last year and it was fun. It is a multi-course dinner with singing and a play, all Christmas-themed.

This is also a historic night in the music world. Tonight is KISS's final performance on their "End of the Road" tour. This tour saw 250 performances on five continents. We will get to a point in time when this kind of tour will be a thing of the past. Most bands today will only tour during the summer and they call a 20-date run of shows a "tour." They just don't make bands like KISS anymore.

KISS has been one of my favorite bands for about 49 years. I discovered them when I was five years old and I was obsessed from the beginning (around 1975). KISS's Destroyer was the first album I ever owned (my mother bought it for me) and I was Peter Criss for nearly every Halloween during my youth. There has been no other band like KISS and their live show remains unmatched by anyone. 

I've been fortunate enough to see the band three times, twice with the original line-up and once with my kids nearly four years ago. The show was absolutely amazing.

We saw KISS's "End of the Road" tour in Grand Forks, ND, Feb 22, 2020. 

Now, do I think KISS will actually not perform live again? I'd say there's absolutely no chance they will hang it up for good. Even though this is a big "to do," and they are ending their careers where it all began (New York City), and this weekend has been a "KISS take-over" of the Big Apple, KISS has done this before. They went on a "Farewell Tour" way back in 2000. They swore that tour was it. 

And they were back on the road a year later. 

Performing live is a drug to these guys. They won't be able to stay away from the stage. The only thing that can keep them away is age and health. 

But for tonight, I will pretend along with everyone else that their long, fantastic run is over.