Posts Tagged ‘Family & Friends’
It Never Rains In California (It Pours)
True, my life has unfolded differently than I might have planned (or dreamed). Tonight finds me at Universal Studios Hollywood (more Burbank than Hollywood, really), not on the road like my pals The Nadas or Raining Jane. Fortunately, though, I receive the occasional email from my rock ‘n roll pals. In fact, Raining Jane cellist,…
Read MoreSing To Keep Your Demons At Bay
Good thing Jamie Leonhart told me she taught voice after I roped her into singing a few songs with me for “The Invention Of Everything Else” (due June 18th from Authentic Records!); had I known in advance, I might not have had the nerve to ask. I first came to know of Miss Leonhart as…
Read MoreRio Grande Vista
The Rio Grande River descends some 13,000 feet over the course of its 1885 miles journey from Southern Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. I’ve crossed this, the third largest river in America, at Interstate 25 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, twice — on the return leg of my first cross-country road trip in 1990, and…
Read MoreThe Prince Of Tides
In my experience, most vacations yield a similar dividend. Whether one steps out of one’s experience for three days or three weeks, time off from one’s daily routine inevitably motivates an assessment of said routine. And rarely does that routine benefit by comparison. Not surprisingly, then, the first thing I noticed upon landing in Charleston,…
Read MoreBray’s Island, South Carolina (Spring 2008)
Tales Of A Third Grade Nothing
It must have been sometime around third grade. My family — Mom, Dad, Chris and I — were in Carmel, California, the small, sea-side town on the Monterey Peninsula known for its famous residents: Clint Eastwood, Ansel Adams, Pebble Beach. We were on one of the few family vacations I can remember, this one as…
Read MoreThe War Of Independence: A Family Snapshot
I was a sixth grader at Holmes Elementary in Oak Park, IL, when my parents divorced, and my mother moved my brother and I to Berwyn, PA. I began sixth grade at Devon Elementary there. I was eleven-years-old. My father (who, it’s worth noting, was exactly my age now) remained in Chicago where he worked…
Read MoreSweetness
Chris sat in the deep cushioned lime green and silver armchair like a teenage king on an outsized thrown. He’d already tugged his brand-new official Chicago Bears #34 jersey over his brown-striped, long sleeve polo. Partnered with his knee-patched Toughskin, constituted an envied look by the adolescent court scattered about the living room. Sean Wells…
Read MoreBlack Friday
Come Christmas time, my family typically wagers its best gift giving guesses. It’s a less presumptuous and more spontaneous approach, but has a tendency to backfire (like when I find brown leather slippers or plaid flannel boxer shorts under the tree). The Kellers, however, view gift giving a bit differently. The make lists. Less surprises?…
Read MoreTruckin’
Ask anyone. I’m not a huge fan of The Grateful Dead. At the moment, though — traveling seventy miles-per-hour on the Pennsylvania Turnpike some 37 miles west of Harrisburg — “Truckin’” is kinda’ doin’ it for me. Earlier, I remarked to my brother — who is a huge Deadhead, so huge that the only CDs…
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