One of the perks in being in this band is that when one of our children get married, you have a built-in band for the reception. Ten years ago, JF played Mary and John's wedding, and they're still married so we must have been good. Last Saturday Just Friends' founder and leader, Vince Patti, was the father of the groom. Nino is a hairstylist whose celebrity clients include the female vocalist of Just Friends, Joreen Kelly. Autumn Patti (nee Miles) is a chef and caterer who teaches in the culinary department at HACC, which was the location of the wedding reception. You can guess where this is going, can't you?
If I told you in detail what made that meal one of the best I've ever had, this post would be too long. The staff at HACC really stepped up and created a dining experience to rival any country club or banquet facility we've played, and we've played a lot.
John Wilson is still recovering from knee surgery, so Craig Rankin stepped up again and held down the beat. The "first dances" or what we call the obligatos were a trio of sweet ballads: Unforgettable, with Joreen and I doing the Natalie/Nat Cole thing and Vince playing a nice third part on the sax; Just The Way You Look Tonight, a nice song with a nasty bridge that we finally got right; and Blessed, a minor hit for Elton John with a pretty melody and some unique changes. Learning and performing songs like that is what sets our band apart from the rest. Every challenge just sharpens our skills and broadens our repertoire. Sorry to brag a little, but when a musician of the caliber of Dave Kelly tells us he could have sat and listened to us for hours just doing cocktail music, we must have something here.
There's more to talk about, but I have to get to work. I'll tell you about the crazy weekend coming up after I get back from the hearings today.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Life Goes On and On
Back from Vermont and back in the saddle. Rate case in Philadelphia today, was supposed to be big and fat, ended up short and ugly. Speaking in sentence fragments; not sure why, just seems right.
One thing that is very cool right now is St. Catherine's 40 Hours. Fr. Sullivan is doing it "old school," which means that there is round-the-clock adoration between now and the closing tomorrow at 7:00. If you want to see something exquisite, make a visit to the church tomorrow. The Blessed Sacrament is in exposition and it's a beautiful sight. Better yet, attend the closing. After years of being an afterthought to the Easter Season, 40 Hours has become something special in our parish.
One thing that is very cool right now is St. Catherine's 40 Hours. Fr. Sullivan is doing it "old school," which means that there is round-the-clock adoration between now and the closing tomorrow at 7:00. If you want to see something exquisite, make a visit to the church tomorrow. The Blessed Sacrament is in exposition and it's a beautiful sight. Better yet, attend the closing. After years of being an afterthought to the Easter Season, 40 Hours has become something special in our parish.
Friday, May 07, 2010
Sad News
Most of you already know, but Joreen's sister Jinny lost her battle with cancer, "the beast" as Jinny called it, Wednesday morning at 10:30. It was an epic battle and she went down swinging to the end. Joreen is already in Vermont. The funeral is Saturday, so Mary and I are leaving this morning to head up there.
If there's such a thing as a best friend-of-a-friend, mine is Don House. Don is a close friend of Tom Roller and I see him occasionally, most recently at the Havana Blue gig, which was really good. I've been remiss in blogging, but you already know that.
Don lost his lovely wife Marilyn suddenly some years ago. She was a sweetheart and her illness and death came out of nowhere. Once in a conversation with Don he just came up with this statement: Love your people, and tell them you love them. It's simple and profound and it always comes to mind at a time like this.
Since December 2009 Jinny kept a blog on caringbridge.org. You have to sign in to post comments but I believe you can just read it. CaringBridge is a pretty amazing thing as you can see, providing websites to link friends and families of those fighting cancer. You can read the story of Jinny's journey as a "warrior poet" there. Here is a link to her first entry, page 1 of 8:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jinnyallison/journal/8
I never knew Jinny was such a good writer, but I'm not surprised. It runs in the family. I'm still running across essays and articles that my mother-in-law wrote.
Jinny included this essay in her first entry, which today I think is worth quoting in its entirety.
"Hope is a state of mind, not of the world....Either we have hope or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation.
"Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizon.
"Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is.
"Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
Vaclav Havel, writer, dramatist, politician
Last President of Czechoslovakia
First President of the Czech Republic
Cancer Survivor
Pretty intense, Vaclav. I hope you're right about all that. Thanks for the quote, Jinny, and for the good times we had together over the years. I hope to see you again.
If there's such a thing as a best friend-of-a-friend, mine is Don House. Don is a close friend of Tom Roller and I see him occasionally, most recently at the Havana Blue gig, which was really good. I've been remiss in blogging, but you already know that.
Don lost his lovely wife Marilyn suddenly some years ago. She was a sweetheart and her illness and death came out of nowhere. Once in a conversation with Don he just came up with this statement: Love your people, and tell them you love them. It's simple and profound and it always comes to mind at a time like this.
Since December 2009 Jinny kept a blog on caringbridge.org. You have to sign in to post comments but I believe you can just read it. CaringBridge is a pretty amazing thing as you can see, providing websites to link friends and families of those fighting cancer. You can read the story of Jinny's journey as a "warrior poet" there. Here is a link to her first entry, page 1 of 8:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jinnyallison/journal/8
I never knew Jinny was such a good writer, but I'm not surprised. It runs in the family. I'm still running across essays and articles that my mother-in-law wrote.
Jinny included this essay in her first entry, which today I think is worth quoting in its entirety.
"Hope is a state of mind, not of the world....Either we have hope or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation.
"Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizon.
"Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is.
"Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
Vaclav Havel, writer, dramatist, politician
Last President of Czechoslovakia
First President of the Czech Republic
Cancer Survivor
Pretty intense, Vaclav. I hope you're right about all that. Thanks for the quote, Jinny, and for the good times we had together over the years. I hope to see you again.
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