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Updates From The Band 09/18/2003 - hello everyone - Raine 11/23/2002 - tour news - Steve 10/07/2002 - head rush - Raine 09/12/2002 - Quite a solid quicky! - Jeremy 08/02/2002 - Summer Recommendations - Duncan 07/29/2002 - Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Elbow - Raine 06/26/2002 - Book Recomendation - Duncan |
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Band Archives Steve on the Canadian tour - 2003 Meet Steve Mazur Pt.1 Meet Steve Mazur Pt.2 Chat Transcript - May 27, 2003 |
| In May 2004 Jeremy paid a visit to New York. After his trip, he put some thoughts down on paper and has decided to share them with you, CHAPTER ONE I hate long flights. They make me think too much. And it only takes one dark thought to bring you down. And there's a few dark meals in my stomach. Thank God for pens. And playing cards! (I forgot my notebook). I'm on a plane leaving New York. I've been here for 3 days. Three big days. I came to pay my respect to a Titan in the Jazz and all music worlds, Elvin Jones. Elvin Died on May 18th. I attended his wonderous funeral yesterday. Legend upon legend were about the room. You could cut the respect with a knife. Max Roach, Roy Haynes, Rashied Ali, Cecil Taylor, Wynton Marsalis....... It goes on and on. Elvin's wife Keiko, looked relaxed. Like Elvin was beside her. Smiling at her and with her. All I have to say is, the world of music was greatly impacted by this man and he deserves a listen by any form of a music fan. And can be truly apreciated. Tell your friends. The John Coltrane Quartet! If your young, and don't know about this man, let me tell you he was one of the funniest, smartest, strongest men I have met. Elvin Jones was a 10. And if you know me, I don't throw 10 bombs lightly. During the same Three days I recieved grim news of a dear friend of OLP. Navid Khonsari. His mother Mimi, passed away under tragic conditions. I heard also that he acted like a King during the trying times of the services. I'm sure the love that was brought upon him growing up, is testament to his strength. The strength of people at the time of adversity, keeps this moldy rock spinning. I realize this is a personal thing that most people won't understand why I'm mentioning. You have to realize this family deserves hands on each of their shoulders. And Navid Has been a very good friend to our band. Our first album Naveed was inspired by his name. The bearer of good news. And he has always been that. And I'm sure he will be that again very soon. I wish him and his family my absolute best. I just spilled my drink on my unmentionables. Bathroom break. Is it me or is there always an element of fear in peoples eyes, when looking at the person leaving the lavatory. Scared of what they might have left. CHAPTER TWO I stayed at the Paramount hotel in midtown Manhattan with My good friend Gregg Keplinger. He hails from Seattle, Plays and makes drums. He has the most interesting friends. Two days ago we met up with his friend Carol Calkins, 86. And his wife Suzanne Shepherd, 69. They lived around 81st and Madison. We got over to their place around 6:30. What a joint. This was a pad! A beautiful penthouse full of great paintings and books. They were electric with energy. It wasn't long before the everyone but Gregg (25 years sober), was slipping right into some Hard drinks. Cocktail hour they called it. We went to dinner at a great Thai place around the corner. The laughs were growing. These two had some stories! Carol, a writer, has seen some shit. He saw Pearl Harbor first hand, He aided in the relief of a concentration camp after the war, which means he saw historically gruesome details. He talked of riots in New York, passing of laws. He's writing his memoirs right now. I believe he's in 1956 right now. Only 48 to go! His wonderful wife Suzanne, is an actress, a teacher and a true gem of a woman. She's in The Sopranos, She was in Goodfellas, Jacob's Ladder, Requiem for a dream. She was a riot. Laughing, swearing. She called me a dirty slut! Out of the blue. Loud. People in the place were all staring at me like I was a dirtball. She started howling laughing swore a couple more times at me, and then I got it. She was just chirping me. Having me on. From then on, all of a sudden she would call me something. It was classic. It got dirtier and dirtier. I was getting pretty banged up, drinking thai beer, I nearly laughed my head clean off. I learned so much from these two. They were quick as whips. Every time I spend time with someone over 65 or 70, It's a whole new ballgame of information, important useful ways of accepting problems, and dealing with situations through factual personal events. These things you can't learn in school. Some of these people really do have it all figured out. And it makes sense. They are life professionals! I believe if your Had a depressed 89 year old man, who only ate salads and healthy what-not, and jogged every day. And you had a 89 year old that ate small less healthy meals, drank a little, and had a stress free, creative existence, Like writing, conversing, ultimately learning every day. The latter would live a more fruitful and possibly longer life. I guess the idea is to keep pushing a little. Because that's your drive in life. Without that, you give up. Some people prepare to die, save it all up so one day you can finally relax! But all that creative energy has to maintain at some level, or you might find yourself so relaxed your pulse is no more. Life is a lot of work. To be picked, or to pick. To live or die. Most elderly people have so much to teach. But fear the ignorance of youth. So they lose their voice, And loud crabby assed old people get to speak. People like Ego Knevil-Bush-face and the like. CHAPTER THREE My Brother James Told me two things that helped me get through this week clean.
The second helped me not lose it on a cab driver going uptown. This one is still tough for me. Maybe I just have to hear myself say it sometimes. Just for the joke. Like Bob Dylan says in many songs. He let people have it way back in the day. Listen to positively 4th street. Ouch. Gregg and I then Hopped in a cab and went to the Hotel bar. We met Up With Gregg's Friend Michael Shrieve, A great drummer and close friend of Elvin and Kieko's. He was helping Kieko organize the service. Michael started playing with Santana when he was 17 years old. In 1969. I had enough firewater to have the nerve to ask some crazy questions. I heard a story that Carlos Santana took acid at woodstock and didn't realize that he had to be on 3 hours before he thought they were on. I asked Michael about this and asked if this story was true. He said it wasn't acid. Or just Carlos. It was mescaline. Carlos, and Micheal at 17! Peaking! That's why Soul Sacrifice is so insane. We kept drinking and drinking and He told me a lot of great stories that I can't remember. Terrible. That's how I felt in the morning when Gregg woke me up by fanning boxers in front of my face. Hearing the dull beating sound of beige cotton ripple through the thick room air. Yes kids, a hangover is not pretty. How do ya feel kiddo! He said with a cackle. "like a beer" I weakly replied. Elvin was the reason I got drunk. But I sadly realize he's surely not gonna help me get out of this hellride of a hangover. I won't get that drunk for anyone anymore. Another important lesson I've learned this week. I can only drink for me. I'm not big enough. Gregg really helped me out with some sage advice on drinking. He told be to be careful on how you bang out your daily routine. Come 60, all your cool fun friends croaked off, or left somewhere along the way. All you have left is a bottle and fragmented memories. I would like to think there is a happy medium. Look at Carol and Suzanne, they still get into things Right? Gregg and I went to see Carol that morning for breakfast at a bookstore. I asked him about drinking. He said he lives for cocktail hour as he calls it. But it was only an hour. He has 1 stiff martini. 1. Stiff. But Suzanne likes to rock out a little more. Carol then said to me "You do have that under control, don't you?" About my drinking. I replied "I do now". This is the bulk of my New York three day trip. There were a few more characters that played smaller key roles. I felt like I attended so many great classes of speakers. I'm almost at my destination. My fake (not real home) home in California. For Sun, playing drums, recording, laughing, listening, meeting,eating, drinking, talking, reading, writing, yearning to come home to Canada. Your friend, Jeremy Taggart |