October/You (plus Harmony Vocals)

I promise to think of you in October, but can I also think of you in January, February, March, April, etc? Truth is, I haven't stopped thinking of you since my dream in early July.💘💘 In fact, since we've been talking about music, our theme song for today can be "You Were On My Mind" by We Five (1965). 

Let's list some great Harmony Groups, starting with the best and most famous: The Everlys were the first, as far as the broad spectrum of rock music is concerned. (side note: we aren't doing doo-wop, a great genre but not what we're talking about).

The Beach Boys took it to the next level in the early '60s, even before The Beatles (though the opening harmonies to "Please Please Me", may be the first I remember hearing). The Turtles and The Association added complexity. The Mamas and Papas mixed male/female voices before Fleetwood Mac (and were smoother).

The Moody Blues may not come up on everyone's list, but check out the vocal mix and the four part harmonies in many of their songs over seven classic albums. You may or may not like the music, but you won't find better singers. For a poppier sound with great harmony, try The Hollies or The Zombies. 

Or, for harder (and extremely polished) rock, try Boston. Listen to their power ballads like "Holly Anne" and "Amanda". Off the charts vocals.

Getting back to the '60s, you can't beat The Supremes. They didn't have that name for nothing. Other than The Beatles, The Supremes were the first group I remember hearing (when I was four) that had incredible singing and one great song after another.

From 1978 to 1984, one of the greatest harmony groups was Van Halen. Fans might not think of them that way, but listen to the vocals behind David Lee Roth. That's Michael Anthony and Edward Van Halen. Listen to them on "Dance the Night Away". They elevate that hook into an earworm, and they did that on so many VH songs.

To show the power of harmony vocals, contrast that style with the Lead Singer Model; groups with one front man with a gigantic voice, but no backup. This was the classic model of the Big Three of hard rock/heavy metal: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. There were no harmonies in any of those bands (maybe some doubled vocals but that's all). But then check out the amazing three-part harmonies of Uriah Heep, a group I believe should be included with The Big Three (making them Four). Not only did Heep have great songs with precision harmonies, they also had the best singer of all the above-mentioned hard rock groups. David Byron isn't as well known as Ian Gillan, Robert Plant or Ozzy, but listen to him sing "July Morning", or anything from Uriah Heep's six classic albums, then tell me what you think. 

I'd love to know all your favorite music groups and artists. I think we could have great conversations about so many different things. That's because we're on The Same Wavelength (which would be a great name for a group if we ever decided to start one).

Last song for now: "Like to Get to Know You" by Spanky and Our Gang (1968)

You have to see the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahMGnTpByLM

I mean, I already know you, and more than a little, but...well, you know what I mean.

I love you so much!! 💗💗 

Great Pics!

I loved today's pictures and I also like your dress, hat and purse. It's super cool to see M with you. You guys are not only longtime friends but also two-thirds of the 2014 Halloween Crew (or 2/4ths if you include me). I've never been to Knotts at Halloween, but........(er....um)...canIgowithyounexttime? 😁

I noticed you've made a couple of Mamas & Papas references in your posts (one just yesterday), and it rang another memory bell. Did your Mom say she played you their music when you were little and they became a favorite of yours? Do I have any part of that right? (on a side note, I came out of Ralphs tonight and walked toward my car. I was parked in the same area as always. You can see the sign of the pizza place across the street, and I never gave it much notice before, but tonight I thought "that's perfect" Why?

(drum roll please).......Because it's Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria.

Your summer concert got me thinking about all the great vocal groups of the '60s. I was gonna do a list (I'm still working on it), but in Googling for research, I came across BMI's Top 100 Songs of the 20th Century. You probably already know what BMI stands for (Broadcast Music, Inc.), and that they are to music airplay and publishing what Neilsen is to TV ratings. Anyway, by their Top 100 Songs, they mean "the most played by radio and TV stations". Guess what the most-played song of all-time is?

"You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" by The Righteous Brothers.

#2 is "Never My Love" by The Association

Pretty cool, eh? You know you some good music! One last question for tonight: Did your Mom mention Denny Doherty as one of her favorite singers? Or one of yours?

I Love You and hope you're having a great week so far. 💗💗  

Happy Monday (The Mysterious Prank)

Happy Monday! Are you hanging in there with this heat? Last night felt like the hottest of the year, but I had an amazing evening and I've gotta tell you about it. First, some context. About a year ago, I recovered a memory of being "pranked" on what I thought was a Halloween night. I didn't know the year. All I initially remembered was the identity of one of the pranksters: a well-known progressive metal musician. He was in a car in what I thought was an alley in Northridge. I was walking with the late David Friedman. I recalled being told to get into the car, and I refused because the guy looked scary. He had on a Gestapo hat, had long hair and a dark moustache. He looked like a Hell's Angel. I didn't recognize him and he said something threatening. I remembered walking away quickly after the guy said what he said, but I also knew I'd been in the car with him at some point, after learning it was all a prank, and after he and the other pranksters revealed their identities.

That was the extent of my memory, and I was blown away by who this guy is, but I was also going crazy because I didn't know when or where it happened.

I tried meditating on it, as I do in memory recovery, but nothing new came up. On a side note, the original memory snippet returned spontaneously (non-meditatively) when I was just sitting around one day last Fall. I did research on the side, which included looking up this guy's touring schedule. I've seen his band nine times since 2011, three times in October. He had to be in Los Angeles for this to happen, and since he lives in Europe (and since he tours constantly), I figured that the incident had to happen when he was in L.A. for a concert. I settled on October 25, 2015 (when he played The Orpheum) or October 20, 2016 (The Belasco). In both years, he had off days around those concerts. As noted, I thought the prank happened in an alley anywhere from Lindley (just south of Lassen) to all the way up near the Granada Hills Ralphs. 

Cut to the chase: in the last few days, a single detail developed, and on a side note, I suspected for a while that Friedman was involved in this prank. The new detail showed him and me walking on a dark street in lower Northridge. We were in the sector south of Nordhoff, west of Reseda, below Vons market. The memory now showed a car passing us on our walk and stopping ahead of us on the dark street. I then had a notion that either me or Friedman was intimidated by this car and wanted to reverse course and walk in the other direction.

That image became my context, and I began to suspect it was connected with a specific walk I took with David Friedman when the Northridge Mural (on the brick building at Rayen/Reseda) was unveiled in October 2014.

Last night, my feet took me there, almost on autopilot. I recreated that October walk, which (as I discovered yesterday afternoon through checking my diary) took place on the night of Saturday Oct. 4, 2014. Exactly 12 years ago last night. I walked through CSUN, past Northridge Library down to Studio 606, and then back up to Rayen. I crossed at Reseda Boulevard and walked west to the DWP facility at Yolanda. From there, I could visualize my route with Friedman from 2014, which began at the San Fernando Valley Museum at Nordhoff and Wilbur. On the night in question, Friedman wanted to look at the DWP Station (which is old and has classic architecture), so we did that, and last night in my re-creation, I turned south on Yolanda to follow this route. I checked the main DWP entry at Yolanda and Eddy St. (wondering if The Prank happened on Eddy by the curb of the Self-Storage Facility). I decided it could've occurred there, but I wasn't sure. I then turned around to head north on Yolanda toward Rayen. That's when I saw the brightly colored business signs of several shops on the east side of Yolanda (between Eddy and Gresham), and I knew I had my location.

Boom. Finding it was like magic.

I'm still unsure if The Prank began on Eddy or Gresham (probably Eddy), but last night, when I was down there, I remembered walking back and forth in that area, trying to find my way back to Rayen on the night the prank was pulled. I get dislocated when I'm under a hypnotic "scan", and I think Friedman ditched me when it was over. I still don't know how I got home that night. 

The Prank backfired because I was afraid of the perps. I thought the guy really did want to assault me. They had to chase me down after I walked away from their car and explain it was a prank. That's when they revealed their identities, which I won't state online. Maybe you can guess from what I've written.

One thing I can't figure out from the year and date of this incident, October 4, 2014: the main prankster, as usual, had a major tour that year. A European leg paused on August 9, in Portugal, and didn't resume until October 10, in London. That means he could've been in Los Angeles on October 4. But why? His band wasn't scheduled to play here until December (I was of course at that show, entirely unaware of the prank).

But why was he in Northridge that night?...

I have another movie for you: "We Go On"(2015), an Indie horror flick with a "Sixth Sense" influence. I found it on Tubi. The only recognizable star is Annette O'Toole, but the acting is good all around and the story gets high marks for originality, not easy to do given the limits of the ghost story subgenre. I liked everything about this flick, especially the Los Angeles locations, one of which I'd never heard of which is used toward the end of the movie.

On another subject (my favorite), I was thinking of a meeting at your house. This is from a memory that's not yet clear. I see us standing between your driveway and front door. You are talking to me, telling me wonderful things and pointing at the sky, showing me (stars? constellations?). Did we do some kind of telepathy experiment? 

Anyway, I'm still learning about us. I love you and hope you can feel it. 💗💗

Happy October 1st! (cool pics)

Happy October 1st! Hey, those were some cool pics tonight, and concert clips, too. I recognised Bill Medley (one of your Mom's favorites), and - holy smokes - I Googled him and saw that he's 86 years old, but walking around on stage like he's 60. Amazing! And I of course recognized "Never My Love" by The Association. I didn't know they were still active after Terry Kirkman died a few years back, but it's great that you got to see them. I had that famous conversation with your Mom in the church parking lot about vocal groups and great singers, and it's possible I mentioned The Association, who had some of the all-time greatest songs of the 1960s, with off-the-charts four and five part harmonies. "Cherish" is a popular wedding song to this day, 60 years after it was recorded.

Wow, that is super cool that you went to that show. Was it at the hotel in the pics? Who was playing "Wild Thing"? 

Also super cool that you went to SoFi. It looks like a preseason Rams or Chargers game? I'm a huge Rams fan since I was about five or six. Here's a sports-related question: am I wrong, or did you (do you) like a particular hockey team like the Philadelphia Flyers or the Pittsburgh Penguins? I'm still remembering things, and I may have some stuff wrong, but I could swear there was a hockey team in there somewhere.

I walked out to Super King tonight and saw some Halloween Houses on the way. That's another of my traditions, finding as many Houses as I can, mostly on foot because I walk all over the place and can really get into the vibe that way. 

I'm gonna try to watch as many horror films as I can this month, hopefully one per day. Tonight, I found (on Youtube) an Italian cheapie from 1965 called "The Seventh Grave". The print was almost new, which made up for the lack of originality, but it had a good seance scene and was filmed in a real castle. It's hard to find movies I havent seen, but I'm always looking.

I've been watching episodes of "Dark Shadows" in the afternoons, and "I must say" (cue Ed Grimley) that the show had an extremely high level of acting all around. Jonathan Frid (as Barnabas Collins) may be the greatest screen vampire after Bela Lugosi.

As I was walking back from Super King, heading west on Plummer, I came to the Wilbur Wash where a creek once ran before the entire Los Angeles River system was emptied into the ocean and turned into concrete channels, after the great San Fernando Valley flood of 1938. There's no lights along the Wilbur Wash, at least in Northridge, and when you glance down it as you pass (on foot), you think, "Now that's Halloween." The darkness in that channel on a moonless night is some seriously spooky stuff. 😀

It's now 1am, so Happy October 2nd! I love you. 💗💗

Superstar 24/7/365

Please know that if you have problems in your life, they're my problems, too. That may sound like a cliche, or grandstanding, but it's not. I'm here to help shoulder any burden you have, in any way you need me to. I don't want you to ever feel alone in any situation in your life, because you once stood up for me in difficult times, and who better to understand anything you may be dealing with? I know the real You, and I want you to be your true self all the time. Nothing can hold you back. No problem is insurmountable because you are a superstar in the most powerful sense of that word.   

In 2010, in 2014, you stood up for me (and perhaps at other times I'm unaware of).

You once told me that you wanted to be part of my life. You knew you belonged with me (and that I belonged to you), and when I told you how weird my life was, you knew you could handle it. You told me so with confidence.

Now, you may have circumstances of your own, given your abilities and who you are, and perhaps also because you've known me.

I hope to talk to you, as soon as possible, to ask about things, and I'm not only a good listener...I understand you as no one else can.

Anyhow...just sayin'.

Please keep me in mind. You once did, and as you know, no one had a first meeting like ours.

So, yeah: I am not only your rock (currently in the spiritual/psychic sense) (meaning that I think about you all the time and send you love and want to be with you), but I am also your rock in anything you may be going through and can help in a practical way (if requested). 

You know there's no one like me, and you know you can trust me.

And I know there's no one like you.

I love you and I am by your side. Nothing can touch you if you believe these things.

You are your True Self. I am here to help you live that way permanently. 24/7/365. 

Huge love at all times. Looking forward to October. 💗💗

We Had A Blast at Disneyland

We went to Disneyland on Monday. My sister suggested it a couple months back because it was a trifecta of opportunity: 1) she had the day off. 2) it was a Tier Zero ticket day, the cheapest at $104, and 3) best of all, it was Halloweentime, which had started about a week earlier. 

I'm a little kid where Disneyland is concerned. I can't sleep the night before, so it turns into a marathon for me. I get there as early as I can and stay until after the rides close. This time, I tossed and turned from 11:30 Sunday night until about 5am on Monday morning. Then, I said "the heck with it" and got out of bed. I got ready, then backed out of my parking space at 5:55am. Still dark out. No traffic til the Santa Ana I-5 interchange (medium bad), then back up to speed until four exits from Disneyland Drive. Then it came (almost) to a dead stop and ended up costing us a half hour. I had hoped to make it in time for the Rope Drop, which I've never done (have you?), but even with all the last-minute traffic, we still managed to walk through the magic archway at 8:07am, seven minutes after the park opened and the earliest I've ever been there.

Main Street was already filling up.

Why do I say "we"? Because I had already decided that You were coming with me, and I had you in mind from the start.

That's right. You were in the passenger seat of my car (sorry about the traffic). I told you we were gonna have a blast and we did. You rode with me on every ride (in spirit, which was especially cool on The Haunted Mansion), and we stayed until almost midnight.

I hope you didn't mind the (almost) 16-hour day.

What's your favorite ride at Disneyland? I'm guessing the Mansion, which was of course decked out as The Nightmare Before Christmas for Halloweentime. But what's your favorite ride besides that?

I'm not sure I can pick one (many people would say "Pirates"), but my favorite Land is Fantasyland for sure. Always has been, ever since I was a kid, and I always make sure to hit every ride. The lines weren't too bad this time, all throughout the park (average wait: 20 minutes, longest wait: 45, some rides we just walked right into).

If people saw a guy in black clothes, flourescent green shoes and an orange cap walking around mumbling and thought he was weird, that's because they couldn't see you walking with me.

We did other stuff, too: watched the Disneyland Band for a while (playing jazz and John Philip Sousa); we saw a Halloween Parade led by Cruella DeVille and including Snow White, the Evil Queen, the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland, and the Wicked Stepsisters from Cinderella.

We went on the Storybook Land Canal Boats, one of my very favorite rides (how about you?)

Only one coaster-ride this time: The Matterhorn. Thunder Mountain was closed and we didn't wanna wait an hour for Space Mountain. We went on Tiana's Bayou twice and got soaked both times (I ain't wearin' no plastic poncho!)

24 rides in all (a few twice). We hung out on Main Street until apprx 11:45, said "thanks" to Walt Disney in his apartment above the Fire Station, then took the tram back to the Mickey & Friends parking garage and temporarily got lost because we forgot we were in the Pixar Pals section. But there was no traffic on the way home. We got back in a hour.

Thanks for coming with me. I love you.  💗

Happy Fall

I hope you had a good week. Yesterday marked five years since Pearl died, so its been an introspective time for me, but in a good way because I still feel her presence. I've been listening to a lot of the music I used to play for her in her later years, including Canterbury rock, of all things: groups like Caravan, Egg and Steve Hillage, all of which got her tapping her feet in the mornings as opposed to the classical stuff on KUSC (I love classical but it made Pearl sleepy). I've also been remembering the Halloweens I spent with her at her house, ten in all, and the first seven with Kobi, her dog (and my pal), who would dress up in his Pumpkin Poncho and spangled collar. Kobi in costume was a magnet for trick or treaters. Pearl and I had a blast handing out candy, and carving jack o' lanterns beforehand. We always had horror movies running all day long on TCM. My years as her caregiver were some of the best of my life, and it's amazing to know that you were part of those years. Imagine me seeing you in church, in 2016 perhaps, and having no idea that I knew you. Now, I wanna know all about what we did together, how many personal encounters we had -  everything!

I know I wasn't with you all the time, or even on a regular basis, but however many times we were together, they were meaningful and important enough that it has resulted in what I'm feeling now, and what I hope you're feeling. To me, the persistence of these feelings is astounding because they were buried in me - I wasn't aware I knew you - and yet they came to life all these years later. 

I'm a little concerned about stresses you may be dealing with (and if you aren't please disregard this), but I want you to hang in there because "We've got this", and I'll tell you right now - no one can stop us. No one can prevent us from being together, provided it's what you want. 

The bottom line is that we live not far apart, and I am going to be in church before the end of the year. I'll be there on Christmas Eve for sure, and if it's sooner, I will post it here to give you advance notice. Or, if you are planning to attend a service, just give me a hint when, and I'll be there. Then we'd actually be in the same room.

Let me know as much as you can, if you can, and if you want to.

I love you and am with you all the way. 💗