Wow-and Wow

[skipclone 1]

I'll get it out of the way, basically I know no one wants to hear it. TFB.

Wow, my life sucks.

 

Now that's done, I can get to the other wow. I mentioned before that a friend of mine whom I lost touch with for several decades, recently got back in touch. I also mentioned that, during her time at New York Blood Center, one of her patients was Greg Allman.

I had no idea how long they went back.

She has sent some photos to me that maybe have never been seen publicly before. I asked permission and she said I can post here. Now is not so convenient but, please stand by. This is gonna be good.

 

My other friend I mentioned before. She is moving to Mexico. I am helping to sell stuff and in the process, I have a guitar stand, a keyboard stand, a Maxon cs-01 chorus, a MIDI controller, several bookshelves and other goodies. She had talked about schooling me on DAW and such but I don't know if there's time.

 

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

My life sucks.

[desertbluesman]

Wow Skip, stay positive a best as you can. I hope all turns out well for you.

[Larryz]

Hang in there Skip, life has a way of bouncing back for us...looking forward to the GA pics!

[KuruPrionz]

Just keep on breathing and moving, life is full of surprises!!!!!

 

I just went through probably my worst night ever on Saturday but am much better today and in good spirits.

 

Your friends will lift you up, share with them and they will carry some of the load. I feel so lucky, my friends have saved me from despair.

 

Peace, Kuru

[Sharkman]

Skip,

 

You'll get through just fine. I like telling people that I am not manic depressive, but my life is. I've survived getting shot at, an alligator almost biting my arm off, a motorcycle gang supposedly having a hit put out on me, other assorted death threats, and all sorts of other silly crap. And yet here I am, alive and healthy, and relatively happy. Skip, if I can make it, so can you.

[skipclone 1]

Thanks everyone.

I don't mind losing control of myself. But I hate feeling like I don't control my life.

One of these days, I need to stop working for other people. It never ends well.

Anyway as promised...

There is one photo that is....well let's say compromising. i'm not sure if it's even appropriate to post it.

my friend must have caught him just waking up.

Anyway-

First photo is with a not very good camera-at my friend"s apartment, around 1987

Mr. Gregg Allman, December 1987

Mr. Gregg Allman, undated

The Allman-betts Band, newer photo:

[

 

There's a band photo that I can't find at the moment, will post later.

 

Here we go-42 years ago:

[Larryz]

Thanks Skip! Great pics!

[skipclone 1]

[skipclone 1]

I think the anniversary of his passing was yesterday, or the day before. his eldest son Michael does a tribute show every year

in Sayville, CT. I just got sent a video clip of him doing 'Midnight Rider". He also put out a CD about eight weeks ago, called

'Blues Travels Fast'. I had a listen to the title track, great playing.

[desertbluesman]

I have a friend who leads the Live At The Fillmore an Allman Bros tribute band https://liveatthefillmoreband.com/ Lou Maresca, he used to own Tekcom a recording studio and musical instrument equipment store in Philly PA. He rubs elbows with all the alive former Allman Bros Band members as well as all the decedents of the ABB Members. He is a friend of mine because I did business with him in the mid 80's Here is his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/lou.maresca1 He posts all kinds of his visits with those guys on Facebook.

 

And one more thing about Lou, when I sold my analog and tape recording studio equipment, I put it up for sale at Tekcom (which is where I bought the stuff). Then I left for Florida and then California. Then a little later, after selling my gear to someone in Las Vegas Tekcom was going bankrupt, and Lou sent me the promised amount as agreed, I seem to recall it was $25,000 back in the very late 80's, (my portion of the sale). Now that is a man of high integrity, when his store was going bankrupt, he still paid me and we did not even have a written contract. (Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith the actor also bought some of my synth gear from Tekcom)

[skipclone 1]

Kool story.

From what my friend tells me, GA could be a bear to deal with sometimes.

Sometimes the demons win. Still, basically he came across as a really good-hearted guy.

[desertbluesman]

Kool story.

From what my friend tells me, GA could be a bear to deal with sometimes.

Sometimes the demons win. Still, basically he came across as a really good-hearted guy.

 

Some good folks down there, and some not so good. I get along with the southerners because I was a masonry craftsman, and I am just common folk. No high and mighty in me. It could be troublesome to persons of color or Muslims in some spots, so it would do those folks to avoid it if possible. I grew up in a town where most of the folks were WASPs and we were the first Italian family to move in there, and it got hairy at times with the prejudice some of those old folks. That is until The Scali family moved in and the eldest son is huge and he don't mind fighting at all, The prejudice stopped right then and there when they got a look at Big Joe.

 

Anyways across the bay from the island where i grew up there were country folk that we called piney's. (They called us beach bugs) The piney's acted like and talked like the hillbillies from down south. With that experience I was able to understand the "country folk way" that is prevalent down south, and I knew their kind of humor and got along well with the southern folk.

[skipclone 1]

There are places in the South I would love to visit.

I would not survive living there. I barely survived living two hours North of Manhattan. I'm sounding humorous, but I'm not joking.

When the chance came, I had to sit in front of a mirror and have a chat.

Do I let things go on like they are now, or leave the country and face a totally uncertain future?

Longest five seconds of my life.

[Scott Fraser]

I've heard it said that the problem with the south is the southerners. Obviously that's a reductionist generality, but it does point to the notion that elements of history which are best left in the past have been brought forward generation by generation to inform ongoing societal ills.

[skipclone 1]

Well my grandma grew in Mobile, AL.

She used to tell me, it's not like it used to be.

I guess not. It used to be cold-blooded savagery as public entertainment.

[Sharkman]

Several years ago I was down in Texarkana, Texas, a nice small city on the Texas and Arkansas border. One morning when I was getting breakfast at McDonald's I noticed that most of the people working there were young black women, and most of the customers were older white men dressed like cowboys. As I sat back eating my breakfast and observing everyone in there, I was amazed at how nice and polite and friendly everyone was towards each other. I wondered what the Hell was going on here? I always heard these horror stories about the South, but everybody was so pleasant to one another. Contrast that to the Detroit area, where I live. Four times now I've had to pull out my pistol and prepare to fill somebody full of lead if they didn't back off. I encounter rudeness and hostility all over the metro Detroit area. So when I saw how nice everybody was to each other in Texarkana, I started to wonder if maybe I should move down there, away from the real horror stories of the Detroit area. Don't believe the horror stories about the South.

[desertbluesman]

Oh there are some horror stories down south. Texarkana is unlike other deep southeastern states and cities. There is still a lot of racial/ethnic prejudice in places in the southeast. Texas is quite different than Alabama. Mississippi, Georgia and the Carolina's. Even some of Virginia is still bigoted in some places. I have been in every state in the union except Alaska. And I have spent some time in Mississippi and northern Florida. Since I am 100% European descended, I can slip though those states unmolested. But If I was of a different ethnicity especially of color, I would never go to some of those states feeling comfortable. I also lived in Texas several times in Austin, and never encountered any bigotry there.

 

There is quite a lot of bigotry in northern Florida as well. West of Jacksonville there are some small towns that are heavily racist. I worked with those folks in construction down there and I know them well.

[surfergirl]

It's not a southern probkem, it's an American problem. My 11 year old half sister, who is AAPI, is afraid to go back to school. She lives in Long Beach, Ca., not the south. Our father wants to have her come to live with me. I don't mind that, but eventually she will have to return. My suggestion is going to be to travel groups, because they are dealing with cowards who are afraid of numbers. I don't necessarily blame the children at school, I blame the parents more. It's learned behavior.

[desertbluesman]

I have no use at all for bigotry. I suffered some of it and I did not like it a single bit.

[o0Ampy0o]

I am sick of America bashing, meaning USA bashing. Everyone whines but there still is no better place to be and everyone worldwide is envious. The bashing is part of the current trend of destruction. Everyone can"t have it all their way but they try to tear down everything that doesn't see them as the center of the universe like they do.

 

As for race, I am half Portuguese half mixture of anglo-European I look caucasian but race was not on my radar. I have been neutral in that regard. It wasn"t a consideration like a point to judge by growing up. It didn"t bother me when I received aggression for being a certain persuasion. I knew it mattered to them but that didn"t make it matter to me.

 

I temporarily lived in Alabama for about a year as my wife had a work related project there. She would rent a hotel room and use it to meet with people. I ate at the hotel restaurant. It was very sad being addressed as 'boss' by the bus people which all were 'of color' Afro-American' 'black' I am sure the term 'negro' is still used some places. I am a native Californian. Those people had no idea how different things are outside Alabama. Things have changed elsewhere, for better or worse.

 

One thing for certain, no matter the subject you cannot succeed forcing people to change. Sometimes in some cases things do change as a result but it is not the change that is sought. Indirectly things will shift in other ways closer to a level playing field but the resistance surfacing means greater polarization as well. So what is truly desired, people want to be accepted, isn"t something that can be forced. Too much change too fast too aggressively creates resentment. That is counter-productive.

 

Not that long ago smokers dominated the air and non-smokers essentially had to smoke breathing the air polluted by smokers. Sometimes it does work out for the best. If you smoke and feel strongly that it is your right there still is no arguing that things are not healthier this way with the new 'norm' restrictions on smoking in public, both legislative and social.

[Scott Fraser]

Everyone whines but there still is no better place to be and everyone worldwide is envious.

 

If one gets out into the rest of the world for any length of time you find that both of these suppositions are not really the case.

[desertbluesman]

Everyone whines but there still is no better place to be and everyone worldwide is envious.

 

If one gets out into the rest of the world for any length of time you find that both of these suppositions are not really the case.

 

Everyone in the world used to be envious of the USA, that was back in the 1950's, when we were sitting on top of the world, it was the place to be back then. I still like it here however, just not the politics.

[o0Ampy0o]

People stopped immigrating here a long time ago. Rate of population growth has diminished. There is relatively less food to go around. No one comes here for work or education or the relative freedom to do what you can outside of a class structure. There are relatively less opportunities here than anywhere in the world. There have been so many wars here. No one cares that you can speak publicly protesting or campaigning openly without fear of being jailed or poisoned. Everyone realized decades ago that they are better off staying where they are.

 

It has never been perfect but it has been and still is the best alternative ever to have been assembled.

[skipclone 1]

I have friends around the world. When times were better and I could afford to travel, I usually didn't

go anywhere as a tourist but rather visiting friends. I have no interest in collecting destinations. Generally I stay a week to 10 days

in a country I visit and I've been to several more than once. A couple of things I learned is, that it's possible to have an absolutely amazing life

without ever setting foot in the U.S. The other thing, which frankly is kind of a letdown, is that wherever you go, differences aside, is that

most countries are full of a big bunch of people trying to make it until the next day. There's also a tiny group of people who don't have to worry so much.

It's unlikely most of us will meet them.

[o0Ampy0o]

Skip do you want to PM me and talk? I'd love to. Otherwise this open posting is fine.

 

I am certain there are countless places to enjoy outside the USA.

 

Out of respect please do not post the "compromising" photo of Gregg Allman. This is not a meeting with friends in person with a relative degree of limited exposure. Once you post on the internet it is out there to be circulated. Same really goes for anything passed on as hear-say. It just isn't fair. Like everyone can get irritable or have moody periods. Ideas like that attached to a famous person get distorted and exaggerated usually more is made of it although many times it may have been extreme. Famous people are unfairly scrutinized using a higher standard.

[skipclone 1]

Hello oOAmpyOo

Well first, nice to meet you.You are welcome to PM me any time, but I see no special reason to do that

about this topic.

In case I wasn't clear-maybe I wasn't-I have no intention of passing that photo around. I am a busy performing artist myself.

Yesterday I did a shoot for a music video. It's for a song I recorded for an independent film. I've had a photo of me posted on soc media without my

permission. I'm a very long way from famous, but no one has to tell me about keeping private things private. That is even more the case with someone who is no longer with us and

can't personally approve.