"This is not my life, it's just a fond farewell to a friend..."

Somewhere, packed away in anticipation of the move, there is a box of photos. In the box of photos there are some pictures of him. Pictures of us. He was just an acquaintance—a friend of my friend R.

R was the most rabid music fan I have ever known. He was younger than me but had a musical knowledge leaps and bounds above me. We both had a penchant for the weird and obscure, so we traded tapes all the time and turned each other onto some great stuff. We also both loved heavy, fat bass chords and nasty metal guitar licks. Neither of us were “metal-heads” in the broad sense of the term, but we loved to crank up Soundgarden’s BadMotorFinger and Monster Magnet’s Spine of God.

R traded tapes with a lot of people. One of them was Phil Anselmo, who later became the frontman for Pantera. Through R, I got to meet and hang out with the band. There was always a standing invitation for free tickets and aftershow passes. One time I was invited to dinner with the band, and we took over Allyn’s Café and had a blast. They were a lot of fun and a great bunch of guys.

“Dimebag” Darrel Abbott, former lead guitarist with Pantera, current guitarist for Damageplan, was gunned down onstage last night at Alrosa Villa in Columbus. I didn’t know Dime that well, but from the times I hung out with him I thought he was a good, decent guy with a twisted, hilarious sense of humor. And he was a helluva guitarist.

R.I.P. Dime.

"We've got nuthin' better to do....than to watch TV & have a coupla brews!"

I'm currently watching VH1 Classic's "The Alternative," which I recorded on the DVR. They always show a few gems I haven't seen in AGES, and tonight it is Black Flag's "TV Party!!"

The budget for that video was a couple of six packs, a tiny portable tv and a yellow beanbag chair. It's one of the most honest, fun, low budget videos ever (right up there with The 'Mats "Bastards of Young"). It was great to see it again.

I saw Black Flag at the Jockey Club about 20 years ago. Tickets were around $6.00. The Jockey Club was on York Street in Newport, KY, back when Newport was a scary place to venture. The Jockey Club was a dive in the true sense of the word, but my god what a great place to see punk bands! In less than two weeks, CR and I will be moving to Newport--about ten blocks from where the Jockey Club was.

Like Black Flag, we'll be living low budget. We'll probably be having many a TV party for lack of funds to do anything else!!

"But the radio is playing all the usual...and what's a Wonderwall anyway?"

Taking Typing I & II in high school was one of the smartest things I’ve ever done, as it has continued to serve me well. Unlike, say, “Business Shorthand” and “Home Economics: The Art of Meal Planning” and the forgettable college courses I took, like “The History of Greece 404 to 146 BC” and “Case Studies in Organizational Communication.” But I digress...

Before the rise of the internet, I used to have loads of pen-pals. We swapped stories, photos and the occasional cassette tape. We shared aspirations and dreams. One penfriend in Japan was a huge Jesus & Mary Chain fan, like me. We shared photos--hers were spectacular--she stalked them to the Tokyo Shinkansen and took wonderful photos of Jim Reid. I, on the other hand, had to admit failure in that when I met Jim in Columbus a few months prior, I’d burst into tears in his face and compelled him to leg it onto the tour bus and the safety of a large bottle of Black Label Jack.

Then there were the scores of up and coming bands I corresponded with, most of which never “made it” but whom I still look back fondly at the letters we shared, and I still own and listen to their music. There was Bon Von Wheelie from Girl Trouble. We wrote back and forth several times and I’ve kept her letters tucked safely inside the Hit It Or Quit It LP. She hooked me up with Calvin Johnson, the head guy at K Records in Olympia, Washington. Calvin and I took up a spirited friendship for awhile and he sent me loads of great 7” singles released on his label. I sent him a bunch of I Wanna Label stuff in return. Somehow along the way I got hooked up with Robert Griffin from Scat Records in Cleveland and we shot letters back and forth for awhile. I adored his band Prisonshake and he sent me loads of music related goodies. Favorite item was probably the Scat Singles Box that had lots of silly toys inside. He later signed Dayton’s Guided By Voices (whose first LP was on I Wanna) and moved to Chicago. One time I got a lovely (and sexy) birthday card from Mark Kramer, head dude at Shimmy Disc Records and one half of the neo-psychedelic band Bongwater.

Then there is the penpal that I married! We sent countless letters and "FunMail" whizzing back and forth across the Atlantic. The day he sent himself across the big pond was one of the best moments in my life. We've been together ever since.

Ocassionally I still get a piece of FunMail from my best mate Rodney, a multimedia artist now living in San Francisco. Back in college we regularly stuffed each others university mailboxes with fun and interesting items (purple pantyhose doused in glitter, feathers, scratch & sniff books we’d made ourselves, bags of safety pins) and he still sends me an oddity every now and then, and it never fails to amuse and delight me.

It’s an even greater joy, however, to be able to meet up with friends face to face, and share laughter, stories and music with them. That's why I think the internet is such a wonderous thing. I've met a lot of great folks whom I have so much in common with, and who share the same interests as me, and for that I am forever grateful.

I know what I did before the internet and wouldn't change it for the world. But I can't imagine life without it now.