Robert Edwin Stearman, Jr. 1958 - 2009

Bob was the fiery artistic sort of soul that one encounters only rarely...one of the best, if not the best drummer i ever played with...the union between a bassist and drummer is paramount in driving any band of any genre and Bob had a groove a mile wide and made making music with him easy and joyous...he brought a jazzy melodic feel to every song, be it hardcore bebop or pop ditty...i would be lying if i didn't say that Bob also had his demons, and they sometimes followed him onto the stage...but then again, there are few saints in this profession and i am certainly not one of them...but the great moments far outweigh the "oh no" moments and the sounds he made still echo in my head and through the cosmos...

see you on the other side, Brother Bob...

tiny steps

i used to think that Rush Limbaugh is a douche bag...then i came to think that he is the mouthpiece, the actual douche nozzle...i have never heard a single word uttered forth from his drug-addled brain that i have agreed with, and now i have come to consider that it is doing a disservice to douche bags to equate Limbaugh with being such...i mean, douche bags perform a valuable service, rendering their assigned areas to healthfulness and, dare i say, tastiness...and Rush does none of these things...he is just an ill-tempered blowhard...and his rant that i heard today pushed me over the edge...
...he actually had the balls to say that people who exercise, ride bikes, jog, hike, do weight training at the gym, rock climb, whatever, are part of the cause of the health care problem in our country because they hurt themselves and show up at the hospital and make the government pay for it...i can only hope that there were some conservative sort of folks at the gym or out on the bike trail with their iPods on listening to this bullshit and have a glimmer of awakening...

...tiny steps...

Doughnut Adendum

a photo of the Lerch's Bakery truck from the late 1930's...and hosanna and hallelujah, they are still in business!!...so, Pixie...are you still ready to drive for doughnuts?

Happy National Doughnut Day

...more than thirty years ago at the Wayne County Fair in Wooster, Ohio i encountered the best doughnut i have ever had...it was made by a company called Lerch's Doughnuts...they didn't have an actual storefront sort of building, just a few mobile units that they would take to fairs and festivals and such...and the doughnuts they produced were as manna from heaven...deep golden brown and crunchy on the outside and on the inside, a cloud that melted in one's mouth...they would sell as fast as they came out of the fryer and people would line up, anxiously awaiting the next batch and as soon as they were cool enough so as not to raise blisters, they would disappear in a frenzy of lip-smackin' and yummy noises...
...i remember the taste and aroma all these years later and wonder if these doughy delights are still around...perhaps and cross-continental doughnut run is in order...