I can't go to sleep until I share this...

I swear in the last 10 years, my world has become unbelievably small. Or large. Depending how you look at it. Quick memory trip--In summer of 1986, after I came home from my first year as drum major touring with the ORIGINAL Velvet Knights, I signed up for a year of music education fun and frolicking at CSULB. I ended up comparing schedules with a friend of mine that I had gone to PCC with, Rich Melville, and we ended up getting into all kinds of trouble together, but more important, we carpooled from Pasadena/San Marino to CSULB every day. Or thereabouts. I would drive from my house in Pasadena down to his nice posh neighborhood, park, and then get in his little Toyota truck and buzz down to school, all the while, Rich instructed me on the finer points of Metallica, Iron Maiden, speed metal, death metal, smoking pot, and uhhhh...well...some of the strange things he would do. Time is what it is, and life goes on. Last I heard from Rich was maybe 10 to 12 years ago when I had stopped by a mutual friend's house in Pasadena who I've talked about on this blog before--a stellar musician himself--Lou "Give Me A Reason, Turner!!!" Tartadian. I think I recall Lou was on the phone with him when I walked in and I said "Hi" and that was about it. Rich was living somewhere in Los Angeles at the time.

GET TO THE POINT TURNER---FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY!!

Sorry....

I always feel like I have to set things up, hanh?

ANYWAYS...I joined Facebook and have been pretty amazed at the people that are signing up and becoming "my friend" through Facebook. TONS better than that swill called MySpace. But anyway--TODAY...out of the blue...one of the world's GREATEST trumpet players and I'm proud to say a friend of mine from WAY back, Tim Divers, became "my friend". COOOL! As per the custom on Facebook, you look at your new friends friends and see if you know any of THEIR friends, and then you ask them to be YOUR friend and so it goes. I personally think Facebook is setting us up to be the biggest Amway distributorship in the world--but that's another story.

So...I'm looking through Tim's friends, and find Rich Melville, my old commuting/drinking/partying/jazz band playing in friend. Yeah...so I send him a friend invite, next thing I know, he's commenting on that STUPID picture of me in that STUPID dog costume (see my Facebook account for more information), and of course, he brings up an inside joke between us that I hadn't thought of IN YEARS..."Beware the Zarconians." It's a complicated story I'll not bother you with...

ANYWAY...so I do a little investigating on HIS profile, and find out that the sucker is living in GREECE, and is in a rockband that's fronted by Gene Simmons' younger brother Serge...well ok ok, I kid. Sure looks like a relative of Gene Simmons to me. BUT WHO AM I!!!?? So...without further ado...please, take a moment, as I introduce American citizens to the hit Greece rock/polka/death metal conglomerate known as...DICKEN'S ZOO!!!

:-/

Uhhh...well...at least they aren't called The Zarconians.

(Just in case you think I'm being sarcastic, I personally think this is VERY cool to see Rich after all of these years....on Greek television...singing....in Greek. I knew he was talented...but this is IT!!! Oh...he's the sax player...)