Four years ago today, I was flying into Washington, DC to both attend and give presentations at RWDevCon, a conference for mobile app developers.
The winds were high that day, and as the pilot made their first attempt at a landing, the gusts hit the plane with enough force to make it obvious that we’d have to do a go-around.
On our second landing attempt, the gusts were still there. There was a nervous vibe throughout the cabin, and one of the flight attendants decided to lighten the mood by making an announcement over the PA system:
“If we need to do another go-around, I’m getting the accordion man to play us a song.”
To celebrate our seventh anniversary, we took a a Thursday-to-Sunday road trip to St. Augustine.We had a great time, mostly because we had each other for company, but also because we brought this lucky charm, which made for an interesting Saturday night:
We’d lucked out with our early reservation and were able to get an outdoor table with a view of the fort, river, and partygoers wandering (or stumbling) down the pedestrian-only St. George Street.
“What do you want to do now?” Anitra asked after we finished dessert.
“I figure we should walk around and see where the night takes us,” I said.
With that, we got up and started making our way out of the restaurant. We was starting our way down the stairs when someone called out: “Hey, you with the accordion!”
It turned out to be a table of eight, two of whom were celebrating their twentieth anniversary. We told them that we were celebrating our seventh, and it was congratulations all round.
“Here, let me play something for you,” I said, playing the first fitting song I could think of — Praise You by Fatboy Slim. It got applause not just from the table but the rest of the room, and the couple insisted on giving me a $20 bill by way of saying thanks.
“Looks like they covered the first round of drinks!” Anitra said as we walked out.
Bagging a discount
We started walking southward on St. George Street and saw that Cotton St. Aug was still open.
“Do you want to take a look?” Anitra asked.
“I’d love to check out their aloha shirts.” I replied, and we walked in.
We were greeted by the manager, Bridget, and struck up a conversation. Of course, the question came up — “Could you play me a song, please?” — and I went with the crowd-pleaser, Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time, which she recorded on video with her phone.
After the performance, Anitra started checking out their sizable selection of Anuschka hand-painted leather handbags. She picked out the “Lighthouse” design pictured to the right. As Bridget rang up our purchase, she looked at us, said “for the entertainment”, and gave us a discount.
“We’re on a bit of a roll tonight,” I said. We continued on our way south.
Turning music into free drinks
As we walked past Casa Monica (pictured above), a guy came up to us and talked about a friend of his who played classic rock on the accordion and asked if I did the same. I answered by playing AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long.
A couple overheard the performance and asked if I could play it again so that they could capture it on video for their friend. I obliged, and they invited us inside to buy us a drink at Casa Monica’s lobby bar, the Cobalt Lounge:
Gerry with a bodhran with the Crazy Go Nuts University’s bands logo, which he painted on it.
If you were a local in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in the ’80s and ’90s and enjoyed a pint (or more) of Guinness, chances are you saw Gerry O’Kane play a couple of sets of traditional Irish tunes, along with some of his originals.
I love live music as well as dark and rich beers served in cosy pubs, so I managed to catch Gerry during my first year at Crazy Go Nuts University, at a then-new pub called The Toucan. A couple of years later, I’d live in an apartment above that very same pub, which was near another pub called The Wellington, and Gerry played both places often.
Sooner or later, if you were a student at Crazy Go Nuts University and had any semblance of a life, you’d end up at a Gerry O’Kane show, where you’d learn to shout “Macintyre!” at the appropriate moments of The Old Dun Cow…
Later on, when I graduated and moved back to Toronto, I was still able to catch him when he came to town and played at places like The Monarch:
I learned a lot watching Gerry: how to read and banter with the audience, handle the usual cock-ups that will happen during a live musical performance, and of course, I also got a feel for what made traditional Irish music distinct.
It’s largely because of Gerry that I’m familiar enough with the Irish folk repertoire that I can passably back up Irish trad bands when called upon to do, as I’ve done a handful of times, including a couple of numbers with The Jackdaws:
Gerry suffered a stroke in late January, and he passed away earlier this week. Requiescat in pace, Gerry, and thank you for all the music.
Arnie posted a video of an intense, impressive, and impassioned speech to the Russian people and government. It cites his connection to Russia through his idol, Yury Petrovitch Vlasov, multiple world record-breaking weightlifter, his work on Red Heat — the first American film to shoot on location in Red Square (and hey, who doesn’t remember “COCAINUM!”?)…
Now let me tell you: When my father arrived in Leningrad, he was all pumped up on the lies of his government. And when he left Leningrad, he was broken, physically and mentally.
He lived the rest of his life in pain. Pain from a broken back, pain from the shrapnel that always reminded him of those terrible years, and pain from the guilt that he felt.
He also commends the people in Russia who are protesting the war, commending them for their courage (remember, protesting the war can land you a 15-year jail sentence).
The video is subtitled in both Russian and English. It was originally posted on Twitter, but copies have been floating around in various places online, and it will probably become hot “samizdata” if it hasn’t already done so.
As long as we’re watching Arnie sending important political messages, let’s watch his message on the Capitol riot of January 6th, 2021:
Here’s the text of the poster, with all its oddly abitrary capitalization (a growing phenomenon) faithfully recreated:
THE BATMAN
Movie
This is a Dark Movie and will
have a lot of Dark Scenes.
We will Not Issue any Refunds
or Re-Admission Tickets due to
DARKNESS as the Studio
informed us this will be a Dark
Movie.
Of course, you can’t properly mention “Batman” and “DARKNESS” without this playing this tune:
