I wish more people were here

[Juanita Clark]

Everybody I talk to reads the jazz forum. Why are the same two or three people posting all the time? It sure would be nice to see more opinions, more memories in the history section, etc. With all due respect and please don't flame me for this but I feel like I'm learning more about JD and his drug problems and all the people he's met than about jazz in Vancouver.

[John Doheny]

Hi Juanita,

I initially tried e-mailing you privately but apparently you've disabled that feature so I'll have to respond here.

Your first point:

The only way more people will post is if...more people post. It's not like there's not enough room or something.

Quite frankly I wish more people posted here too. I check in fairly regularly and there are often long periods when nothing is posted at all. I post when I have time ( and sometimes when I don't. It's an indulgence of mine, and a way to avoid other important but sometimes tedious work at the computer), when I see something I want to respond to, when I want to tell others about a performance I dug, or in the case of the Al Weirtz thread, when I feel an interesting and important figure has been overlooked.

It's funny. I was thinking at the end of that last "Oil Can's" post how tedious some of this must seem to younger cats like Morgan and those guys, a bunch of old farts sitting around talking about how much better it was in the old days. We had to put up with that too, 25 or 30 years back, from a different bunch of old poops who are mostly now dead. And ,presumably, 30 years from now Morgan and Dave Sikula and Mike Zachernuk will be boring a whole new crop of youngsters with stories of what it was like when you could go see Mike Allen and Ross Taggert up close and personal, back when they still HAD live music, back before everybody had a chip implanted in their brains that downloads MP3s of music consisting entirely of samples of stuff recorded before musicians gave up spending money in the studio to record new music only to have it ripped and burned off the net for free. What I'm saying is, THESE are the good old days. Why don't you guys write about them more than you do?

But the posts under jazz history would seem to be, by default, about..well..history, and the only vehicle I have for my memories is personal remeniscence. I don't know any other way. I won't be publishing my masters thesis here.

Your second point:
Yes I'm a recovering addict/alcoholic. But I've been clean and sober for 12 years now. Let's be real clear on that. O.K.?

[robnz]

Cam Ryga is sure holding up his end of the bargain. Thanks Cam, I love reading your stories!

I bet Torbin reads this stuff...come on Torbin!

If we could get some of the 'more experienced' guys to buy computers that would probably help.

Wacker made it pretty clear that he wasn't going to get in on this....oh well.

Hey! I just remebered one. Please correct me if you were there, I wasn't:

Hugh Fraser was playing at the club on Broadway and Alma (near the new Cellar) and there was a table being loud. He goes over to the table, collects all of the cutlery from the startled guests into a big handful and throws it, very loudly, onto the floor. Then I think he said something to them that I found funny but I forget what it was. Somebody will remember...

Sorry, that's kinda lame. Hopefully it will be better when a good storyteller with a memory adds to it.

[John Doheny]

But Cam's stories have VANISHED! (Along with a bunch of others).

[reddiva]

I could tell plenty of stories...
The first time I had a "meeting" at the Cellar... the first time I got Wacker to shut up... finding nudie posters being held for sax players in the office... hearing, for the first time, one certain drummer be fabulously lewd under his breath, (it's always such a thrill to discover another dirty mind)... what happens when the staff plays spin the bottle... oh the secrets I could tell go on and on...
But then, I'd most certainly be fired, and likely wake up in an alley having had my tongue removed, slivered to pieces by sax reeds, with a drum stick shoved up my nose, throwing me into some surreal Phineas-Gage-like turn of events... Oh, nevermind. Better to keep all the nuggets in the brain, as my grandmother used to say. I'll never tell. So there!
Kisses!
C

[Morgan Childs]

Chris.... You got Wacker to shut up????!!!!! How in the hell did you do that? I've been trying for nearly 6 years!!! ;-)

[reddiva]

It's a family forum, Morgan. I can't say. ;) Ask him sometime.