A trip to Borders this weekend brought me down memory lane when I purchased a book called “Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz”. I’ve always identified with Charlie Brown, the main Peanuts character, and considered myself to be a lot like him– often teased, maligned and the butt of people’s jokes, yet always sincere and well-meaning with a good heart.
Yep. That’s me.
In today’s podcast I talk about my connection to Charlie Brown, the future of this show, and the wonderful week we all had this last week. (It sucked!)
HEY! Do you have a high-speed connection, a microphone, and one of the following programs: Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Skype, or MSN Messenger? Then let me know, because you could be on a future podcast! Send me an invite to your messenger list (I am rcktmanil on each of the services) or drop me a line at rick (at) rcktman (dot) com. (you know how to REALLY type that into your Email program… I get enough spam as it is. 
I’d love to hear from you and maybe have you on a future show!
MUSIC
Linus and Lucy – Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas (iTunes)
You’re In Love, Charlie Brown – George Winston – Linus and Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi (iTunes)
Filed under: PadCasts
When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do was to slip on my father’s shoes and clomp around the house pretending I was him. I also used to like to take his pipes and pretend I was smoking them.
I think there’s even a picture or two of me in boxes in my parent’s closet documenting these adorable scenes.
Now, as I am getting older, I am noticing similarites between me and my father when he was my age. Ugh. I can’t believe I can remember him being my current age.
And so goes the name of today’s podcast.
Today’s blatherings range from family health issues to playing with new toys to ending of eras and beginnings of new ones. Think that’s vague? Give the show a listen… it’ll clear it up for ya.
I should mention that I talk a bit about the sound effects mixer and play with it in this show. It sounded really cool when I was recording it, but in the final mix, I don’t hear much of anything. So forgive me. I’m just playing with toys.
I am a man, after all.
Just like my father.
Have a wonderful week, everyone!
Music: Son of Your Father: Elton John (from Tumbleweed Connection)
Into The Old Man’s Shoes: Elton John (from Tumbleweed Connection – iTunes version only!)
So just to start things off… he didn’t call.
But I DID call him. Thank you very much. So that was one text message and one phone call on my part… and NOTHING on his part.
Men suck.
Anyway… I’ve been gone for a while so in today’s podcast, I talk about the fact that men suck (sorry men!), the creep from the Oscar Party, the huge thunderstorms that hit Chicago (some of which you can hear during the podcast!), my crazy dad, and a few other things to tempt your ear buds.
So with that, I’m going to bed, because there is nothing I like better than sleeping while rain is hitting the windowpanes and thunder and lightning are flashing and crashing around me.
Thank goodness I have the kitties to keep me company.
Music:
Thunder and Lightning: Chi Coltrane (Best of Chi Coltrane, only available on Amazon.com)
Thunder and Lightning: Phil Collins (Face Value, available on iTunes)
Podcast:
A photograph. An old shirt. A song. The sound of a voice. The scent of perfume or cologne.
Memory is an incredibly powerful thing, and the older we get, the harder it is to access those deposits of information at will.
Sometimes it takes one of the triggers mentioned above to make the memory jog itself, and recapture what you thought you had lost for so long.
This past weekend I found a casette tape I had recorded on Christmas Day 1982. I was 11 years old. As I listened to the tape, and laughing at how young I sounded, and how little my sister was, I realized that I was hearing my Grandma’s voice again for the first time in nearly 20 years. I was instantly rushed back to that day, unwrapping presents and just being a kid again. It felt warm. It felt comfortable.
In today’s podcast I talk about memories and how powerful they are to me. At the beginning of the podcast, you’ll hear a brief snippet of that tape. Try not to laugh at how dorky I sound. I was truly dorky back then. There are just no other words to explain how dorky I was.
But the thing I noticed while listening to that tape was how normal we were. At the time I thought we were the most dysfunctional family in the world. But now, hearing how we interacted as a family, and how Christmas morning was as special to us as it would be to any family– I see that I had a pretty doggone good life.
The song that opens today’s Podcast is called Remember by Harry Nilsson. The song is as beautiful as the message it conveys. It suits today’s show perfectly.
It was also the very first song I learned when I joined Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus.
I remember it all well. Thanks for sharing these memories with me.
Music: Remember: Harry Nilsson (from the album All Time Greatest Hits) on iTunes
