Thursday: Now with less Spooky Tooth...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

One of my favorite voice students…the aging rocker and gospel pianist…the one who once accused me of trying to make him sound like Rick Astley (warning: sound & 1980s)…and the one who introduced me to the long-defunct prog band Spooky Tooth (warning: sound & 1960s) won’t be coming to his voice lesson tonight because he has gone to the great jam session in the sky. Apparently he up and died in his sleep.

He was old enough to be allowed to do that, but just barely (I’d place him in his mid-50s), and definitely not ready to be done with life. Tonight will be a sad one in the studio.

So…I raise a glass of work-appropriate daytime beverage to the memory of J, who never practiced, never learned a darned thing from me, but who still made Thursdays more interesting than they otherwise could have been.

Cheers, and a fond farewell.

~fig

2

Coffee cup raised to J. Rock on!

3

::lifts can of Coke Zero:: To J!

4

What’s especially disorienting about having this happen is that I’ve never thought much about the mortality of my students. Most are younger than I am and healthy.

I did have one elderly student once…she was probably in her mid-seventies, and she used to get cross with me for insisting on walking her to her car and helping her up and down the stairs to my studio. But that was because I was afraid she’d fall and break a hip, not die!

Ah, well. Expectations exist to be thwarted.

5

Sorry to hear that - here’s to J. (raises pint glass of water)