Completely serendipitous and pointless anecdote culled from our current economic crisis and only marginally related to music:
The great thing about what's been happening in the financial sectors as of late is the EVERYONE seems to be going though hard times, which to me means there's no shame in doing anything one can to make ends meet. (This would be different in boom times, when the flush wealth of some is waved in the faces of the less fortunate.) Now we (or most of us anyway) are on a more level playing field. I found this out yesterday when The Beast agreed -- through circuituous and unavoidable connections with those in L.A.'s entertainment industry -- to be an extra in a brief TV shoot at Burbank's McCambridge Park. It paid $50. I had no idea what show it was for and I didn't care. I was scraping, but I was proud to do it. My job was to stand at a pay phone (yes! they still exist) and just dial. That's it. Just press the buttons and pretend to raise the phone to my ear. Then, as it was revealed to me by the director, I was supposed to leap back from the phone and drop it. Apparently, I was playing a poor soul who was just about to hang up the receiver when he was struck by lightning. Apparently, this is what the show was about: a cable documentary about the science of lightning.
OK fine. I asked the director the backstory -- I mean, I needed motivation! -- and she revealed that I was playing none other than Dr. Anthony Cicoria, the orthepedic surgeon from Oneonta, New York who in 1993 was hit by a bolt of lightning that hit the metal pay phone he was at, struck him in the head and exited out his foot. Apparently, the shock to the system "downloaded" (his words) an obsessive love of piano music and revealed a previously hidden talent for playing it. He recently composed the "Lightning Sonata" and now plays concerts billed as "The Accidental Pianist." His story forms the basis for the bestselling book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and The Brain by Oliver "Robin Williams Played Me!" Sacks. One of my all-time favorite books. I was honored!
REST IN TEMPO
Leroy "Hog" Cooper
Susan Meyer Markle
John Martyn
Gordon "Whitey" Mitchell
David "Fathead" Newman
George Perle
Billy Powell
