faulker009

I have always enjoyed a party. Except for my first party of course, which came eight days into life. (If you don’t know what I am referring to, check Seinfeld’s episode five, season five.  Ouch.) Back to the party. I like birthday parties, engagement parties, fraternity parties. I even like the resolve of the Libertarian Party. Today I was invited to a high school graduation party. Well, actually I was not invited to the party, but our band was. In case you are new to my world, as a 43-year old unemployed guy, I was asked to sing in a band with three 40+ year old employed guys. After my very successful singing career in college, I had no choice but to accept.   Two weeks ago, we launched this new career at a block party. Fortunately at our golden age, we were able to remember most of the five songs we played two weeks ago, so today we played the same five songs. When the 20+ minute show was over, it was time to mingle backstage with the groupies. Well actually, there was no ba...

Ladies and Gentlemen, THE CLEARANCE RACK. To paraphrase the great Dennis DeYoung, tonight’s the night we made history. Tonight was the debut of our new band, The Clearance Rack. Considering where I bought our matching button-down polka-dotted cowboy shirts, all a size too small by the way, it felt like the perfect name for our group. If you don’t count the choir at my synagogue growing up, this is only the second band I’ve ever been part of and the first since my Junior year of college. 23 years ago!!! In case you missed the article in Rolling Stone magazine (or my recent blog), we’ve been a band for all of two weeks. Short story shorter -- the father of one of my daughter’s friends and his two neighbors loved the video game Rock Band so much, they decided to start their own real band. Minus a singer. Yada yada yada. I guess you know the rest. Our first gig was tonight at their annual block party -- their 10th annual block party. Little did I know when I signed up, but this shindig is ...

This just in, I GOT A JOB!!!! More on that in 228 words. Long story short, instead of taking the school bus up to my daughter’s retreat last week, I decided to drive my own car.  In my passenger seat was Mike, the father of my one of my daughter’s best friends, a man I had never met before. In the two plus hours up, we had a chance to learn a lot about each other and I think we both like what we heard. Like me, Mike is in his 40’s, so we had a lot of in common. We both like sports, we both worship our kids and we both LOVE music. Mike told me that he and his neighbors have become obsessed with the video game Rock Band.   Obsessed to the point, where he and a couple of guys from his block have joined together to make their own Rock Band. When he told me that he plays the expert level on drums, I knew he wasn’t kidding. I’m not even sure that Buddy Rich could’ve figured out the expert level on Rock Band. Well after a few months of staring at the video screen late in the early AM...