Last night about 30 friends of  our ‘house band’  Skanky Green showed up to celebrate the guys first big gig at Higher Ground . Folks started showing up at midnight …. We had quite a party going by about 2. 

We even managed to make a batch of SamStones.  I crept off to bed at about 2:30, while Diane stayed up with Max to help him gather his schoolwork and pack all his supplies for his trip to Pratt today. My job was to drive him to the Train station in Rutland in the morning to catch e 1045 to NYC. . Max has been working around the clock the last week or so getting ready to go back to Pratt to turn in his last semester’s work. I’ve been really proud of how he’s focused over the past week. Some of his stuff is really amazing. His film project ‘Tint’ was shot in black and white 8mm film then digitized. It’s really an amazing piece of work.. That boy is so creative.

   I woke around 7:30, woke Max and we were on the rode by 8 as planned. We got down to Rutland in an hour and a half. When we got there we found the station empty and locked. I looked at the posted schedule and realized that the train ran at 10:45 AM every day but Sunday .. On Sunday it left at something like 5:45 PM.   Each of the three of us had assumed that the other had checked the time.. When we figured out the micup.. what was there to do but laugh ?! I was the famous Cohn problem with time. I quickly got Diane on the phone and she helped us figure out that there was a train leaving from Albany NYC at 12 noon. At that point it was 10AM and the car was telling me that the train station in Albany was 2 hours and 20 minutes away.. We’ really had to zoom.  I drove as fast as my little Prius  would go.  By the time we were nearing Albany, we had made up some of the time.. but ti was clearly going to be close.. We had 18 miles to go and 20 minutes to do it. Soon we were 3 miles away form the station with 5 minutes to go.. and … and … I took a wrong turn !.. Arrrrrrgh.. We got caught for a few precious minutes in downtown Albany traffic while I figure our way back to the road to the station.. We found our way and drove up to the station (or so we thought) just as the church bells all started ringing noon. We could see the train. We hopped out of the car and grabbed Max’s stuff. I ran o r the door only to find it locked.. The station looked abandoned… That’s when we realized out mistake.. the  new station was right next store.. We ran towards it.. We had to run up three flights of staris to get to the ticeket office and the access to the overpass to the tracks. I ran ahead with Max’s light portfolio case.. while max wrestled with his huge duffle bag. I made it to the ticked counter but the guy aid that the train had already closed it’s doors.. I ran past him as Max finally cleared the stairs. I got down to the access door to the train.. and a not very friendly women told me that it was too late .. though the train was sitting there happily just 15 feet away.. She started to lecture me about the need to be places on time..   I managed to do some internal deep breathing to keep myself from saying anything I’d regret then I focused my Jedi powers and asked her to ask the conductor if they’d take one more. She said no.. but seconds later her walkie talkie went off and the conductor said.. ‘send ’em down’.. We shuffled down the stairs.. I gave max a hug.. pushed him on the train.. and the train started moving 30 seconds later.. Yow.. what a finish !  Good luck my son !!! I’ll be thinking of you this week at Pratt ! I love you Max.. !

   I took a few minutes to get back in my body.. then shuffled off to the car and the 3 hour trip home.  The ride home was so peaceful after that rush. When I get in those quite places.. like a long car ride… I realize just how much ‘work’ I still have to do around Sam’s passing. I talked to  him nearly the whole trip.. everything I saw along the Northway reminded  me of Sam.. places we’d stopped,  music we’d liked..   Much of it is bittersweet at this point. .The rearview mirror taught me  that when I think these things, I get sort of a  sad half smile on my face. Half a smile is progress….

   On the ride back I gave my folks a quick call to my parents to see how  Deb, Hannah, Avery and Jen were enjoying their stay. The girls went down for a State Radio show last night.. and my parents graciously offered to  play innkeeper.. I could tell by my call that they were all getting along really well.. I’m sure I’ll get some good stories from Hannah and Avery when they get back.. but here are two I heard from them and my mom… First, Hannah told me that Chad Urmston , the lead from State Radio.. was still wearing his am pin on his guitar trap.. I think that is so wonderful.. The second story they told me was that Chad‘s parents turn out to be pretty good friends of my folks. They live in the same town (Sherborn, MA) and work on some committees together.. Mom had even invited them over for dinner on Friday.. but they were out of town..  My mom new all sorts of storis about Chad and his siblings.. including his sister Farley in Waitsfield.. but she did not know that we are all manic fans of his band. It is a very funny small world.  I did manage to stop o n I-74 on the way home to write Sam’s name in some snow I found.. I’ll keep doing it as long as there’s snow to write in..

I also took a cool little accidental detour through ‘Ironville’ .. The ‘birthplace of the electric age’.. It’s called that because it was the site of the first use of  an electromagnet to help control a forge. In 1833. That’s pretty early !!!

    I got home around 4 after 350 miles of driving.. It was actually all pretty relaxing except for that nerve racking 5 minutes at the train station.  Gabe was still feeling pretty sick when I got home.. He has a sore throat and feels generally rotten.. In respect  of that we all plopped down in the TV room and watched Shawn of the Dead together. Nothing ‘s better for a sore throat than a good Zombie movie.. After that we just puttered around..   I was working to add RSS feeds of the comments’ from both Sam and my MySpace pages on the SamStones. Org website.. when I stumbled across ‘Browse like a pirate’ .. and extension for the Mozilla Firefox browser. It allows you to suref the internet and see every website you visit in pirate speak.. For instance. This blog looks like this in pirate mode”.. Arggggg

Well.. it’s been a busy night .. and I’ve only had a few hours of sleep.. time for sleep . Sam.. thanks for keeping me company in the car today..

-jc

ps. Want to see something bizarre ? Diane found this link from one of her yoga friends..Imagine this guy at a party !

 

Today was an very laid back day.  I woke just before 10 after staying up too late last night blogging.  I got Max up to continue his prep for going back to Pratt tomorrow.. then I spent a few hours on some of the Sam projects I’d fallen behind on. We really need to finalize the plans’ for the Sam Cohn guitar giveaway at MMU which will happen around Sam’s birthday (May 28^th) and the Sam Cohn Scholarship at Abenaki which we’d like to be available this summer. I personally am very excited about the Guitar giveaway. We’re planning on giving away the electric, acoustic or classical guitar of the winner’s choice to one kid a year at Mount Mansfield High School. The winner each year will be chosen at random (so Sam can pick) from a selection of students who are nominated by their teachers or peers as having a ‘musical soul’ like Sam has. At Abenaki we’re working to establish a cool camper award in Sam’s name. There will be one winner chosen by the staff for each of the three two week camp periods. I find working on these memorial ideas t be very rewarding. It’s a good feeling trying to do some good around Sam’s memory,

   After a few hours of working on that stuff, Diane came back from her errands and Gabe woke up. Gabe was feeling a bit under the weather so we all hung close to home today. Not much at all happened here from 12 to 4. . It was wonderfully slow and sleepy…
  At about 4. Diane and I wandered over to the Paulsen’s for a pre-concert dinner for Skanky Green .. our ‘house’ band. . 

They were opening for Bad Fish , the Sublime cover band which was playing Higher Ground tonight at 8..but had to leave home at around 5 to get set up. It was so cute watching them get ready for their gig.. they were very excited and visibly nervous.  I was so  very proud of them.

We got to Higher Ground around 7:30  and the room was already filling up with Skanky green fans. Abbot was in a both outside selling T-shirts and copies of their new first CD. It was really professional. I got my first view of the CD> it’s got a great list of songs, including ‘The Ballad of Captain Sam’ which the band wrote for Sam. The CD itself has artwork of a dancing (skanking) man that Sam drew for the band last year.. and the whole disk is dedicated to Sam. T all made me feel very good.  The band came on promptly at 8 and started playing. They sounded so good. I was so proud watching them play.. to think , this band  started and practice in our barn… This was as close to being famous as I was likely to get.

   Skanky Green plaid about a 30 minute set… they sounded absolutely great. They were tighter than I’ve ever heard them play and they really bonded with the crowd.

The high point of the show for me was when they plaid “The Ballad of Captain Sam’, the song they wrote for Sam.. I always cry pretty hard when I hear them play that song.. I still managed to get most of it recorded.   Sorry about the shakes.. I was crying pretty hard.. I can’t begin to tell you the emotions I have around that song.. I am so grateful that these guys took the time to write such a great song for Sam.. it really captures his spirit.. I was so proud to  hear them playing it on the big stage.. at the same time.. Sam never heard it.. at least not while he was alive..  The Skanky Green set set ended way too early for me 

 

I never thought I’d be able to cram this range of emotions into the same moment.   Diane and Gabe took off after the Skanky Green set, while Gabe and I hung out to hear the other bands. .. We all milled around waiting for back up bands number 2 and 3.. It turned out that both were excellent sets.   I was glad I stayed.  He main act, Badfish.. a Sublime cover band’ finally came on around 10ish.. they were excellent too.. Gabe had had enough by that time. So we headed for home..   The band has planed a post-concert victory party at our house. It’s a few minute after 12 and I’m hearing the house fill up with people. It’s going to be a long, fun night.. I better go play host.   Sam.. I hope you enjoyed the music and the party… please hang out with us tonight. . I love you

-jc

Hear are the lyrics to the Ballad of Captain Sam  by Skany Green ( I also posted thes back in Feb.) Enjoy !

I tried to take a day off today and managed to not work most of the day. I did get pulled into a few calls and some email.. but for the most part, it was a downtime day. , I’m trying to use the vacation I’ve got to simulate a 4 to 4.5 day work week for the next couple of months.. just to make sure I have enough down time. I managed to sleep until near 10 AM. (!) this morning. I stumbled out of  bed then took Diane for a run I the fine spring rain. Outside was beautiful.. even though it was windy and rainy. You could see the ‘sproing’ of spring just a few weeks away. There were buds on all the trees and the ferns were starting to push up on the Rivershore path.  Our Daffodils are in full bloom.

 

Another notable thing about this morning’s run is that today was my  first day running this year that I’ve not seen enough snow to write Sam’s name.. I chose instead to write his name in the dirt.  I’ve developed a techniques of using only strokes that come toward me.. I’ve found that the snow.. (or mud) tends to distort if you mix up and down strokes. As I wrote Sam’s name in the dirt, , I was thinking about how many times I.. or one of our friends have written Sam’s name just in tribute.. I can’t count home many times I’ve written his name in the snow.  I’ve also used rocks, candles, mustard, steel, paint, powdered iron oxide, water, syrup, chocolate chips, M&M’s, sticks, sawdust, metal filings, light., spray paint, glue, sand, batter. I even came out one day a few weeks ago to find someone had written Sam’s name in the snow with …. Some sort of yellow ink ?!   I just read that Kevin wrote his name on a bagel.. I’d be interested to hear what other folks have used  to write Sam’s name.

 
    When I got back to the yard, I happened upon this.. the tool max used to open the upstairs window last night..

I guess it didn’t actually go through the window.. it broke it and bounced back.
Diane reminded me that the week before the wind had blown in two of the windows in the tower and broken them…. those are  curved glass  pains I have to cut to repair them.. I hate cutting curves in glass.. grrrr

   The rest of the day passed pretty peacefully. We just hung out.

I spent an hour or so watching Gabe play videogames… I figure if I’m on TV saying that videogame technology is wicked cool, it would count as a work day to watch Gabe play G-d of War.   I managed to get about 45 minutes to sleep as Gabe battled some hydras, a three headed beast and lots of creepy zombie things that looked a lot  like the engineers we use to build the chip inside the game.

 I was surprised how many visitors we got during the day. I guess it was because it was school break.   Both Sam’s old band, Black Night Vengeance and Skanky Green came to practice in he barn today.. It was great hanging out with both of them.. 

Skanky Green was squeezing in one last practice before there big debut concert at Higher Ground tomorrow night. They’re opening for Badfish at 8ish tomorrow night.. Come check it out if you can..  

 

Corrine and her mom Deb also came by to get some SamStones. They’re going to Bermuda next week and wanted to take some.

While she was here, Corrine told us to very cool dreams she’d had about Sam. In one Sam was out in the backyard helping two other kids build a slingshot to shoot people through the air..   that sounds so Sam.. In the other one.. he told Corrine that he was going out to e a Ninja.. Again.. Sam was always into the Ninja thing.. he pioneered the Ninja move on his Snowboard.. The ninja is when you  kick out your back foot and shake it in the air like a kook. as you do one of the rails..

 

Speaking of Ninja’s  last night as I was writing my blog around 1AM I heard a noise.. I was Max and Gabe coming back into the house. Max had organized some sort of goofy  Ninja stealth mission last night and had pulled Gabe out of bed to go with them.. Here a picture they took before heading outside.. the three ninjas..

 

Gabe and I spent the last half of the afternoon doing some high speed strobe photos with my little camera and the sound actuated strobe I have.. We did all sorts of shots.. eggs dropping, BB’s shooting, water splashing and balloons. Here are a few of the shots that came out well.. We’re open for any suggestions of things we can photograph in this way.. It’s really so much fun.   Tomorrow I hope to hook up a Kirlian photography set up and try to take a picture of people’s ‘auras’.. (or at least the ionized gases that come out of their skin. )

Here’s a baloon being slapped down on a pan 

This one is an egg breaking after being dropped

This one is an egg breaking after being hit by a hammer

Here’s a container full of MAPP gas goign up in flames

And here’s a baloon with a ittle enthanol being lit by a blow torch

Speaking of photos.. here’s a picture of Sam that Mason had on his cell phone. Last week He and some friends wen to see the Wailers, Bob Marley’s old band, at Higher Ground. He didn’t have a SamStone with him, so he put his cell phone with tis picture of Sam on it and stuck it up on stage.. Sam.. you be jammin’

 

Gnite all.. see you at Skanky Green tomorrow night !

 -jc

 

 

 

 

I woke this morning just in time to jump into a string of phone meetings. It was one of those days that I got stuck at home because there wasn’t enough time between meetings to drive into work. By the time I had a break I could use to drive in, Diane was coming in from her Yoga class. Jen and Avery had been in the class and came in for tea. Diane wanted to talk to me about my blog last night.  She often has cool insights about things I say in the blog that help me work things out better. This morning she gave me her thoughts on the whole ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ theme from my post last night. In her view.. everything happens for a reason.. she suggested  that the reason that I had missed  the Ben Zander and Eli Wissel talks wasn’t a case of not being in the right place at the right time.. it was that I didn’t’ need to be in those places, She suggested that in some smaller way I had already learned the lessons those guys were there to teach and was already living them in some small sort of way,  I like that thought. It sort of removes regret at having missed something.. and I don’t have much energy for regret right now. I also like the idea that I’m getting wiser through the lessons around Sam’s death. .Maybe it’s self serving to think so.. but then  I request permission to be self serving    

    After this conversation with Diane I had to zoom out to get to work . As I did I saw something pretty amazing. Gabe had grown three inches in his sleep last night.. Check this out.. he’s absolutely towering over Diane.. I took this picture.. then he said to me in his best Darth Vader voice ‘you’re next !’ ..

 

   The rest of the day was good and productive. I met my good friend Jim for lunch. Jim was up from Poughkeepsie for a meeting. He’s been really attentive to us since Sam died.. he even bought me lunch. today. what a guy.   I had a string of phone meetings in the afternoon. It was nice out, so I took one of them out in the field next to our building.. I went out and sat on my  favorite ‘meeting rock’ I sometimes  use for phone calls..   I always feel better when I spend more time outside.. I feel Sam so much stronger out there.

     I got home around 6 to find Max working hard on his Pratt course work.. I spent some time talking to him.. then I sat down to write.. few minutes later  I was talking to my mother on the phone when I heard a huge crash… I ran upstairs to find RJ. Abbot and Silas in front of the (wicked cool) video game console  staring at a pile of glass and a tennis ball. on the floor…   One of the top panes of the second story window was smashed to bits. Two seconds later Max charges into the house and I quickly learned that  . Max , who was outside, was attempting to get the attention of the three guys upstairs so that he could moon them. Evidently they didn’t respond to the first few gentle thumps on the wall.. so  Max tried the window.  Ugh..

That 2^nd story window  is about 25 feet in the air.. and it’s in an ancient wooden casing that probably hasn’t moved since Truman was president.  I really, really  tried to get angry. I started yelling and eventually screamed as loud as I could.. but I just couldn’t get properly angry.. I ended up  laughing.. Max cleaned up the glass and covered the hole while I went and apologized to our guests who were still cowering in the corner..

It was pretty funny.. At least this window will be easier to replace than the one in   that Sam broke last spring  with a lacrosse ball  . That one was over the front door and required a 30 foot ladder to rach,,   Ahh life.. it’s never dull is it Sam ?

-jc

Ps. Ivy sent me a note yesterday about a SamStone that she left on  top of the Empire State Building. Thanks Ives..   Everyone.. please  remember to let me know where you place those SamStones.. We like to keep track..