About Me - A Faded Photograph

I've been a guitar freak/player for as long as I can remember. My dad and uncle were great guitar players, both having been born in Guatemala, and I remember the many occasions when they'd play and sing She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain together at family gatherings to the delight of all us kids gathered around.

My own very brief career as a rock guitarist started and ended in the 1960's and was characterized by a couple of years playing in a band aptly dubbed The Undecided. We were able to gather a minor crowd of followers from the "teeny bopper" set playing Last Train to Clarksville and I think a couple of Yardbirds tunes I was able to put on my best Jeff Beck impersonation to get through that simple, but nice lead in Heart Full of Stone.

This faded Polaroid photo is the only picture I've got of our band -- Tony on drums, Rene on rhythm guitar, Paul up front and -- yep, that's me with the short hair (c. 1966) playing lead guitar on my 1964 Fender Telecaster.

As all bands must, The Undecided morphed into a Stax Records type Rhythm & Blues band called Blues in Motion and a new lineup with my older brother Dennis as lead singer, not because he was a great singer, but because he sure had the moves, simulating every James Brown dip, bend and gyration to near perfection.

This band managed to stay around for a year or so, with our peak experience that of winning the Tecumseh high school "Battle of the Bands" night that got our picture in the local paper and what is now a quite rusted out trophy that still sits proudly on my book case as a reminder of those "glory" days.

It's difficult to explain how truly exhilarating an experience it was to stand on stage playing my  "Telly" with a group of people you'd spent countless hours, days and weeks practicing with to get your sound just right so you could all go out and earn 10 bucks each for a "hard" night's work entertaining whatever crowd was on hand.

I learned to play guitar from a guy named Fred Stubbs, a real character who came to our small town from Toronto every few years to teach at a local Music Conservatory and he had a major influence on our taste in music as well as my guitar playing.

Thanks to Fred, I was able to play lead guitar for his band on a train trip to Expo '67 in Montreal when he couldn't make the trip. It was an experience of a lifetime for me, a wide-eyed 18 year-old, who somehow managed to get through playing with musicians who were far superior to me without once getting kicked off the train. Fred, if you're out there somewhere, thanks a million.

I have also always been into movies and books because I love a good story. Mysteries, thrillers, science fiction, film noir, a good drama or comedy ... my admiration for story tellers has no bounds.

As a young teenager, I worked as an usher at our local movie theatre and got to see a movie over and over again. At some point, once I'd seen a movie several times while helping people to their seats, I stopped watching it as an entertainment, and instead started picturing the crew behind the scenes and tried to imagine why the director made that particular shot, how they decided on the lighting for the scene, and so on.

Finally, there's the good, the bad and the ugly of Television, which, in many ways, has deteriorated into the idiot box our intellectuals have always claimed it to be. However, with all the bad and ugly, there is still some great shows worth talking about, plus all the classic shows we've all come to love
throughout the years.

So this blog is my random thoughts, reviews and opinions mainly on the world of entertainment. I'd love to hear your thoughts as well, so feel free to comment whether you agree with me or not.

Cheers
Glenn - July, 2013