To be honest, the worst thing about high school was simply that I was a computer nerd/band geek. I didn’t want to be the short, scrawny, zit-faced, naïve little kid that I was. I didn’t want to be one of the popular kids either. I wanted to be Matt L.
Matt was a bad ass rebel who didn’t give a fuck yet demanded everyone’s respect. Brenda, Heather D. and Adrianne, three of the five or so girls I had secret crushes on, hung on his every word. He had the foresight to understand what a waste of time high school was and wasn’t afraid to state it. This seemed especially brazen because his dad was a teacher at our school.
Matt called me Puke Boy (because I puked on Brenda in geometry class in eighth grade- good times!), but besides that he was usually pretty decent with me. Once he mocked me for wearing a vinyl jacket to school. Once he said of the Harley Davidson shirt I was wearing, “That shirt is too cool for you.” He made good points.
Dave and Clay were my best friends in high school. Dave was a computer nerd and Clay was a band geek. They were both awesome guys, but their nerdiness reflected my own, and I found that unsettling. I was proud back then, too.
I doubt Matt even graduated from high school. I hope for his sake that he made it out of Alleman, Iowa.
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Another off-topic post on my part. Just learned that Louis Bellson passed away in Los Angeles over the weekend. I heard him several times in the area, beginning in Fall 1976 at De Anza College. I last spoke with him ten years ago at a music store. I've never been much of a big band fan, but appreciated what Louis did -- the incredible rhythmic attack at the snare, the use of roto-toms, and double bass drums. Clearly, it became prohibitively expensive to run a large ensemble and fly it around the world. Yet back in '76, that's what Louie did. His group included Blue Mitchell, who worked with Horace Silver and others. They blew the roof off the place! There was a masterful performance of "Carnaby Street" at Stanford in the late 70s, with Pearl Bailey and the conductor Arthur Fiedler. Precious memories.
i hadn't heard the news. everyone will tell you what a nice and generous guy louis was. my college roommate took lessons from him but i never got to meet him.
If memory serves me correctly, Louis said that he had Tony Williams as a student as well.
I recall a performance Louie did with the Stanford jazz ensemble maybe 7 or 8 years back. Although he looked frail, his mind was clear. He was very focused, square-on with the ride cymbal, driving the music forward. The local trumpeter John Worley was also on board, and played a very difficult concerto that was written for Dizzy Gillespie.
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