Posted
May 15th 2005Posted
May 15th 2005
Damn the torpedoes...full speed ahead!.....Don’t fire til you see the whites of their eyes!.......I’ll eat anything with cheese on it!.....okay...at least two of these three things were said by desperate people during desperate times who then went on to commit acts of great bravery...the third thing...well-we’ll get back to all of this in a minute. Hey Fools fans-howzit goin? Long time no yack.. I know you won’t believe it but I miss you. And only part of it has to due with my desperate need for attention. The other part has to do with you. Generally (with the exception of Rick-that loud crazy guy who sometimes introduces us) you are good people. We are blessed by your attention, and dammit we’d be even more blessed if we saw you more. There are two obvious ways to accomplish this. No.1-we could come over to your house-maybe make a sandwich and just hang....or no.2-we could play more. While no.1 has it’s benefits-there’s no doubt that no.2 is the way to go. Yes-we must play more and this is what we here at Fools central are working towards. But please remember your part in this enterprise-if you have any need at all for a band, be it afternoon pizza party or blessing of the fleet, be it house warming or brush pile burning...and let’s not forget that whole getting-out-of-jail-party thing. What I’m trying to say is that we’re here for you. And by todays standards we’re not that expensive. Anyhow, enough with that. Before I continue I want to make a very high handed and official welcome to bass player Lou Spagnola.. Anyone who knows anything about anything (in a musical sense) knows Lou. You may know him from Fortune, but he’s played on stuff with Brad Whitford (if you don’t know what band he’s in you’re on the wrong bus) Gary Cherone, and the great Brad Delp. And now a personal word to Lou-hang in there man-the ‘hazing period’ will soon be over. I know it’s tough to find dead fish in your Fafner bass amp and unplugged chords at every turn -but believe me-this is what we do to people we like. And also how about a great round warm of applause for Beth-the new Fools website babe. You’ll see her lovely pix adorning our pages in the weeks to come. Thanks Beth! It’s our current thought that we will (how shall I say this) rotate different women through our pages over the course of the next year. Many attractive women are rumored to be vying for the honor of appearing here, and you Meg fans (and let’s be honest who isn’t)-don’t worry, we may talk her into a re-shoot. As the first Fools babe she set the bar very high. Thanks Meg. Now that I’ve taken care of all family business-it’s time to get to this weeks topic—courage. When I was a kid (yes Fools fans I too was once a child) courage to me was anyone who could do something I was afraid of doing. If they could stand up and talk in class (believe it or not-I was very shy), if they liked to eat something I found disgusting or, most terrifying of all to me, if they could talk to a girl- then they were brave and certainly had courage. As time went on I learned that while I didn’t need to get up in front of a class (let’s face it-it’s not to hard to wing your way through school with no people skills whatsoever) or eat something disgusting (even on a double dare), I did very much need to talk with girls. And over time I learned how. And, once again, it had much more to do with desperation than courage. And where does a man end up who is afraid of crowds but loves music and women-I can hear you all scream the answer— A ROCK BAND! Now to my credit, I must say that it was not a smooth transition-but I was desperate. In my early years (and Rich and Stacey will attest to this) we used to have to pull over on the way to the show so I could throw up. It became a tradition. Once I threw up on the shoes of a state trooper who stopped to see what I was doing. And the first time we played in front of a big crowd I remember thinking ‘is it normal to have this much crap in your pants on stage.’ But after a while I grew used to it and the fear was replaced by a wonderful and cool energy. So what is courage-going on "Fear Factor’ and eating fish guts with cottage cheese? If I was 9 I would think so. Is it talking to women? If I was 14 I would think so. Is it getting on stage in front of 10,000 people? If I was 20 I would think so. I guess none of these things really qualify in the long run. My dad got shot at in ww11 but he didn’t think he was being brave-he was just doing what he had to do in spite of all obstacles (some of those obstacles being French wine and French women). Ah hah! Maybe that’s it-doin’ what yo gotta do wether you want to or not ‘cause you know you gotta do it....ah well enough of my bullshit for one week...but here’s hoping when you gotta do what you know you gotta do----you have the courage to do it....see you at the shows...adios amigos...Mike
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