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Fare Thee Well Bobby Weir

I’ll have more to write about Mr. Weir when I return from my upcoming travels, but I will say that his music meant a lot to me in my older years. That is ironic as I used to despise the Grateful Dead (close minded Heavy Metal elitist that I was). But in the last 10 years, his music, be it with GD, Dead and Co., the Wolf Brothers or with whomever has truly become foundational to my music listening life. Again, I’ll write more when I get back but….

God bless Bob Weir and thank you for the great music.

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10 years gone…but not forgotten!

He is Lemmy Kilmister. He played Rock and Roll. He was a man of integrity and honesty. Some would say he was crude. I would say he was admirable and inspirational. He suffered no fools, lived life honestly and without pretense, and (by many accounts) was a kind and generous man…..Oh, and by the way, he was a pioneering and pivotal figure in the history of Rock and Roll. It’s hard to believe it has been 10 years since his death. Long may his memory remain!

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Random Thoughts at the end of 2025

  • In spite of all the anger and fear that bombards us daily, I have hope. Not a naive hope which is more a desire. Rather, a hope that is anchored in the belief that light is always present and always prevails. True, the ugliness is real. Yes, fear and anger create the conditions in which great harm is done and is being done. Yes, there is more anger and fear than I realized a few short years ago. But I remain hopeful that love will prevail
  • That being said…racism, homophobia, sexism, xenophobia and any exclusionary and divisive stance are abhorrent to me. If you disagree, I shall still love you as best I can, but from a distance. In a word: boundaries.
  • And speaking of love, the best definition of love I have heard of is “the non-possessive delight in the well-being of another”. I heard it from Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis which she attributed the definition to Dr. James E. Loder
  • Some music artists that I have really enjoyed listening to this year (some new to my world, some are long time “companions”): Jako Jako, Anoushka Shankar, Sona Jobarteh, Ali Akbar Khan, and Majid Bekkas.
  • The older I get, the broader my spiritual “touchstones” become. I’m less and less likely to identify with a particular religious tradition and remain curious about people, traditions, and practices beyond my cultural “home” (whatever that means). I believe in “The Perennial Truth” and its manifestation throughout time, cultures, and traditions.
  • To paraphrase the late, great Tom Petty, music is the greatest magic I have ever encountered.

I wish you all a blessed 2026. May peace and every good be yours. Cheers,

Alan

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Ace Frehley and The Ongoing Departure of My Childhood Heroes

Ace Frehley was my 1st guitar hero. Kiss was my first musical love. They were my 1st obsession. Kiss Alive was the 1st album I ever bought with my own money. It was the 1st album to hook me and haunt me. They filled my childhood, which was at that point filled with fear and anger, with excitement and joy.

My obsession for Kiss long since diminished but I’d be remiss if I didn’t honor the passing of Ace Frehley who passed away 16-Oct. 2025. His death does sadden me as yet another pivotal figure of my life moves on. He joins Ozzy, Eddie Van Halen, Jeff Beck, Neil Peart, Harold Budd, Vangelis, Lemmy, Prince, Tom Petty, David Bowie, Charlie Watts, Pete Way…and on and on…as people that meant so much to me, whom I never met but who contributed to memories and moments as real and as important and any attributed to my friends and family. Their departure from this life hits me in a very real way, perhaps not as acute as a loved one but no less real. Their departure is a reminder of the passage of time and a closing of a door to further contributions from their artistry to impact my life further. Yes, I still have the contributions from when they were alive and those contributions will live on in a way, but there will not be another Sabbath album or a VH show to go to, or an entertaining story about Ace Frehley. The door is now shut.

Thank you, Ace, for giving a scared, angry kid a joyous outlet that provided so much joy. May your soul be at peace.

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How Have We Come to This?

This is a rhetorical question but also the title of a just-completed piece of music that will be part of a future album release, outlet to be determined. I hope to have enough pieces for an album release in 2026. Stay tuned….

As to the rhetorical question “How Have We Come to This?”, it is something I’m saying to myself more and more as I watch what I’ll call the myths of a stable society teetering and collapsing. I see the nightmare in Gaza playing out in what is by any definition a genocide and people being verbally eviscerated for being critical of the inhumanity on display. I see the predictable dichotomies and binary arguments that are always used to defend atrocity and historical injustices. I see power being exerted beyond what had long thought to have been “normal”, revealing the fragility of agreements that structure society. I see what I had hoped to have been archaic modes of thinking towards race and identify remerge, angrier and uglier than ever. I see all this and ask, “How Have We Come to This?”.

But surprisingly, I also have hope. It is not a flowery or sentimental hope. It is a hope based on something I really can’t properly describe as it is rooted as spiritually experiential. It is a hope born of prayer and meditation and not one that is unshakable. To be clear, I have great moments of fear and anger. I can experience despair with the best of them. But when I am deliberate in my prayer practice, I find hope that no matter how bad things get in the world (and I expect things to get much worse before they get better), there is still goodness. There is still kindness. There is still compassion. There is still love. That sounds flowery and perhaps it is. But I do believe that love prevails always. And I take solace in words of people I admire throughout history, like this guy….