In 19ss (sixty-something), I played 5 or 6 nights a week in a bar in downtown Minneapolis, the Vincent van Go-Go. We called it "The Vincent". I can't recall if the bad had yet changed names to The Soul Heirs, or were we still Froggy and His Friends? I know that Doug "Froggy" Nelson quit early on and Warren L. replaced him on drums. Warren is still around in Mpls, selling clothes, something he was always interested in more than anyone in the band. He picked out the "uniforms" we wore and called the combinations for each night. "Clown and pumpkin tomorrow night, guys!". That referred to a checkered top and pumpkin-colored pants.

On bass guitar was Charlie L. The latest news I have on him was his arrest for pilfering 'script drugs in houses listed on the real eastate market. When bass player Michael Brown joined us, Charlie played rhythm guitar. He was the main vocalist and sang Ray Charles' version of You Are My Sunshine. The less said about that, the better, I think. When Charlie took the occasional guitar solo, my longtime friend Zippy Caplan qualified the sound as "nursery rhyme leads". Michael was a cool guy, very laid back black dude who played the shit out of a Fender 5-string bass. We used to go out for food after the gig mosts nights, usually to Embers.

The waitresses were memorable at the Vincent. Phyllis and Jackie are the two who come to mind. I tried, but never got next to either one, but they were both very nice to me. I don't like the expression "hit" with relation to women, by the way, and have always thought Jimi's "Let me stand into your fire" the ultimate perfect image of the act. Nevertheless, I did neither with either.

I recall only a few of the tunes we played. I remember practicing the harmonics for hours in the solo of Nowhere Man by the Beatles. I think we probably also played Sea of Love, as I can recall Charlie singing that. We must have played more Beatles tunes. Also She's An Artist, Don't Look Back, or whatever that Dylan tune was called. I remember Dave "Snaker" Ray (RIP) or Spider John Koerner (holy moley, Spider is like a decade older than me). One of these guys came in to the bar one night and told me I "needed some guitar lessons". I took that advice decades later when I took a lesson from the truly great Ted Greene, who wrote a book every guitar player should study, regardless of what kind of music you play: Chord Chemistry.

I look back at these days of (relative) innocense with pleasure. I was lucky I guess not to fall victim to forces that ruined many peoples' lives indefinitely, including drug and alcohol abuse but also getting drafted into a particularly ugly and motiveless war. And this bar gig came just at the very beginnings of what was later know as the sexual revolution.

We've been watching Millenium on DVD. I think this show has some of the best casting ever on TV. So many weirdos of so many kinds and the actors make them totally believable. Glad things didn't go the way they appeared to be going in this fiction. Maybe next Millenium? The hero, Frank Black, was a profiler. When he talks to the FBI about serial killers and wackos, the profile is usually a loner, ostracized in high school, often from the midwest. That describes most of the creative people I know.

 Makes me remember the people I went to high school with in the mid 60's. Our high school was number 390 on a list of the top 1200 schools in America at some point. Although we probably had a majority of boring accountants, doctors, white collars and soldiers, some of whom never returned from 'Nam, there were many unusual people before, after and during my own stint there.

 Take my closest friend, Owen, who discovered and signed an artist who formerly was "the artist formerly known as Prince". Owen's done a lot on the music business and I see him from time to time out in California. David Z and Owen and I shared the very first Beatles album and we got high together and listened to "Are You Experienced", an album that I believe still has no equal today. What better summing up of a generation than this: "I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to."

 There were a lot of others like Al Franken, political satirist turned politician (attended through 10th grade) and Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist who wrote for the school paper, The Echo. Recently, he wrote The World is Flat, and a book I am reading on and off in Audible form, Hot, Flat and Crowded. Joel and Ethan Coen went there, too and Fargo reflects heavily on their childhood memories of people and language. I just noticed the sadistic math teacher we all despised was elected mayor of the town. Funny to think that in those days, a teacher could drag you around by your ear, spank you with a wooden paddle. All in the school rated 390 on a list of 1200.

 Owen recently sent me a clipping from a Minneapolis newpaper about Charlie, a bass player I used played with in a few bar bands. Charlie, when he grew up, worked in real estate. Recently he was arrested at age 63 or so for stealing drugs out of homeowners medicine cabinets.

 All in all, a fine bunch!