NEVER GIVE UP THE LIVING FOR THE DEAD

This was a favorite saying of my father's. He hated funerals and would take any opportunity to avoid them. I swear he'd choose having a cyst lanced, before going to the DMV, just to get out of attending a memorial. But as we all know some of these soirees can't be missed. Mom passed peacefully Saturday morning, Sue B.O., Ginger and Mrs. B. at her side. She'd had cancer for over 10 years. Before that she'd barely been sick a day in her life. Like her mother, she was strong and fearless when it came to life. She rarely bitched about anything and if she didn't like someone you knew damn well you didn't want to give that person the time of day. She faced cancer with typical pragmatism. She'd fight it as long as she could. When the old man died, a little fight went out of her. In the end the fight ate her up.

  As much as I'd like to lay in bed with the covers pulled over my head for the next month, I know mom would not approve. On Wed. I'm showing in a NYC gallery for the first time in 25 years. Up until now I've been so distracted with concern over my mother's well being, I haven't been able to hardly deal with it, let alone look forward to it. But now the world looks so different to me. The anger and rage is subsiding. I know I'll never be as chill as my mother (got too much of the old man in me), but with her now gone I feel a certain amount of responsibility to honor her memory. Getting back into the game could be a good thing. Then there's church.....
    You think having a rock band is difficult? Try having a church with a rock band. It takes a congregation to pull off each one of these services. And at the center of the congregation is THE BAND OF ALL FAITHS. This talented group of individuals are wrangled by musical director Yussel "Jewish Lightning" Druckman. This is how it goes- Soon after each service I dream up a string of themes for the next service. I add and subtract them, finally settling on a central theme, that I usually disregard as soon as the music starts. I start calling for rehearsals immediately. Then each rehearsal is postponed or canceled at the last minute, until my head feels like it will explode. Finally, about a week before church we have a flurry of practices and always pull it off. Have faith I tell myself. Christ it ain't easy.

This time is no different. Church is less than two weeks away and we got nothing. BAF members are MIA and it's time to call bullshit. Yes, I want to be more mellow. Yes, I want to honor mom with patience and understanding. Yes........FUCK THAT! I'm an angry man with time on my hands. My mother just died, you fucks! If you idiots can't step up and get your shit together to make this the best church ever, then I can easily padlock the doors and call it a day. As you can tell my elbows are in the air. We should lead by example. Don't you realize that the congregation looks to us for inspiration? I'm heading out to find THE BARBARA J. OSTERHOUT MEMORIAL BIRD BATH BAPTISMAL. I'll be back on Tues. at 7pm. If you are here you are still in the band. If you aren't, I wish you the best. OM.