Identical twin daughters are at a good university. I'm staying physically, and mentally fit, publishing articles under a "Pen Name";

http://www.examiner.com/x-3286-LA-Foreign-Affairs-Examiner

just loving my guitars and amps, audio digital processing gear -playing, composing and choosing the covers that assist in getting what's inside, out, like every other person with a musical instrument, canvas, camera, a blank piece of paper, ...

Well, when I play dead, there's no deeper coma! I still sit-in now and again at Martini Blues in Huntington Beach, CA. The playing's, fun, except no one ever gets enough time up. With every passing year, the studio has gotten more attractive.

Currently, we're in a LONG overdue transitional phase. CD's are now a 27 + year old technology! I am optimistic that the distribution focus will continue to shift to downloads and their devices. Buy a CD new at $18 today, next year, same CD could be part of a "close out sale" at $3.99 as "download stations" proliferate...

Nah. The "Music Industry" as we knew it, died. I would prefer to start my own label and contract myself! The industry became a victim of its own exploitation and excess.

Boyhood in Kentucky, then Trenton, NJ, Bucks County, PA, State College, PA, Pensacola FL., NYC, San Francisco, Dallas, Orange County, CA...

I went from a Military Academy (VFMA Near Phil. PA -another grad, JD Salinger called it 'Pency Prep' in his classic, The Catcher In The Rye) [ http://www.vfmac.edu/index.cfm ] then off to a Big-10 University
[ http://gopsusports.cstv.com/ ] where I earned a B.S., had a lot of fun and along the way, became a Lt. Hvywt. National Boxing Champion (NCBA) after years of REAL (on the mat) wrestling. That earned me a lifetime membership at the NYAC [ http://www.nyac.org/ ].

USMC D.I.'s at N.A.S. Pensacola [ http://www.naspensacola.navy.mil/ ] made a Naval Officer and Aviator of me and good women civilized me. Later, Merrill Lynch attempted to teach me the non-art of "Greed is Good". No, --it is NOT-- "...make money your God and it'll plaugue you like the devil..."
>
-Mark Twain (attributed).

Rory Gallagher (RIP)
Aimee Mann
Deborah Coleman
DBT
Jean Luc Ponty
John Gorka
James Brown's guitarist's: Jimmy Nolan, Catfish Collins
Joe Bonnamassa
Popa Chubby
Philly Funk (of all kinds)
Stax Records / Steve Cropper
Motown's musicians behind the scene
Chicago & Texas Blues
'70's Prog Rock

Hugging my daughters, wherever we happen to rendezvous. My childhood- Lexington, Ky. Horses. Cats...I am truly a cat and horse person (5 now and one left to join the Great Spirit a year ago). Late adolesence; Motorcycle zipping through winding country roads between the low, stone walled farms of Bucks County, PA...Young adult larval stage; lived in NYC. Now that's a town! San Francisco was -pretty...Dallas, bible belt. Today, Orange County, CA. Phenomenally nice weather, year around and amusing class of
credit-card / "car = U", Republicanbots.

Lefty Guitars:

'85 Fender MIJ Strat: w/ Med. Jumbo Frets & Lindy Fralin SP43's pups (set)
'91 Gibson LP Custom: Modded w/ SH-5 Bridge, Air Norton Neck pickups
and treble bleed network.
'86 Gibson ES335 w/ PAF's (Stock!)
'78 Ovation A/E

Gear:

Mogami 12' Platinum Guitar Cables
George L's (patch cords)
Xotic Effects RC Booster
Boss Equalizer GE-7
PreSonus Blue Max Compressor
Alesis Quadraverb (transparent EQ'd floor tone / level control)
Zoom GFX-8 / All personally designed patches: "Tones"

Distortion: Either Fulltone GT-500, Full Drive 2 or Radial Tonebone Classic
EFX Looped to the Zoom GFX-8 multi-effects board
Radial Stereo D.I. Box (D2Pro)
Carvin SM 162 16 channel mixing Board EFX looped to:

Alesis Nanoverb (for reverb / stereo chorus etc.)
Boss BR-1180 digital recording station w/ CD

Amps:

'99 Fender '59 Tweed Bassman R.I. (5F6-A)
(N.O.S. Mullard GZ34 Rectifier & Tubed)

'80 MusicMan HD-210 One*Fifty (Matched quad / Winged C 6L6GC's)

I write for Examiner.com under the pen name Marc Agrigento:

http://www.examiner.com/x-3286-LA-Foreign-Affairs-Examiner

Hew to your own inner goodness! Sadly, a tiny minority of sick and dangerous people have created a U.S. society which disallows the vast majority of good men from talking to almost anyone, but other men.

Many have become paranoid of many. The loss is incalculable in terms of the passage of wisdom to youth and the broader mental health of many, in my opinion. Perhaps from a naive and utopian vantage point, I'm thinking of "tribal elders". Understandably however, caution and the extent to which the innocent are protected and saved from personal tragedy, has become the coin of the realm. Still, all the paranoia and mistrust is sad.

Only women can freely talk to other women or children without the mass of people suspecting the worst or becoming instantly negative. It's among the things young males are never told about by anyone, re; the years they have to come.

To be balanced, women have their own unspoken, sad discoveries about thier interactive social future in different realms, I know. Nonetheless, somehow I think, we're all culturally worse off for the mass over-valuation of youthful traits and the concommitant undervaluation of that which people seasoned by life and time could otherwise have passed on, -freely.

Goodness and decency DO exist, and widely...but when people allow their souls to become hammers, -EVERYTHING looks like a nail.

***SO***

When you can! --> -Google the 1909 poem, "IF" by Rudyard Kipling. :-)