Dating Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen performing at New Haven Coliseum, color-corrected image

Rock guitar god and musical innovator Eddie Van Halen (1955–2020) died recently from throat cancer which had spread to his brain, and other organs. For nearly 20 years, from the late 1970’s through the mid-1990’s, through the ascendancy to peak of the band’s popularity, he had made his mark upon the world by and through his musicianship, and a well-known penchant for “tinkering” with his equipment, much like another renown late rock god and inventor – Les Paul – whom is considered the father of multi-track recording, and of the electric guitar.

As well, the Van Halen band’s customary practices brought about significant changes to the live-performance industry in performance contracts, with the addition of “riders” to their contracts – criteria stipulating certain conditions and specifications which must be met. The band was renown for their stipulation of seemingly picayune, senseless and inane requests, such as a bowlful of M&M’s candies which had to be placed in each of their dressing rooms. While deeper within the contract a separate stipulation would require the removal of all the brown-colored M&M’s.

Bizarre as it may seem, however, David Lee Roth, former lead singer and frontman who for 10 years helped catapult the band to success with now-iconic hits and his characteristic ultra high-energy performances, then rejoining for its last 10, said there was rhyme and reason to the seeming madness. It was a test to see if the contract had been thoroughly read and honored, which was critically important because of legitimate safety concerns the band had for their own, and others’ safety and well-being, as well as for preventing costly damage to equipment.

Early in the band’s history, several members of their road crew had very nearly been fatally electrocuted because of

Who are You?

The Eastern Shore of Lake Tahoe, also known as Galilee Image via Wikipedia

 

Some years ago, a good friend of mine had encouraged me to begin a blog.

“Why do I want or need a blog?,” I asked him.

“You write very well, and a blog would seem to be a natural outlet for your thoughts,” he said.

Never being one whom chronicled or maintained a “dear diary” in my youth, I was quite amazed to hear his words. I had, however, been periodically sharing thoughts with my kindred and friends via e-mail. Alan was kind enough to host my writing for quite some time, gently guiding me through the technical process.

As things go – at least according to the Law of Entropy – things tend toward deterioration, decay and chaos. In other words, they move from order to disorder. And in time, because of the age of his servers, the bulk of traffic and the increasing complexity of software, he began migrating his servers to another resource, at which point he also began encouraging me to move my blog, which I have, and which you are now reading.

I had purposed to republish my original writings – and inspired by a recent status update posting I’d made to FaceBook – piqued my desire to republish this one post immediately.

Some background: I was in Lake Tahoe, NV at the time of the writing, staying with an extended family member, having traveled West in response to a spiritual urging I sensed. The events surrounding the same are another story in themselves, which I shall reserve.

Without further ado, I give you…

Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-Roll

Periodically, friends and family come to me seeking understanding about various medical and health related issues, which often includes information about procedures and medications.

And on occasion, I continue to be asked to identify certain medications.

Particularly problematic are the numerous herbs and Over The Counter (OTC) non-prescription remedies that neither treat nor cure, yet proliferate and line the pockets of those unscrupulous enough to market and sell them to the unsuspectingly ignorant.

On one such occasion, I was asked by a friend to identify several foreign concoctions of apparent Asian origin, which I succeed in identifying, though I suspect I merely added levity to our communication. Fortunately, the request wasn’t anything of any seriously substantial nature.

It’s becoming more difficult to identify many items, though I count myself fortunate to have access to the numerous resources I do.

Here’s the text of my response. Perhaps you’ll find it enlightening.