I’m Back … Sort Of … (2024)

After taking a few years to reflect and go through an accident which resulted in me having to practically relearn how to play, I am back, sort of. When I put this site on hold, I didn’t know how long for. All I knew, is that I needed time to find my way back to […]

I played a gig, I loved it

I had to live 42 years before I played a gig and was not feeling physically ill before, during, or after the gig. I loved performing for the very first time in my life. All my life, I have hated performing. I always felt very uncomfortable getting in front of an audience. In my XYgoatZ […]

Life Is Too Short and Fragile

Over the past year, I have had the honor of working at a hospital. The hospital I work for mainly serves the elderly, but we do get our fair share of middle aged folk. After leaving my teaching/retail job in August 2019, I began studying hospital administration just as something interesting to do and to […]

I Was Wrong

It has been over a year since I last taught. Life happened and I never intended to “disappear”, but I did. What has this break taught me? It taught me that I was wrong. Let me explain. When I quit teaching in 2015, it was not the first time I had quit. I had quit […]

I am an ex-guitar teacher

Every time I say it out loud, I feel more free. “I am an ex-guitar teacher.” I feel as though I finally own it! I had been saying that since summer this year, but it has taken my six months to finally own it. After a teaching career that spanned nearly 20-years, it was time […]

Relearning the value of saying no

Say no unless it is a “hell yeah” I had the good fortune of meeting fellow Berklee alumnus Derek Sivers in Hong Kong about a decade ago. For those who don’t know who Derek is, he founded CDBaby.com. I read his blog post (linked below) on this topic back then and bumped into this idea again […]

End of an Era (TWR)

On Tuesday, September 3, 2019, I returned theweeklyriff.com, .net, and .org, back in to ether known as the world wide web. Yes, after 11 years, the journey is finally over. Am I sad? No. I had made my peace with the closure of the business back in 2017. When I initialized closure procedures in 2015, […]

Good bye Kitarakellari

“All good things must come to an end” After two years with Kitarakellari, it is time to bid farewell. I left a week ago. Initially, I wasn’t going to write about my departure, but then I decided that I probably should write something in my blog since a pretty big part of my life over […]

Ctrl+Alt+Del

Ctrl+Alt+Del=Time for Change It has taken a year for me to prepare myself for this, but it is time to reset things. Between being human and putting things off out of reluctance, and prioritizing the needs of those around me after I learned to walk again, it is time to shift things. I have been […]

I’m in a Band (November 2018)

A NEW BAND I have joined a band as a bassist. It is not a professional project, just for fun with a couple of guys. We have yet to name the project. It is a blues/rock based covers project, though we will probably be doing some of my own music from the “Outside Looking In” […]