I'm tryin' to tell you somethin' 'bout my life

[Gazoo]

A thread for personal ramblings that have little or nothing to do with music.

Such as this: As some of you know, I'm from a very small town.  Glassport, PA is a town of about 4,000 people; 16 bars and 17 churchs.  Former steeltown with no industry to speak of; its "business district" spans about two blocks.

And now, closer to one block: Some stupid who lives in an upstairs apartment was huffing lighter fluid (yes), spilled some, then lit his crack pipe as he was dozing off.  The ensuing fire burned down a couple buildings and hopelessly damaged several others, including some of the places that hold some of my oldest childhood memories, like the donut shop my late grandma sometimes took me to.

I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach when my brother emailed me the news.  Fucking hey.

[Gazoo]

I just finished scrubbing down my ancient refrigerator.  (How ancient?  There's an icebox within the fridge instead of a separate door for frozen goods.)  Now my hands smell like the fridge.  This cannot be a good sign.

Gaz, your friendly neighborhood schmomosexual

[RGMike]

I just finished scrubbing down my ancient refrigerator.  (How ancient?  There's an icebox within the fridge instead of a separate door for frozen goods.)  Now my hands smell like the fridge.  This cannot be a good sign.

Gaz, your friendly neighborhood schmomosexual

I used to have one of those (an ancient refridge, not a shmomosexual). It was older than me and I finally got rid of it in 1984 (when I was 29).   And my uncle who lived next door (and had lived thru the depression) was incredulous that I had replaced "a perfectly good refrigerator".

[Gazoo]

Mark, you're the only other Clubber who knew him as far as I know, but I'm posting to all.

I just got a phone call I did not expect to get.  My best friend, Kenneth Brandon Potter, died last night at the age of 35 from heart failure.

I have never lost anyone this close to me, this important to me, before.

May he rest with the peace that he wished for all of us.

I love you, Brando.

[RGMike]

Mark, you're the only other Clubber who knew him as far as I know, but I'm posting to all.

I just got a phone call I did not expect to get.  My best friend, Kenneth Brandon Potter, died last night at the age of 35 from heart failure.

I have never lost anyone this close to me, this important to me, before.

May he rest with the peace that he wished for all of us.

I love you, Brando.

Words are inadequate, my friend.  :cry:   Hang in there.

[princessofcairo]

thoughts:

i used to have an ancient shmomosexual who had an ancient refridge.

sorry to hear about your loss, gaz. i watched "the shipping news" twice yesterday, and should have more supportive words to say, but can't think of any at the moment. time, time...

does it mean i'm terribly gay if i immediately started singing the title of this new thread?

[ggould]

i watched "the shipping news" twice yesterday

I watched that movie because of my Due South fixation.  Gordon Pinsent, who plays the mountie's dead father, is the crusty old newspaper guy who tries to help the Spacey character. He was the only actor who actually is from Newfoundland, and taught everyone else how to talk Newfie.

[RGMike]

i watched "the shipping news" twice yesterday

I watched that movie because of my Due South fixation.  Gordon Pinsent, who plays the mountie's dead father, is the crusty old newspaper guy who tries to help the Spacey character. He was the only actor who actually is from Newfoundland, and taught everyone else how to talk Newfie.

The only thing that could've made that movie worse is if they had gone with the original casting choice -- John Travolta instead of Spacey (!?!).

[urth]

Mark, you're the only other Clubber who knew him as far as I know, but I'm posting to all.

I just got a phone call I did not expect to get.  My best friend, Kenneth Brandon Potter, died last night at the age of 35 from heart failure.

I have never lost anyone this close to me, this important to me, before.

May he rest with the peace that he wished for all of us.

I love you, Brando.

Joe, I am SO sorry to hear of your friend's passing. I wish there were something I could say or do to help in this situation, but all I can think is to be grateful you had him in your life for as long as you did, and to always carry his memory with you. Which may sound cliche, but that's the best I can offer at this point.
peace to you and to his family,
Jim

[Alicat]

Sorry for your loss. Words never offer enough consolation.

[ggould]

I just got a phone call I did not expect to get.  My best friend, Kenneth Brandon Potter, died last night at the age of 35 from heart failure.

I have never lost anyone this close to me, this important to me, before.

May he rest with the peace that he wished for all of us.

I love you, Brando.

I lost my friend David, who was my best friend, best man, co-worker, roommate, and guitar player, to cancer back in the late 80's.  Things are never the same.  Take it easy Gaz.

Peace

[mshray]

Mark, you're the only other Clubber who knew him as far as I know, but I'm posting to all.

I just got a phone call I did not expect to get.  My best friend, Kenneth Brandon Potter, died last night at the age of 35 from heart failure.

I have never lost anyone this close to me, this important to me, before.

May he rest with the peace that he wished for all of us.

I love you, Brando.

Damn, I just saw this.  Yesterday was my first day back at my desk after 10 days away & I didn't try to catch up on old posts until now.

Damn, damn, damn.

For those of you who remember Gaz' adventure at the EMP Pop Conference in Seattle last spring, Brandon was the other buddy of Gaz who contrived to be there.  We shared a couple of meals & sat in the audience together for Gaz' panel performance.  Furthermore if it weren't for Brandon we all might never have met Gaz, as it was Brandon who not only convinced him to move to SF, but also offered to put him up indefinitely until he got himself situated.

Supremely nice guy, very generous, everybody should have at least one friend like Brandon.  Although I only ever saw him when we were both in Gaz' company, I have often thought he was someone with whom I should have tried to develop a friendship on its own merits.  I now feel like I squandered that opportunity.

Quadruple damn.

[urth]

I've been meaning to finally let you guys in on this for a few days, but have been kinda spacy (so what else is new?).

But if you have cable, and you're not doing anything this Friday evening at about 8:30, you might want to tune in HGTV:

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hdmix/episode/0,2496,HGTV_20036_39484,00.html

(It also repeats a few other times during the week, which are listed at the link above.)

ETA: Btw, I realize this thread is generally about more serious stuff, but I don;t think we have a generic television thread, do we?

[Gazoo]

That looks very cool.  I hope someone can tape it!

Didn't mean, btw, for this to be a negative-themed thread.  Just any personal here's-what's-happening-with-me-now bloggeroni.

And that said, I'm grateful to all of you for your kind words about my dear Brando.  His brother Chris and I have been in regular touch, and I'm slowly coming along in my recovery process.  Since he was one of my closest confidantes with regards to all matters spiritual, his loss affects me that much more.  But I'll try to get back to being myself soon.

Gaz

[RGMike]

I've been meaning to finally let you guys in on this for a few days, but have been kinda spacy (so what else is new?).

But if you have cable, and you're not doing anything this Friday evening at about 8:30, you might want to tune in HGTV:

That's great! I'll try to catch one of the replays.  BTW, that's channel 67 for those with Comcast.