It took place in a matter of hours. Six to be exact. But each second of this event was a joy to be part of. So much planning. So much work and so much love went into the event, and it went off without a hitch. Okay maybe one visit from the Asbury Park Police … but that was to be expected towards the end of the night. But even that didn’t put a damper on the fun that was had, and the joy that was shared. Friends and family playing music, singing songs, or at least trying to … for each other … at the Hoover Hootenanny.

The idea of this event was actually rather smart. It wasn’t some attempt at a night of bad Karaoke … no pre-made soundtrack to warble over. It was a opportunity for a collision of history, past and present. A chance for all to meet in one place at one time. It was a night of reunions, rusty chops, jitters, and dreams, with both newly minted and seasoned musicians. Where past intersected with present forged future friendships and the seeds of new ideas were planted … waiting to flourish. Continue Reading > > >

Should I stay … or should I go.

It was the question I asked before the fateful trip. The Asbury excursion. The one to reunite the three.

In my heart I was waiting for this moment. I couldn’t be in attendance last year. But this year I WANTED to be there. I hadn’t seen any of them since the mid-nineteen-eighties. For argument’s sake and our love of round numbers I’ll call it twenty-five. Had it been that long? Maybe. Maybe more. Even our collective (failing) brains could not arrive at an accurate accounting. At this age … what’s a few years give or take.

After trading eMails with Geoff … and his kind offer of plane fare … I was able to come up with the money to buy my own round-trip ticket on Continental. If I went for two weeks the fare was reduced to $400.00. Time I had. Money. Not so much. Friends like these? Not enough!

It was set. Asbury Park, August 11th and leave for my family in south Jersey on the morning of the 16th. But on August 14th … The Hoover Hootenanny!

Geoff’s lovely wife Tatiana picked me up from Newark Airport the evening of my arrival. Like most New York City transplants Geoff never learned to drive. Good thing Tatiana did! “Yo Hoov! How will I know your wife? Will she have a sign?” “Oh. She’ll have a sign!.” Continue Reading > > >

Here I am. Back where it all started. It’s amazing. It’s amusing. It’s a place I’ve iconized in my minds eye. It was a place of growth and a place of rebirth. For me. For many. Part of something bigger than all of us. Youth. Art. Music. Lust. Passion. A culmination of time, talent, opportunity, and friendships, crystallizing into the stuff dreams are made of. But at what point do we wake up?

It’s now 2010 some 25 years later. Time has taken a toll, on memories and conditions. Asbury is still a town in transition. A town possibly on the verge of rebirth, but still a slow and painful one. As I walked the streets with my friends Geoff Hoover & Dorothy Orant Morrison, ghosts of days past shown themselves and at times were laid to rest. Places that were once dead were now gentrified. For better or worse. Time marches on. And so did we. Continue Reading > > >

Good-bye Lake Union. Good-bye Puget Sound. Good-bye Seattle. Hello New Jersey?

New Jersey. Home of my youth and soon to be … vacation destination. I was off to see my friends Geoff Hoover & Dorothy Orant Morrison, and attend The Hoover Hootenanny. I would be staying with Geoff, his wife Tatiana and his three grown children, Indiana, Duke, and Texas in their home in Asbury Park. I hadn’t seen Geoff since somewhere mid 1980-ish. Our collective aging brain cells could not determine the exact time nor date, but that’s par for the course. Now in our 50′s … that’s do be expected????? OMFG!!!!

I spent August 11th through August 15th with the Hoovers in Asbury Park, NJ. On the 16th my niece Tracy would picked me up and transport me to my Mom’s home in Lanoka Harbor.

There were many more plans in the itinerary, but they were laid to rest by a cold and the upper respiratory distress caused by said cold. Fucking flying tube of germs!

Luckily I was able to make it through my stay with Geoff and family and the Hoover Hootenanny with flying colors … and the rumblings of a soar throat. The preamble to my cold. But an amazing time was had by all! Even me! Joe = Fun …. who would have thunk!

Continue Reading > > >

Music is an odd master. It makes you see things. It makes you feel things. It makes you do things. And if you possess talent … it takes you places. But of course … you have to supply the gas.

Rewind to early 1980′s, the film department of CW Post Center of Long Island University. It’s the place I first met the the “Hoov” … Geoff Hoover to be exact. Fellow film student, music lover and vinyl junkie. Because of our love of music and other mutual interests, we became fast friends.

Fast forward to present. In the time between Post and now, Geoff got married to Tatiana and they had three boys, Indiana Hoover, Texas Hoover, and Duke Hoover. It seems the talent gene runs deeply in the Hoover offspring. One of the musical offspring of “the boys” is The Salvation Band, The 1933. (Indiana Hoover’s website) Continue Reading > > >