Requiem

Today, it is with a heavy heart that I post this entry. A great friend of mine has died. I have known him for about 4 years, and in that short time, he has enriched the lives of me and those of my family almost more than I can know, and certainly more than I could ever convey through simple words. This man, Ric Estrada, is an absolute paragon of the Celestial being. For those unfamiliar with the doctrines of the LDS church, this means that he is everything I could ever aspire to as I strive to do my best as I prepare to return to meet God. The things he has been through in this amazing life of his (and overcome) are things I will never have to experience, yet he has overcome them and flourished. He is a wonderful artist, storyteller, home teacher, mentor and friend. He has worked with some of the biggest names in the art world: Hanna-Barbera, Dreamworks, Marvel and DC comics and many others. His artwork fills page after page of sketchbook after sketchbook that I have had the privelege of seeing. He did many of the storyboards for 'Prince of Egypt'. Comic books were favorites of his. He had a whimsical nature that was apparent in all of his artwork. He was asked to be our home teacher; to come to visit our family on a regular basis to make sure that we were doing OK. When he fell ill this final time, and was not able to visit personally with us, he checked up on us by letters written in his own hand and liberally sprinkled with beautifully amazing little illustrations. These letters are very precious to us, and reflect the character of the man. When too ill even to leave the house, he was thinking of others. He had a keen mind for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and willingly shared his vast knowledge and love of it with all. His conversion story and testimony were precious beyond description. I am proud to have called him my friend. If he doesn't have his exaltation in the highest realms in heaven, there is no hope for me or anyone else I know. I have come to dearly love this man and I will profoundly miss him.

Hiatus

While a temporary hiatus for Floydshow grinds to its conclusion somewhere around mid-April, I decide to participate in a community theater production. Happens to be one of my favorite productions; I've done it before and had a wonderful time, so I anticipate having a great time again. Biggest problem is that it's in Lehi. Not that Lehi is a terrible place, but it means that I have to drive on I-15-AKA-freeway-of-doom again through the Pleasant Grove/Lindon curve at 6:00 or thereabouts. You know, the section of freeway that comes to a grinding halt every day for some mysterious reason that even UDOT can't figure out. The section of freeway that is personally responsible for my move from Eagle Mountain to Provo in 2003. As it turned out, I only got caught in the maw of hell a few times.
Anyway, the show is Smokey Joe's Cafe. Helen and I did this show a couple of years ago when the Pleasant Grove Players did it. We had a piano player, Helen on tenor sax and me playing bass guitar. We had a great time with it. My name was mentioned by a friend of ours from Eagle Mountain for whom Helen and I had played when they did Nunsense. MD Glen M called me and asked if I'd be interested in participating. I said yes pretty much on the spot, then asked about the dates. Turns out the dates were right when my wife and daughter would be in New York with the Provo High Chamber Choir. Helen was out. I was still in. About this time, a place contacts Floydshow to see if a gig could be arranged for the 3rd of April which was, coincidentally, next to last night for Smokey Joe's. Instant conundrum. Add to this, HCTO announces auditions for As You Like It, which would open on April 10th. Not a big temptation, except they also announce they are looking for musicians as well as actors. *perk* Now they have my attention. Like a dummy, I go and audition and get called back. I go to callbacks with a very peculiar feeling in tow; I don't know if I really want to do this show. It would be a lot of commitment right at the time when these other 2 things are coming up. I don't know if I just did horribly at callbacks, or what, but as it turned out, I wasn't cast. Can I just say, "Thank you, God" for that? Or whoever was responsible. After callbacks, I began to have weird feelings about the show. I didn't WANT to be cast, although I decided that I would go ahead and take the part if it was offered. Whew! I am really curious who they decided to cast and do the music. There were a lot of really great actors at callbacks, but not so much musical talent. To be sure, there were a few outstanding musicians, but seemingly not as many as they said they were looking for. Guess I will have to see when it opens.
Now here it is after the closing performance. The run is finished, and I am a free man for a couple more weeks until the Floydshow Hiatus is over. The gig for the 3rd never materialized, so it was not a conflict. We found neither a sax player nor another bass player, so I played bass for all the numbers except the 3 I played tenor in; the 3 the directors decided they HAD to have the saxophone in. It was all good. I found that I love playing sax in jazz bands, but I really needed to play bass for Smokey Joe's. We had a very good combo of musicians; Blair on drums, Steve on piano, Liz on keyboard and Jim on guitar. All of them were good musicians, and we were able to play well together. Really makes me want to do it again. The cast was awesome as well. It was a pleasure to get to know everybody involved with this production.

Pink Floyd Shows (Part 3, The Return)

Oh my heck! Remember the 55 MPH top speed thing? Well, I think that on the way home, we averaged 50 or less. In an RV that smelled of Febreeze and upchuck. Anyway...
We Left Lafayette sometime before noon, and headed north for I80. It seemed like it was all uphill and with a headwind all the way home. We got gas as we left town, and stopped in Cheyenne for gas, then we stopped in Rawlins (I think) then we stopped in Evanston. Come to think of it, it's a miracle we made any money on the trip the way the RV was guzzling gas. Lots of great sights along the prairies of Wyoming might I say. From the 300 or so windmills whirling away somewhere between Cheyenne and Evanston (I know, lot of territory there) to the tedium of being passed by 18-wheelers, it was quite a yawner for most of the trip until about 30 miles out of Evanston where we encountered a VERY long downhill grade, and we started picking up speed. A lot of speed. Jason was driving at the time, I was riding shotgun. He was white-knuckling it down this long grade as we flew by cars and semis and small animals all at 85 MPH or so with the Git-'er-done trailer flying along behind us. All in all, quite the high point of the trip home, until we got the Parley's Canyon and crawled past the jackknifed tanker truck at 5 MPH. We finally got into SLC somewhere around 11:00 PM, where we decided to all go home and worry about the offload another day.
The gigs were a lot of fun. It's a great group of people we've got involved in this band, with a lot of talent. We're going places now, just as long as we don't have to take the RV of Doom with us.