Reason Why Your Bus Could Be Late

 Reasons Why Your Bus Could Be Late

I wrote a song about the ways your bus could be late. I hope to make a video featuring the song this year. Hear are the lyrics, along with some photos:

There are reasons, reasons why your bus could be late
There are reasons, reasons why your bus could be late

ignition, transmission, driver decision, vehicle collision, traffic stopped, traffic cop, detour, wet floor, stuck door, stray pup, bridge up, construction, obstruction, long wait:   your bus is late

There are reasons, reasons why your bus could be late
There are reasons, reasons why your bus could be late

baggage roller, baby stroller, fare inspections, accident in intersection, traffic congestion, driver out of chair, police in riot gear, fire truck, garbage truck, truck stuck, ramp stuck, tow truck, bad luck, long wait:
your bus is late

 There are reasons, reasons why your bus could be late
 There are reasons, reasons why your bus could be late

 crossing kids, icy skids, march for peace, crossing geese, ducks                                                             in road, dogs in road, horse in road, cow in road, plow in road,                                                               snow on ground, passenger down, bikes in lane, freezing rain,                                                                 passing train, crossing gate, twist of fate, long lights, long night,                                                             long wait:       your bus is late

 There are reasons, reasons why your bus could be late
 There are reasons, reasons why your bus could be late

                                               

                                               
                                                                     

                                               
                                               

                                             

                                             
                                               

Music from the Attic: my 3 minute story on ReadWave

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Music from the Attic

I stared playing guitar in the attic at our house in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, at the age of 14. I had played trombone for 2 years, but I instinctively knew that the guitar was the instrument with which I could best express myself. We lived in a 3 story house. The third story was the attic. I had shared a bedroom in the second story of the house with my brother, but I volunteered to move up to the attic as a teenager so I could have my own room. The attic was a place where a teenager could dream, could think, could feel, and could play guitar. There were old maps of unknown places on the wall and a lighted globe of the world, and I could look out of the third story window and see the lights of a downtown bridge in the distance. I would play the guitar for hours and hours up in that attic. The sound of guitar music would come wafting down the stairs and could be heard on the second floor, where my parents and my brother and sister all had their bedrooms, so if I wanted to play after everyone was asleep late at night, I would go down to the basement. There were ghostly paintings of thin, big-eyed people in the basement, paintings that an artist friend of my father had stored there years ago when he moved from Rhode Island. The artist never came back to retrieve them. There was also a dart board covered with little dart marks from family dart games, and boxes of basketballs, footballs, baseballs, baseball gloves and bats, with a naked light bulb illuminating the scene. 

When I left the family home to attend college, I brought my guitar with me, and when I made the 40 mile trip home from school, sometimes hitchhiking, sometimes by bus or train, the guitar would be with me. The attic and basement would still be there, waiting for me to return and fill them with music. While at school I would play guitar in my dorm room, or outside on a wall overlooking the university, or later in a small rented room in Boston, where I lived during my last year at the school. After 3 years I left the university, and, guitar in hand, commenced to hitchhike across the United States. I had many adventures along the way, living in a tree house in the mountains in northern Colorado for a short time, living in a dome made from old cars in a commune in southern Colorado for a year, continuing west, stopping at some hot springs at an abandoned resort in Arizona for a week with a group of people who had picked me up in a Volkswagen van. All the time I was playing my guitar, writing music and songs, sharing my music with the people I met along the way, and occasionally returning to Rhode Island to visit. 
Life continued. I worked with autistic children for a year in Philadelphia, (incorporating music into the work, and later writing a song about it). I lived in New Mexico for 4 years, where I worked a variety of jobs and performed at restaurants and coffee houses. I  lived 18 years in Eugene, Oregon, with my 2 sons. I made a vinyl album with my first band, the Tree People, in 1979, distributing the album locally. I met my wife Kate, and we moved to Portland, where we still live with our dog Beeber. I performed regionally and nationally, recorded several albums and also did community projects and artist residencies.
The vinyl album that I made in 1979 was later discovered worldwide by record collectors, leading to the reissue of the album by record companies in Japan and Spain in 2006 and 2008, two more Tree People albums released by Guerssen Records of Spain in 2009 and 2010, and a trip to Spain to play at the Musiques Disperses Festival in 2011. My musical adventures continue, with an album, "by hand", in 2012 by my duo the Walking Willows. My newest project to be an album of original music on cigar box guitar in 2014.
Over the years there have been many visits to the Rhode Island house by me and Kate, and by my sons, my brother, my sister and their families. My sons both attended graduate schools in Massachusetts, visiting my father (my mother had died a few years earlier) often. A few years ago my father died, and after "sitting shiva" with so many wonderful relatives and friends of the family, we put the house up for sale. Sadly, no more visits to the old house. But I can still, in my mind, see the attic and basement in perfect detail.

Kate and Stephen go to Colorado and attend Jessica Green and Dan Kuhner wedding

Kate arrives! (Denver airport)

We stay a few days at Jack (Kate's uncle) and Joan's house in Glenwood Springs

Pajama presentation: Stephen presents his new album to Karen (Kate's aunt) and Jack (Kate's Uncle)

Stephen plays guitar by river in Glenwood Springs. Stephen and Kate later performed 2 songs at the wedding reception

Wedding ceremony begins in Redstone, Colorado! Bride Jessica (Kate's cousin) escorted down stairs by father Jack

Jessica's dog Joey serves as ring bearer

Jessica Green and Daniel Kuhner marriage ceremony

Jessica and Dan seal it with a kiss

Happy couple walk down the aisle

Jessica, Joey the dog and friend

Father and Bride dance

Jessica's brother Taylor sings song he wrote for her wedding 

Jessica, Dan and friends dance late into the night

Kate enjoys the Colorado beauty on the ride back to Denver

Stephen at the Continental Divide

Denver at dusk while waiting to fly back to Portland

Jonathan's Bar Mitzvah

My nephew Jonathan's Bar Mitzvah was a great event! Here is Jonathan reading the Torah with his mother Debbie and father Ben at his side.

My brother Jeremy and I opened the ceremony by performing two Jewish musical pieces on guitar and clarinet.

Jonathan leading the procession of the Torah- a very moving event!

A Torah cake is featured in the reception.

Oryx and Ethan at the reception

Dancing Nancy!

The celebration is underway!

Miles and Nicole

Jeremy and Jane

Kristin and Ethan

Katiya

Amy and niece

Stephen and Kate in the middle of it all

Kaos the DJ gets the crowd going

Bar Mitzvah mom lifted by Abe. Stephen, Ben and Oryx

Bar Mitzvah boy Jonathan rises above!

My Aunt Iris

My Aunt Iris passed away. She was the last surviving adult in this family photo, taken in Rhode Island in the early 1950's. She is on the bottom far right. You can see her great spirit in her smile. I don't remember much about her in Rhode Island, but I do remember visiting her in Sherman Oaks, California from time to time, in that little apartment on Hazeltine Avenue. She lived there for so many years it should be listed as an historical monument. Her spirit and smile continued to shine over the years, and she was always welcoming and friendly to all who came her way.
There is such a beautiful story of family, of life, of death in that photo. I am grateful to Aunt Iris for being part of that story, and for touching our lives. 

Family in Massachusetts, Butterfly Garden at Boston Science Museum

I had a fantastic week visiting my son Oryx, daughter-in-law Kristin and grandchildren Katiya and Ethan in Massachusetts. My sister Debbie joined us for a few days as well. Here is a photo she took of Katiya showing Ethan a story.

Here is Katiya and me at the beautiful Butterfly Garden in the Boston Science Museum.

These 2 photos of the Butterfly Garden were taken by 3 and half year old Katiya. She is quite a photographer!