END WAR NOW
In war, truth is the first casualty. ~Aeschylus

FATHERS DAY

Lolita: Okay, T Max, get off my lap, unless you’re going to tell me something about your father. Oooo, get up! There goes Peter C. Johnson—Peter, tell me something about your dad… PETER C. JOHNSON (Peter C. Johnson): My father had one leg and played a mean armchair trombone. He’s long gone now, but I think of him every day. *** TRACEY STARK (WZBC): My father recently called and told me that he had figured out what “Cinco de Mayo” meant! (He’s lived in Colorado for 20 years!) *** ROGER C. MILLER (Mission of Burma): My father (Robert Rush Miller) was, perhaps, a tad bit gonked. But he was a motherfucker of a naturalist. His specialty was fish that lived in the desert (which is where I got most of my chord progressions). His life’s work, released five years after his death, is titled Freshwater Fishes of Mexico (University of Chicago Press) and is a major ecological tract. I generally got along with him really well, but, as with anyone one loves, there were inconsistencies. *** JAKE ZAVRACKY (The Cyanide Valentine): When I think about all the things my dad had accomplished by the time he was my age, it makes me feel like a complete asshole. He had a wife, three kids, owned a house and two cars, was working full time and going to grad school to get his Ph.D. in physics, he could fix anything electronic, build anything out of wood, make his own computers (this was in the ’70s) and he still had time to read us The Hobbit. He’s my hero. *** KEN FIELD (Revolutionary Snake Ensemble/ Birdsongs of the Mesozoic): One of my father’s favorite sayings was, “Great minds run in the same gutter.” Another one was, “You can lead a horse to drink, but you can’t make it water.” *** END WAR NOWWar is organized murder and torture against our brothers. ~Alfred Adler *** SAL CLEMENTE (Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra): My father, Alex, was an artist—barrel-chested Roman general with a fiery temper and ice-blue eyes. I hope someday to be able to turn a phrase like he could, paint a picture like he could, and make women laugh like he could. He gave me the best advice I could have received—always just when I needed to hear it and with the only words I probably would have heard: “listen to your gut,” ‘tell your kids the truth, even if you know they won’t understand,” “just do the work.” I hear his voice in my head every day. *** CASEY DESMOND (Casey Desmond): My father is the love of my life. *** ROSS JACKSON (Cemetery Superfly): My father is a lot like Fred Sanford from Sanford & Son. He can be a real pain in the neck most of the time but when you really need him for something he comes through. *** DARRON BURKE (Blanketeer/ Makeshift Studio): I call my dad Captain Dropcloth because while cleaning his apartment we came across a lot of shower curtains, sheets and blankets and stuff that that he was hoarding. He kept them in case he needed to “do some painting.” There were so many that it bordered on mania. But, I’m his son and I’ve got the collecting gene too. I’m definitely a trash hunter and I love it. I’ve found a lot of great stuff in the trash—even collectible vintage audio gear that I use in my studio. Maybe I should record a Captain Dropcloth album—ha ha ha. *** KAREN DeBIASSE (Girl On Top): My dad is the hardest working person I have ever met in my life. He gets up at 5:30 and works ’til late at night. He’s a workaholic. When he’s not working he still never stops. He loves his boat and fishing and taking care of the house. He is a great man that even when the chips are down he never complains and always keeps positive. He is a man to be admired. Seventy years old and still going at a faster pace than most people a quarter of his age. *** END WAR NOWA nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. *** ERIC DOBERMAN (Doug MacDonald Band): My father was a deadbeat dad, a good Marine who became a very bad civilian. Never knew him. What’s funny though is that I inherited his odd and extreme aversion to wearing wristwatches without ever having been able to learn it from him. *** DICK TATE (The Prime Movers/ Middle East): Contrary to popular belief, he is not Satan. *** STEPHIE PEEKA (Stephie Peeka & The SeeKing 7): My dad is watching the Sox game right now in the other room...“get him outta there!” Glad they are playing good because our beloved Bruins suck Jeremy Jacobs lousy-owner ass. My dad enjoyed Bobby Orr and the Cup winning years first hand. Now I’m a sucker and I still go, although in the cheap seats, to see the Bruins with my nephew and have to play the “they get scored on, you must eat a jalapena” game to keep it interesting. I wish I could say, “Happy Father’s Day dad. The Bruins got new owners!” *** JONATHAN PERRY (Boston Globe): My dad died in July 2004 after a brave two-year battle with cancer that was supposed to claim him within months. What lives on are my memories of his kind, generous spirit, unwavering belief in the essential good in people, and his steadfast encouragement that my brother and I pursue our dreams. He was also a published playwright, gifted stage actor, and—arcane trivia alert!—the 1981 New England cribbage champion who let me carry his trophy, big and shiny as a ‘57 Buick, on the way home. A ridiculously handsome devil too (the man not the trophy, though the trophy was pretty good-looking too). *** SHAUN WOLF WORTIS (Gato Malo): My dad is a very well known children’s book author. Anyone who has kids who read would know him. He lives in Colorado. ***END WAR NOW Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world—indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ~Margaret Mead *** RODRIGO VAN STOLI (Noble Rot/Bang Camaro): As a kid in Rio, my dad was my link to the rest of the world. He worked for an airline, so he’d always bring back the coolest toys and gadgets for me and my brother. When the first digital watches came out (you had to push the button on the side to see the time—yeah I’m that old), we were the first to have them at our school. He always made sure we had the latest Star Wars action figures, as well as tons of love. My dad is pretty much awesome. My mom might disagree, though. *** LAURAN O’NEAL (Cheater Pint): My dad was a pretty cool dude. When I was 15 he quit his job and opened a diner. My entire family worked there, my four sisters, three brothers, and me. The locals used to come in and sit at the counter, drink coffee, and watch the freak show… my dad holding court behind the counter telling jokes… lots of yelling and chaos going on. He’d always say, “ya know Laurie, there’s nothing like family, someday you’re gonna wish you were back here.” I’d give him the “yeah, right.” He was right. *** NATE DIGGITY (Scamper): My dad is amazing. He can construct the ductwork for a central heating system out of empty beer cans. He can take a box of wires and make a computer. He can build the foundation of a house, hang sheetrock, fashion crown moldings, lay pipework and tap into the county water system, then get up a six o’clock the next morning and spend eight hours creating software to measure the velocity of dust particles in a vacuum. He’s the most talented human being to walk the earth since Jesus, and he does it all while half in the bag on Coors Lite. *** END WAR NOW Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. ~John F. Kennedy *** MARK SIMON (Cheater Pint): My dad decided to mow his big back yard in a small country town. He lost control of the riding lawnmower whilst traveling downhill, was propelled over an embankment, and landed miraculously upright in the middle of a stream. He walked away unscathed but had to get help to remove the mower. The next day he arrived at work and everyone asked him “Hey, Pete, wanna mow my lawn?” *** WALTER SICKERT (Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys): When I was born my father built a ship and we sailed for years. My earliest memories consist of the smell of salt water the sounds of gulls and the crashing of waves. Then one day the boat caught fire and we moved to land. *** JON HOLLAND (Forgetful Jones): My father is in many ways responsible for me becoming involved in music. Riding around in his truck with him as a kid I was exposed to a variety of classic rock such as Zepplin, Hendrix, etc. As a child, these sounds and the energy behind them entranced me. I was hooked. When I was ten, he was fully behind my learning guitar and has supported my life’s devotion to playing music. My proudest moment was when he was in the front of the crowd watching Forgetful Jones open up for Alice in Chains at the Tweeter Center last August. Lolita: T Max, would you like to lead us into our next section? T Max: Sure, what is it? Rock shoes?