Category: Culture

Today is the birthday of one of our favorite members of the Skere9 Gallery of Stars, John Michael  Metelsky.  We thought we’d take this illustrious occasion to share with the public, for the first time, some rare photos of John going about his typical day-to-day duties.

Here’s John rescuing a kitten from a burning building:

Here he is helping a nun cross a street:

And here he is filling in for a friend on the job:

As you can see, John is a man of many talents, some known to many, some unknown to everyone, including himself.

NOW … in all seriousness, John is one of the most gracious people you will ever meet.  He’s generous in spirit, and knows how to give just the right word of encouragement at the right time.   He loves to kid around and is one of the funniest and most jovial people you will ever meet, but when he gets serious, he’s modest about his own remarkable accomplishments and skills. Don’t let that fool you – he is a consummate professional at the top of his field, which is photography and photojournalism.  He knows just how to casually evoke the right mood from the right people at the right time.  Most people might not even notice when, after he’s cracked the right jokes or somehow put his subjects at ease, and into a happy or laughing state, – snap – he grabs the perfect photo at the most opportune moment, and unless you’re paying close attention, you might not even know it – not until later, when the finished photo emerges, showing off his subjects uniquely, and reflecting the brilliance of his work.  John’s the greatest at what he does.

Plus – he’s easy going, fun to hang out with, and remarkably well-read.  He’ll quote lengthy passages from classic prose and poetry, at just the right time, to underscore a point or maybe just for a light-hearted or whimsical laugh.

And he’s lucky enough to have the most adorable wife and great children who he obviously loves a great deal.  John’s a class act, and I’m grateful to be his friend.

So please join us in wishing John a very happy birthday!

For he’s a jolly good fellow!

Happy birthday, John!

P.S. Angie says happy birthday, too. (And no, THIS one is not Photoshopped).

Photo taken March 8, 2005. Copyright © 2005. John Michael Metelsky, Used with permission.

“The movies are the only business where you can go out front and applaud yourself.” – Will Rogers

From: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Will_Rogers

So I just read something interesting … does anyone remember an attorney named Geoffrey Nels Fieger? He represented Dr. Jack Kervorkian in the first of many trials about doctor-assisted suicides, way back in 1994.

And, according to Wikipedia, Fieger was the older brother of Doug Fieger, the lead singer of the 1980’s pop band The Knack, most famous for the song My Sharona.

According to Wikipedia, Doug Fieger passed away in 2010 after a long battle with cancer.  The drummer for The Knack, Bruce Gary, has also passed away, in 2006.

 

I love how John Batchelor will introduce a guest and end with “Good Evening”, like this – and I’m going to paraphrase – but he’ll say something like “Tonight there is mischief afoot, intrigue from Washington to Cairo, with tension in the balance and yadda yadda yadda … so tonight we are joined by Joe Smith who has been intimately involved and understands the nuances of the situation. Joe, do you think this and that and what about the other, and with the world hanging in the balance and the history of humanity at risk do you think there’s a chance for human survival, good evening Joe.”

GOOD EVENING – after all that, he’ll always end with “Good evening”.

He’s so civilized.  And insightful.  He covers a wide array of intelligent topics – from astronomy to current events, to international economics and politics, but not the kind you typically hear in American media.  Perhaps the sort you might find in The Economist .  If you’re a news junkie, John Bachelor is a breath of fresh air.  If you like being informed in an intelligent way, tune in, you’ll love the show.  And his bumper music is the best.

Here’s a video of a song John always plays around midnight during his late night radio show, a song called “Midnight, the Stars, and You”, in a beautiful old recording of Al Bowly, that always makes me think of Doc Scantlin … click below to hear it.

 

Todd Bauchspies is, quite simply, the most gifted guitarist in the music industry today.  A number of us in the Washington, DC / Baltimore / Annapolis area have known this for years, and the rest of the world is finally starting to figure it out.

Case in point:  the world famous Paul Reed Smith, maker of some of the best (and some of the most expensive) guitars in the business – selected Todd to help promote some of the new line of acoustic guitars.

For those who aren’t “in the know” on high-end performance electric guitars, PRS guitars are among the preferred musical instruments of such musical artists as Carlos Santana, Steve Vai, Alex Lifeson (Rush), Ted Nugent, Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction), Nick Catanese (the 2001 movie Rock Star, among other things), and also – the amazing Todd Bauchspies.

Todd’s a virtuoso with a stunning range of capabilities.  He used to perform a great deal with the late great Eva Cassidy, famous for her covers of classics such as Over the Rainbow and Sting’s Fields of Gold.  And Todd’s fully capable of burning up the fretboard of any screaming electric (often a PRS) out there.  My favorite searing electric leads of all time are Todd’s originals that he performed with the fusion group Permanent Vacation.

Recently PRS selected Todd to help promote their acoustic guitars.  Here’s one of the videos that PRS created and uploaded to their own PRS channel, featuring Todd’s original composition, “Cecil, Pronto, and the Monkey Man”.

He’s the best – click the video above and enjoy!

“If we had a 747 airliner that went down every month and killed 150 people – we wouldn’t stand for that,” said playwright and former TV talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford at a Club Newsmaker April 13. Yet too many children, four a day, are dying from child abuse and neglect, often in their own homes,” she said. Gifford, in town with her new musical “Saving Aimee,” was invited to the Club along with John Reid, executive director of ChildHelp, a child-abuse victim advocacy and support group. Reid said that The National Registry Act passed Congress in 2006 requires state-level data on the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders to be shared across state lines with child-abuse victims; but he added that funding required to implement has not been appropriated. He announced a new service called ChildHelp Alert, which provides phone calls to subscribers, informing them when registered sex offenders move into their neighborhood.

From The National Press Club Record, April 23, 2007

I recently learned of the passing of someone I consider to be an Internet personality, named Glenn Harwood.  There’s an online obituary for Glenn here.  If you read it, you might observe that it says nothing about him being an Internet personality.  But please let me explain.

A number of years ago, I attended a special event commemorating a major milestone for some dear close friends, when I met a special person named Glenn Harwood.  Glenn was probably in his late 60’s when I first met him, and he’d been battling Lou Gehrig’s disease, and with the most amazing optimism – from my vantage point, that’s how I saw it.  He told me he’d been involved with the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and the Jerry Lewis telethon.  He’d been to Hollywood, California and had been on the famous annual broadcast several times.

During the party, Glenn told me of his newsletter that he called “MY! Sunday Bulletin” (complete with the red letters), and it ran with the slogan “Can’t Walk or Talk, but Can Always Laugh”.

From the next several years, like clockwork, I received an issue of his Sunday Bulletin every Sunday.  I had to chuckle at first, because it reminded me of my own newsletter I sent out years ago.  Mine was a part of a web presence I’d created called the FIDO – the Family Internet Directory Online.  FIDO was a labor of love of mine that I ran from 1995 to 1997, and my newsletter had built a subscriber base in excess of 8,000 readers at the peak, but in July 1997 I had to abruptly stop when my mother became very ill.  Eventually she made a full recovery – and is still with us, thankfully.  But it was a long road, and I never returned to the old FIDO newsletter.

So Glenn’s Sunday Bulletin brought back a lot of fond memories for me.  And it was hysterical!  Now folks – those of us who have been using email for more than twenty minutes all have friends who send us emails with jokes or something, and it’s always fun – at first – and can sometimes overload your inbox.  But Glenn’s email newsletter was nothing like that.  It was, well – a publication, with a body of funny stories, one-liners as “footnotes”, and cartoons in the margins.  It arrived on schedule, every Sunday.  He featured seasonal editions and special greetings.  Glenn’s newsletter was an event, it was a part of the culture among those who knew him.  I grew to love it, and quoted from it to friends, and periodically wrote Glenn to tell him so.

A few Sundays ago, the newsletters stopped.  Shortly after, Glenn’s family distributed a note announcing what had happened.

And my Sundays are more somber now, as I look in my inbox for something that isn’t there, and reflect on the life of a many with Lou Gehrig’s disease who managed to overcome his physical disabilities through the power of the Internet, and reach out via email to make the lives of others happy and pleasant.

Glenn Harwood was a class act.  I miss him.