Queer Equality Revolution: It Can Really Suck

GOT EQUALITY?

In a split-second you can go from

NOT needing a right to

DESPERATELY needing that same right,

and when that second passes I hope you have it.

'Cause it can R E A L L Y suck when you don't.

Music and Me

I started playing the piano around age 6; finished "Teaching Little Fingers To Play" with a teacher, then was self-taught using the U.S. School of Music Home Study Course until I studied at the University of Michigan, where I was fortunate to be on scholarship. At age 10 I volunteered as the church organist for weekday Mass. My first paying gig was at 13 as the organist for Sunday Mass at St. Julian Catholic Church. My brother gave me his electric bass and amp at 13 after I played it for a few days; by 14 I was gigging in a band.

I taught music in some form (piano, theory, bass guitar) from age 20-43. During that time I was extraordinarily passionate about Piano Pedagogy, Music Learning Theory, and Early Childhood Music & Movement, and used to consider teaching young children music through the piano to be an awesome responsibility, privilege, and joy.

I earned a BM in Piano Performance in '93 from U of M, where I was OBSESSED with 20th century music. My biggest accomplishment at Michigan was performing Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata from memory; it's not virtuostic per se, but it's extraordinarily 'complex' music. At 20 I taught bass at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and performed with the W.C.C. Jazz Orchestra and Afromusicology Ensemble. I owe my ENTIRE musical life to Dr. Morris J. Lawrence, Jr., Lynne Bartholomew, and Arthur Greene.

Professional highlights include performing for President Reagan, opening for Dizzy Gillespie, and playing in the Montreux-Detroit International Jazz Festival. In 2002 I presented my one-man show "Wild About Rhythm" at local elementary schools, and owned and operated a Piano Studio from my home in Kirkland, WA between 1996-2004. I briefly had 24 piano students in 2008, until my P.T.S.D. was severely triggered on 11.05.08. In my lifetime I have performed at over 200 weddings and/or wedding receptions, but I have had to stop because the irony is LITERALLY killing me.