School of ROCK!

Remember the movie with Jack Black?

I remember buying a guitar when I was in high school. I started my weekly lessons, make that my short lived weekly lessons. I was bored to tears. Literally. I hated it.

Wanting to be Ann or Nancy Wilson, maybe Pat Benatar, or Debbi Harry, I certainly didn't want to learn how to read music. I could play chords by ear, I just needed to learn how to string them together.

My older teacher wanted to teach music theory. This wasn't going to happen. The first song he tried teaching me was Autumn Leaves, huh?

Then I decided I'd play drums. I watched Karen Carpenter and figured I could do that. And how cool would that be? Girls playing drums were rare. My parents, remembering my guitar affair, wouldn't buy me drums.

They bought me sticks instead. A set of sticks.

Can you imagine the words thoughts that ran through my head when they handed me a set of sticks and said "practice" with a drum pad? They assured me if I really wanted to play drums, they'd think about it.

How uncool. I stashed them in my room, next to my guitar. My room looked like Ms. Rock Star stayed there, but in truth, it all just collected dust.

It's 35 years too late for me, but I am excited for kids age 7-17 in my area that have an interest in playing in a band. A rock band. Forget about boring after school private dull windowless room lessons 'cuz the SCHOOL of ROCK has come to Rochester Michigan.

Learn to play in a rock band by professional musicians. On a stage. With a loud professional sound system. They advertise teaching how to play songs by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, AC/DC, Zappa, Queen. This is a win-win situation for kids and parents. No basement or garage band noise for parents. Equipment and direction from musicians that enjoy teaching and forming rock bands for the kids.


I drove by the studio and can report there were no signs of groupies or Jack Daniel's.

Christmas, Rochester Michigan

The way our downtown Main Street decorated for Christmas last year, has been repeated this year. There's not much to say because the sight leaves you breathless. Every store front has thousands of lights. You really need to be in the mix of the lights and the people each night, to feel the spirit. Here is a photo (not taken by me) and a local writer's video. It's best to know the back streets and how to skirt from one end of the downtown area to the other if you're in a hurry. Every night, the sidewalks are wall to wall people and the cars drive through at about 5 MPH.