Walter Cameron's 75th Birthday Party

Walter and partner, Marlyn

On Saturday, January 29, I had the pleasure of attending the 75th Birthday Party for Walter Cameron in Almonte at the home of  his daughter, Wanda, and her partner, Rob. I also had the pleasure, at the invitation of Wanda, of being the MC during the sit-down meal. There had to be at least 40 people in attendance and many of them were accomplished musicians that Walter has played with over the years. Needless to say, the evening ended up with a lot of good music being played until we finally shut down around midnight. An excellent way to pass a Saturday night.

One nice touch to the evening was the presence of four generations: Walter, his daughter Wanda, grand-daughter Amanda, and great-grandson Dallas.

Wanda, Walter, Dallas and Amanda

I've known Walter for almost as long as I can remember. In fact the first time we ever met we attended a dance together in Canonto, Ontario.  Apparently, Walter wasn't too impressed with my vocal capabilities at that event. However, I was only about 18 months old at the time and he had to look after me while my parents and his older sister were up dancing. He was somewhat underwhelmed that he had to entertain a squalling kid.

Walter in 1961

We lost touch with one another after that inauspicious start to our friendship and we didn't really connect again until 1960 when Walter joined the Mississippi River Boys as a vocalist and guitar player. The Mississippi River Boys was a country dance band that played throughout Lanark, Renfrew, Frontenac and Carleton counties in Eastern Ontario from 1956 to 1985.  I had been playing with the band since New Years Eve 1958. Walter and worked together from 1960 until 1977 when he left to play with the late Ron McMunn.  Since then we've run into one another at various events but as we've gotten older those meetups have become all too infrequent.  About three years ago we had the good fortune to have Walter sit in with Grateful We're Not Dead at a show we were doing at a Western Games event at Drummond Center. Maybe we can arrange for him to make another guest appearance.

As I mentioned, there were a large number of talented musicians at Walter's party and everyone had a chance to perform. Of course, the night would not have been complete without getting Walter up to the mic and he finished off the entertainment for the evening.  I had my iPod Touch with me and was able to catch him on video.

Performing with Walter are Ray Donaldson - peddle steel, Mac Knowles - lead, Wayne Munroe - drums, and Tom Gardiner - bass.

So Walter, I expect to be invited to your 80th, 85th, 90th and 95th birthday parties. And if you make 100, I'll see to it that Grateful We're Not Dead is there to entertain you.

And a final insight garnered at the party: As young bucks, all the guitar players I knew had belt buckle scratches on the back of their guitars. As I looked around the room on Saturday night, I realized that none of us has to worry about scratching the back of our guitar anymore.  There's a lot more padding now.

At least that's how I see it from Between Keyboard and Chair.

Don

Fifty Six Seconds

Well I'll be damned!!! It's amazing how things eventually connect together. Recently, from my position Between Keyboard and Chair I came across an article that states:

"FIFTY SIX SECONDS is all the time a person will spend watching your loading animation, clicking through your site, reading your copy, and watching your content. A 60-second spot."

This article was posted in 2009 on Annoying Design.

Back in 2006 I read an article in the Ottawa Citizen which quoted a study that had shown:

"women think of sex once every two weeks whereas men think of sex every 58 seconds"

and as a result, in 2007 I wrote a song for Grateful We're Not Dead entitled At Least Once Every Minute.

Needless to say, it's likely the men surfing the 'Net who have had the greatest impact in generating the 56 second statistic. It then allows them 2 seconds to switch over into thinking about sex.

At least that's how I see it from Between Keyboard and Chair.

Don

A Link To The Past

Years and years ago, it seems like half a century, I played in a country dance band called the Mississippi River Boys. We played the dance hall circuit throughout Lanark County as well as the surrounding counties. During the 1970s I penned a number of songs that we used by the band on a regular basis. We still include a couple of these in the Grateful We're Not Dead repertoire as well.

Yesterday I was cleaning out some boxes and came across a couple unlabelled cassette tapes. Out of curiosity I decide to see what was on them and too my surprise I came across one of the songs which I had recorded at home using multi-tracking and over-dubbing on a Dokorder 4-track open reel tape recorder. I guess I had mixed the tracks down to the cassette as a test mix. So I present here with all its glitches and warts, a link to my past. Any messups you hear are wholly attributable to me seeing as I played all parts - guitar, bass, harmonica, vocal, and backup vocal. Just click on the play button to hear it.

I hope that wasn't too painful.

Don

Children's Peace Plan - Evelyn Voigt

Today from Between Keyboard and Chair, I'm going to introduce you to one of my friends, Evelyn Voigt.

Evelyn happens to be my favourite Ottawa poet and a very dear friend. Evelyn was born a German prisoner of war in Norton, located close to Harare in what is now Zimbabwe. As a child she ran free on a farm in Tanzania, and later travelled widely. She chose Canada as her multi-cultural base; however, her work often takes her "home" to Africa. Evelyn has recorded a couple CDs of her poetry which are available via her web site.

Now some of you may think I'm a bit biased, and I agree I am, because Grateful We're Not Dead work with Evelyn quite frequently at peace related events. My all-time favourite poem of Evelyn's is The Children's Peace Plan and I always enjoy hearing her perform it. She did it recently at the Southminster United Church during the protest against the 2009 CANSEC Arms Show and it was caught on video. So for your listening pleasure and without further ado, here is Evelyn:

The Children's Peace Plan
(©Evelyn Voigt 2001)

Squeezing through a moon beam
she sat upon a star,
and looked down at the earth below
so very, very far.
She looked at all those children
Caught in the wars of man.
She heard their frightened voices
and came up with a plan.

In moments she was down there,
Whispering to each their name:

In China and in Germany,
in Azerbaijan and Spain;
In Russia and in Canada,
in Kenya and Peru;
Guyana and America,
Tibet and Timbuktu;
In Gaza and Jerusalem;
In Cairo and in Rome;
In Serbia and Croatia,
Burundi and at home.

The children's eyes grew wider,
as she told them of her plan.
Then solemnly they joined her.
Some walked. Some limped. Some ran.

She welcomed them with radiance.
She armed them with her smile.
She looked towards the cannons,
stacked mile, on mile, on mile.
She found herself a blossom,
a single blossom white,
Before she chose her cannon,
and sat on it, upright.

Above the cannon's mouth she sat,
Her smile as soft as dew;
And when the soldiers came to fire,
She said, "I welcome you".

And the children all took measure.
And the children chose their gun.
And the children smiled their magic smiles.
And the soldiers came undone.

They talked about their troubles.
They talked about their dreams.
The more they heard,
the more it seems:
Their problems weren’t that different.
Their hopes were much the same.
And, somehow, guns and warfare
seemed silly, tragic, lame.

Instead they chose to listen,
to plan, to heal, to please.
And the guns stood ever silent.
And the world was bathed in peace.

Squeezing through the moon beam,
she sat upon a star
and looked down at the earth below,
so very, very far.
She looked at all those children,
who sang and laughed and ran.
She thought about past battles,
and blessed her joyful plan.

So from Between Keyboard and Chair, I wish you peace.

Don

Hello, World

Well here I go with a new blog. Harking back to my programming days, I guess the first item should be the classic "Hello, World". On my old original Commodore PET purchased in 1978 that would have been the result of running the BASIC program:

10 print "Hello, World"

What you'll likely see on this blog are a random collection of thoughts, ideas, rants, music I like to play, interesting web sites I've come across, computing problems I've encountered, and the ongoing generation of other related drivel. As mentioned in the header, if you see any factual errors here the problem is between keyboard and chair.

As a starter, why don't you drop by the Grateful We're Not Dead blog to see what I'm up to in my spare time.

That's it for now, just to get the gears in motion.

Y'all come back soon

Don