1992 – A Real Guitar and Band with Instruments

After my brother received a Sega Genesis for Christmas, we were playing Sonic the Hedgehog a lot. What a fascinating new game! This little blue guy running so fast, going around overhead loops, collecting coins, and fighting the various bad guys created by the evil Dr. Robotnik. On January 26^th, I went over to my classmate Joseph Miller’s house to watch the Washington Redskins vs. Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI. I had never had much interest in watching…

1993 - Guitar, Growing, and First Gig

As my guitar enthusiasm grew, I began to get bored with my lessons. I appreciated learning to read notes and play basic chords as Mom had emphasized but was bummed with the disconnect I felt between the old-time songs I was being asked to learn and the heavy metal and rock songs that I was aspiring to play. One day I brought a Guitar Worldmagazine to my guitar lesson. It had a transcription with tablature of the Megadeth song, “Peace Sells”. I opened to the music…

1991 – New Housemates and Comic Books

I was a bright-eyed, ten-year old boy in 5^th grade at Saint Thomas Aquinas. Home life was a bit more exciting now as we had the trio of Konrad, Konrad Jr. and Kayla living with us. Sharing a house with three more people came with its share of challenges and new questions as to who had a right to what. In the background, on the news was disturbing information about United States, Iraq, and Kuwait. It was talk of war and I didn’t like that. The Gulf War, also called…

2003 – Getting “Serious”

So, my 4-year plan at Brooklyn College had turned into a 5-year plan due to lack of careful planning and my absorption in classes that interested me over meeting requirements. While I was getting a little lazy around schoolwork, I was determined to at least go out with a bang musically. My close friend and muse Larisa Vasilakis had asked me to compose an original piece of music for her graduate student recital which I gladly agreed to.  

In the beginning of January, I took a memorable…

2011 – Life in Japan and Coração

I moved to Japan on New Year’s Day. Arriving in Japan to live for an indefinite span felt different from going to visit for several weeks. During my first trip there was a sense of a mission to fulfill which was clear cut: go to the homeland of my wife, meet her family and friends, create a mutually respectful bond, experience the foreign country, and have fun.

On this second trip however, which was my move to Japan, the mission was not as clearly defined and with less…

1989 – Baseball, Movies, Music, and MTV

In January, President Reagan delivered his farewell address to the nation. A few days later, race riots erupted in Miami, Florida. Football was in the air as the San Francisco 49ers won the Super Bowl. In February Tecmo Bowl was released for the Nintendo, a fun football game. On TV, ABC began to run a new sitcom called Coach about a football coach and his daily struggles as a human being in various roles.

To offer some relief during the long and cold winter were two…

1980-1981 – A Late Start | Life on Bedford Avenue

January of 1980 was cold in Brooklyn, New York as usual. John and Linda Sheridan were living a relatively quiet life on Bedford Avenue between Avenues U and T in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. The thought of becoming parents was on their minds. They began trying to have a child in 1979 and paid attention to Linda’s feminine cycles. Sometimes when her cycle was late, John would announce it at the Sunday dinner table in front of close family members hinting that she…

1985 – A Small World Expands

The sounds of “Miami Vice Theme” filled the airwaves and the heads of scores of Americans. My family was living in our new home on East 19^th Street between Avenues W and X in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. It was a unique one-way residential street. On one side of the street there was a large post office building (not open to the public), and private one-story houses with basements. At the end of the block was an alley which opened into a shared space where the backyards of various…

1983 - Parental Separation, Mommy, and Norway

In one sense, the year of 1983 started off with a bang. Mount Kilauea on Hawaii’s Big Island began erupting on January 3^rd. A week later, a unique and inspiring children’s show premiered on the cable channel HBO (Home Box Office) called Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson’s Muppets. The spirit of the show was one of co-creating harmony with fellow living beings who were different from us. I preferred these type of good-natured TV shows much more than the typical good…

2007 – On My Own but Not Alone

I woke on New Year’s Day in my own apartment for the first time in my life. The apartment was in the basement of a home on East 53^rd St. between Avenues T and S. My landlord Florence was a kind woman who lived with her friendly grandson Mark. They would become like extended family. I was emerging from a darker yet more seductive world of suffering and delusion into a brighter yet stricter world of possibilities and hope. Naturally this was not a smooth and seamless transition. …