The Daily News

There once was a note, pure and easy
Playing so free like a breath, rippling by.

The note is eternal, I hear it, it sees me
Forever we blend, as forever we die.

I listened and I heard music in a word,
a word when you played your guitar

The noise that I was hearing was a million people cheering
And a child flew past me riding on a star...

We all know success when we all find our own Dreams
and Love is enough to knock down any wall

And the future's been seen as men try to realize
the simple secret of the note in us all.

--Pete Townshend, Pure and Easy

1   Congratulations to the Junior Class for a successful Junior Prom on Saturday night. I was able to get over and take a look at the decorations and at how wonderful everyone looked, and it all looked beautiful!! Great job, great night! I even enjoyed a bit of peace before the Prom. Listen:

2  On Saturday, I was visited by an old mate from WAY back, Geoff Van Maastricht. Geoff was one of the first students I ever met at Y.B., "back in the day". At that time, my first year teaching, I asked my English 4 classes if anyone wished to play guitar, bass or drums for our Spring Musical, which was to be Godspell.

3  A little aside: there were actually TWO different Godspell productions done here over the years. The first was WAY back, my first year, which was sometime in the 19th century; the second in 1990.  For the first production, I had just been hired, and was supposed to direct the play, but that all changed, and I was eventually asked to do the musical direction for that Show, which another teacher wound up directing. I was more than happy to switch to doing the musical direction, and quite soon thereafter put the project into full gear.

4  Prior to my arrival at Y.B., I had actually directed four plays, so directing was nothing new. But directing a rock band WAS. I knew nothing about it, but then, neither did Geoff, nor did the rest of the band. So we would meet each day in room 703,  and play and jam. Every day, Saturdays included, for five straight months! Just...we would play music. Four or five of us. Every day for three to four hours.

5  So my first gig at Y.B. was as the director of a rock band. Pure and easy.

6  And it WAS pure and easy! We just got better and better, purchased nicer instruments, and existed each afternoon as a band, working, growing, developing, and getting better and better. We moved away from just working on the Show, and fell into all sorts of music genres: jazz, reggae, blues, country, etc. Pure and easy.

7  Pure and easy.

8  I listened and I heard, music in a word.

9  We ate, drank, and talked music. After the show ran its course, we continued to stage several benefits for Save the Children, USA for Africa, Special Olympics, and some other causes, always for love, and always for the music. Pure and easy.

10  Geoff's dad used to jam with Jerry Garcia, pre-Dead. His dad now has given Geoff his old Dobro, a sort of steel-slide guitar that is played horizontally on one's lap. Geoff brought something like that here on Saturday, and we again fell into music, just like, riding the proverbial bicycle. We always were able to play off one another, and fell into some VERY fun jams.

11  It seems that Geoff had experienced a stroke "in his eye" and decided to look me up online, after all these years, stressing that old friends should get together while they still can. And I have been thinking the same thoughts lately, so it set itself up, courtesy of the spiritual side of life, I imagine. Pure and easy. The older you get, the more you appreciate the people you love. Pure and easy.

12 The reunion was one of tacit glances, and getting right down to business. Tacit: understood, without a word being said.

13  Prior to the Prom, we went into the gym, which was no longer the gym, but had become a magical place with decorations and balloons, and we jammed for over an hour, right on the Prom floor! Just magical, mystical music, lights set for prom, and music and laughter permeating the place. The gym can become just as magic as the Theatre sometimes, and this was one such time.

14  So this goes out to an old mate.

15  Let's keep jamming.

16  The rest of you might learn from this. Life is short. Look into the eyes of friends and family and appreciate them. There's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend.

17 Smooth differences. Embrace people. All of your lives will improve once you realize your spiritual ties. Nothing to it, really.

18  After all, it's pretty much pure and easy.

19  Peace.