Tim Richmond Synchronicity
I was thinking that somehow, right now in the NASCAR universe, a yarn about Tim Richmond is in order. There are all these synchronic strings coming off his being right now and running through several current stories of note. Let’s review.
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Tim Richmond raced in the 1980s in NASCAR, and he was hellfire. Really, the only racer I think actually matched Dale Earnhardt in his era for pure driving talent. Handsome, stylish Ohio via Fort Lauderdale kid. Easy to like and, like I said, hell on wheels. Fast. Car control through the roof. That was Richmond.
(For modern comparisons, Poolie among others compared Kyle Busch to Tim Richmond. You get the idea. But also make him naturally cool, handsome and charming.)
Richmond came in through Indy cars having been ROTY at the Indianapolis 500. After a successful stint driving for Raymond Beadle, he was hired by Rick Hendrick to drive for his new #25 Chevy sponsored by Folgers. The car was a second team car for Hendrick, which was really kind of new thinking at the time.
I can’t think of Pocono without thinking of Richmond. Thing was, he was a killer on road courses, and Pocono, with its tirfecta of weird, flat turns and road course traits, really had a thing for him. He swept both races there in 1986 as he rattled off 7 wins. He brought the #25 home third in points and shared the Driver of the Year Award with Champion Dale Earnhardt. He was right there, on his way to racing stardom, Jeff Gordon before Jeff Gordon, the future bright and filled with certain wins and titles.
But things happen.
During the break between 1986 and 1987, Richmond took ill. By time the 1987 Daytona 500 rolled around, he had to withdraw because of reported double pneumonia. Benny Parsons took over the driving duties in the renumeraled #35 as Richmond missed the first few months of the season. He made his comeback in the June Pocono race. Remarkably, he won. He quickly followed that up the following week with a win at the now defunct Riverside road course in California.
But something was obviously wrong. Come August, he had to withdraw again and Hendrick put Benny Parsons back in the car. I remember it being really strange. I remember my dad thinking he was sick with something else, like cancer or something. Then, at the end of the season, he quit Hendrick. Just like that.
To NASCAR, this was all very suspicious. So when Richmond turned up with a new ride for the 1988 Daytona 500, NASCAR was waiting there with a cup for him to pee into. Richmond obliged, and soon after NASCAR made the announcement that Richmond had failed a drug test and would not be allowed to participate in the race. Richmond claimed it was a prescription respiratory medication he was taking, to which NASCAR played their trump card. They demanded his medical records in order to prove his innocence.
Richmond, of course, had no interest in revealing to the world he had AIDS. So he never raced again.
Back then, people were really confused about AIDS. There was a lot of ignorance. People thought it was a “gay disease”. So while Richmond probably knew very well what he had, he understandably was very protective about the truth. It wasn’t until after his death in August of 1989 that the truth about his illness was revealed to the world.
The following year, there were several news reports which called into question the authenticity of the drug tests administered by NASCAR. Dr. Forest Tennant, it is alleged, worked with NASCAR in order to “create false drug-test results in 1988 to bar Richmond from racing”. It is also alleged that Tennant worked with NASCAR to specifically develop a drug testing policy with the intent of ensnaring Richmond.
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In two short years Richmond collected a total of 9 wins for the #25 Hendrick Chevy. In fact, his win total for that car eclipses the combined total of all those who have driven the #25 in the 20 seasons since. This includes drivers like Parsons, Kenny Schrader, Ricky Craven, Jerry Nadeau, Joe Nemecheck and Brian Vickers. For all of it’s early promise, the #25 team itself has never had the storied history of its stable mates at Hendrick. It has always underperformed. Some say that there is a connection. Some say it is cursed in some way.
Personally, I don’t believe in such things. But do I have to remind you that the old #25 team is now the #88?
Like I said, synchronic strings.
No commentsVisions of the Music Business
The thing about the music business is once it gets into your blood, there’s no cure. There is no real life transfusion available once you are infected by it.
Like I often tell my lovely wife who has been in record retail for 25 years now, the only people left in this business are the really passionate ones. And of course, those unqualified to do anything else.
There are many avenues one can embark on in the music business. There are those who strive to play a musical instrument or sing. There are those whose talents aren’t necessarily in making music, but in reviewing it, promoting it or managing its artists. There are also those foolish enough to embark on the path of making original music. God help those sorry souls.
I have in some way touched all of these music business facets with varying degrees of success. But it is the latter which has captured my soul whole.
I’ve been writing songs since I was 15 years old. Along the way, I adopted many instruments to help in my composition and many techniques to help me bring it to life through recording, engineering and production. I have spent sleepless nights pondering the perfect rhyming scheme, the nuances of a bass line or whether the reverb on the vocals has too long a tail. Its a tough slog, a largely personal journey of progression and betterment with scant opportunities for public appreciation.
As the digital age cannibalized the music business in the name of broad-banded progress, writers like myself were faced with both opportunity and full-scale diminishment. The lowered technical bar meant more artists than ever were able to record their music. Digital distribution and the internet’s wide reach meant that your competition wasn’t limited to the musicians in your town, or state or even country. But coupled with that came new distribution channels. A trade of sorts.
You can make better music more affordably, but you have to compete with the whole goddamned world.
If this sounds like I am sour about the way things are, I am not. In fact, I am making the best music of my life at the age of 42. It is getting into more hands than ever and I am doing it my way. It is an altogether brilliant time, particularly if one isn’t concerned with monetizing your art.
In fact, I am intensely excited by the prospects of opening up my record label, Wild Iris Records, to more artists. I am more intrigued than ever with ideas of music distribution, internet marketing and live internet video broadcasting. Every day that goes by, the fabric of this new music business unfurls itself to me, clear and functional, and ready to be made into something new. I may even figure out how to monetize it!
I often tell my friends that I will be making music when I am 80 years old. In my head, I see it as the Rockwellian cliche, and old man on the porch sitting in a rocking chair strumming an acoustic guitar. But in reality, it will more than likely be a scene from a Gibson novel, nodes wired into my head and MIDI cables strewn about, uploading my newest composition to the net.
No matter, one thing will still be the same. Finding that perfect bridge wil still be a pain in the ass.
No commentsMy Classic Literature Confession
I know this may sound funny, sad really, but I am spending much of my free time lately catching up on some of the literature standards that I should have been exposed to long, long ago. It is almost embarrassing to say this, but the school system of which I was a product didn’t seem to have any standards when it came to literary classics. Ok, I remember reading Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein in Mrs. Parker’s class in High School, but that’s about it. There were no basic studies of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or anything of the sort, at least not in the classes I was in.
So I must confess. Here I am, at the age of 42 finding a rekindled interest in the classic novels I should have read long ago. I get them on audio book, which is not to say that this is how I would prefer to absorb them. In a perfect and visually acute world, of course I would get the paper variety and enjoy them as they were intended to be. As that isn’t possible, I have surrendered to the audio book. It’s really kinda fun, especially if the person reading the novel is dynamic and gifted.
To this end, it seems I am following the career of the late Frank Muller, who voiced lots of audio books ranging from Charles Dickens to Stephen King. But it is in his voicing of Dickens that he is amazing. Accents, regional variances and everything. You have to hear this guy read A Tale of Two Cities… such talent.
Dickens is where I began my journey. I remember some of the movie adaptations as a kid and that era is interesting. So I moved through A Tale of Two Cities to Great Expectations and now onto Oliver Twist. In order to make something of a study out of it, I have also taken to doing research on the novel after I read it, historic frameworks and even old critic’s reviews. Interesting. Honestly, I really feel as if I am enjoying these novels more and that I am getting more out of them as an adult that I ever would have as a kid. So there. Take that, Dade County Public Schools!
I read Old Man and the Sea today by Hemmingway - pretty quick. Interesting. A fish is just a fish, I guess. But next up, I am embarking on something thick: All Quiet on the Western Front. I have no idea what I am in for. I never even saw the movie.
But I have the voice of Frank Muller to guide me. I wonder if he ever voiced The Adventures of Tom Sawyer…
No commentsNEW SONG: Uri Geller Spoon
Uri Geller Spoon
Word s and Music by George Zhen
Download MP3
On the train to Amsterdam
She turned and looked me in the eye
Blue and fluid moving to and fro
She said she had to make a stop
Said she had to make a buy
It would take a moment
A little taste for home
Put the package in a box
And put the box inside my bag
No one will notice
No one will ever know
Took the wrong-way taxi cab out to Schiphol just in time
For the boarding of a triple 7 home
I really can’t explain
‘Cause I don’t understand
I got board that plane
With the contraband
I must have been insane
Now I’m freakin’ out
She bends my brain like a Uri Geller Spoon
She falls into another nap
Magazine upon her lap
How can she do this knowing what she knows?
My heart is beating in my chest
Now I’m hoping for the best
No I’m not nervous
I’m laughing at the show
I really need a drink
“Miss can you bring me one?”
I’m nearly on the brink
“Yeah a Coke and rum”
I daring not to think
Yeah, I’m freakin’ out
She bends my brain like a Uri Geller Spoon
And she melts my heart like a Dali clock at noon
She bends my brain like a Uri Geller Spoon
(She bends me. She upends me. And offends me.)
Touch the ground at MIA
And still I’m wishing it away
Confess to nothing
Blame it on the girl
They find the box inside the bag
She turns a wink, a smile, a shag
Before you know it, we’re on the shuttle bus to Alton Road
“I nearly lost my life”
“Yeah, I’m crazy like that”
“All that pain and strife”
“Yeah but it’s over now”
“Will you be my wife?”
“Oh, don’t be absurd.”
She bends my brain like a Uri Geller Spoon
And she melts my heart like a Dali clock at noon
She bends my brain
And she melts my heart
She bends my brain like a Uri Geller Spoon
Next Up on the Musical Horizon
After several months of working on the production and release of Dust of the American Pixel, I am happy to say I am moving on to the next series of musical projects. “Pixel” represents to me a milestone of sorts creatively and it was something I HAD to complete before moving on. But, honestly, I am kinda glad it’s over and done with. It had so many long-since discarded legacy elements to it in terms of songs and production techniques that it was incredibly challenging to maintain its shape and scope. Its thematic nature meant all of these creative constraints became manifest, things like what instruments could be used, what lyrical themes could be explored and what effects could be applied. I love it, I love the final product and it sold well enough to pay for itself. I learned tons on the manufacturing side as well. But I’m also glad that the time has arrived where I can cast aside that sonic palette and move on.
So what’s next?
In the next couple of days I will be releasing a new track called “Uri Geller’s Spoon”. This is a departure from “Pixel” in a substantial way. This piece is total Britpop. It rocks. Guitar layers and an actual storyline, which I haven’t done lyrically in a while. Is this the new sonic direction? I dunno. In the words of Dr. Jones, I’m just making this up as I go along. What I am hoping is that this represents a return to churning out tunes on a monthly basis once again.
On other musical fronts, I am currently recording with young Andy Weeks, a recording artist from West Palm who has a knack for writing nifty tunes. I have recorded him many times before, but this time he has partnered up with a fantastic drummer and the songs are really band orientated. I’m hoping that will conclude in the next month.
I also will begin recording again with Shawn Snyder this week on a new song of his that has some video plans attached to it. I’m sure many of Shawn’s fans will be anxious to hear this new material. All I can tell you is that I have heard the song and it’s an upbeat departure from the stuff on Romantic’s Requiem. I’m pretty sure his fans will be surprised by the direction.
Lastly, Chorderoy is up there in Boston doing their thing, playing around town and selling copies of The Playground EP. I understand that they have a substantial tour planned for the Spring and Summer, so as those plans solidify I will be sure to relay them.
That’s it from my end of the musical spectrum. Did I mention that someone solved the PIXELBOMB Puzzle? Well, dear friend Kylewilliam only solved the first part. There is more. Hassle him by email and he’ll probably give you the answer to the video “Query”. That is all…
GZ
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