GUITAR DAD

 
 
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Visiting Walt Disney World is every child's dream come true, right? Well, not exactly.
 
My family spent an entire Saturday traversing two parks, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom, using complimentary employee passes left over from my tenure as a Disney speechwriter. All of us enjoyed the outing, from the dizzying drops of Expedition Everest and our close encounter with giraffes on a faux safari, to a drenching ride on Splash Mountain and my daughter's exuberant interaction with Sleeping Beauty.
 
But my son's most animated moments came when we discovered Webkinz for sale at various shops throughout the parks. He played for a few moments with the colorful stuffed animals at each location, fussing between displays about how much he needed another Webkinz (he has 13 of them). Finally, after being broken down by his persistent badgering, we bought a small Webkinz blue jay just a few steps from Pirates of the Caribbean. From that moment forward, we might as well have been strolling through Peoria. My boy promptly named his new friend Jay Jay and was rendered oblivious to the happiest place on earth.
 
Granted, my son suffers from a serious addiction to Webkinz, like a good many other kids I've learned. But a tiny stuffed bird trumping the magic of a Disney theme park? Yep, it's true. I saw it with my own two eyes.
 
 

Nothing pleases me more than hearing my kids hum and sing as they play. Luckily, they do it almost constantly, like little songbirds who can't contain themselves. It's true that my wife and I have something to do with this. We usually have music playing in the house and car, and we fire up the guitars and piano regularly, singing together as much as we can.

Music is, in my opinion, the most potent of art forms. It delivers sonic impressions directly to the eardrums and requires little to no analysis, instantly forming images in the mind and emotions in the heart. In their endless combinations, the constructs of music - melodies, harmonies, chords, rhythms - can express enjoyment, sadness and any other conceivable contour of life. But hey, don't take my word for it.

"Without music life would be a mistake." - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"He who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once." - Robert Browning

"In the end I think of music as a saving grace for all humanity. As the universal language it transcends the boundaries of nationality, social strata and political ideology. Whether we are educated or uneducated, rich or poor, whether we speak the same tongue or not, we still possess the ability to communicate our feelings to one another through music. The world would be a terrible place without it, a miserable place." - Henry Miller

"Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life." - Ludwig van Beethoven

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." - Victor Hugo

 
 
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I've never been much of a sports fan. But I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Orlando Magic choke the Boston Celtics last night in Game 7 of the NBA semi-finals. Mostly because my son got so excited. He would jump up and shout, "Mom, dad ... did you see that? They just scored again!"

The game went past his bedtime, so I agreed to jot down the final score on a scrap of paper and set it beside his bed, so he could learn the outcome the instant he woke up. It was amusing to watch him gleefully announce the results to his still-drowsy and very uninterested little sister.

Hopefully we'll enjoy more of this fun as the Magic, our hometown team, advance in the Eastern Conference finals and maybe, just maybe, take an NBA title. I know someone who has his little fingers crossed.
 
 
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Although Guitar Dad has been pretty certain of this fact his entire life, mainstream America is now all atwitter over the assertion that right-brain thinkers will soon rule the world.

This "breakthrough" comes to light as Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind and former speechwriter for Al Gore, makes the rounds promoting his new book. His stops included a high-profile pitch on Oprah the other day. Pink persuasively argues that creative thinking, innovative design and artful storytelling are the most important skills for our future. Meanwhile, left-brain inclinations like accounting and computer programming are "not enough" anymore, he says, and are increasingly being outsourced to Asia. But it's not all bad news for left-brainers. The author claims everyone can tap their sensitive side and adapt over time to these new expectations.

Cheers to all of us loosey-goosey right-brainers. Some of you may have thought we were just daydreaming losers, but we'll soon be bossing around all the stuffy bean-counting automatons, claiming our rightful place as kings and queens of the world!
 
 

A few years back, I wasn't terribly keen on the mp3 player concept. Hearing compressed digital files through tiny earphones seemed to be the antithesis of a quality listening experience. Audio fidelity was everything, I figured.

Then I broke down and bought an iPod Nano, mostly so I could carry a good-sized collection of tunes with me when I jogged. But I quickly grew fond of listening to this sleek little device at other times: while working in the yard, reading, staring into space, whenever. To have such a massive library of songs at your fingertips, in such a compact package, is truly mind-boggling.

Portability has definitely trumped fidelity for this old man. I love my iPod.

 
 

For Pete's sake! I just busted another pair of cheap shades. This is like the 10th pair of sunglasses I've gone through in the past two years.

Not sure exactly what I did wrong this time. I occasionally slip them inside my pants pocket, which is pretty dumb, I know. But this pair was constructed of really crappy plastic, so I'm thinking user error wasn't entirely to blame.

Not long ago I shelled out more than 90 bucks for what I thought were quality, long-lasting sunglasses. Ray-Bans to be exact. But they sucked, too, just as much as the $7 versions. So it's not really a get-what-you-pay-for deal with me.

I figure if my sunglasses are destined to fall apart, I'd better stick to the cheap ones. It's back to Target for Guitar Dad.

"Now go out and get yourself some big black frames with the glass so dark they won't even know your name." – ZZ Top

 
 

It was 10 years ago today that my wife and I closed on our first house. Now, 3,650 days later, it's still the place we fondly call home. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, swimming pool, decent-sized yard – all tucked away comfortably in suburban Orlando.

When we bought our humble abode, we figured we'd stay three, four, maybe five years and then upgrade. Well .... funny how time quickly and mysteriously disappears. Here we are, a decade and two kids later and upgrading is as implausible as ever. Also unnecessary. Our place may be modest, but all four of us fit within its boundaries just fine. Most important of all, we love our home sweet home.

On a nice spring day like today, with the hibiscus and gardenia blooming by the pool and a warm breeze whistling through the palms, we are grateful for our slice of pure paradise.