April 29, 2013 By Leave a Comment

re: Just sitting there…

I was just sitting there, not really thinking, without a care. Oh, I had the sense of I , and me, because, well, I carry them most everywhere.

I wonder what it would be like to have been completely shaped by me? Without a culture, society, or even family. I wonder if I would even know that I, was I, or even me. The things you think when you are just sitting there.

I like the sound of laughter, I can hear it in my ear. I can also feel it in my soul, and sometimes, even in my heart. I don’t know if it sounds good because it feels good, or feels good, because it sound good. I like laughter, it comes in more dresses than a High School Prom.  I think of laughter when I am just sitting there.

I know a lot of people, some think they know me, and I am not sure that even I do. Yet, I am more certain that I know who they are- and how can that be true. Sit there for a while, just sit there, and you may wonder too.

Wonder is another thing I do when I am sitting there. Both kinds of wonder. First the Wonder, of a sky filled with stars, galaxies, and tiny points of light, so far back in time, that even my weak old eyes can see for at least a billion years, maybe more.

The second kind of wonder, is: who lives out there? What does it all mean” Is there a reason? I mean I wonder if my life meant anything except to the folks I knew. I wonder what it would be like to live on another planet. What would my body look like? Would I even have one? Would I be sitting some where – up there- just sitting there?

I wonder how we know what love is. I mean if you are just sitting there, you know if someone loves you, usually. You even know the different kinds of love that surround you, even when you are alone, just sitting there. Love is even cooler than laughter, because Love can make you act. It can make you do. It can make you alive. Laughter , especially if you are just sitting there, lets happiness in.

So, if you are just sitting there, how much of you is present? Or did you go for a quick trip to your past? Or maybe, you are in your future? Pretty nifty trick your mind can do, move through time, while just sitting there. Physicist can’t figure it out, and we do it standing still. Maybe you even lived your life over, or made it different in your memory. Maybe some folks were left out, and others left in, as you chose to remake what made you – you. All, while you were just sitting there.

Me, too. I think I will just sit here a while longer. Or, maybe I will shift a bit, and just sit over there. Ahhh…..

April 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment

RE: Flash Fiction: “My name is Bob.”

I know. I know. Everyone calls me : “God.” Oh, sure, they have different names for me, ever since that tower thing, what a Nimrod he was. I think I may have made a mistake by letting everyone babble on. But, then again, I can’t make mistakes, so somewhere down the line, it has to turn out to be  good thing. Anyways, I don’t want to be called “God” anymore.  You know: “Guilt by association.”  I don’t want to be associated with people who testify they believe in me, and then go out and kill folks, or hate people over an interpretation of “my words” (which they aren’t, by the way. A bunch of Greeks, Latins, and then seven guys in Scotland- of all places- decided what I said, or what I meant).

So, my new name is: “Bob.” Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? People aren’t afraid of Bob. Bob, well, Bob, is a guy- just like you – someone you could talk to, and listen to, and even disagree with, but not strongly, because, well , you like Bob, and it would be just mean to be nasty towards him. You sure can’t use Bob as any kind of curse: “Bob, dammit.” See? No weight behind it. “Oh, Sweet Bob.” See? It just kind of makes  ”Bob”, more endearing!

“Bob will smite you!” Really? Bob? Come on. “And Bob so loved his people, he told them to wander in the desert for a couple of decades.” I don’t think so. Yep. Bob. That is my new moniker. Not a trace of the Old or New in it. No killing of children, or of entire lands, no virgins, or Angels, or need for constant validation. No living in sin, unless “God Forgives you.” You wouldn’t ask Bob for forgiveness- you just wouldn’t do Bob any wrong in the first place.

Bob is reasonable. It is the name of a Math teacher, or History professor, or the guy who couldn’t quite make the Varsity. It is the guy everyone knows, everyone like, and no one speaks badly of. Nor he, of them. Yep. Bob.

You can’t make heavy pronouncements, or predict dire consequences like:  ”Bob shall rain fire and brimstone down around your puny heads.” “The Wrath of Bob is at hand.” See? No fear. No damnation.

So, please, if you believe in me at all, call me: “Bob.”

 

April 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

For your dream to work, you have to work your dreams….

Do you have dreams? Did you do anything today to move you towards one of them?

Does anyone else know your dream? Anyone at all?

There is an old Chick flick, called: Don Juan DeMarco. In that movie, the young guy thinks he is Don Juan, but every girl he seduces (in his imagination) is the one girl he loves. The old Psychiatrist treating him for his “Delusions” is played by Marlin Brando (of Godfather Fame). In one scene, the young Don Juan, says to Marlin’s character: ” Who are you to tell me about Romance? You have been married for 30 years, and I bet you don’t even know your wife’s real dream.”

So, Marlin’s character goes home, and watches his wife work in the garden. He walks up to her and says: “Honey, do you have a real dream that you haven’t chased?”  She leans back on the dirt, stops shoveling for a second, and looks up at him: “When you ask that question for real, without prompting by someone, I will answer you.”

You are not the only one with dreams, but you are the only one who can make them come true, or find the folks who will help you make them come true. I am a comic. I worked harder than anyone I know when I first started. Driving 500 miles for $25 bucks and a chance to be on stage. Most guys, when I started, were going up on New Talent nights, I was going up anywhere that would let me. More than 400 shows a year, for more than a decade. I got good. Along the way, many, many, many comedians, and agents helped me.

One comic gave me and my budding family (wife and two kids under the age of five) the money to move to Louisville, Ky to be near the biggest Comedy Agent in America – at that time- just about every comic from 1970 to 1999 – has worked for this guy. When I walked in his office, he gave me six months PAID  work, just off of the recommendation of this other comic. I asked that comic why he helped me and my family out back then:

“Kevin, I knew you were good for it. For me, it was just beer money. For you, well, I knew your family would support you, if you could support them. I thought you had talent, guts, and grit. That is what it takes to make it in comedy.”  Thanks Mark. I thanked you then, I thank you now. Of course, Marty (another Louisville comic) called this same agent, from the Green Room of Carson! To tell this Agent to hire me, that Mark had a good eye for new comics. Marty and Mark, gave my family the gift of a career. They are dream builders.

Notice that they staked their reputations on me coming through. That is why you have to work so hard at your dreams. A lot of folks will risk their dream to help yours. If you do the work, they will do what they can. Sometimes it is an introduction. Some times it is a gig. Sometimes, it is a phone number, or a contact at a different club. Sometimes, it is just a long talk in a Waffle house booth , late at night, discussing the ins and outs, of comedy.

Work your dream. Do something each day that moves you towards it. Then….MOVE!

Kevin- who is living the dream- letting others live the nightmare of letting a dream die.

April 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment

How to make yourself smile:

Here you go, tips to a momentary, or lasting smile:

1) Remember your first kiss?

2) If you can’t remember your first kiss, can you remember your sweetest kiss?

3) Think of any song, that brings back a memory. And then, think of another song, and its memory!

4) Remember your Mom? Your Dad? Your sister? Your brother? Or, son, or daughter? Remember when they made you smile? Got a picture you can look at? Then do so.

5) How about your wedding? Forget how you feel now (if it din’t quite workout) but go back to how you felt then.  Excited? Nervous? Good cake? Who danced? I remember my sister standing on my Dad’s feet, to dance a song with him.  I remember my Dad dancing with his daughter , all decked out in her wedding dress (I had the same experience).

6) Ever get a grade you worked your butt off to earn? Look back and smile.

7) Every caught the tough catch? Or sliced a serve right where you wanted it? Or got a dig in volleyball that everyone else thought was a point for the other team? Every finish a race, knowing you gave it everything you had? Bet that thought made you smile.

8) When did you know that something fit? Your job, your partner, your family, your religion? You fit. And fit in. Smile!

9) When did you do something that nobody knows you did, but you are proud of it? Like return a wallet, help out someone in need, do a kindness your partner, or spouse, or even for yourself? Smile.

10) Remember a day you were so glad to be alive for? Well,today is that day. Smile!!!

Last, but not least, when did you laugh, really laugh- last? Make that laughter into a smile.

April 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment

re: Words, by Kevin Hughes. A song? A poem? Or, just words?

Words

some whispered and carried on the wings of memory

spoken, or giggled, or quietly breathed on the neck or face of a close one

Words

hanging like a necklace of things to be savored, fingered and prayed over, like a Rosary beed chain, of things heard

Words

some biting, some chafing, some filled with anger, or remorse, shifting and settling into different parts of your heart

Words

still wet with the soft lips that spoke them at the that moment, or dried up by the withering blast of time

Words

kept close, like a four leaf clover in a hidden pocket, to be brought out again, on those moments of repose, where the past sits quietly in front of you.

Words

Promises, and vows, and hopes, and dreams all contained in words that weren’t carved in stone, but lasted lifetimes

Words

ones that can’t be brought back, once uttered into the sounds of one’s life, even the ones you wish you could

Words

Some can bend your soul to the breaking point, or fill your heart to overflow, or stop your breath for a minute, as you realize someone said: I love you.

Words

From some folks, they flit, leaving little marking of their content or path, other folks fling them with abandon, causing you to cry, or laugh, or hold a grudge

Words

even written in a soft calligraphy, can mount the power to slice through a heart, or soul, or country with equal aplomb

Words

when you hear the ones you are meant to hear, your soul becomes crystal clear, your heart beats pure, and your hand finds comfort in the speakers hand.

Words

 

April 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

I guess I will just keep walking.

I was four the first time I got lost. I walked to the zoo. I thought I knew the way. A lady who knew my neighbor, found me wandering up on 25th Street almost to the High Level bridge. I had turned the wrong way. That was about two miles from our house on West 30th street. I walked.

I wrote a blog about the time I got lost coming back from seeing the Christmas Displays downtown. The snow was so deep, and the wind was so howling, that I walked right by the top of 30th Street on Clark Avenue. My sister Kay found me, wrapped me in her coat- and to this day, I can smell the warmth in that coat. She took me home. Dad took me to the Hospital. I was six. I walked that.

I used to walk to my old neighborhood in Cleveland, from North Olmsted. I did that a couple of times a summer. Until my Cleveland friend told me to stay out in the Suburbs. He thought I had a chance. That walk was more than 12 miles.

I used to walk to my best friends house, and my girlfriends house- and that walk was exactly a mile each way. No problem. I walked that in snow, rain, sun, and fog. I walked to School both St. Richards, and North Olmsted High School, many times. I liked walking.

In the Army, we called it “Marching”, or “Forced Marches”, or even “Scouting.” It was walking to me, and I loved it. I have walked in deserts, jungles, and forests, and swamps, and well, ridge lines, and valleys, and mountains. I just walked. The only difference in the walking, was in the Army, you carried lots of stuff. Luckily, I never went to combat, so I have never experienced what walking must be like when you are hyper alert. I did walk with a bear on my back trail once, and that, makes you walk with intent.

I met Kathy, and we walked. When we were young. When we became parents, and when the kids were younger. They are all walkers. I have held their hands, all three of my girls, while we walked. We have walked beaches, and mountain paths, and edges of oceans, and cliffs in Ireland, volcanoes in Hawaii, steps of palaces in Russia and Europe, and pacific atolls, with my hand safely surrounded by a loving grip.

I have walked in Iceland, Greenland, and the Baltic, sometimes, still getting lost. Like the time Kathy and I were lost in Hamburg, Germany. We found a police man, and he said: “You are not in Hamburg…this is – (we forget the name of the town-) …Hamburg Port, where your ship is, is 18 miles from here!”

We walked back. So, we know that day, in less than 22 hours we walked 36 miles. Yes, we napped when we got back, and we sure didn’t walk for a few days.

Now, we walk our neighborhood. I walk the sea cliffs of Hawaii, and the decks of the Cruise ship, and soon, back on the trails of Alaska. Occasionally I will walk on the snow pack, or ice fields, and even upon glaciers- but, only with cleats, hiking boots don’t cut it on ice, or snowpack. I guess, I will just keep on walking. Yes. That will be fine. I will just keep on walking.

 

April 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Create a playlist of your friends favorite: Teen Age Song.

Aloha All,

Can you remember being sweet 16? Were you single, going steady, pinned, or ringed? Were you in a band, sports, or school? What music brings back those High School Days?  Can you remember your first date, your first kiss, your first car?  Well, sometimes music can bring you right back there. So, I asked about thirty of my friends to pick a song (one song!) that, for them, captured the magic of their teen years. What fun it has been.

Some had romantic songs, some had a story to go with the song, some it was both sad and beautiful. One lady had a tragedy happen, and the song: “Precious and Few” became her anthem. When she got married, when she was 47 years old, Precious and Few was her wedding song. Another friend got his first car, a  Camarro , and when he first turned the radio on, it was playing: “Jerahmaiah was a bullfrog.” Now, forty years later, whenever he hears that song- he is back in his first car, and he can feel the shifter, the power, and the youth!

Another felt his first love, and could even smell her, as he held her- and when that song comes on, he is holding her at a dance. Another friend,  who was a good dancer, remembers : Moni Moni – because it was the first song where his dancing drew a circle at a High School Dance.

Another fella told me he had to take summer school Algebra (because he flunked it during the regular term) . He hated the thought of summer school, and he was embarrassed to go. But, he told me:

” There were 9 kids in that class. Five guys, four girls. We became great friends. We would go to school from 8 AM, until Noon, and then we would pile into our cars and go to the local lake. I am still friends with six of them- and one of the guys is still married to one of the girls. We would ride in the cars with the radio blaring Beach Boy tunes. It was the happiest summer of my life! Good thing I flunked Algebra! ”

NOTE: He told me that all nine of them passed with at least a C + !

One friend told me: ” I was High, from 1968 until 1971…so, I can’t give you a particular song, but I can tell you the music was Far out, and Groovy!”  LOL

Here is the list my friends came up with…it is pretty eclectic, as are my friends. Send in a song or story  about your teen moments! Smiles, Kevin who’s song was Groovin on a Sunday Afternoon.

Groovin by the Rascals
Just my imagination- Temptations
My Girl- Temptations
Crazy- Patsy Kline
Jump: Van Halen
Young Love by Sonny James / Tab Hunter version too.
Precious and Few- Outsiders
Tennessee Waltz- Patti Page
Puff the Magic Dragon…Mama’s and Papa’s.
Long Train Running by the Doobie Brothers
My Love by Paul McCartney and Wings
Sherry Baby by Frankie Vale and the Four seasons
I think we’re alone now: Tommy James and the Shondells
Yesterday: Beatles
Winds of change by the Scorpions
I am Back: Michael Jackson
I’m Your Captain: Grand Funk Railroad
Pinball Wizard: The Who
Inagodadivda : Iron Butterfly ( By the way, the guy that sent this said: “Try dancing to that! ” LOL
I’m Going Home by Ten Years After
Jerahmia was a bullfrog by Credence Clear Water
I want to hold your hand by the Beatles
Nirvana (No particular song)
Metallica (No particular song)

 

April 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Big News, it is going to get quieter on this Blog!

Aloha All,

I shall start posting only once a week starting in May. So, you only have to check four times a month. I will look forward to your comments, as always- but am growing more quiet and thoughtful as I age. LOL

Kevin of the quivering quill, and drying ink.

April 18, 2013 By 1 Comment

I call this: Spring.

The Wisteria vines making art.

The Wisteria vines making art.

April 15, 2013 By 1 Comment

Bullied and Beautiful, watch this amazing Canadian Poet put it in wordsss…

Aloha Everyone,

I sent this onto as many people as I could. I have watched it three times in a row. If you were ever bullied, sad, or just couldn’t figure out where you belonged, this young poet hits it. I cried openly, and laughed, for like a lot of folks who made it- he has a sense of humor. I think, some of you will see yourself, I did.

His questions as a child…well, they are some of the ones that are bothering me now. It is only ten minutes long…and lasts a lifetime. Kevin

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