Conversations with Keefy

Glenn Danzig is not a guy I would exactly call shy. A person who has spent 35 years in the public eye via the music business can be considered enigmatic, no matter how low profile he wants to be. Since the punk and metal icon is a self-confessed workaholic I was stunned when I realized it has been six years since the release of DANZIG 8: CIRCLE OF SNAKES. He constantly works on projects as varied as his Verotik Comics, films, his recent lyric/art book and his own BLACK ARIAS series of which a third is scheduled for later this year. With the release of the new DETH RED SABAOTH and a mini-tour to promote it, DANZIG the band is back to the front burner. Although Danzig himself produced the record and played many of the instruments on it, he has also assembled his best lineup to since the DANZIG IV album. In guitarist Tommy Victor (PRONG/MINISTRY), and drummer Johnny Kelly (TYPE-O-NEGATIVE/SEVENTH VOID) he has put together a talented backbone. Either Danzig or Victor played bass on every t...

For nearly five years they rode around in the trunks of cars. In a box meant to hold four, a box meant to protect. Passed around from person to person to person. Carried through every station of life and death. Knowing they belonged to her. An inheritance neglected. It was my burden to carry, mine to own. It was unfair to foist it onto others. I know this now. Actually I have known it all along. And I feel ashamed. I could have reclaimed them at any time. But I didn't until now. Largely because I didn't want to deal with them. Because dealing with them means acceptance. Acceptance is something I don't do well so I avoid it. Avoid what I am afraid to confront. Confront what is past, what I cannot control, fix or change. Change never comes easy. Anxiety coping mechanisms fail. Easy is the road others have taken. Not the road I chose. Now I have them back, but I am still searching. Not feeling the closure I believed I would have by now. You can’t give away...

Bob Sheppard died today at age 99. I'll do what I can to make this tribute brief and do justice to the man with my words. Although I never knew the man personally, Sheppard meant a lot to me. Many of my experiences that involve sports- and my lifelong fandom of both the Yankees and Giants involve the man. Blessed with a buttery voice and a gift for elocution, Sheppard delighted and amazed fans via his job as a public address announcer for both teams. As Reggie Jackson dubbed him "the voice of god", he was as ingrained in the soul of the fans like any mainstay of either franchise in his nearly sixty year career. Being a speech professor and a poet in his life away from sports, he had a calm, professional weight to his delivery as opposed to the carnival barker to style of today's' announcers. Many will remember him for his much loved line-up introductions for Yankees baseball. However, for me the resounding memory I will carry of him was his presence at near...