Sunday, October 14, 2012

Photo-of-the-Week #76 - A Rose and A Thorn - Trinidad, California, November 2005



Okay! It's pretty obvious who the rose is and who the thorn is in this photo of the week. This is the ever lovely Crystal Gale - a rose is a rose is a rose. During my career in live sound and recording, I've had the opportunity to meet and spend varying amounts of time with many celebrity performing artists. In this instance, I was not providing professional services, I was simply a member of the audience.

Crystal Gale is a small woman in stature, but her voice is big, full and beautiful. She is still one of my all time favorite female country artists and I was very pleased to have the opportunity of attending her concert and to meet her and spend a few moments with her at the Indian casino in Trinidad, California, about 30 minutes north of Eureka, California . She is a very gracious woman. I'm really not a big "groupie." I don't fawn all over an artist. But, having worked with many of them over my career, I know how hard they work and what life is like on the road going from one gig to another with little time for a personal life during a tour. So, I like to take a moment, when it seems appropriate, to express my appreciation for their talent and for what they invest in a nomadic lifestyle when they are on tour.

Oh, and the thorn, yes, that's yours truly sporting a short goatee and mustache. Once upon a time, long ago and in a land far, far away, The Professional Nomad had dirty blonde hair and a red beard and mustache. I was "affectionately" called Barbarossa, which means "red beard" in Italian, when I sported a beard in my graduate school days. I choose not to wear a beard and mustache any longer since they are now all white, as is the halo of hair I have left when I let it grow out. Call it vanity if you choose. I just simply don't want to look like my grandfather did at this age, at least not yet.  

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