A Life And Work In Progress! Part Two!

I moved to New York City in 1989. I fell in love with a woman who was ten years older than me named Debra Rodman. She was a singer and she used to stand on her head as a way to relieve stress. She changed her name at one point to Debra Street and wrote a song about me called Young Kids. I have also changed my name a time or two as the occasion sees fit. It helps to sometimes get out of certain situations that may come up and is also very beneficial in having a fresh start on things. I highly recommend doing it at some point in your own lives. I managed a music store called HMV which was on 86th and Lexington. It was billed at the time as the largest Compact Disc store in the country. Now they hardly have them at all. They told me that I was ordering to many Bob Dylan titles. I had a bit part in a film called All I Know Is. I am not sure if it was ever released or not. I didn’t really like acting. It was hard to play someone else when I wasn’t even sure who I was yet. I also lost interest waiting around for 10 hours on the set to film a 5 minute part. This made no sense to me. I was at The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration at Madison Square Garden in 1992. Kris Kristofferson was still Billy The Kid and Johnny Cash was definitely tall and always the man in black! I had enough and moved to Los Angeles in 1993. It was time for a look back on my life to see who I was and where I came from. I was heartbroken. I wanted to know why when two people love each other and break up, then what is the cause of this? I was looking for answers. I became very interested in genealogy. I traced my ancestry back to 1798, I found lots of information on tombstones while visiting cemeteries and entered a year long study at The Kabbalah Centre. This was before Madonna took it over and made it a fashion statement. I have never followed fashions nor trends, that is not my thing, it is hard to keep up as it is with this ever changing world. I have been having lots of senior moments lately and I worry about that as well. I think it helps to always keep an active mind but be careful of getting overloaded with things as that could lead to worse problems. This would lead to a seven year study of The Torah and The Holy Scriptures. I would read through the whole book once a year. I would study and keep the Sabbath. I was wearing all white garments and didn’t cut my hair nor shave my beard for a year. I remember lots of strange looks at me in Beverly Hills at the time. I gave up driving in automobiles for a while. I was attempting to live the way I thought people lived many years back. I wasn’t bothering anyone and kept to myself. I experienced my first earthquake in 1994, it was in Northridge, California. Being from Minnesota if we see a tornado coming we get out of the way, with an earthquake it is below you. There is nothing you can do! I ended up having breakfast with Chrissie Hynde and Daniel Lanois who were walking down the street while all the aftershocks were happening. I knew a woman who had all her knick knacks velcroed down so they wouldn’t fall over and break. I have known lots of crazy women who have done lots of crazy things! I made two films in 1994, one was about the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the other was about life living in Los Angeles from my point of view. I did some work with Sally Kirkland in film, yoga and meditation. By 1998 I had enough of the west coast. At times I felt like the only good conversations I was having were with myself. It was time to get out of there. The two things I miss the most about Los Angeles is the palm trees and the ocean. I used to love watching the sunset into the water in Santa Monica. I have a saying that in Minnesota we would give all 10,000 lakes for one ocean. This was very healing to me and I remember saying prayers while the sun would vanish and disappear for another day.

Back living in New York City in 1999. I felt I would try it once again. I became licensed in real estate there with my brother-in-law Randy Goldwater, and worked for a company called Douglas Elliman. I was an independent contractor. All I had to do was show up wearing a suit and tie and let whoever was interested in renting an apartment in to see it and I would collect a brokers’s fee. This was not for me either. I had another nervous breakdown or two while walking around the diamond district and moved back to Minneapolis in 2001. My old buddy Larry Kegan used to tell me that the years all go together and it is hard to keep track of them all. I have also had some missing years myself. In 2003 I lost my cousin Richard. His favorite musician was Bruce Springsteen. He used to imitate him, it always made me laugh! He would become friends with Nils Lofgren and we would go to many shows together over the years. It was bittersweet to see one of the greatest concerts of all time without him by my side shortly after his death and that would be the 2004 Vote For Change concert at the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota that featured Bruce with Neil Young and many others. I had a two year relationship with a woman who made corsets and was a fashion designer named Melanie Ree from 2005-2007. I also had insomnia for a while during the winter of 2008. That sucked, the world goes on while you walk around like a zombie. Glad I got over that! In 2006 I turned 40 years old. Whoever coined that expression that life begins at 40 was way wrong. It seems life gets more difficult as we get older but we have to use all the wisdom we gain to deal with it and move forward. We have no choice. Today I like to hang out with my niece Basha Goldwater who was born in 2001 and my nephew Abe Percansky who was born in 2008. I like to spend time with my Doberman Pinscher named Ruby and take her for walks outside and smell the fresh air wherever I can find it. I feel happy but not quite content on all things. I feel there is way more that needs to be done. Life is good, I can’t complain and A Work In Progress!