My Mom

How do you sum up with words the 48 1/2 years of love and history of your mom? Simply you can’t.  My dad tried in the obituary he wrote but it didn’t cover much of the 51 years of marriage.  I know one thing about my mom for sure.  She loved me with everything she had. I never doubted that I was loved. She exuded love constantly to her family and friends. My mom was created to be a mother and a grandmother. She loved it more than anything in the world. I love you mom.

Crazy Grammy

Pamela Marie Campbell Bair, 71, passed away 30 September 2018 at the Avalon Care Center in Bountiful, UT, where she had resided since March 2016. She was born 30 July 1947 in Oakland, CA, to Russell Bert and Marjorie Gardner Ellis Campbell. She lived in various bay area towns and California central valley cities until moving to Carmichael, CA, in 1964, as a high school Junior, graduating in 1965 from La Sierra High School. Pam was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints on 6 August 1966. A couple of weeks later, she met her future husband, Evan Bair, during a production of the musical “Brigadoon,” in which they were both involved, and were married on 20 May 1967, in the Oakland, CA LDS temple. Pam and Evan were unable to have children, so they adopted three as babies in 1970, ’76 and ’79. Pam often told how they “went out and bought” their children. Since Evan worked for Pacific Southwest Airlines and later US airways, they found themselves moving to a number of cities in the U.S., including Meridian ID, Vancouver, WA, Surfside Beach, SC, SLC, Rescue, CA, Boston, MA, and Rock Hill, SC. After Evan’s retirement, they moved to Fair Oaks, CA, then Saratoga Springs, UT, and San Antonio, TX, before relocating to Farmington, UT in 2015. Pam entered the Avalon Care Center in Bountiful, UT due to her illness in March of 2016, where she remained until her death. She was preceded in death by her parents and she had no siblings. She is survived by her husband Evan, her children, Eran (Hanna), Jeff (Damy), and Nila (Casey Stewart), as well as six of her seven grandchildren, Aura, Brandon, Carly, Sydney, Evan and Ilia. Dylan died at birth. There are also two great-grandsons, Landon and Lane. Pam was known for her beautiful singing voice and her friendly, outgoing personality. She could do anything, including milk a cow, work on a car and help Evan build a house. As her daughter-in-law, Damy put it, she was “strong, beautiful, genuine, patient, a great listener, and wise.”
Viewing will be at the Farmington South Stake Center, at 695 S, 200 W, Farmington, on Monday, 8 Oct, from 9:30-10:30 AM, Prior to the funeral. Interment will be in the Alpine City Cemetery, Alpine, UT.

>Published in Deseret News on Oct. 7, 2018

Keith Richards Quotes on his 75th Birthday

The Rolling Stones have been one of my favorite bands for along time.  In honor of Keith Richard’s 75 birthday, here are some memorable quotes.

Drugs

The breakfast of champions. about cocaine and heroin from his book Life

I’ve never had a problem with drugs. I’ve had problems with the police.

I never thought I was wasted, but I probably was.

I don’t think John ever left my house, except horizontally.  –About doing drugs, with The Beatles John Lennon

I’m not putting death on the agenda. I don’t want to see my old friend Lucifer just yet. He’s the guy I’m gonna see, isn’t it? I’m not going to the Other Place,let’s face it.

 I’vegiven up everything now – which is a trip in itself. —After admitting he had finally given up hard drugs.

Music

Rockand Roll: Music for the neck downwards.

Tomake a rock’n’roll record, technology is the least important thing.

I’ve always been suspicious of TV, I’ve always found music and video to be an unhappy marriage.

If you don’t know the blues… there’s no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music.

Music is a language that doesn’t speak in particular words. It speaks in emotions, and if it’s in the bones, it’s in the bones.

And then I think we realized, like any young guys, that blues are not learned in a monastery. You’ve got to go out there and get your heart broke and then come back and then you can sing the blues.

A gut-string classical Spanish guitar, a sweet, lovely little lady. The smell of it. Even now, to open a guitar case, when it’s an old wooden guitar, I could crawl in and close the lid.

The Grateful Dead is where everybody got it wrong. Just poodling about for hours and hours. Jerry Garcia,boring shit, man. Sorry, Jerry.

Rap — so many words, so little said. What rap did that was impressive was to show there are so many tone-deaf people out there. All they need is a drum beat and somebody yelling over it and they’re happy. There’s an enormous market for people who can’t tell one note from another.

On Mick Jagger

The only things Mick and I disagree about is the band, the music and what we do.

I used to love Mick, but I haven’t been to his dressing room in 20 years.Sometimes I think: ‘I miss my friend.’ I wonder: ‘Where did he go?

Why would you want to be anything else if you’re Mick Jagger?

I thought it was ludicrous to take one of those gongs from the establishment…it’s not what the Stones is about, is it? I don’t want to step out on stage with someone wearing a fucking coronet and sporting the old ermine. I told Mick, It’s a fucking paltry honour.  -on Mick Jagger being Knighted.

Life

If you’re going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet.

It’s great to be here. It’s great to be anywhere.

When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church,which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you.

[John] Belushi was an extreme experience even by my standards.

I’ve never had inner turmoil about all this. You find a lot of people these days who cannot stand to be alone. You could lock me up in solitary for weeks on end, and I’d keep myself amused.

The rock’s easy, but the roll is another thing…

You can’t always get what you want, but if you really need something, you usually find it.

I’m all for a quiet life. I just didn’t get one.

Preaching is tax free. Very little to do with God, a lot to do with money

And as I took the lid off of the box, a fine spray of his ashes blew out on to the table. I couldn’t just brush him off so I wiped my finger over it and snorted the residue. Ashes to ashes, father to son.

I was number one on the Who’s Likely To Die list for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list.

RULES FOR SONS:

This post is for my kids.  My son is only 6 when I posted this.  No one knows what curves life with through out at you.  I want my kids to know and remember me after I am gone.  I didn’t write these but I think its important to share them.

1. Never shake a man’s hand sitting down.
2. Don’t enter a pool by the stairs.
3. The man at the BBQ Grill is the closest thing to a king.
4. In a negotiation, never make the first offer.
5. Request the late check-out.
6. When entrusted with a secret, keep it.
7. Hold your heroes to a higher standard.
8. Return a borrowed car with a full tank of gas.
9. Play with passion or not at all…
10. When shaking hands, grip firmly and look them in the eye.
11. Don’t let a wishbone grow where a backbone should be.
12. If you need music on the beach, you’re missing the point.
13. Carry two handkerchiefs. The one in your back pocket is for you. The one in your breast pocket is for her.
14. You marry the girl, you marry her family.
15. Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like crazy underneath.
16. Experience the serenity of traveling alone.
17. Never be afraid to ask out the best looking girl in the room.
18. Never turn down a breath mint.
19. A sport coat is worth 1000 words.
20. Try writing your own eulogy. Never stop revising.
21. Thank a veteran. Then make it up to him.
22. Eat lunch with the new kid.
23. After writing an angry email, read it carefully. Then delete it.
24. Ask your mom to play. She won’t let you win.
25. Manners maketh the man.
26. Give credit. Take the blame.
27. Stand up to Bullies. Protect those bullied.
28. Write down your dreams.
29. Always protect your siblings (and teammates).
30. Be confident and humble at the same time.
31. Call and visit your parents often. They miss you.
32. The healthiest relationships are those where you’re a team; where you respect, protect, and stand up for each other.

Robert A. Heinlein Is Needed More Today Than Ever.

The author Robert A. Heinlein has been dead for nearly 30 years but his words are more needed today than ever. To be upfront and honest I hadn’t read much Heinlein until recently. I had read his most well known book Starship Troopers in college as well as portions of A Stranger in a Strange Land.  Recently I saw a post on Facebook using one of his quotes:

[T]here seems to have been an actual decline in rational thinking. The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. They were idolized and treated as leaders; their opinions were sought on everything and they took themselves just as seriously—after all, if an athlete is paid a million or more a year, he knows he is important … so his opinions of foreign affairs and domestic policies must be important, too, even though he proves himself to be ignorant and subliterate every time he opens his mouth.

This quote is more relevant today than ever. Now every wealthy entertainer, athlete or social media star has an opinion and are experts in fields they have no business speaking about.  Millions of sheep seem to base their beliefs on what I call charlatans and fakers.  All you must do is listen to all the noise about the current President.

After reading the Facebook quote I did a quick search to see why Heinlein’s name seemed familiar. I was quickly reunited with several quotes that have impacted me and my life.

“I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; If I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”

One of my favorites is indirectly on gun control.

“An armed society is a polite society.”

“The police of a state should never be stronger or better armed than the citizenry. An armed citizenry, willing to fight, is the foundation of civil freedom.”

“Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.”

Or the role of individuals in our country.

“Love your country, but never trust its government.”

Anyway I love to create lists and write this blog so that my children and future generations know a little about me.  Please enjoy this other quotes from Robert A. Heinlein.

“The whole principle is wrong. It’s like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can’t eat steak.”

“Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not a sin – just stupid.)”

“When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you may not see, this you are forbidden to know,” the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything — you can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”

 

“Limiting the freedom of news ‘just a little bit’ is in the same category within the classic example ‘a little bit pregnant.’”

“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.”

“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”

“The human race divides itself politically into those who want to be controlled, and those who have no such desire.”

“Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.”

“In a society in which it is a moral offense to be different from your neighbor your only escape is to never let them find out.”

“There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.”

“Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Nations and peoples who forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.”

“Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.”

“You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.”

“The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of “loyalty” and “duty”. Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute, get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed.”

“Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost.”

Motörhead “Heroes” (David Bowie Cover)

I will confess I am not a huge Motörhead fan. However, I have been often intrigued by the late Ian Fraser Kilmister, better known as Lemmy especially after the rockumentary, “Lemmy” (2010). Lemmy is a lovable character of a rock star.

On September 1, 2017, Motörhead released “Under Cöver” an album of covers songs. My favorite track is one of my favorite David Bowie songs, “Heroes”.

 “Covers compilation to include new version of David Bowie’s “Heroes”, (above)Motörhead to release Under Cöver in September 2017 Covers compilation to include new version of David Bowie’s “Heroes”, (above) ONE THING Lemmy Kilmister, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee liked to do over their years together in Motörhead, was grab a favourite song by another artist and give it a good old fashioned ‘Motörheading’. To run them through the Motörizer if you will. To rock them, roll them and even give them an extra twist and edge.” Press Release from Motörhead

I have a soft spot for covers.  I think it gives a nice look to what goes into the creation of an artist.  It allows us the fans to view what inspires music that we love. Two years after the passing of Lemmy the album was a great tribute to a unique artist.  Here is Motörhead’s version of “Heroes.”