Lunch Report Tue Aug 03 Well You Can Take This Job and ...

Thanks for the replys yesterday. I got slammed at work yesterday so I didn't get a chance to read any responses until late last night. I especially enjoyed some of the garden rants. Any of you lurkers can feel free to chime in too. I think we are mostly a friendly bunch here so you shouldn't get harassed too much.

About to eat lunch and it will be a Boca veggie burger with a handful of cherry tomatoes from the garden on the side, a glass of cold green tea and couple of Dove dark chocolates.

Work started out a bit slower today but then rapidly picked up pace and so we'll make today a "work" related theme.

This date in music history:
08/03/2007 Queen guitarist Brian May handed in his astronomy PhD thesis - 36 years after abandoning it to join the band. May had recently carried out observational work in Tenerife, where he studied the formation of "zodiacal dust clouds". I had also read recently that May is a contributer to some astronomy magazine.

That note about Brian May got me thinking about other notable rockers that
have gone on to do other things in addition to their music careers. So there is life after music, or at least life in addition to music. Some others I could think of off the top of my head:

Jeff Skunk Baxter:
has been working as a defense consultant and chairs a Congressional Advisory Board on missile defense. And I believe the Doobies did a reunion tour a couple of years ago.

Didn't Tom Scholz from Boston go on to more electrical engineer type work? I know he worked for Polaroid before forming Boston and he developed the Rockman. Not sure what he's been doing lately.

Greg Graffin, of punk band Bad Religion: Ph.D (in zoology I think?)
lectures courses in life sciences and paleontology at UCLA
Greg Graffin in Paste Magazine

Sonny Bono (and I'm sure I'm forgetting others) - politician

So who am I missing? Gotta be some more interesting/surprising jobs that
rockers are involved in.

And what about you? Anyone here make a mid-life career change?

That's all for today folks. Gotta run. With any luck I'll be able to check back in a bit later.

Jeff

Doubtful I can predict a mid life career change, Lord knows I have put enough time into engineering it will likely be my life (hopefully anyway).

One you missed (that most of you here probably don't know)

Matt Barlow (Iced Earth) quit the band after 9/11 to do police work. He has since returned, but was gone til 2009 or so, much to fans pleasure (He was replaced by Tim "Ripper" Owens, who did a good job on the second album not so much on the first).

One of the advantages to being a late bloomer is when I had my mid-life crisis about ten years ago - I got married and then had a kid. Quite a change in lifestyle.

Don't know about rockers working in some other field - I would not really miss any of the names so far mentioned if they left music.

But then there is:
Lonnie Johnson, in my opinion the best guitar player there ever was or ever will be, having to take a job as a janitor at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Philly to get by. Don't make no never mind to me that you played with Eddie Lang, Louis Armstrong, Victoria Spivey, James P. Johnson, Otis Spann, or whomever, here is your broom Mr. Johnson, now get to sweeping that floor.

So who am I missing? Gotta be some more interesting/surprising jobs that
rockers are involved in. Jeff

When I lived in Georgia in the mid-'90s I heard tell that Moe Tucker, drummer for The Velvet Underground, worked at a Wal-Mart in Douglas, GA to support her family. Don't know if it's true or not. The Velvet Underground ended up doing a reunion tour shortly thereafter, so I'm sure her employment at WM didn't last long.

Hmmm. Interesting!

Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull fame) was quite a successful salmon farmer. I think he sold his aquaculture business recently in order to concentrate on touring and making music.

As luck would have it, I'm having a bad problem with a relatively new (and different) computer today. If anybody wants to hear about it and try to advise me, send me a PM. I appreciated the advice I got here yesterday. Still, I'm down to one machine, and the latest one to go south has my wife's entire business on it. I'm coming to hate these darn things! - ed

Bruce Dickinson, airline pilot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somewhere_ ... World_Tour

Barry Melton from Country Joe and the Fish was a lawyer for 25 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Melton

Peter Garrett, lead singer for the band Midnight Oil, is Australia's Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts.

But then there is:
Lonnie Johnson, in my opinion the best guitar player there ever was or ever will be, having to take a job as a janitor at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Philly to get by. Don't make no never mind to me that you played with Eddie Lang, Louis Armstrong, Victoria Spivey, James P. Johnson, Otis Spann, or whomever, here is your broom Mr. Johnson, now get to sweeping that floor.

Ouch, I hate to hear stories like that. And we've probably heard similar stories 100 times about the blues pioneers
who died broke.

Peter Garrett, lead singer for the band Midnight Oil, is Australia's Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts.

Oh yeah, I forgot about him. I knew he was involved in some sort of political role.

And then there is Chuck Leavell (sp?) keyboards for the Stones and former Allman Bros keyboards.
I hear he is quite the successful tree farmer.

Hey Jeff,

Back from vacation and then a week 1/2 of computer meltdown. Guess a bit of yin and yang.

About to eat lunch and it will be a Boca veggie burger
Love Boca burgers.

Gotta be some more interesting/surprising jobs that
rockers are involved in.
Can only think of Ian Anderson's salmon farm.

And what about you? Anyone here make a mid-life career change?
No change in store today, but that could change tomorrow!