Like my friend and collaborator, Daniel, I was also once a child, and a boy to whom music played an early and important role. I began playing the cello when I was six, and in the third grade, when asked to write a fantasy, I wrote that I wished Jimmy Page would come to my tree-house and teach me to play guitar. 

He did not, but I continued to play the cello, and though I had little more than average musical talent as a child, I was able to travel and perform in New York, Finland, Jamaica, and even once at Walt Disney World, in Florida. 

The Disney trip was poorly timed; I was fourteen and running with an older crowd. They’d introduced me to bands like to the Sex Pistols and the Ramones, and the day before the flight to Orlando, my friend, Spencer Houser, taught me how to bleach and spike my hair. 

My parents were not happy, and my strict, conservative cello teacher leading the trip was especially pissed off. He chastised me soundly, and we all got on a plane to Florida. On arrival, we were informed by the Disney staff that I would not be allowed on stage with my half-orange flat top, because ‘this was not the image they wished to portray’. A few years later, I might have found my middle finger and put it to use, but at this tender age, and with the help of my forbearing mother, I found instead an aerosol can of dark brown hair paint. Thanks mom. The show must go on.

This Saturday at OAKLAND YARD - the day before Mother’s Day - we will be hosting our second musical event of the month, and I’m happy to say, we’ll exert no control over the style, appearance, or subject matter of our performers; we ask only that they wear clothes and don’t injure anyone.

TONIGHT 5/11:Thursday Night Flights! Red and White Flights from 4 to 8pm. Taste 3 Pinot Noirs or 3 Sauvignon Blancs for $12. All tasting wines 10% off.

FRIDAY 5/12: Kermit Lynch Tasting. A flight of three French wines with Kermit Lynch’s Matt Gerloff and special guest, winemaker Philippe Bernede from Clos de la Coutale in Cahors, from 5 to 7pm. $12.

SATURDAY 5/13: LIVE MUSIC with soul vocalist Jonathon Hampton from 4 to 6pm. Wines by the glass.