Kat Kinkade, R.I.P.

I never met Kat Kinkade but I loved her two books about the Twin Oaks commune in Virginia. Communal living has always interested me, though I've never joined a commune. Ms. Kinkade was an excellent writer who brought alive the issues and conflicts that arose at Twin Oaks. Her first book came out in the '70s and was mostly taken from the Leaves of Twin Oaks, their newsletter. Her second book was more of a piece, her take on Twin Oaks in the '90s.

She made Twin Oaks sound like a wonderful community, but it suffered from many of the same problems as other communal entities: very low income and people slacking. Still, the commune continues to this day and that's something.

Ted McNamara, R.I.P.

A comment from his nephew alerted me to the passing of Ted McNamara. I knew him back in the 1970s, when we both used to hang out at Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood. (I've written about him earlier here.) He was quite a guy, though rather down and out at the time, living on income from telemarketing jobs and sporadic royalty payments from songs like "Sooner or Later" which he co-wrote.

He had studied to be a Catholic priest, but dropped out for a life of merrymaking. He was one of those guys who makes everyone feel good, always greeted folks like a long lost cousin. He went by the moniker "Trashy Teddy" because I suppose of his eclectic taste in paramours. The day his blocked Rhodesian royalties came through was a great party. But I go on.

I played my Sho-Bud pedal steel a few times in his pickup band at Barney's, until the cops stopped it, because Irwin didn't have a cabaret license. Doug Westin let Teddy's band play the Troubadour on Ted's birthday. I still have a tape or two from those days -- somewhere. Steve Dodge was a co-leader of the band (not really co-leader but a separate band with overlapping membership). Teddy introduced me to a number of famous musicians, but I am more grateful for the good times.

With Ted's passing, all my friend's from the '70s at Barney's are gone - Ted, Steve Dodge, Gracie Mueller. There were others I remember: Lucky (anything but), Cindy Grande (so-called because of her height) who had sore hands in the evening from giving massages all day, Stewart the bartender, and the rest (as they say on Gilligan's Island).

John Stewart R.I.P.

This is sure turning into the dead guys blog! The musician and songwriter John Stewart passed away this week. He wrote "Daydream Believer" and other songs, and was a member of the Kingston Trio. Roseanne Cash wrote a wonderful tribute to him and his approach to songwriting and life on her website.