7.10.14 Adam News & Info, All the "Notes from the Road"

Very touching. It reminded me that I was going to tell about my older brother, a 60-year-old guitarist and lover of all things musical. While I was visiting him during the start of the QAL tour, he asked if I had any more Adam videos to show him. (He doesn't do computers, so I have made special DVDs for him over the last couple years.) He really enjoys Adam. So we watched the iHeart tour preview and the Chicago Killer Queen on my laptop in my mother's living room. As we finished, my mom sad that my brother looks like he really enjoyed it and might have been teary eyed. He confessed, he did get teary. Songs of his youth. I don't remember him being a Queen fan, but certainly he knew the music. 

For a couple years, my mother, who is in dementia but still living "alone" next door to my brother, has stated that she does not like to have the radio on or any music. She just prefers silence nowadays. However, she is now visiting my sister and hubby who have been playing a stack of CDs of music from Mom's youth. Sis and hubby put headphones on her because she has hearing loss, and apparently she is sitting still with complete focus listening to this music. She has the CD cases all lined up in front of her so she can look at the tracks and liner notes. Then she's ready to listen again.

Also, she is a musician and quit playing the cello a few years ago (she's 87). (Yes, we are all musicians in my family.) However, my guitarist brother has somehow gotten her to take her cello to nursing homes where he enjoys playing for the old folks. She has been improvising along with him, even on songs she barely knows. She's never done improv before. What a great creative outlet and mental exercise for her--and an example of how to keep on truckin' in old age. While I was visiting one of these nursing home gigs, another lady got up front and did a soft-shoe dance routine. 

I love the arts!