AUDREYS MUSICAL JOURNEY - PART FIVE: CLOUDBURST Each time I find myself laying flat on my face, I pick myself up and get back in the race. Thats life. So said Frank Sinatra (and for the completist, so said O.C. Smith) in his late 1966 Reprise label classic, Thats Life. And while I have often invoked Sinatras signature line as a part of my own mission statement in recent years, it also ended up being the inevitable course of action in the late summer of 1991 for my beloved wife, Audrey, who tragically passed away on the 30th of October after suffering a major stroke and brain hemorrhage a week earlier. During that fateful summer of 1991, Audrey in turn suddenly found herself having to get back in the race after the death of her father, Alfred from a stroke, and from being abruptly uprooted as a result from her comfort zone in Manila and transplanted to the promising yet unfamiliar atmosphere of Southern California (albeit joining the rest of her family there in the process). Still a baby Christian at that time, Audrey immediately sought solace by searching for a new home church. Sadly, at that point, she also found herself in the minority in her new found faith within her circle of family and friends. Even so, many among them offered to help her get acclimated to her new environment, and Audrey spent a great deal of her first days in Southern California seeing the sights and getting familiar with the area hot spots. But that wasnt enough to assuage the longing that she still felt deep inside. As such, she opted to return to the one thing that provided suitable distraction for her in such times of challenge: her career. Buoyed by a reference from her Uncle Jerry (who at that time had a successful position in the oil industry, and with his wife -- Audreys Aunt Claire -- was a long time Dodgers season ticket holder, who counted both players and management among his many friends), Audrey was put in touch with the Los Angeles School District, who hired her on the spot as the Assistant Finance Manager at one of the districts junior high schools in neighboring Sun Valley. True to form, Audrey gave her new position her trademark one hundred and fifty percent effort. She often worked into the evening hours and tried her best to bring an atmosphere of civility and respect into what was becoming an increasingly frictional environment. But somehow, the long hours that Audrey spent in the finance office still were not enough. And since a new church home had not yet availed itself to her (exacerbated by the fact that Audrey still did not drive), the only reasonable answer to her seemed to be to jump even further into the career end of things. Around that same time, Audreys brother Arnel mentioned to her that he had heard that the Fedco Department Store chain was in the process of hiring additional part time employees. Fedco was an enormously popular, membership only store (predating the similar approach taken by Costco, Fed Mart and others by several decades), which had an outlet at the time on nearby Raymer Street in Van Nuys. Audrey stopped by the Van Nuys location and expressed her interest, and once again was hired on the spot. This now meant that Audrey was working between sixty and seventy hours per week, from morning until evening, every single day. But for the moment, it looked as though such a grueling pace would work out well for her. As was the case at the department store chain for which she served as sneior vice-president back in Manila, the team at the Fedco Van Nuys store treated one another like family (and indeed, many of Audreys lifelong friends were a part of that team, including Sandra and Liseth, both of whom were eventually in our wedding party). And although the Fedco chain closed its doors for good in 1999, many of the alumni of the Van Nuys store remain in touch to the present day. But back in those closing weeks of 1991, it looked as though Audrey had once again found her niche. She kept up that frantic pace throughout 1992 and well into 1993. But again, God had other plans. Meanwhile, back at Blitz Magazine, I had found myself juggling a variety of responsibilities. Having left Michigan for the greener pastures of Los Angeles at the end of 1979, I immediately plunged head first into the burgeoning local music scene and the flourishing music industry, loving every minute of it. Evenings were often spent covering bands in clubs and other venues, and then staying up into the early hours of the morning in those pre-computer days at the typewriter, getting the story ready for the typesetter. Through it all, I was increasingly hearing the call of the Lord in my own life, though. I had originally come to the Lord in 1959 during a Bible study at school, but had fallen away after the untimely passing of my beloved father, Kenneth McDowell at the end of July 1966. However, after nineteen years of once again inadvertently taking direction from Frank Sinatra (I did it My Way), the Lord brought me back to His way of thinking in 1985. After spending two years at The Hiding Place church in West Los Angeles, in late 1987, I joined roughly twelve thousand others as a member of Pastor Jack Hayfords Church On The Way in Van Nuys. But my renewed passion for all things Jesus didnt end there. I then became a member of the first graduating class of The Kings Seminary in 1990, and a year later began work on my advanced degree in Pastoral Ministry at LIFE Pacific College in San Dimas. The latter involved spending a semester of study in Israel, which was a once in a lifetime experience that should be had by all. However, in the process, after fifty-eight issues, I was forced to put Blitz Magazine on a sabbatical while I completed my studies. Nonetheless, Blitz made its triumphant return in January 1996, as what is (to the best of my knowledge) the first magazine of its kind to adapt an entirely online presence. But I digress. And of course, once again, God had other plans. In the process of those extensive studies (compounded by my time consuming involvement in various Church On The Way activities, including membership in the choir and teaching a sixth grade Sunday School class), I not only had to put Blitz on hold for a season, but any sense of a social and personal life, as well. To be certain, things were also hectic on this end in the early 1990s. But through it all, it was necessary to attend to the everyday necessities of life, which of course included doing the shopping. Having done some occasional reporting for the Los Angeles Times in the late 1980s, I managed to get through them a much coveted membership card for the Fedco Department Store chain. I visited Fedcos Van Nuys outlet at least twice a week, and was immediately impressed by the camaraderie amongst the stores various employees, and how that camaraderie in turn reflected in their collective willingness to go the extra mile for their members. Almost inevitably, I was drawn to one particular Fedco employee who took that mission statement very personally, and always went far and away above the call to make my shopping experience there a pleasant one. That employee of course was Audrey, and in short order, I found drawn to soon becoming smitten with in her case (and ironically at first, I almost didnt pursue those feelings, as I had assumed Audrey to be about nineteen years of age; much to my relief, I soon learned that she was actually in her early thirties at that time). I was smitten to the degree that even if I didnt have any particular shopping needs on a given day, I would stop by Fedcos grocery department and pick up something as inconsequential as twenty cents worth of broccoli, in the hopes that she was on the job at that time. However (and not surprisingly), Audreys undeniable charisma made her one of Fedcos more popular employees, and I often found myself competing for her attention with other shoppers whose interests lay more in their purchases. As such, throughout 1993 and into the early days of 1994, my good intentions proved to be an exercise in futility. That all changed on Martin Luther King Day in January 1994 at 4:31 in the morning, when Southern California was rudely jolted awake by an 8.1 earthquake that had its epicenter roughly three miles from Van Nuys. I was alerted to it about thirty seconds before the fact when my dog, Peeps and my cats, Doctor and Baby Lee all began to act very strangely; all running for cover seconds before the earthquake struck. Sure enough, the Northridge Earthquake was an experience that staggered the imagination (and crumbled a few buildings in the process). As soon as the phone lines came up later that morning, I got a call from one of my church friends, Michael Waters, who wanted to know if I was okay and if I wanted to go out with him to survey the damage and hopefully find a grocery store that was open. As Michael and I drove through the San Fernando Valley and assessed the damage, we actually didnt find any retailers open for business until we crossed over the Hollywood Hills into West Los Angeles. There, a lone Trader Joes store was attempting to accommodate the understandably high influx of customers. But through it all, I kept wondering if Fedco had survived the earthquake, and how Audrey was doing. The store did remain closed for a couple of days. But when it finally reopened, I went in and was most relieved to find Audrey there. Thankfully, she was in the stores restaurant on a break, and for the first time ever, I had a chance to sit down and talk to her at length. And talk we did. I was elated to find out that she was a Christian, and I told her about my involvement with Church On The Way, and how I was working towards my second degree in Pastoral Ministry. She was most receptive. But duty soon called, and she had to return to work. To my considerable frustration, subsequent visits to Fedco found Audrey back on the job each time, with me once again competing with other shoppers for her attention. Obviously the current battle plan wasnt working, and something had to be done. Sure enough, God found a way. The Easter season was fast approaching, and as a member of Church On The Ways choir, we were an integral part of the Easter musical presented each year in the churchs sanctuary. So on my next visit to Fedco, rather than endure another, Hey buddy, move it! from a disgruntled shopper who had no interest in my (presumably obvious) intentions towards Audrey, I brought with me a flyer that advertised the upcoming musical, and wrote my phone number on it. I handed it to Audrey and said, Im in this. Id love for you to be there. Please call me. To my considerable joy, I saw Audrey once more before the Easter musical premiered. She said that she would be there, and would look for me after the performance. Needless to say, that made my day. So much so, that at the final choir rehearsal before the first performance, I told some of my colleagues in the choir that I had at last met a wonderful woman, and that she would be attending the Sunday morning performance. Having been long between such situations due to my extensive commitments, many expressed their happiness for this new development. But that Sunday morning, my joy turned to anxiety when I looked out across the sanctuary, and Audrey was nowhere to be found. She had stood me up. Not surprisingly, I got a few pats of sympathy on the shoulder from others in the choir, who said, There, there, it will be alright. Youll find somebody someday, as they looked at one another and made circular motions with their index fingers near their temple. By late afternoon, my anxiety had turned to frustration. Where was she?, I wondered. Well, I didnt have to wait long for the answer. Around 6:00PM, my phone rang. It was Audrey calling. Sure enough, she confessed. Although she had taken great pains to distance herself from the confines of the jingoistic atmosphere of her native land, her traditional upbringing had told her that it wasnt polite for a nice girl to either show up on what to her constituted a blind date, or (worse yet) telephone a guy. The guy was supposed to do the calling, rather than the other way around, she reasoned. So instead of heading for the church, she instead went to work that Sunday on her usual shift at Fedco. It was then that I had a whole new profound sense of gratitude for the camaraderie amongst her fellow colleagues. For that afternoon, two of them ganged up on Audrey at work and read her the proverbial riot act for standing me up. One of them, the aforementioned Liseth (who ultimately was the maid of honor at our wedding) told Audrey in no uncertain terms, Are you crazy? I met him. Hes a nice guy! Whats the matter with you? Call him! Now!! And so she did. When Audrey phoned, she was most apologetic. At first, I was a bit hesitant. But when she explained herself, I thought to myself, Well, Ill give her another chance. This time, I asked her out to dinner. My venue of choice was Norms on Sherman Way, a family restaurant that would ensure that if Audrey stood me up again, I would at least get a good meal that evening! But as it turned out, Norms was her mom and dads favorite restaurant, and she readily accepted the invitation. So on that first date that should have been our second date, we enjoyed a great dinner at Norms (well I did, anyway; Audrey was, by her own admission, too nervous to eat and offered me more than half of her own dinner). We then got in my car and drove down to Playa Del Rey, where we took a long walk on the beach along the Pacific Ocean and talked about everything that came to mind. Long story short, it was just about love at first date. Which brings us to the musical end of things. I had filled Audrey in on my rabid passion for music, as well as my involvement in the music industry with Blitz Magazine. To my considerable joy, she was most receptive and told me all about her own musical interests, including those covered at length in the first four installments of this series. So when I brought Audrey home that evening, she invited me in for a moment to meet her family. They included her mom, her five brothers (Arnel, Alfred, Aaron, Adam and Arwin), her Aunt Aileen and her Cousin JoAnn. Audreys abrupt departure from the Philippines in 1991 meant that she had to leave most of her record collection behind, in her hasty departure. As such, only a handful of 45s by vocalist Pops Fernandez made the move to Southern California with her. But over the next three years, Audrey had once again amassed a fairly impressive collection, which consisted primarily of cassettes and CDs. As I generally do when visiting someones home, I took a look through her CDs (which she had neatly organized in the living room), and was relieved to find a lot of common ground: Pat Boone. Keith Whitley. Andy Williams. And a generous helping of soundtracks from classic films and Broadway musicals. We had talked about music during that long walk on the beach that evening at Playa Del Rey. I told her who my own favorites were: the Monkees, the Beach Boys, the Kingston Trio, Rick Nelson, Hank Williams and the like, all of which resonated with her, to my considerable joy (in fact, the only artist on whom we sharply disagreed was John Coltrane; I have more than fifty of his albums and love his work with a passion, whereas Coltrane was the one artist whose music would consistently drive Audrey from the room in disgust). So then I asked Audrey who her own favorites were. She proceeded to paint a portrait of musical diversity that was almost like answered prayer to my ears. She spoke highly of Gene Pitney, the Cascades, Apo Hiking Society (whose work at that time I had yet to discover in detail, although as noted in Part Three of this series, they now rank very highly on my own list of musical priorities), Barbara Cook (which immediately took my respect for Audrey up a few notches, given that Cook co-starred in the Broadway production of what became my all time favorite motion picture, The Music Man) and the inevitable Elvis Presley. At that time, she also had a fleeting interest in the Stylistics, although that proved to be short lived. Encouraged, I asked her, So who is your all time favorite? True to her fascinating nature, Audrey didnt miss a beat. Barry Manilow, she said. And not for a second did her response generate a road most frequently traveled reaction in me. She went on to explain that her fascination with his work was not so much in the long string of ballads for Bell and Arista Records that pretty much defined him from a mainstream perspective. Like me, she had an extensive collection of Manilows albums and was fully aware that his catalog included such relatively adventurous work as his faithful cover of Martha and the Vandellas My Baby Loves Me, and the decidedly rockabilly flavored romp, Oh Julie. Given our shared perspective, it was not at all surprising when I mentioned to Audrey the track that first brought Manilow to my attention and found out that it was amongst her absolute favorites by him, as well. Following two critically acclaimed singles for Larry Uttals Bell Records as the lead vocalist of the studio band, Featherbed (Amy and an upbeat version of his later solo hit, Could It Be Magic) Manilow released his debut album for Bell, Barry Manilow I. An artist with considerable self-confidence and formidable capability as a quadruple threat (vocalist, composer, producer and keyboardsman), Manilow more than proved his mettle on that debut release with a cover of a 1959 monster classic that only the most capable of vocalists would even remotely consider recording. On their debut album for Columbia Records, the virtuoso jazz vocal trio of Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross (professionally known as Lambert, Hendricks and Ross) recorded a dizzying tongue twister of a vocal, with an astounding lead vocal by Hendricks, Cloudburst. The rapid tempo and almost indiscernible, rapid fire lyrics (which in turn inspired in part the Monkees like minded, self-penned, late 1967 Goin Down single) almost guaranteed autonomy in the field, as theirs was a most difficult (if not impossible) effort to duplicate. Or so they thought. On his July 1973 debut album, Barry Manilow not only took on the challenge of covering Cloudburst, but he absolutely nailed it. It was that adventurous spirit that drew Audrey to his music, and from there it was obvious to me that we were on the same page, despite that admittedly unlikely opening scenario. Over the next several years, we saw Barry Manilow in concert in a variety of settings, and he never disappointed. And neither did Audrey, as our relationship continued to grow over the coming months. But thats a story that is best left for Part Six. In the meantime, here is a clip of that 1973 Barry Manilow triumph, his spot on cover of Lambert, Hendricks And Ross signature track, Cloudburst: https://youtube/watch?v=qxW2OTRLiMg
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 03:59:43 +0000
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