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Miller: Tucked, too

By
Michael Miller
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It would have been a quiet and unremarkable death.

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My doctor told me that although my body and skin had rebounded remarkably well from losing nearly 200 pounds since a September 2012 bariatric sleeve surgery, I undoubtedly qualified for the skin removal surgery and abdominoplasty, commonly referred to as a “tummy tuck.”

As I rapidly learned, referring to the procedure as an abdominoplasty elicited far more gravitas than calling it a tummy tuck.

All the walking, working out and smarter living during the past 18 months brought major changes, but the last vestiges of the old me still clung stubbornly in the shape of a spare tire of fat and loose skin that was as unsightly as it was uncomfortable. Prone to rashes and chafing, it was the one final reminder of my 400-pound life.

I scheduled the procedure for Feb. 24, approaching it with the confidence I’d earned through the success of the bariatric surgery.

I knew I had at least three major factors in my favor. I was in the best health of my adult life and physically fit for the surgery; I had worked especially carefully on toning my abdominal muscles, so the doctor said he would not need to cut and tighten the muscles themselves, as is common during a tummy tuck; and the surgery itself was performed by my University of Michigan surgeon as an outpatient procedure, not even requiring I stay the night. I would be in by 11 a.m. and home by 6 p.m., so how bad could it be?

I had been told it could be very bad indeed, by other weight-loss patients, by the doctors, by the testimonials I read on weight loss message boards. But I had also been told I would be out for a month after the sleeve surgery and would lose about 60 percent of my excess weight.

I bested that by two weeks and 30 percent, so I expected similar poster boy results from the tuck.

The commitment

The procedure went as planned and I was home less than 10 hours after I left.

So far, so good.

Except for the fact that I felt miserable. As I surveyed the extent of the procedure, all the warnings and cautions swirled in my head. The centerpiece was a 27-inch incision under my belt line from hip to hip, expertly stitched together but looking like I was Robert Shaw at the end of “Jaws,” perforated in a perfect semicircle by the maw of a great white shark. Even on whatever wonder drug was pleasantly swirling through my veins, I felt the soreness of the incision.

My abdomen was swollen to twice its pre-surgery size, yet also flat and sculpted in a way it hasn’t been since my high school football-playing days.

At the center of my new abdomen sat a brand-new bellybutton, created through an umbilicoplasty procedure as my old navel had been removed along with the excess skin and fat. That area was mostly numb and covered in gauze and surgical tape, so I had no idea what it looked like.

But the real aching misery lived, as it often does with men, in my groin. Two plastic tubes about 18 inches long sprouted from the area, leading to two hand grenade-shaped bulbs that were safety pinned in place, slowly filling with fluid that looked like blood. These were my two new pals, the Jackson-Pratt or “JP” vacuum drains that I would live with for at least two weeks.

They were the most visible sign of of tummy tucking, and they were tucking gross.

Keeping all this carnage in place was a flesh-tone “compression garment,” an ultra-tight single piece — well, girdle, really — designed to clinch the abdomen with force to keep the swelling in check.

The effect of all this was a degree of discomfort and pain I never came close to experiencing from the bariatric sleeve surgery. But I was just hours after the surgery and while my confidence was shaken, I was sure I would bounce back with quickness.

We had prepared for a week or two of my living on the first floor, sleeping upright in a recliner (no lying flat or stretching the incision) and I had everything from books to my phone charger to the TV remote at my side, arranged to fight the boredom of inactivity.

In sickness and in health

Those first 10 post-surgery days brought slow progress, not much moving around and unexpected  —and unaccustomed and unwelcome — depression. I have long felt guilty about allowing myself to balloon to 400 pounds, and the untold damage that recklessness took on my family and life. Even though that life is in my rearview mirror, it lingers on that receding horizon like an angry and cheated sunset, coloring everything in purples and crimsons.

This newest incapacitation brought back that guilt, watching my young sons worry and my wife carry the load for all of us. Shannon was my nurse, company and taskmaster, providing comfort, love and attention — the pleasant aspects of recuperating. But she also served dutifully through the grossest duties: changing and washing compression garments and maintaining the JP Drains.

That entails a three-times-a-day procedure of unpinning the drains, using an alcohol-soaked cloth to pinch and strip the plastic tubing, forcing stringy blood clots and drainage debris through to the bulbs, then draining them, measuring the output and disposing of the bloody mess.

Choosing a Valentine’s Day card is one form of love; there is no Hallmark card for maintaining JP drains, but it became my habit to kiss my sweet wife’s head as she quietly went about the gross, gross task of clearing them.

As the days passed, the depression deepened. For one thing, I hurt. For another, I was blue because the daily exercise that had filled an hour or two of nearly every day of my life for the past 18 months had been reduced to three 10-minute slow walks around the first floor.

I could feel my hard work on my leg and arm muscles melting away with the inactivity. But I was also haunted by buyer’s remorse, uncertain that this surgery — unlike the bariatric sleeve surgery, which paid such great dividends — was worth the obstacle course of pains and problems. The swelling still distorted my abdomen, my new navel looked like a foreign element and the damned JP Drains freaked me out, protruding as they did from my body like Lovecraftian tentacles.

Worst of all, I hated being cooped up, largely confined to one room on one floor. I began to resent my cage and wished to be anywhere else.

’Til death do us part

I got my wish on the 11th day after the surgery. I woke up feeling fine but by 8 a.m. felt the unmistakable chills of a fever. There are a few danger signs of post-surgical complications and fever is a big red flag. I was at 102 degrees with no break from Tylenol when I called the clinic and spoke to a clinician who promised a nurse would call me back right away.

She did, 10 minutes later, with an urgent message for me to get to the clinic as soon as possible. Unfortunately, I passed out in my chair and missed the call. It was three hours later when I woke up, listened to the message and called my wife to tell her we needed to go.

At this point the fever was 103 and blinding in its intensity. At the clinic, the doctor inspected my incision and saw no outward sign of infection, but on the advice of my wife looked at the new colors of swirling debris in the JP drains and made immediate arrangements for me to be admitted to the University of Michigan Medical Center emergency room.

When I checked in, the fever was at 104.2 degrees and I have vague memories of feeling like I was swimming through hot Jell-O. The nurse took my blood pressure, frowned, checked it again, then wheeled over a manual unit and took it a third time.

All three measurements were the same: 74 over 48. In contrast, my heart was pounding, trying to compensate by working wildly at more than 120 beats per minute.

Sepsis is caused by the body’s immune response to infection. As the body fights to the point of septic shock, organs begin shutting down. The ER team was frantically working around me but I was only dimly aware of what was happening and had no sense of danger.

My wife, who works in health care, knew exactly what was going on and was holding my hand and talking to me softly as I drifted in and out of consciousness. I had been pumped with three IV bags but the fever held, my blood pressure continued to crash and I was unable to urinate despite being pumped full of liters of saline.

It would have been a quiet and unremarkable death, but I was blissfully, ignorantly unaware of the danger.

I did not experience any bright lights, visions of dead relatives or see my life pass before my eyes. Jesus apparently had more important visits to make and his face did not appear before my eyes. I kinda sorta remember the hum of the CT scan tunnel and the stream of white-coated visitors, but most of what I know comes from my wife’s reluctant descriptions.

The next thing I knew, it was a day later and I was in a hospital room, IV lines in both arms, legs encased in clot-fighting pressure cuffs and feeling a dreamy, foggy mindset courtesy of Norco, the new Vicodin.

I spent the first few waking hours absorbing the news and loudly complaining about being in a hospital bed. That first-floor living room suddenly seemed like a paradise to me.

My complaints were tempered when I heard why my roommate was hospitalized. Suffice it to say, his situation was a million times worse than mine. It’s not my place to share his story here, but his heroic determination in the face of medical disaster taught me great perspective and humility.

The doctors did not find the specific source of the infection and kept me hospitalized two more days to monitor my progress.

I believe that in six months, when all is healed and in place, the choice to have the abdominoplasty will be a good one for my health and future. I will soon be back to walking and in my normal routines. I won’t think of a tummy tuck infection as a near-death experience.

It would have been a quiet and unremarkable death, but I haven’t worked this hard to do anything but go kicking and screaming.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press. Contact him at [email protected].

Cleveland Film Festival kicks off 38th year March 19

By
James A. Molnar
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The 38th Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) kicks off at Tower City Cinemas in downtown Cleveland March 19.

Film enthusiasts can take a quick trip down the turnpike for a peek at up-and-coming films and filmmakers.

On March 19, the lights will go dark and the projector will illuminate the big screen as the 38th Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) kicks off at Tower City Cinemas in downtown Cleveland.

The 12-day festival will showcase more than 180 feature films and more than 160 short films from 68 different countries, according to Patrick Shepherd, associate director of CIFF.

CIFF is the largest film festival between New York and Chicago, according to Shepherd.

“There’s no other festival in the region that matches us in attendance,” he said in an interview with Toledo Free Press.

The 38th Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) kicks off at Tower City Cinemas in download Cleveland March 19.

CIFF has been at Tower City Cinemas since 1991, according to Shepherd. Back then, the attendance for the festival was around 15,000. In 2013, attendance for CIFF was more than 93,000, a record.

CIFF kicks off its opening night gala March 19 with screenings of “Not Another Happy Ending,” a romantic comedy that director John McKay is flying in from Scotland to attend.

The festival begins in earnest on March 20. On a typical day there will be around 40 films screened between 9 a.m. and midnight. On Fridays and Saturdays, there are late-night screenings that start around 11:30 p.m.

Organizers spend all year looking for films from around the world, Shepherd said. There is also a call for entries launched every summer. He said there were nearly 2,000 films submitted for consideration this year.

Once films are selected, CIFF works closely to connect specific films with nonprofit organizations in northern Ohio. Last year was the first time CIFF reached out to Toledo organizations, said Shepherd, a 1993 Bowling Green State University graduate.

Partners included Toledo-Lucas County Public Library and Equality Toledo. Both organizations are continuing the partnership this year, along with Toledo Pride, the Hungarian Club of Toledo and the Great Lakes Consortium for International Training and Development.

Toledo partnership film screenings include “Gore Vidal: The United States Of Amnesia,” “Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine,” “One: A Story of Love and Equality” and “Men with Balls.”

More information and a schedule for the festival can be found online at clevelandfilm.org or by downloading CIFF’s mobile app. Toledo Free Press is a media sponsor for the 38th Cleveland International Film Festival. (For a $2 ticket discount, use code: TOLEDO). Watch Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for details on winning tickets to the festival.

Story within a story: Writer Doug Dorst joins forces with J.J. Abrams for ‘S.’

By
Toledo Free Press
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The concept is fascinating. A book where two stories (at least) are going on simultaneously — one in the main body of the text, and another in the margins, where two separate readers are jotting notes to one another about the tome, its mysterious author, and each other. The sum total is a reading experience unlike any other one has read in a good while.

That’s the concept of “S.”, a novel released last October from Little Brown and Bad Robot Productions, from a concept by Bad Robot’s owner, Hollywood wunderkind and “Star Wars” reboot director J.J. Abrams. But most of the heavy lifting in the construction of the book was done by a relatively young author — novelist Doug Dorst.

“It’s the one thing I’ve sort of done my whole life, I’ve certainly enjoyed it my whole life,” Dorst said about writing in an interview with Toledo Free Press Star. “And I kind of thought, at some point, if there was a way to make a living doing this thing that I like, I really ought to try.”

Dorst brings a distinctive pedigree to his work as an author, having tried to be a musician before deciding that writing was his true muse. He also teaches Creative Writing full-time at Texas State University in San Marcos.

“The book that probably had the biggest influence in terms of me trying to say, I want to write, I want to try and do this, was T.C. Boyle’s novel ‘World’s End,’ which is just a big, shaggy piece of joyful storytelling,” Dorst said. “It was absolutely the right book for me to have read when I read it, because I read it when I was in law school, which was not a time of tremendous joy. And so to have that — that book did a lot for me.”

In his formative days, Dorst found himself drawn to writing that rejected the ideas of traditional narrative, which made him uniquely qualified when Lindsey Weber of Bad Robot came calling with the idea that would grow into “S.”

“JJ had shared his idea with her his idea for a book project, and may have asked her for suggestions for who to go to. And I think she had read ‘Alive in Necropolis,’ and passed it along to him and suggested that I might be someone interesting to talk to,” Dorst said, referring to his first (and only) novel prior to writing “S.”

“And so then, I got a call from my agent — and I mean, it was out of nowhere — asking, ‘Would you be interested in putting together a proposal, at least, for a project with JJ Abrams?’ And that is not the sort of call one gets every day.”

The kernel of an idea that Abrams had was a book-within-a-book, where another story would take place in the margins of a novel shared between two readers. The idea developed into an expansive and imaginatively assembled text where pages are filled with notes and comments, with additional pieces like newspaper clippings and maps drawn on napkins stuffed inside, as well.

The very tight structure of the piece would lead most any reader to believe it had been meticulously outlined and planned in advance of its writing — which Dorst insists is not the case.

“It was not at all. J.J. and I, and Lindsey Weber — who is the head of features over at Bad Robot, who worked with us a lot on this — we did a lot of talk on foundation work for the characters and a sense of what the structure of ‘Ship of Theseus’ might be like. But a lot of it — yeah, a lot of it I was making up as I went along. And yes, that made for really big — there were many messes that had to be cleaned up later.”

So how did something so breathtakingly constructed result from such a relatively free-wheeling creative process? “I’m an obsessive reviser, for one thing, but we also had a lot of people who really devoted themselves to helping make it work on that level,” Dorst explained. “So Josh Kendel, the editor, did a fantastic job, and we got really got really good feedback from other folks at Bad Robot, and other folks at Little Brown. There was absolutely no way that I could clean up the mess that I made all by myself.”

The end result is one of the most breathtakingly new ideas to come in publishing in a long time — and incredibly exciting for a sophomore novelist whose latest work was promoted with teaser videos and hype one doesn’t often see for a new book.

“It’s tremendous fun. That’s probably the biggest part of it, is getting to watch this unfold, and realizing — wow, this thing that I wrote … to watch it having a life in such an interesting way that’s so different from anything I’ve ever experienced before? I mean, that’s just pure fun.”

Fourth Toledo SOUP microgrant dinner set for March 9

By
Chase Will
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Diners listen to a presenter at the first Toledo SOUP in 2012. Photo courtesy Toledo Soup.

On Sunday, March 9, the Toledo SOUP will host its 4th event in which local organizations will give short presentations to win a community-funded micro-grant. Money collected at the door, along with donations, will determine the grant amount. The $5 entry fee allows audience members to vote on a winner as they enjoy a complimentary bowl of soup.

Presentation topics include artist-painted fixtures to beautify East-side Main Street, funding for broadcast focusing on the Toledo community, establishment of an urban goat farm, production of high-quality organic mushrooms, and workshops for children with special needs.

“I think some of these will really speak to a lot of people and bring a diverse group to the event,” said Emily Rippe, a leader in Toledo SOUP. “We want people to experience the event, really feel the community vibes and listen to each presenter with an open mind. Vote for the one you truly think will make the biggest difference here in Toledo.”

33 organizations originally submitted proposals, and the finalists were selected by a team of judges.

“We tried to get a diverse group of judges who are high profile and do a lot in the Toledo community already,” said Rippe. “It was so difficult to choose that even though only 5 get to present, we had some honorable mentions. These organizations won’t be eligible for the grant, but will be able to present for 3-5 minutes to get their project out there.”

Audrey Johnson, who previously received the SOUP grant for her organization “Art around Toledo,” was asked to participate as a judge for the 2nd time.

“We look for what best fits the community as a whole,” said Johnson. “It’s exciting to see who’s out there, what they’re doing. Being a recipient was a beautiful thing. Toledo SOUP’s process is very much my process, giving back to the community, empowering the community, being that voice.”

Genevieve Abalos is the most recent SOUP winner. Her organization, Toledo Art of Hope, was founded to help women who are coming out of sex trafficking transition into a healthy lifestyle through a one-year program, including mentoring and job skill training.

“It was amazing,” said Abalos. “The people at SOUP were all really helpful. They gave us a list of other places to get help from as well.”

In addition to the main event, there will also be a bake sale and raffle during presentations, and proceeds will supplement the grant. There will also be an after-party at The Attic on Adam’s Street, where bartenders will be serving soup-themed cocktails to help raise money for the next SOUP event.

“It’s a good, fun way to continue the conversation about Toledo SOUP if you’re not ready to end it just yet,” said Rippe. “Keep the conversations going, ask questions, maybe even pick the brains of the presenters or SOUP committee members.

“It’s a beautiful thing to be where we are, to be involved in making a change and putting good energy out there for people with great ideas to gravitate toward,” said Johnson. “That’s what makes a good community. It’s non-political, it’s non-judgmental. It’s all about supporting people.”

The Toledo SOUP event will be held from 5-8pm on March 9th in the Flying Pig Café at the Toledo School for the Arts. The building is located at 333 14th St. Ticket cost is $5 at the door. For more information, visit www.toledosoup.com.

Guitar hero: Grammy winner Pat Metheny to jam with Unity Group in Ann Arbor on March 10.

By
Vicki Kroll
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The Pat Metheny Unity Group will perform at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor on March 10. Photo by Jimmy Katz.

Infinite potential — that’s what Pat Metheny feels when he’s holding a guitar.

“If you say the word ‘guitar’ to 50 people, they will get 50 different images in their minds,” the jazz guitarist wrote in an email interview with Toledo Free Press. “To me, it is attractive because it is so undefined.”

Since his 1976 debut, “Bright Size Life,” the artist has reinvented the instrument. His sonic creativity and sizzling string work have won both fans and countless honors.

In 2013, readers of Downbeat magazine voted to induct Metheny into its Hall of Fame. He is the youngest member and only the fourth guitarist, joining Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian.

“Guitars, for me, are like screwdrivers are for a handyman. They are tools, and I have different ones for different uses,” Metheny wrote from a tour stop in San Francisco.

For his latest project, the composer assembled an amazing lineup: saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Ben Williams and drummer Antonio Sanchez.

Metheny won his 20th Grammy Award last year for “Unity Band,” an instrumental jazz quartet album.

“This is such a special group of musicians. From the first notes we played together in early 2012, through the recording and then all the touring that we did to follow, there was an instant connection that seemed to go beyond the usual kind of thing,” he wrote.

“We had such a great time together and the consistency of the playing was at a super high level, and we seemed to always get to something night after night.”

Known as the Pat Metheny Unity Group, the four decided to make another disc.

“We all wanted to keep it going, and my sense of it was that we had only scratched the surface of what it might be. My instinct was to push it to be something else, but that something else could have the benefits of all the playing we had already done together as a place to build from and expand outward from,” Metheny wrote.

Joining the fun was multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi.

“To do what I wanted to do, I knew I likely had to expand the palette by adding another musician. However, I didn’t want to alter the incredible dynamic of the core quartet. What I really needed was a good musician who could play a lot of parts,” Metheny wrote.

On “Kin,” released last month, Carmassi plays piano, trumpet, French horn, flute, alto sax, recorder, vibraphone and trombone; he also sings and whistles.

“As I have described a few times, if the first ‘Unity Band’ record was kind of like a black-and-white documentary type record, this is the IMAX 3-D version of the band,” he wrote.

The Pat Metheny Unity Group will bring that colorful sound to the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor at 8 p.m. March 10. Tickets are $39.50-$49.50.

“Playing live is the final destination and the reason I became a musician. Everything leads to that,” Metheny wrote.

Events do not shape markets

By
Ben Treece
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Without fail, we are constantly asked how we believe a certain event will affect the markets anytime a conflict hits the headlines. As investors, we tend to look for answers and meaning in every single gain or loss in the markets. Unfortunately, that is simply not always the case.

On any given day, when someone asks why the market went up, or why the market went down, our answer is quite simple; there were more people buying that selling, or vice versa. It is imperative that investors realize that day to day market swings will have a minimal if not inconsequential impact on your retirement savings.

While we have used the following example in the past, let us look back to September 11th, 2001. Following the attacks on the Twin Towers, the Dow Jones dropped almost 15%, but rebounded back to its old level in just 2 months. Similarly, after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 the Dow Jones dropped by almost 20%, but recovered entirely within one year.

Investors tend to give “one and done” events more credence than they deserve, believing that these singular events will result in market crashes. We have heard similar theories applied to the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine, or the uprising in Venezuela. There are certainly opportunities to make money given these short market moves, however it is more likely that uncertainty will result in a temporary downswing in the markets. In the long run, markets are not shaped by events, they are shaped by environments.

For example, we previously demonstrated how the Dow reacted and rebounded to the September 11th attacks and the Iraq/Kuwait conflict. Now if we take a look at the Credit Crisis in 2008, it took stocks and investors a few years to recover losses and gain the confidence to get back into the markets once again, and that drop in value was not predicated by a single event; that was the result of lax monetary policy, poor interest rate policy and an unregulated derivatives market. Macroeconomic trends are what investors need to be looking at, not short term onetime events.

Understanding the psychology of investors is an incredibly difficult task, and it can be difficult to put fears and concerns stemming from short term events in the back of your mind. We always remind clients that investing is like driving a car; you may hit a pothole here and there, but if you spend too much time studying that pothole through the rearview mirror, you will miss the bend in the road and drive straight off the cliff.

Remember, events do not shape markets, policy and economics do.

Ben Treece is a 2009 Graduate from the University of Miami (FL), BBA International Finance and Marketing. He is a partner with Treece Investment Advisory Corp (www.TreeceInvestments.com) and licensed with FINRA through Treece Financial Services Corp. The above information is the opinion of Ben Treece and should not be construed as investment advice or used without outside verification.

Song of Toledo winners support Project iAm

By
Chase Will
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Empire Drift

Empire Drift’s Acoustics for Autism benefit CD contribution is “Piece of Heart,” a song recorded in 2009 — the same year the band’s “A Good Place To Call Home” won the inaugural Song of Toledo contest.

“It seemed like a good fit for Acoustics for Autism,” said percussionist and vocalist Allen Spencer.

Started in 2007, Empire Drift is a hard-to-classify band with music ranging from piano/acoustic to aggressive alternative songs. The band’s name comes from band members’ tendency to “drift” from genre to genre.

They claim to be the only band in the world to perform a “power hour” (60 songs in 60 minutes) and they gave away more than 17,000 copies of their debut album “Reality is Genius.”

Empire Drift also won the 2008 Regional Superstar Competition, which earned them a recording contract for their second album.

Although the band is currently inactive due to its members living in various parts of the country, they’ll be headlining the March 15 St. Patrick’s Day Party at The Blarney Irish Pub and playing at the Roundhouse Bar on Put-in-Bay this summer.

“We have another album coming out this year with new material we’ve been working on,” said Spencer, who has been involved with Acoustics for Autism every year since it started, performing in various bands and acoustic sets.

“Over the past 10 to 12 years, I’ve had a handful of friends who’ve worked full time at Bittersweet Farms, which houses and takes care of people with autism and similar disabilities,” Spencer said. “I’m happy to be part of the event and plan to continue taking part in it.”

For more information on Empire Drift, or for a free download of their album, visit www.empiredrift.com.

Family band features kid-friendly tunes

By
Chase Will
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Wilson Lake and the Rock Bass

Wilson Lake and the Rock Bass began when singer-songwriter Tom Jackson wrote music for his family to sing at their cottage.

Jackson became interested in sharing the kid-friendly lyrics of his folksy tunes outside his close circle. He recruited his father-in-law Don Staczek and his friend Sandy Skala.

“It’s rock ’n’ roll with a ’50s vibe,” said Jackson of his group’s sound.

Once the band had created enough songs about hiking, camping and other outdoor activities, they released their self-titled debut CD.

Since adding two more members — Brian Strong on keyboard and vocals and Mike Harshman on bass and vocals — they’ve followed up with their second LP, “Ultrasonic Adventurephonic.”

The band is interested in spreading autism awareness with nonprofits like Project iAm due, in part, to the rising percentage of children diagnosed. As a high school English teacher, Jackson see firsthand how autism affects daily lives.

“I have children of my own who are not autistic, but knowing the rising number is out there, I want to make people more aware,” Jackson said.

“It’s a great cause and everyone associated has done a great job. I’m just happy to be part of it.”

For more information, visit www.wilsonlakeandtherockbass.com. Wilson Lake and the Rock Bass will perform at 3 p.m. March 9 in The Village Idiot’s outdoor tent.

Barile’s ‘Pitter Patter’ recalls adventure of raising daughter

By
Toledo Free Press
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John Barile

John Barile’s career as a musician has been all about going with the flow and letting things fall into place.

Originally from Cleveland, Barile visited Toledo in 1991, and ended up staying longer than he anticipated.

“I came up here to visit some friends, and I ended up playing at Frankie’s one night, and was offered [a gig] every Wednesday.”

Barile was introduced to the world of music by his father, playing druims at age 5.

One day he just decided to stop playing drums, and picked up the guitar.

The change has worked well for him since.  Barile has been a Toledo regular along with his frequent musical collaborator, longtime Toledo musician Bobby May.

“Me and Bobby just take all the covers we know and make them our own,” Barile said.  “Everything we do, we make our own.”

Barile added that he enjoys the wide range of songs that he is able to play with someone as experienced as May.

“It’s a joy and an honor to play with him.  He’s forgotten more songs than I’ll ever know in my lifetime.”

Barile was first asked to join Acoustics for Autism by his friend and its founder, Nicole Khoury.

“Nicole and I did an acoustic duo for a while,” Barile said.  “And me and Bobby have been doing [Acoustics for Autism] ever since it started.”

For the new Acoustics for Autism CD, Barile wrote a song, “Pitter Patter,” about his daughter.

“For the first 3 and a half years of her life, I would lay on the couch and always hear her little feet running up and down the hallways, and it would make this little ‘pitter-patter’ sound on the wood floors.  It’s about the things we’ve done so far, and the things we’re going to do.”

Barile noted that he and May usually take most of the winter off, but play more frequently during the warmer months.

“It gets a little hectic.”

Despite the busy schedule, Barile is happy to be a musician in the Glass City, and content with his place in the musical universe.

“I’m not worried about 30,000 people and millions of dollars,” he said.  I like doing what I’m doing now.  I like walking into a bar, and being able to make one person’s night.  It makes everything worth it.”

“People around here that come and listen to music are fantastic.  They support it 100% in this city.  The musicians in this city, I will put up against any musicians in the country.”

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Captain Sweet Shoes’ Anthony Beck follows dream with solo project

By
Toledo Free Press
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Anthony Beck

Northwest Ohio native Anthony Beck is no stranger to the Toledo music scene, having started his first band when he was 15, and he has been a long time supporter of Acoustics for Autism (AFA). This will be Beck’s fifth year performing at the AFA benefit concert alongside Allen Spencer as acoustic duo cover band Captain Sweet Shoes, and his first year contributing to the charity’s compilation CD.

“This is the first time I’ve done a solo work. I’ve been a part of five albums with three bands, but I have never done anything solo,” said Beck, whose acoustic-style is influenced by artists such as Thom Yorke and Sigur Rós. “It’s a little scary. If you’re part of a band, it’s a group effort and the audience judges the band, but solo is different in that people are judging you directly.”

For the AFA album, Beck is contributing a piece entitled “Iron Soul,” which is about never giving up on one’s dreams and choosing the road less traveled. Beck was inspired to write the song by watching a friend choose the “safe path” in her career and relationships at the expense of her own musical ambitions. 

“I saw her walk away from her talents and the abilities she was blessed with to follow the safe path. ‘Iron soul’ is about the dangers of that safe road. The hook is the song is: ‘Safe is an iron soul if you can stay on dry ground.’ It’s a warning that your soul can turn into a cold, hard, impenetrable thing, the weight of which can carry you under.”

For Beck, “Iron Soul” is more personal than just some observations on a friend’s choices. This song, as well as the album he is working on, are his first efforts at song writing in three years. “I wrote ‘Iron Soul’ as a reminder to myself,” he said. “My band had just broke up. I got a 50-hour a week job in corporate America. That seemed like the safe thing to do. This song is a reminder not to give up on what I’m passionate about. Else, the weight will pull me under.”

Beck has worked as a semi-professional musician touring regionally with his band in the past, but this year he made a personal resolution to create a solo album. “I’m no less passionate or serious than before, but now I don’t have to write for anyone’s ears but my own.” Beck has worked on every aspect of this solo work independently from his home, except for bass tracks played by Dave Thatcher. 

It means a great deal to Beck to have his first completed solo song appear on the first AFA compilation CD.

“They’re a phenomenal cause. I have a cousin who is autistic so when I heard what they were doing years ago, it immediately piqued my interest. If you can play an awesome show with some of most awesome musicians in the area, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

For more information, visit www.captainsweetshoes.com. Beck is performing at 4 p.m. March 9 on The Village Idiot Main Stage.

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