Wednesday, April 26, 2006

The Group

I promised my musician friend down in the Bahamas that I would begin uploading songs from "The Last Session" to this site. So, today I put together this video of "The Group." Just click on the upper image for the Quicktime version. Some have told me they can't play a Quicktime file, so just below that is the YouTube version in flash.

The Group
Click here to download


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve That is fucking brilliant and indescribably beautiful and I wish I'd heard it ten (shit twenty!) years ago and I wish I could play it for everybody i know. I am just blown away by this piece. I had one of those great sobbing epiphanies watching it. Thank you. Awesome vocal too! My first group was at Aids Action Coalition in Boston. Not one of us in that room back then thought we would live to see another birthday I'm sure. Ahhh my God the stories..just heartbreaking. I've always had pretty good support from friends and family too but I i still felt like an alien most of the time until i started hanging out at Aids Action and at The Boston living Center and other places where positive people could go. I was and am still amazed and shocked by the hell people go through after they are diagnosed. We have a little group here in the Bahamas and I'm still hearing these stories. Again it makes me realize how much i needed/need all the people who have supported me. One really interesting group i was involved with in Boston at the Living Center was a dream group for HIV+ people run by a Jungian analyst named Robert Bosnak who wrote a book called Christopher's Dreams which was also made into a play at one point. Some of the experiences of that group were included in a later edition of Robbie's book called Dreaming with an AIDS patient. I was in the group right up through the release of the first protease inhibitors. That was such a crazy time ..we were all waiting for them, hearing rumors, scared to death we wouldn't make it and, strangely terrified by the idea of what it could mean to have a second chance at life. A Bonus Round. We just had no idea. We were so conditioned to being in pain and dying that even the prospect of living terrified us. Thank you for this. I've got my band coming in to town tomorrow and a busy weekend with two gigs but I'll keep looking (eagerly) for the next installments. Plenty PLENTY Love My Friend Andrew

Steve Schalchlin said...

Andrew, coming from a fellow musician, your comments are greatly appreciated. This song is very special to me. It was the song that convinced Bob Stillman to accept the lead role of Gideon when we were casting the show in New York. It's funny you mention the point about being afraid of coming back. I have a song about that, too. :-)

Anonymous said...

I love you.