This is weird. Some of the threads are appearing as isolated one-page letters, without the Chronicle header or anything, just a blank page with a bolded thread title and whatever the person posted written in a larger font than the normal forum postings. There is no icon to press to advance or scroll to a previous or next post, and the only way to get back to the forum is to click on the operating system’s Back Arrrow.
For example, when I clicked on the Off Topic thread called Living Your Life Out Loud, here is what I see and it is the only thing which appears on a square white background with nothing else on the screen. I copied into a word doc to check the font and font size. The title is a weird size, 35.something and the body is 18, both in a font called Georgia:
Are You Living Your Life Loud?
Jan. 1, 2018, 02:48 PM
I’ve saved this for a lazy afternoon to type up for those who are interested. Kenny Aronoff, a successful rock n’ roll drummer, recently did a talk at the Indiana University School of Music (and he lived here, attended the school and played many yrs w/ Mellencamp). The talk revolved around his burning question, “Are you living your life loud, or are you dying on the vine?” So I feel this is worthy of a New Year’s Day contemplation for all of us.
‘He spoke publicly about how to achieve success. It’s something he does partly for the joy of inspiring others, but also because it reminds him of how he should be living his own life.’ To quote the local paper write-up done by local columnist Michael Reschke.
“You need to be sure you’re living your life the way that you think you should in order to get the most out of the life that you’re living.”
Aronoff knew what kind of life he wanted to live when he saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show at the age of 11. After the show he asked his mom to call them and get him in the band.
He grew up in New England and had a rough time getting into any music schools. He got turned down by a list of schools, he wasn’t good enough. He ended up demanding an audition to the IU School of Music and his persistence paid off.
Now here in town he heard about and auditioned for Johnny Cougar, back then, got the gig, then ended up getting fired 5 weeks later. (we’ve all heard those stories living here) He refused to leave the band and persisted again. This is where he says he learned his big musical lesson - how to serve the song. Young musicians and egos are often focused on themselves. But they need to learn how to focus on the team and the music. “It’s not about you.” he said. He said the album American Fool was the toughest record he ever made. 2 people quit the band, they were about to lose their record deal, and what would be the most important song on the album didn’t make the cut and the co-producer tried to replace him with a drum machine. Then they had him try a drum solo and it ended up saving what would become ‘Jack and Diane.’
“I learned how to serve the song.”
And I thank you Kenny for the years of your house band drumming doing the covers for the Kennedy Center Honors. Especially 2012!!
