The not famous brother

For years at various parties with my parents people would be introduced to me and ask, in one way or another “Are you the rock star son?” Which of course i am not.  And it always felt like some type of cosmic justice, for while we were growing up my brother was regularly in my shadow.  The week he got accepted to Cornell, i got elected as a student to the board of trustees there.  He decide to go to George Washington University instead.

So tonight i got told i finally have a chance to catch up with my brother, in a weird way.  The new Twin Oaks band has decided to call itself Pax’s Guest.  I cracked up when i heard this.  Because as Xian pointed out it is comical on several levels.

everyone wants to be a rock star

There are lots of odd folks i have hosted over the years and many of them i have done second rate (and sometimes worse) jobs hosting.  A number of these people have been fantastic.  They are good values match,they are excited about community, they pitch in and are helpful.  People want them to come back- Rez and Sara are classic example of this as is Spiderman, who recently did a visitor period.

These are also not the people who get remembered as my guests. The people who get remembered are  oft less socially graceful, occasionally boorish or odd enough to be near the edge of our comfort zone (which frankly is fairly far out there).

Part of what is going on is that Twin Oaks has a slightly schizophrenic personality around guests. We are mandated by our by-laws to be a model for others to emulate.  This requires a certain amount of acceptance of outsiders who are interested in looking at us.  And at the same time we are a home to the hundred or so members, many of whom don’t want a influx of especially odd characters here.  And oft we don’t really know if they are odd until they are actually here and we are stuck with them for a little bit.  I am often willing to host people who we don’t know that much about, so i have more than my share of extra-ordinary guests.

i am flattered and amused that they decided to name the band after me.  And now at these cocktail parties when they ask if i am the rock star son, i can say “no, but i have a soon-to-be-famous band named after me.”

The line up of the band is Sunshine on lead guitar, Xian on bass, Dustin on keyboards and Kyle on drums.  They do classic rock covers, which of course i also love.