Hi Everyone,

Today is one year since Steve passed away, and though this marker has loomed for a while now, I’m not sure what to say or do. Instead of dwelling, I’ll share a quick story that I like to remember when I’m missing him.

This was around 2007 or 2008 and I had just landed back in DC from living abroad. Whenever I was back in town, first thing was find to Steve, grab lunch at Pho 75 in Roslyn together and then head off to find some kind of trouble to get into.

I don’t remember everything about this particular day but I remember the feeling. Summer had just begun and the sun was high. We had the windows of Steve’s car rolled down, the sunroof open and were racing down I-66 into DC.

‘Free Bird' by Lynyrd Skynyrd was cranked up on the stereo, and not the slow buildup either but the full-throttled guitar solo at the end (think Jenny teetering on the balcony in Forrest Gump).

It’d been a year since we’d seen each other, so we were stoke as hell to hang out again. Rocking out, air guitar and air drums blazing as we drove, though I forget who was playing which.

We sped onto Roosevelt Bridge heading east over the Potomac, the Lincoln Memorial and singular Washington Monument standing in the distance and then... just as we cleared the woods of Roosevelt Island and Free Bird reached it’s brilliant climax, from out of nowhere Air Force One, that massive green-and-white Sikorsky helicopter that carries the President and his family, comes blazing over our heads with the loud 'dug-dug-dug' from the rotors that you feel in your chest.

Steve and I watch - mouths open - as it flew low downriver for a moment or two before banking hard left to head up over the National Mall, an aggressive maneuver that usually means the POTUS or another VIP is aboard. Finger horns were immediately raised and one (or both!) of us might even have started chanting 'USA!'

It was such an impossibly cool moment. A musical and visceral moment of Zen, albeit more Wayne’s World or Beavis and Butthead than meditative.

I was so thrilled to see my buddy again, doing what we loved, which was blaring music and pretending like we could play instruments. And then the external world - the car, the river, the summer and even the President - had all lined up to make it that much cooler.

I mentioned it to him years later, assuming he’d forgotten, which he hadn’t of course. Finger horns up, he closed his eyes and started headbanging at the memory. I was glad to know he’d found that epic confluence of events as moving as I had.

Years later still, once our jam sessions entailed mostly sitting around in his room and reminiscing, Steve began making playlists for us to listen to while we caught up. Then he started building on just one. He said it was to replicate the vibe of rocking out in the car and that helicopter of all helicopters buzzing mere feet over our heads.

The link to that Spotify playlist is below. He put it together between 2018 and 2021, and in keeping with his mood in later years, you’ll notice that it’s more instrumental, mellow and spiritual than Lynyrd Skynyrd by a long shot.

I can’t listen to it that often but when I do, I feel comfort in knowing that Steve, who loved everything about music and how it can change you, that he had listened to and arranged these songs for others to enjoy. It makes me feel connected to him still and look forward to rocking out again sometime.

My love to all you. And to Steve.

"Bridge n Choppers"

https://open.spotify.com/play…