some random biographical answers to an email from my college buddy Jim. He asked me "WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING SINCE 1974?"
WOW... I live in Eureka, California now. I'm a computer student at humboldt state university. After Chico in '73 and '74 I went back to my mom and Dad and got a job at an art store. Married the clerk in the shop next door. Went to junior college and learned to be an electronics draftsman. She graduated from college and we went to WASHINGTON DC. She worked for the National Security Agency as a Russian Translator and I worked in a small computer company. We got divorced. I stayed in DC for 12 years. I played music synthesizer with a bunch of computer nerds on the weekends. For years we had a random jam session with people in my friends basement. You never knew who would show up. This was a big part of my life. We often played all night long and would come out of the music room in the light of dawn. I also played guitar with lots of echo echo echo and effects.
After years in the electronics Industry I dropped out because of executive stress and worked for domino's pizza as a driver. It was a good life. Stoned on marijuana all day every day... free pizza...
Eventually I had a customer move into my condo and she and I and her 6 year old daughter lived together in domestic bliss. After that romance ended I came back to San Jose and spent 6 years working for Radio Shack and living in rented houses with a bunch of other men.
Not a gay thing, Just bachelors sharing rent. Mostly computer nerds. Some times women and children in group homes. Then I got fired from radio shack for stealing money and drinking on the job. I had figured out how to embezzle money from the company and did that for 5 years. I moved to CHICO and took a ONE YEAR VACATION. I joined the Alcoholics Anonymous group there and got healhty. As a matter of fact, the embezzeling allowed be to keep a lot of money and that paid all my bills for a year. I spent a lot of time playing music in public with a random assortment of college kids and other AA members. We would stand on the streetcorner and play for spare change.
I met my current wife at CHICO AA. I got a job at a plastic factory
as a machine operator. After a year of that work I figured out how to get student loans and moved to Eureka.
Dear Jim:
How did you find me? I can see from your email that you have visited one of my websites. Actually, that Radio shack photo (of me)does not show the extremely long hair that I wore at that time. My ponytail is hidden in that picture.I heard that TOM LAMPKIN(my roommate at 6th and Ivy)
became the chemestry teacher an Chico High School. I heard that from one of the kids that I played music with in the park. Another important thing in my life is that I learned to play acoustic guitar and sing classic rock/folk songs. I have collected the chord changes and lyrics to 200 songs. They are kept in 4 spiral notebooks that live in my guitar case. Beatles, Doors, Grateful Dead, Eagles, Woodie Guthrie, Jimmie Buffet... I go to peoples homes, public parks, streets, and pull out my songbooks and lead group sing alongs. I'm sure you can relate.
One high point in my life was when I was living in washington DC and I had just gotten fired from a high paying electronics job. I took EIGHT (8) months off from work and went into my home recording studio. I had many synthesizers, guitars, a four track tape recorder and a drum machine.
There was a tremendous amout of Afghanistan Hashish. My friends and I recorded a demo tape and tried to sell it in New York City. We wanted to make background music for corporate video. There is a market for techno-pop soundtracks and we had an agent but never made a sale. AT LEAST I GAVE IT MY BEST SHOT!!!
Some lyrics I wrote are online at
angelfire homepage
the words are down at the bottom of the page...
Recently I've gotten into photography because I can put pictures on the internet. Some pictures are at
geocities homepage for gregvan
THAT HETCH HETCHY TRIP WAS A MAJOR EVENT IN MY LIFE. (a camping trip with Jim French, Jimmie Dewhurst and Mike Bilinski in 1974.)
Since I almost died when I slipped into the river, it has given me great emotional questions about the meaning of LIFE. The fact that I DID NOT DIE at age 19 has made me grateful for every moment since.
Maybe there is some reason for my existance, some big task that needed to be accomplished. FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON I WAS GIVEN THE GIFT OF LIFE. I feel that the reason is that I should DO SOMETHING USEFUL to make the world a better place to live. I made a difference when I was working at Radio Shack. I helped thousands of people solve their electronic problems. For example: I sold thousands of hearing aid batteries to people in Czechlosovakia. Many people could hear because of me. At the plastic factory I made wheels for wheelchairs. Thousands of people are rolling around right now because of me. It is not much, but at least I did SOMETHING. That experience at Hetch Hetchy was truly unique. I was stoned on LSD and PEYOTE and met death FACE TO FACE underwater.
I also had the blessing of attending 37 grateful dead concerts and two rainbow gatherings. What a lucky fellow I am. Hundreds of Acid trips... The last one was at an anti-war protest march in Washington DC when George Bush SENIOR was fighting the GULF WAR. I was interviewed on television. My next door neighbor said I made a jackass of myself on the evening news. I am very proud of that. She was a concervative republican and I know that if I pissed her off I must have been doing the right thing...We spent a lot of time playing the drums in Lafayette park across the street from the white house. The idea was to make a lot of noise and disturb George Bushes sleep. A guy from Kodiac Alaska loaned me a MARCHING BAND BASS DRUM and for hours I lead 30 people in a drum circle. HEY, maybe we shortened the gulf war by reminding george bush that some drummers thought he was an idiot... AT LEAST I DID SOMETHING...
links to all my websites... greg vanderlaan
wolfgangsterlin@whale-mail.com
family photos...
http://gregvan.oceansfree.com
lyrics and art,ethanol,
biodiesel
https://www.angelfire.com/art2/gregvan
MOM's AA Chico, California
http://www.geocities.com/momsaachico
colorful art...rantings...Eureka's kinetic sculputure race photos
http://www.geocities.com/gregvan
These links take you to 50 megabytes of photos, art, lyrics, shortstories and animations...all original content...
