"Shangri La" : "Blue Lew's Fretboard" & "The Last Record Collector"

My Lady questioned me last night about my desires in life.

Peace was at the top of the list.

At this age and vintage, having always played it safe, doing
the responsible thing, it is time to take some chances and
pursue my dreams.

In the past, when opportunity to change directions presented
itself, for the sake of my family, I took the safe road, only to
have my then wife of 20 years walk out on me and in the
aftermath of said event, lose everything, my home with its
English Garden called "Strawberry Fields," my vintage guitar
collection & amplifier collection, my beloved kitties, and
in addition, suffer a stroke, causing my career dreams to
further my education in Law and step up from my Paralegal
position to becoming a licensed Attorney in California to
fade rapidly away.

So much for playing it safe...six years have passed, my health
is a daily problem, and if I do not take it upon myself to make
my dreams come true, it will be too late the hero.

So the time has come. My Love Life is Perfect...having found
The Love of my Life in December 2002 and being blessed
by her love and betrothal to me on 11 December 2004. I now
must leave in as short a time as possible, what Little Feat
termed "A Blue Collar Hell" and do everything in my power
to make my dream of owning my own Music Store and
Record Store here in small town USA a reality. My greatest
desire is to find peace and happiness in everything My Lady
and I do, as individuals and alone together.

I want My Lady to pursue her writing...she is such an
incredibly wonderful writer and poet with real potential
for commercial success. Her inner and outer beauty often
overwhelmes me and makes me feel very small by
comparison. I am so lucky and priveliged to walk, stand
and sleep by her side, share her life and love, and our
marriage.

I desire, for myself, to own my own music related business,
own a home in an historic and beautiful small town, with a
Rose garden, growing virtually all our own fresh vegetables
and herbs, as I have done in a previous incarnation.

I wish to see the Sun's rays light themselves upon My Lady's
pretty face in the chill morning, and warm summer sunset
air of our own home, with soft wind making music in the
needles of the sheltering conifers that guard our

"Sanctuary of the Soul" and "Shangri La."

Though this picture is of 100 years past, Occidental is still the
Bohemian community it always has been, nestled deep inside
a redwood veiled valley as beautiful as anything on the Left
Coast of CA, where cell phones cannot receive nor dial calls
due to the tranquility, the depth and solitude of the redwood forest.

It is here I intend to find "Shangri La" for My Lady and I, forever.







Like my internet music duscussion group, I would like to call
my Music Store, "Blue Lew's Fretboard" and combine it with a
record store called "Shangri La: The Last Record Collector"
that primarily focuses on Vintage Vinyl Records, posters and
memorabilia, compact discs & DVDs.







Designed and decorated with my collection of Rock and Roll
memorabilia and posters, I dream of creating a neighbourhood
style music store with a priority on stringed instruments, new
and used...hardly a new or brillaint idea, but, for me, I think
I can bring a lot of experience, knowledge and personality into
this kind of business, and in so doing, find peace within myself
for what I am doing, however modestly, for myself, my family
and the community.


















I'd like Blue Lew's Fretboard to have a focus on vintage
collectables like this:

Gibson J-160E (The BeaTles used this guitar extensively)





and reissues of Classic Vingage Instruments like this:

Gibson 1959 Les Paul Standard (with highly figure maple top)





An assortment of Classic 1959 Les Paul 'bursts





Just a simple store front along a stretch of bussiness in a
small town, downtown, on a sidewalk frenquented by locals
and the occsaional tourist, would be such a dream.


Maybe something like this:







or my dear friend, and co-guitarist in 3 bands together with me,
Eddie Frawley Jr.'s:

"Central Coast Music in Morro Bay CA"










Thank would look similar to this inside:











Something I can do with my life, enjoy, make a living at, find peace
and contentment, never forgetting that these things come from
the inside, from within, and not from the outside.

There is nothing I want more in this life than to wake every day
alongside My Wife with the happiness and contentment, the
fulfullment that makes one's life such that wild getaway vacations
and extravagant weekend escapes are not necessary, even considered,
because all one needs is found in the simple act of living and loving
those around you.