I ROCK!

By Michael Seese

I believe it was Richard Starkey who said, "I get by [and other things] with a little help from my friends." Today, I can say the same.

Working for a bank, as I do, I had the day off on Columbus Day. I had planned to go to the Cleveland Museum of Art. I have a novel-in-progress which will be set there during the renovation project. As of right now, in order to reach the galleries you need to go down the main stairs, across the basement, and then come up on (what I believe are) new escalators. But the construction is slated to end in a week, give or take.

So I wanted to walk through, take pictures, count steps, and make copious notes, in case those areas later are off-limits. As an aside, on Martin Luther King Day this past January I took my seven-year-old to the museum. But not my camera. Grrr.

As I went to bed on Sunday, I had a thought: Isn't the museum closed on Mondays? The next morning I checked online, and sure enough, it is.

Did I mention GRRRR!

So instead of a trip to University Circle, I plopped down at my PC for a writing session. Before I did, I checked the usual agent and author blogs. One that I follow is Chuck Sambuchino, an editor and published book author who runs the Guide to Literary Agents Blog. In that day's post, I read about a contest he was offering up.

Enjoy a little rock & roll music from time to time? Who doesn’t? Well I’m trying something fun and different today as a Monday pick-me-up to try and get your week going. It’s my own crazy variation of NAME THAT TUNE and I’m calling it WD’S TUNESDAY (possibly Volume 1, if people dig it). The rules and the gist are simple. Watch the video. I play 15 riffs on my guitar. You try to name as many of them as you can, and e-mail me your answers.

I got about half by myself, then enlisted the help of my good friend Michael. He dragged in a few co-workers. And in short order we had:

#1 Owner Of A Lonely Heart
#2 Talk Dirty to Me
#3 Cat Scratch Fever
#4 Machine Head
#5 Jessie's Girl
#6 The Bleeding        
#7 Poker Face
#8 Hey Jealousy
#9 I Love Rock And Roll
#10 Thunder Kiss '65
#11 Fell On Black Days
#12 Leave Me Out
#13 Paranoid
#14 Hammer To Fall
#15 Connection

And we were right!

Chuck announced the winner Monday. (BTW, I'm an "awesome dude.")

For our efforts, I get (sorry friends, but I really can't split this) a critique from Chuck, an interview on the WD system of blogs (forthcoming), and a one-year subscription to WritersMarket.com.  All of which I can use.

So I wanted to publicly thank Michael B. and the geeks at Sherwin Williams Global Supply Chain for helping me out.

And say that I -- make that we -- rock!