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Category: John

My Brother

Rachmaninoff and My Brother John

My brother John played the piano for Annie and Matt’s wedding last Saturday. John has been playing since he was 5 or 8 or maybe still in the womb or something. He’s 45 now, and I can tell you that I have never heard him play better in my whole life than I did on Saturday. And he has always impressed me.

He played the Rachmaninoff piece 18th Variation From Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini that became the theme song for Somewhere in Time, at Annie’s request. He’d never played it before getting the sheet music about 2 months ago, and he committed it to memory in that time. He didn’t just play it, he felt it. It was so awesome to watch my brother play this, that it made my eyes well up, I have never been prouder of him. I came this close to standing up and yelling “That’s my brother!” when he finished. He played about 30 minutes of waiting music before the wedding started, including two or three of his own compositions.

Hear John Play It
This is the actual performance of 18th Variation From Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini at the wedding of Matthew and Annaliese Beghtel, July 8, 2006.
Download the MP3 here. You may also want to Update your Quicktime Player.

That’s
my
brother!
Hearing him play the Rachmaninoff piece reminded me of the movie Shine and the famous “Rach. 3” that David Helfgott played for that memorable concert. I bought the CD of that movie’s soundtrack and I listen to it while I paint. The Rach. 3 is one of my favorite pieces, now. I never tire of it.

This past Wednesday, on our Road Trip home after attending my niece’s wedding, Teresa and I took a purposefully slow detour down California’s 101, and, among other sites, drove through the Avenue of the Giants on our trip back, and I put in the Shine soundtrack as a musical bed for what we were about to see as we turned off the 101 onto the Avenue of the Giants.

Watch this video of Vladimir Horowitz playing a bit of the Rach. 3. Give it at least 57 seconds of your time—see if it hooks you. I love watching a master, maybe you will, too.

Considering

I’ve been out of town and not blogging. I’ve been visiting my mom and brother John this past week with my daughter Lauren. Sunday night (a week ago) I got a little tickle in my throat, and since then I have been feverish, coughing sneezing and basically miserable.

As of today, I can say I have had a fever since sometime last year.

Nice welcome to 2006.

I had a choice: stay home and be sick, or travel and be sick. It was not an easy choice. In the end—even at age 48—I would rather be sick in the home my mom is in than anywhere else. So I packed up my flu and headed to Sunnyvale.

Poor Lauren got stuck here with nowhere to go and not a lot to do. I was in bed most of the time I was here, and now it’s late in the evening of the night before we are to head for home at 5am. Oh well.

It’s important to see family. I hope Lauren got that much from the trip. Actually, I hope she got a lot more.

I haven’t seen my mom in six months… since a week or so after my dad died. It’s different here now. Never got to see Dad. That was both expected and strange at the same time.

Mom’s doing pretty well.

Considering.

My Dear Papa

My brother John, inventer of the soon-to-make-it into the lexicon “Phoon”—the word for a specific pose—has a wonderful “goodbye” on his website, Phoons.com, to our father.

His tribute begins on the Recent Additions page—which will likely change over time—but currently says:

My dear Papa —Thanks for your great love for God,
your family and others
~~ Apr 12, 1928 – June 27, 2005 ~~

It is a collection of all of the Phoons my father posed for.

That we know of. 😉

The Order of the Cosmos

In the grand scheme of things, yesterday was a wonderful birthday for my now 77 year old mother.

The day before her birthday, my brother John sent out a mass e-mail to who-knows-how-many people in the Sunnyvale area—where my parents have lived for 28 years—that read:

Mom is going to be 77! Would you be willing to email her a simple “Happy Birthday!”?

And if you’re nearby where she lives and want to join in a fun little project of mine, I see that Orchard Supply currently has “6 pack annuals” on sale for $1.89 each (through 6/10 evening). Mom loves Cosmos and had really wanted a particular front plot in the yard to be full of Cosmos but the seeds she spread didn’t sprout like she hoped. So, if you pick up a 6-pack of Cosmos and drop it off at her place (any time of day, tho no later than 9 pm), I’ll plant everything that everyone has dropped off and she’ll love it! [Address and link to a map were provided]

Thanks–John

When this photo [Click here to see image in a new window] was taken, my mother had received from friends 76 six-packs of Cosmos. Then later at 8:53pm, 7-minutes shy of the 9:00pm cut-off time requested by John on behalf of my mother and ailing father, one more couple arrived at the house, tooting their horn as John was heading into the garage, with the wife shouting that they had “7 minutes to spare” delivering that which they did not know at the moment would be the 77th six-pack of Cosmos on my mother’s 77th birthday.

Seventy-seven more proofs there is an order to the Cosmos.

A Beautiful Sound

My younger brother John stayed with my parents last night in their home. Dad has been brought home for good. John wrote poetically this morning a two-line assessment of the night:

It was a beautiful sound last night and this morning: two people snoring together. Wonderful for Mom to get full sleep.

Now, to put things in perspective, under all previous circumstances, the sound of my mother and father snoring together is nothing short of an auditory phenomenon. That two people can actually sleep next to one another while the other is emitting such a throttling broadcast is a miracle exceeded only by the sheer volume of the two of them in concert.

Bob and Doris Darrow
1977

I had the great fortune of spending a day with my parents in South San Francisco a couple decades ago (don’t worry, I have spent time with them since :-). I had the great misfortune of sharing a hotel room with them that night. Long story short: I finally got to sleep at around 5:30am through absolute exhaustion brought on by sleep deprivation and the soothing, masking sound of the hotel bathroom fan. My parents found me asleep on the bathroom floor that morning; pillow on the tile, and a bed blanket over my weary body. It is a memory that still brings my dad to laughing tears.

PerspectiveRight now, I would love to hear the two of them snoring together. It must be a beautiful sound.

Thank you, John, for being there for Mom and Dad.

Today There Are Five

Today is the first day of a number of days whose limit God alone knows in which the sun rises and falls on five Darrow men at the same time.

They are as follows, in order of their appearance in the timeline of human history:

  • Robert Allen Darrow, patriarch, genius, teacher, example, my father, and a really old guy
  • David Robert Darrow, author of this blog and all the other stuff you see around this site
  • John Edward Darrow, Technical Writer, pianist, owner and creator of Phoons.com, a jovial nut, and my brilliant brother
  • Drew Matthew Darrow, 21, humorist, guitarist, graphic artist, great singer and surfer, and my oldest son
  • and as of today, Greyson Robert Darrow, 18, adult, artist with ability beyond his years, all-around athlete, sensitive soul, and my son

Welcome, my son, to the rest of your life as an adult. You are now held accountable in every way for all your decisions. And your success or failure depends on your ability to understand and avail yourself of the Providence of God which will present Itself in various people and situations as well as forms of plenty and want, pain and pleasure, challenges and smooth roads.

May God use anything at His disposal to shape you into and keep you a man after His heart. May His face shine upon you, and grant you grace and peace.

I will love you always and through anything, for as long as I live.

Update (July 1, 2005): We were reduced again to four, when on June 27th, 2005, my father Robert A. Darrow passed away.