Chapter 39: Don’t Be Stupid

Medway High School, Arva, Ontario
9:36am, Wednesday, December 26, 1979

“I sure hope your brains and bodies are working better tomorrow, gentlemen, or you’ll be the laughing stock of the Purple and White,” Coach Williamson rightly stated after he called us together. I couldn’t help but think that this was the worst basketball practice I’ve ever been a part of. Even though we still had twenty minutes left in our practice, it felt like we were wading through a muck field for several hours.

To say we stunk up the gym would have been an insult to every foul smelling skunk in southern Ontario. Me, along with everyone else on our man-to-man defensive unit were always more than a half-step slow as we practiced both our full-court press or our jump-trap defense. Then, with the offense having multiple easy scoring attempts due our sloppy defense, neither my teammates nor I could have tossed the ball in the ocean with the waves breaking around our ankles. Passes during our structured offensive plays were either telegraphed and intercepted or delivered a split-second too late to have the play run successfully.

“I should have bought stock in Butterball before the holidays, because you guys must have devoured a bunch of birds to play like this,” Coach Feelt laughed as he patted Dennis and Gary’s stomachs for comedic relief.

“There’s no sense in continuing this garbage, so why don’t you at least try and hit some free-throws, and then get your sorry butts out of here,” Coach W sternly said as he stared daggers at all of our tired faces. With a clap of his hands, he added, “Just know, you’ve got less than twenty-four hours to get yourselves together or Northern will run roughshod over us. I want you dressed and ready to go, in the locker room at Thames Hall by seven-thirty. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir – Coach,” we all replied and then slowly moved around the gym to the six practice hoops to take some free-throws.

“Good Lord, I can’t believe we got off that easy after how we just played,” Wayne said as Andrew and I jogged with him to the main basket by the stage to shoot some free-throws.

“I think Coach realized there’s no sense in beating a dead horse,” Andrew laughed as he took his spot at the line.

“Yeah, ya can’t make it any deader than what we were out there,” I replied as I waited to get Andrew’s ball out of the goal. Maybe his hitting that first free-throw was going to be an omen for us. At least I hoped it was.

After all three of us hit at least eight out of our ten free-throws, Coach W called Wayne, Andy, Big Mike and I over to the sideline at mid-court. “I don’t expect a repeat of today’s performance from you guys,” he said as we huddled around him. Coach then looked specifically at Wayne and me, and added, “You guys are the trend setters on this team, so you’ve got to come ready to lead this pack of wild horses. If you two aren’t up for it, then you, Big and Andy, you’ll have to run the show, okay?”

“We won’t let this happen again, Coach,” I said before either Big Mike or Andy could reply to Coach’s statement. “We’ll be ready to bring the heat on ‘D’ and run the offense like it’s supposed to go.”

“I know you two have a lot going on right now, with your upcoming concert, so...” Coach W said.

“We’re not gonna let that mess with how we play ball, Coach,” Wayne interjected as he looked between our coach and me.

“Yeah, Coach. Ball is ball and music is music. I’m not gonna allow any concert preparation to interfere with playing ball. I wanna win this tournament more than I wanna play on some stage,” I forcefully added to my fellow point guard’s words.

As we were speaking, Doug Hayes, Western’s head basketball coach, and Devin Prichard, our concert’s director and stage designer walked into the gym. Lynette, along with Zupena and their volleyball teammates, who were sitting up on the stage waiting for our practice to end and for theirs to begin, immediately jumped down to slowly walk towards our location.

“Coach Williamson, Coach Feelt, it is good to see you again,” Coach Hayes said with a smile on his face as the three men shook hands. The tall, collegiate basketball coach then turned to me and my teammates and asked, “Are you Cowboys ready to kick ass in our tournament?”

“Ha! With the way these so-called basketball players practiced, we’ll be the ones getting unceremoniously kicked, tomorrow morning,” Coach Williamson honestly chuckled in response.

“We’ll be ready to play, Coach W and Coach Hayes,” Big Mike quickly added, which we all nodded in agreement to.

“Hey, Devin,” I then said as our concert producer grinned from just behind the much taller basketball coach. “What pray tell are you doing here with Coach Hayes?”

“Hello, Mike, Coach Williamson, Feelt, guys ... and Ms. Lynette,” Devin replied as he stepped slightly aside to let my soulmate step up to join our little huddle. Our concert producer then looked at Coach Hayes, who gave him a little wave of his hand. Devin then said, “Coach Hayes heard that your band was practicing over at Althouse, and he approached me about possibly having you kids do a practice session ‘slash‘ mini-concert for the teams participating in the Purple and White tournament ... after the championship game. I told him that was definitely a possibility, but I knew I’d have to run it through you guys first.” Devin used his fingers as quotation marks when he mentioned that ‘slash’ mini-concert term.

Lynette’s eyes got real wide as she heard Devin’s idea about doing rehearsal concert. She stared between me and Devin before she softly asked, “Have you talked with Sammy, E and Lisa about this, Devin?”

“Yes, we just came from the Labatt’s guest house, and they, along with Ms. Katie thought it would be a good idea to have a semi-live practice session of your high tech concert,” Devin replied with a smile.

“You’re not expecting us to do the whole concert, and, uh, you know ... do it with us stripping and all, do you?” I asked with a touch of trepidation in my voice. Lynette’s eyes got even bigger when she heard me ask about having to get naked in this possible concert rehearsal.

“No, no! As I told the others, I don’t think you should rehearse the opening songs of the concert in front of anyone but the concert crew. What we have planned for the show’s opening is a truly unique thing, so I don’t want to give it away. Just know that this is purely a rehearsal, so if we need to stop and redo or adjust something, those present will just have to deal with it,” Devin said. He then turned his attention to our tall, assistant basketball coach and asked, “Oh, Mr. Feelt, do you think your Jazz Band will be ready to play in this rehearsal show on Friday night?”

“I’m sure Mr. Ballows will have those kids fairly well set to go. He told me before Christmas that they had a few songs still needing some work, but I think one of them is Love Shack, which you won’t be doing in this rehearsal.” Our vocal teacher and assistant coach looked at me for confirmation of that mentioned song.

“Yeah, if we’re not going to do the opening songs, then Love Shack won’t be a problem,” I confirmed.

“With us planning on playing in the championship game,” Coach W chuckled, “what time do you see this rehearsal concert starting on Friday?”

“I expect the championship game and awards ceremony to be wrapped up by nine-thirty or so, so, uh, Mike, how long do you think it will take you to get cleaned up and ready to go with your band?” Coach Hayes asked as he rubbed his unshaven chin with his right hand.

“I, uh, should be ready to go by ... say ten-o’clock, so, uh ... Devin, how long do you see this rehearsal concert going?” I replied and asked my own question.

Devin looked between me and Lynette for a moment before he said, “Do you think playing from ten to say, midnight might be good? Again, we’ll come up with a play list ahead of time, so my concert people can have the lights, videos and special effects for the songs you’ll play all set to go. We’ll have a couple of run-throughs before Friday, remember.”

When Lynette nodded at me, I smiled and said, “I think a two hour rehearsal should be fun. Let’s do it.”

“Great, Guys!” Coach Hayes shouted and reached to shake Lynette’s hand in appreciation. “I’ll have my secretary call all the schools to inform them that Mike and the Time Bandettes will be doing a rehearsal concert for them after Friday’s championship game.” Coach Hayes couldn’t contain the joy he was feeling, and added, “This is going to be the best Purple and White, ever. We have five of the top ten ranked teams in Ontario playing, which makes this the premier tournament in the province, and now we have the hottest young rock band going to wrap things up after the games.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Coaches Jacket and Bumstead walking over to our location, and nodded towards Lynette. When Cano saw the smiles on her coaches’ faces, she turned to Devin and Coach Hayes to ask, “Can the girls’ volleyball teams playing in the Sabres’ tournament get to come to this rehearsal concert?”

Devin winked at Lynette and then replied, “I don’t see why not. This way we’ll know how many students can fit inside the curved walkway, as well as having the outside of it relatively filled.” Devin then turned towards Lynette’s coaches and asked, “I take it that you ladies are Lynette’s volleyball coaches? Do you think you would be able to get in touch with your volleyball tournament’s coordinator and inform them that the girls in the tournament are welcome to attend a rehearsal concert at Althouse College on Friday night starting near ten-pm?”

“I’m sure we can do that for you, ah, Mr?” Coach Jacket replied with a smile.

“Coach Jacket, Coach Bumstead, this is Devin Prichard. Devin, these ladies are my volleyball coaches. Devin is our concert’s producer,” Lynette quickly said as an introduction.

“Well, Devin, I’d be happy to get with Mr. Harper, the tournament coordinator at Saunders to inform him of this wonderful offer,” Coach Jacket said as she lightly shook hands with Devin.

“I would suggest giving all the basketball and volleyball players, and their families or friends a guest pass or two,” Coach Williamson said.

“Good point, Coach. I’m sure word will spread and we’ll need some way to identify everyone who is welcome to attend this fly-by-night rehearsal,” Devin replied. He then added, “I’ll also make the appropriate security arrangements to ensure we have a wonderful, but not overcrowded experience on Friday at Althouse.

As the adults continued with their conversation about the upcoming tournaments, us teenagers drifted away to excitedly talk about this new bit of Time Bandette news. All the guys on my team and the girls on Lynette’s team were pumped at being able to see our monstrous concert stage and visual effects, along with hearing us again this coming Friday. After a few minutes of this banter, Lynette and Zupena pulled me alone off to the far side of the gym.

“Did you guys really suck eggs at practice this morning?” Cano asked with a huge smile on her face.

“That would put eggs in a bad light, and you know how much I freckin’ love eggs,” I laughed sarcastically as I leaned up against the wooden bleachers.

“I hope our much loving not cause you to play badly,” Zupena softly said as she lightly touched my sweaty shoulder.

“I may partly blame my crappy play on that but it didn’t cause everyone else to act like they never set foot on a basketball court before,” I replied with a weak smile. “I’m guessing our Christmas dinners and just having an unusual eight-o’clock practice had a bigger effect.”

“Well, thank you for not waking us up this morning when you got up. Momma said you were as quiet as a church mouse coming out of the bedroom and into the kitchen,” Cano said as both girls moved close to give my cheeks a little kiss.

“There was no sense in getting you gals up at six-thirty,” I replied.

“I much appreciate you letting us sleep, Mikhail. I was still super tired when Mrs. R got us up a little after eight,” Zupena sweetly said.

Just then, Coach Jacket blew her whistle and yelled for her girls to hustle and get the rest of the volleyball equipment set up for their ten-am practice. I quickly gave both girls a soft kiss and wished them a better practice than we just had, before heading off to the varsity boys’ locker room.

On my slow walk down the back hallway, I thought back to last night at Cano’s and couldn’t help but smile at our escapades in the Robertson’s game room. It seemed that Cano had told both Shannon and Zupena about her time with me and Cathy McGregory after I won the billiards’ game and the right to their bodies for the night. Both Shan and Zupi asked me to do the same billiard ball-vibrator trick with them that I did to Lynette (see Book 3 – Chapter 38 for this sexcapade). The only major difference was that Lynette also got one of her mother’s vibrators to use, so that both Cano and I completed this ‘billiard ball in their pussy and vibe in their butt experience’ at the same time.

Shannon had her first ever, pass-out orgasm as I licked her clit, while using the vibrator to buzz the imbedded purple ‘four’ ball through the thin membrane separating her rectum and vagina. My blonde cheerleader girlfriend had screamed so loud prior to her killer orgasm that Lynette had to crawl over an almost deliriously orgasming Zupena to press her mouth over Shannon’s to prevent her parents from coming to investigate our activities. After Shannon came to, she was both a little embarrassed and somewhat upset that she didn’t remember the feeling of that billiard ball shooting a good foot’s distance from her spasming pussy.

Even though we earlier had a pretty hard round of fucking, Zupena made sure that my large bulbous crown and thick shaft still felt good to her after having the red ‘seven-ball’ fill her tight teen vagina. She was a little worried about being stretched out; even with Lynette’s and my assurances that Cano’s pussy was still super snug after her billiard ball experience. After giving 3-Z and Shannon their second hard pounding of the night, all three girls finally allowed me to go to sleep, as they knew I had to get up earlier than they did for my eight-am practice. Thankfully, Lynette’s period wasn’t completely over, so she was happy with being a facilitator of orgasms instead of a demander of them, or I doubt I would have made it out of the game room alive.

“Earth to Cuda, come in, Cuda,” Wayne laughed as he watched me zig-zag down the hallway towards the locker room with a dazed look on my face.

I gave my head a slight shake and grinned at my friend and then said, “Be very happy with one girl, Psots. Be very happy with just E.”

“You weren’t out with all five of your girls last night, were you?” he laughingly quizzed me.

“No, no. Two and a half were more than enough to almost kill me,” I replied with a grin. “I spent last night at Cano’s place, along with Zupena and Shannon. Thankfully, Lynette wasn’t her normal orgasm hungry self, so that was a small blessing, too.”

Wayne gave me a confused look at that last statement, so I added, “She was having ‘lady issues’.” With a smirk and a nod, my friend let me know that he didn’t need any more information on that line of thought.

When the two of us entered the locker room, we saw that Matt, Bruce, Big-Mike, Kollin and Kane were huddled up, laughing at something they were reading from a piece of notebook paper. When those grade thirteen guys saw us come in, Bruce said, “Hey, Little, you need to take a look at these lyrics that Kane, Matt and Janice wrote. I, we, think it could be a pretty bad-ass song with your guys’ magical touch.”

“Yeah, Little. You guys may need to redo a few of the lyrics as there’s some pretty harsh language in it, but I bet you and the girls could have everyone ... as the lyrics says, ‘Swinging from the ceiling,’” Big-Mike laughed as he held the piece of paper out towards me.

I snagged the notebook page from him and quickly scanned the neatly printed lyrics. My eyes bugged out a little when I scanned the first verse’s lyrics. I couldn’t help but laugh at the chorus’s lyrics to this possible hard sounding, hard drinking type song.

“Well ... what do you think, Little?” Kane asked as I was bobbing my head while reading the last few lines of their song.

“It’s, ah ... I can definitely tell it would be a bad-ass drinking song. You’ve got some, uh, pretty colorful language in it that I’m not sure we’d wanna use in one of our songs, but ah, this definitely has potential,” I replied with a huge grin on my face.

“We talked about it, and if you want to reword some of those salty language parts, we’d be good with it,” Matt quickly added.

“Yeah, we, especially Janice ... kinda knew a couple of those words or phrases might have to be retooled to make it work. We were hoping you and the Bandettes would be able to do something with it, if you thought it was worth your time,” Kane said as he got up to look at the lyrics’ page I was holding.

I handed the sheet back to Kane and then said, “It is a wickedly cool song, guys. I’m just not sure when we’d have time to redo the lyrics or put it to music. All our time ‘till the concert will be used getting up to speed on our new concert stage.”

“Hey, we understand that, Little. We know that you guys are awesome at putting things together kinda quick, so if you were just wanting something to mess with, I hope you guys would give it an honest effort,” Kane said. After taking a step towards his bench area, he turned and added, “Oh, this is for you. Janice printed this in her best handwriting, so it will be easy for you guys to read and make any needed changes.”

“Alright, guys. I’ll share this with the girls and we’ll see if we can find some time to put something together with these killer lyrics,” I replied with a smile, and then made my way over to my section of the locker room to get out of my sweaty practice clothes.

Althouse College Gymnasium, London

2:11pm, Wednesday, December 26, 1979

As soon as I opened the driver’s door of Zupena’s Impala at the side entrance to our new rehearsal location, I could hear the thumping beat of Cathy McGregory’s double bass drums and her twin brother, Paul’s killer, eight-string bass guitar. My two former next door neighbors and best friends were doing a sound check with some seriously good backing music.

Even though we all agreed to wait for Sammy, Eda, Gary and Wayne, who were pulling our instrument trailer behind her Bronco, hearing our friends inside the gymnasium was too much for Lisa, Lynette, Zupena and Shannon to wait outside. As soon as Zupena pulled open the gym door, Lisa and Lynette immediately sprinted inside, screaming in glee at seeing our friends from the Shania Twain Band up on the humongous stage that Devin’s crew had built for our concert. Cathy’s drumming and Paul’s bass lines immediately stopped, leaving only Steve’s soft keyboards and Shania’s acoustic guitar sounds playing in the gym.

“Cano! Brick!” Cathy shouted as she jumped up from her drum throne and carefully hot-footed it down from her three foot elevated platform to the main stage area. Both of my bandmate-girlfriends powered up on the five-foot high, curved walkway and were soon hugging both of the McGregory twins at the junction of the main stage and the ten-foot wide walkway.

I simply enjoyed watching that reunion before I was overpowered by my first visual impression of our massive stage. I was overwhelmed by its ungodly number of lights, and a massive wall of powerful amplifiers and speakers. The complete stage took up almost one of the three full-sized basketball courts in Althouse’s gym. Behind Cathy and Steve’s slightly elevated portable platforms was the large tri-level stage Devin created for our concert. Hanging behind the upper level were two fifteen-by-twenty feet video screens, one above Eda’s soon to be drum kit and the other above the area for Medway’s Jazz Band. From the upper level of the stage, a five foot wide, curved stairway went down to two middle level stages, and then continued its curved path to the main stage level. On either side of the curved stairway were two open mini-platforms, one for Lynette’s keyboard system and one for Sammy’s smaller synthesizer and her multiple guitars. Sammy’s area was just outside of E’s drum kit area, with Lynette’s platform underneath the Jazz Band’s location.

The main stage area was beyond impressive. It was almost ninety feet wide with two, ten-by-ten foot elevated platforms at both ends of the front stage. These were about five feet above the main stage area and had lighted guard rails around them to prevent anyone from falling off of them. Behind these elevated platforms were two covered storage areas, which I assumed would hide both the Shania Twain Band’s and Six-Feet Above’s instrument platforms. Earlier, both groups told Devin that they would rather use their own instruments instead of playing Eda’s drums and Cano’s keyboards. It was an easy fix for Devin’s stage design crew to create these storage spots behind the two platform areas.

The main performance area looked to be about thirty feet from the front to the start of the curved stairway. The flooring was clear plexi-glass with various lighting bars or light cords protected by the flooring. Numerous multi-directional pot-lights and pyrotechnic pots were spaced along the front edge of the stage, as well as along the edge of the curved stairway and the other stage levels.

“Mary, Jesus and Joseph, Mikhail,” Zupena whispered as she gripped my right forearm while staring at this impressive scene. “I never see anything so massive and wonderful looking as this stage.”

“It sure is impressive, isn’t it, Zupi,” I replied.

“I’m not sure you guys are going to have enough room up there to play,” Shannon sarcastically added as she walked past Zupena and me on her way to the curved walkway.

“Hey! Cuda!” Paul called out as he slowly jogged out onto the walkway and then bent over to give Shannon a hand up with getting onto the elevated path. Giving Shannon a gentle hug, my best friend said, “And you must be Shannon, as you’re definitely not the six-foot-three Latvian beauty.”

“Hi, Paul, and yes, I’m Shannon,” my blonde cheerleader girlfriend replied with a huge smile.

“Paulie! Cathy!” we heard Sammy scream as she and Eda came running through the side entrance.

“Hey! Shania and Steve! How are you guys doing?” E excitedly added as the other two members of the STB joined Lynette, Lisa, Cathy, Shannon and Paul on the semi-circular walkway.

“I’m fine. Tired from traveling, but just peachy fine,” Shania laughed as she leaned down to give Eda a helping hand up onto the walkway. Steve reached down to help Zupena, while Paul gave his ex-girlfriend, Sammy a pull up.

“Gawd! You really are as tall as Mike,” Steve laughed when Zupena stood up and towered over the five-foot-ten-inch keyboard player.

“Where is your fifth girlfriend, Cuda?” Paul asked after all the introductions were done.

“Tempe was invited to a major high school gymnastics meet in Toronto, so she won’t be around ‘til Friday evening at the earliest,” Lisa replied for me.

“Yeah, Tempe, Jennifer and Kalena were all invited to the U of T Invitational, but only Tempe agreed to go. Both Jenn and Kalena felt it was best to be here for our rehearsal sessions,” I added as I let go of my hug of Shania.

Cathy looked out to the open door and saw a couple of guys carrying in various instrument cases and said, “Hey, Wayne and you must be Gary. Sammy has told us all about you.”

Paul and I immediately jumped down from the walkway to give Wayne and Gary a hand with bringing in the rest of our instruments. We greatly appreciated several of the production crew coming out in the cold to speed up the unloading of all our instruments. Thankfully, Devin let us know that we didn’t need any of our lighting equipment for this concert. After seeing everything about this stage, our band’s lighting equipment was definitely bush league in comparison.

As the girls, Gary and Wayne were getting our band’s instruments all set up at their mid- and upper-stage locations, I was getting my five guitars and our two ukuleles positioned in front of Cano’s and Sammy’s keyboard systems. I also set out Brick’s two bass guitars, as well as Sammy’s four guitars.

After I finished getting all our stringed instruments ready, Devin came over to me and asked, “Are you going to need a guitar tech to keep everything in tune during the concert?”

“I don’t think so,” I replied with a shoulder shrug. I then added, “We’ve never had that issue after we’ve had them tuned prior to our shows, so...”

Devin just shook his head as I replied, and then he interrupted me with, “Your sound has been spot on, so we’ll just run with things the way you’re accustomed to performing. If something needs adjusting, I’m sure we can figure it out on the fly.”

In relatively short order, we had all our instruments set up on the massive stage. We were about to take a break when Dr. Younger came running into the gym and hollered for Devin. We watched the two adults carry on an animated conversation and saw a look of dread wash over Devin’s face. Both adults then turned towards us and slowly made their way to the front of the stage. All of us knew something was up, so we uneasily made our way to their location.

“I have some awful news for you kids,” Dr. Younger calmly said as he looked up at us. “I just got word that the van carrying Six Feet Above was in an accident on the 401, this side of Milton. All five of band members, plus both of Suzy’s parents are at Milton General Hospital. Other than hearing that Suzy and Aaron both have broken arms, I don’t really know any more about the extent of their injuries.”

“Oh my God!” a few of my friends replied in unison as I hugged Shannon and Lisa into my chest.

“This is definitely going to change things a little at our concert,” Devin said with a heavy sigh.

“I really don’t care about the concert, right now,” Lynette said with tears starting to stream down her face.

“I know this isn’t the kind of news you kids wanted or needed to hear, but we all have a job to do with this concert,” Dr. Younger said in a calm tone. He then added, “We’ll keep everyone informed of those guys’ conditions, but as of now, we’ll have to proceed like they won’t be performing with your bands.”

After giving us a few minutes to comfort each other and to grab a drink out of the provided coolers, Dr. Younger motioned for me, Lynette, Sammy, Shania and Steve to join him and Devin off beside the gym’s main faculty offices. “Dr. Younger and I were just talking and we were wondering if you, Shania and Steve would have a problem playing both of those thirty minute intermissions in this concert?”

Both of our friends simply smiled at each other and took less than a second for Shania to say, “We can easily put together two, thirty minute playlists.”

“Yeah, we’ll probably have to reorganize our songs a little, but it won’t be a problem doing both intermission sets,” Steve excitedly added to Shania’s positive response.

“Great! I figured you kids would be up to that challenge,” Devin said with relief evident in his tone. “This will also help with how we organize your portable platforms without Six Feet Above in the mix. I think we can put Cathy’s kit on one, and your keyboard system on the second platform, storing one on either side of the stage. That will also allow us to ‘doll-up’ each platform a little more.”

“What did you need us for, Devin?” Lynette asked with a look of confusion on her face.

“Nothing, now,” Devin chuckled. He then added, “If Shania and her band didn’t feel comfortable with playing that second intermission, we probably would have had you guys play two ninety minutes sets, instead of our planned three-sixty minute ones.”

“I’m glad things are okay like we had planned, ‘cause I’m not sure doing ninety minute sets would have been a good thing, especially with Lisa’s health issues. She still gets pretty tired doing sixty-ish minute sets,” I said to Devin and Dr. Younger.

“Ninety minute sets would be tough drumming for Eda, too,” Sammy added with a smile.

“We’ll be glad to play those two, thirty minute sets,” Shania reiterated with glee in her voice.

“Alright, I’ll work with you on coming up with a new playlist, as well as coordinating the lights and pyros for your two sets,” Devin said as he jotted down a couple of things in his ever present small notepad.

The rest of our bandmates and friends were pumped to hear that the STB were going to get an additional set of music to play at our concert. The four member of Shania’s band moved off to the side to discuss how they were going to rework their song list to have two quality thirty-minute sets of music.

As my bandmates and friends were finishing up our drinks, Kalena and her mom, Viktoriya walked into the gym from the main entrance of the college. Both ladies were carrying a violin case in their hands, which was semi-unusual as I wasn’t expecting Viktoriya to play anything at our concerts. Dr. Kharlamov was a world class violin player, and she helped us with some musical arrangements with our acoustic guitars.