Hey folks,

Today is the two year anniversary of the death of a good friend of many of my good friends.

Robert Morris meant a lot of things to many people. Unfortunately, when I first met him what he meant to me was competion - competition for friends in a new environment (I had just moved to Boston), competition in music (he was an excellent musician) and competition in manliness (he had dated my girlfriend). So I wasn't his biggest fan, especially since... well ....he could really be kind of a dick sometimes. He was definitely a tough person for me to accept or even get to know. But eventually I did get to know him and I finally saw what my friends saw, that underneath everything he was a really sweet and good person and that the issues we had with each other were rooted in the similar insecurities we shared. We became almost sorta kinda friends.

I'm explaining all this because I want to remember him in an honest way. He wasn't my best friend and I wouldn't want to insult his memory, or his close friends, by eulogizing him as a perfect guy who I was especially close to. I do think about him and miss him sometimes though, and in my mind that definitely is worth saying. So, in honor of that sentiment I present my fondest memories of Robert Morris:

-He and I getting blindingly drunk in my Allston apartment and playing along to the fast part of Paradise City over and over again. He rocked the acoustic while I sported the fluorescent purple Gibson Explorer knock-off. Yes, it was as dumb as it sounds.

-Him heckling Jeff Tweedy at Lilli's during a Tweedy solo show until we almost got kicked out. Although this also qualifies as one of my most unpleasant memories of Robert, in retrospect it makes me laugh, especially when I remember Robert screaming the title of the song he thought Tweedy was about to play and seeing Tweedy mouth back "wrong!" when Robert looked away.

-Him letting me play with his Yellow Submarine figurines whenever I was at his house, and he had them all.

-Him letting me borrow I Me Mine. We both thought it sucked.

I guess that's it. I don't really know why I wrote this but it's what I'm thinking about today. Life is hard, people. I just hope he wasn't as unhappy at the end of his life as he probably must have been.

Thanks for bearing with me. The jokes will be back on Monday...