I met Joe through the NRBQ list serve, for fans of the band, that would post emails to the group, and that's when I first started to enjoy interacting with him on the internet. It was through that he initiated the collaborative Fabulous Moonpies that put together the Christmas Wish recording project, and the Q-tenanny sing along/play along event for the second NRBQ reunion. It was Joe's idea, and he took on the laborious task of putting a song book together for everybody ! It turned out to be a joyous event and a memory that everybody will treasure. At the second one that we did, keyboardist Terry Adams walked in and played a song with us, and Joe and the rest of us were thrilled to bits !
Through that NRBQ group, some of us started listening to Belinda's radio show Bubbles in the Think Tank ( wmfo.org every Saturday night at 11 p.m. ET ), and again Joe put his efforts and enthusiasm towards that show, and started playing with us in our little chat group on Facebook, and eventually came out to the Boston area to guest host the show, as Belinda decided that she would like to have the staff members each guest host a show.
Yes, Bubbles in the Think Tank has a staff. I am the Titular Head of Research BTW.... we are a silly bunch, for as Belinda has decreed, the show is about Love and Silliness. When Belinda was going to add Joe to the staff, she asked me what staff position he should be given, and I came up with the title "Churlman of the Board"
( NYC Office ). In the NRBQ group, Joe, being a perfectionist (being Joe ) would often make little factual corrections and preface them by saying, " I hope this isn't churlish of me to point out, but..." ,and I had started to kid him about it on the Bubbles page. Churly Joe... He could really hurl the churl.... He embraced the moniker and was inspired to put together the delightful " I enjoy being a Churl" with Suzy.
But this so-called churlishness was really just perfectionism, and when Joe was putting together his staff show, he put together the extraordinary radio jingle that you heard in the memorial, after carefully researching radio jingles, and also practiced doing the show and recorded himself and listened to it, before he came out for the show. And the show was fantastic, Joe came out and the
"Ever-embiggening Staff" ( as Belinda likes to call it ) all went out to eat and hung around in the studio with him during the show, and it was just a wonderful night, and now a memory we will always cherish.
I've really missed interacting with him in the chat group during the show every Saturday night. So clever, so knowledgeable and such a great sense of humor...I enjoyed bantering and being silly with him so much. We have our little
in-jokes and our bad puns there
and our running gags , one that Joe started was the "Big Mic" picture, where he started posting pictures of the artists being played posing with a large vintage microphone, i.e. those old Shures. Someone posts a Big Mic pic at least once every show now.
And I will miss Joe and his regular posts on social media, his compassion, his outrage at injustice and cruelty, his intellect, and his eloquence . His outrage was genuine,and he was determined to never be complacent.
On a personal note, I will miss his generous enthusiasm for my own musical and artistic projects. That meant a lot to me, because his opinion meant a lot to me.
Now I have to go through this lengthy tome and check my punctuation, grammar and spelling, in case he's watching.
I'd like to end this now by wishing Joe's friends, relatives, and musical collaborators some good old-fashioned Bubbles in the Think Tank
LOVE and SILLINESS ❤️
Also, please do not use adjectives where adverbs are required.