Glamorous, Mundane, Insane: My Life with Buddy Greco

Finally...a long time no see....

2011-12-07T13:07:00.000-08:00

I am finally here, writing again, only a little over two years since my last posting. I can bearly look at my dear cats faces.... it did not end a happy story after all of my worry about them and planning. It made for some very sleepless and tearful nights in england, and still after all this time I think about my Guido and could cry... but we must keep going and many things worse than losing your dear cat has been happening to people all around me, so I must move on and we have. There is so much to tell here. We are still in England and come back and forth as our immigration visa requires us to do, but we have found that we love it here more than in america. Of course that means that there is more work for us here than in the states, that is the reason why Buddy has been coming here for over 60 years. And English fans are loyal fans... they are just getting old! like us !! But now that I have remembered my password and have recovered from a heartbreaking move... I will write more about my life with Buddy... who celebrated his 85th birthday here in England last August. He is still looking and feeling great, singing great, playing great too...he will be appearing at 3 New Years parties, at Ronnie Scotts jazz club in London, then off to the Savoy for a live BBC Radio 2 broadcast with a 33 piece orchestra, then on to BBC TV for Jools Holland's New Years Eve Hootenanny...

We Need Homes!

2009-10-20T12:49:00.000-07:00

This is Guido Greco. He is an 8 year old neutered male. He weighs about 26 pounds. He only eats dry food. He is very loving and friendly. He likes to stretch out right on top of you..and boy is he heavy. He likes to be brushed and does require some daily grooming. He is the best cat ever and if it werent for such a hassle and a 6 month waiting time he would be going to England with us. We will really really miss our Guido.

This is Lucky. He is a 4 year old neutered male. He wandered into the back door of the club during the construction. He was so tiny and loud! He was yelling his little head off and wandering under the workmens feet as they were loading construction supplies in the door. He is very loving, a bit timid. He spent many hours left with Guido...above and was bullied by him. He likes to find dark places to sleep during the day especially up high...he is very beautiful, black all over and lovely long tail. He likes to be brushed. All cats live with dogs...and in fact love their dogs.

This is O.C. (Office Cat) He is a 2 year old neutered male. He was a stray kitten that started hanging out around the office at the club. I was feeding the feral cats, and he was more friendly than the ferals, but still a little runny eyed kitten. He did let me come close to him and one day I just reached out to touch him (really...grab him) and he turned around and bit me on the hand. Well my hand swole (is that a word?) up...for a couple of days..but I didnt give up on him...and we became friends..I tried to keep him in at night...in the office..but he wanted to be out..and it was so dangerous down there for all the cats, coyotes or cars...take your pick..so I brought him home so he could have an outdoor life at night. We have a very safe and big space for cats grown over with many trees and bushes...all of our cats come and go outside...they sleep in the house during the day and go out at night...OC loves office machines...I have pictures of him with his arm up the printers paper input...or the fax machine...he is small and shiney and loving and smart. Very friendly and it would be good maybe if he and Lucky could go to a loving home together....thanks so much from the greco family...Bye

We're Still Here!

2009-10-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

I have gone through some real changes in the past two months. First, a little discouraged about the whole blogging thing. I mean really, how truthful about how insane it is.....can I be? Buddy would kill me! And I really am not into maintaining any kind of PR thing. I dont have a ticket to sell to anyone for anything! So that kind of put me off writing...I had to work too hard to think of anything really rosy and sweet to write about.

We have had lovely weather, and we are enjoying what is probably our last winter in the desert. We have finished repacking and now are on to packing for London and have actively begun looking for homes for our dear ones. To help keep our sanity we have taken up new instruments. Buddy is playing the violin and I am playing the cello. We take our dear dogs to the desert every morning, and I am trying to memorize the mountains and blue skys that I see...and we are both hugging our dear dogs and cats alot....and packing and please..get me outta here...!!!!

But I tell you, nothing brings it all home like going through all of your possessions and really making decisions, like you arent coming back!..I mean really, what is worth dragging half way around the world? I am rethinking my Auntie Alices earring collection and think I have convinced my daughter, Timmie that she should take the whole jewelry cabinet! I am feeling an exhilarating sense of freedom and some guilt for how easy it was to convince the kids that they want all this old stuff...someday they will be saying.."oh that was mom and dads...we have to keep it..." I am advising doing this long before they have to come in and decide who gets what after you are gone..and what I am discovering is that the most precious treasures of my life are probably the things they would toss out, if left to themselves...undiscovered treasures of unrecognized value..so I am writing a lot of notes to kids and grandkids about an odd assortment of things that were important to me and mailing them away to their new owners.
Looking through these pictures of a life time, We are amazed at how quickly it has gone, So we are really trying to live in the present moment. I think that is what this whole experience is about, before it was too late for Bud and I, that we should be loving more of the moment and each other.

So thinking about the brevity of the whole life experience and kind of making my own bucket list, I thought I should take up the cello, an instument that I have always loved.

It is amazing that you can buy a chinese made cello for $129.00 and for 169.00 you can get a violin too!!...so that is what I did..and then because I knew Kym was going to want to play..for $40.00 we got another violin for her...Pink! I know, I know, but they are good little instuments to learn on. We are taking lessons from Jack at Musicians Outlet in Palm Desert.

Kym has really taken to it. She plays everyday, but for her work schedule she says that this is the best idea I have had....!! I am telling both of them that we can always play Covent Gardens...with our cases spilling with english pounds....there is much laughter about it..and I must say it is quite a challenge. I have progressed to being able to read and play the basic notes of the A and D strings. I can play "Home on the Range" and "Ode to Joy."..there is still some squeaking and cursing through the pieces, but my avid friends and fans, the dogs, luckily are deaf and think it is quite wonderful.

Buddy played the violin for 10 years, from 6 to 16 years old. He says he hasnt picked one up since then..that was 67 years ago! He went to take a lesson from Jack, and he doesnt have to go again.!! He remembered everything and played some pieces with Jack! So he is now practising "Golden Earrings" for the FEVER show....it will be neat to have him play the violin for that song...really gypsy...really sexy...really Armando!
More later, love you, Lezlie

Buddy Greco at The Rrazz. San Francisco

2009-09-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

The party was at the Rrazz Room August 17 and 18th. stayed at Nico Hotel on the 20th floor. Great View of downtown! The reviews, we were ....good see below.

Birthday Pictures

2009-08-20T16:30:00.000-07:00

Happy 83rd Birthday Buddy !
This photo taken at the surprise party held for Buddy at Davey's Hideaway, Palm Springs, Ca. Seen here, Buddy and Buddy Jr.

Buddy thought we were having dinner with Chuck and Gayle at one of our favorite little places in Palm Springs, Davey's Hideaway. Pictured: l to r Buddy, Buddy Jr., Kym, our assistant, Chuck, and Lezlie.

Lots of friends were there, here just a few!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

2009-08-14T12:55:00.001-07:00

Beginning...Again..Happy Anniversary

2009-08-13T01:55:00.000-07:00

Seventeen years ago, on Wednesday, August 12, 1992 Buddy introduced himself to me at The Desert Inn in Las Vegas. I had just been hired to perform there and he had seen me and wasted no time making his move. And now here we are celebrating at Club Trinidad (one of Sinatra's hangouts) in Palm Springs with a bunch of friends..sitting in with the band, and drinking martinis. Buddy was going through a horrible divorce then (the playboy bunny) and me..I don't know..I just wanted to sing. And here we are...still together...and good.

Our club is absolutely and completely gone. All at once I feel so free and happy, and then, want to weep with sorrow. Tonight when we passed it, coming from Trinidad, I couldn't bear it. The landscaping lights were still on, I have left them on till the end...and Sam the homeless man is still watering the plants...I must let them die?

But we have much to do, imagine having the luxury (necessity) to be able to (have to) sort through everything you have accumulated over the past 17 years or more? Now the decision is what to take to England, what is worth the storage or shipping and what must simply go. Why must I be so sentimental? What is that about? How can I be free when I must be tied by my heartstrings to all this old stuff? For example: What to do with the earring collection left to me by my dear auntie Alice (pictured with her fat spoiled dog Smarty)? I loved that earring collection as an eight year old. I used to spend hours looking at those earrings. Auntie Alice was a waitress in Spokane Washington, and because she had to wear a uniform, her only form of self expression was her earrings. And did she express herself! I thought they were beautiful! So upon her passing, because everyone remembered how much I loved them, I was given the "collection," which for 30 years, 3 husbands and innumerable houses and moves, I have managed to bring them along with me..but now? Will auntie Alice's earrings make the cut? Will they be going to London? My dear beautiful Auntie Alice who would have never thought of going so far around the world, so far away from Spokane, Washington. Could it be that her precious earrings might?

The Eve of the First Day of the Rest of Our Lives

2009-08-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning, August 11, 2009, on the steps of the Riverside County Courthouse our new life begins. One life ending, another beginning. The grieving is over for the most part. All of the feelings of grief when a loved one dies, disbelief, denial, anger, acceptance, (and not necessarily in that order) we went through over the past months. And now, tomorrow morning, our land, our little building, our business will be gone.

It won't be the only property, the only dream sold on the courthouse steps tomorrow morning. There will be many others. But we are lucky, it is not our home. Tomorrow morning there will be many homes that were lived in, worried over and lost. Homes that had been paid on for years, painted and improved. Homes that were loved and cared for will be sold on the courthouse steps tomorrow morning and the next morning and the next. Homes with children living in them today and not tomorrow. Children leaving their homes, and moving on. Worried mothers and fathers, many..most, absolutely helpless to keep it from happening. Yes, we are lucky, our loss, as sad as it is, is just a building with a business. We have not lost our home.

So this is a briefing of the current state of affairs, where you are coming in on this story of Lezlie Anders and Buddy Greco. But the real story will unwind over the next weeks and months. A story of two people meeting each other later in their lives, a bit scarred, a bit weary. Seventeen years ago today, August 10, 1992, I walked off the plane in Las Vegas and two days later Buddy Greco would introduce himself to me. That is when and where this story begins. Two people starting over. Two people on an adventure 17 years ago. And here we are, starting over again, and about to embark on the greatest adventure of our lives, together.