PARADE REST FULL

🙂 Seriously though, I don’t find it too tough, which I think may be because I DJ’ed at a neighborhood bar and at parties.

PARADE REST FULL

Ordering songs for my last full length album (with Recent Photo) was not a challenge at all since my bandmate Joe Mason did it. The idea is that it’s all a wacky parade that may be getting a bit out of hand, so let’s rest it.ĭo you find determining the order of songs on an album like this to be a challenge, and how important is that to you?

Is there a connecting theme or motif behind this collection of songs?ĭovetailing on above, I’d say the relatively-grounded title track seemed like a good centerpoint for the overall collection, which covers personal ground ranging from bachelor tribulations to heavy breakups to falling for that someone etc., all of which can be so much disarray. That seems fitting, in that my old flagship band Recent Photo had a similarly-timed heyday, if we can call playing small clubs in Chicago a “heyday.”ĭid you do anything fun for New Year’s? Any 2023 resolutions? I found out later about a real-life thoroughbred racehorse named Brother Derek whose racing heyday was in the mid-aughts. How’s that for some gobbledy-gook?Īs far as the name, a coworker or two called me Brother Derek about 20 years ago, so I guess that stuck as the name of this act, which fortunately seems to have gotten to be more than a just solo namesake project in that it’s now presenting live as a trio with guest(s). More broadly, there seems to be some overrepresentation in the arts, and interesting works, by folks who are fringe in whatever way, but then can somehow spin that out-crowd energy into empowerment and engagement with the world on one’s own terms, not beholden to tribe. So to the extent folks find my material quirky or off-kilter, that may be where it stems from. Without attachment to a me-oriented identity, I often feel like I have some built-in license, at least artistically, to operate outside of dictates. Socially, I’ve always felt like more of an observer than a holder of court, which I think may relate to being a twin accustomed to divided attention, mixed race (Taiwanese/white), and the son of a member of an immigrant cohort (Asian) known for being “perpetual foreigners.” It’s basically just the wild nightlife side of a regular middle-aged suburban dad who happens to have a longstanding obsession with listening to, performing, and trying to write songs. So who is Brother Derek and what is he all about? The government would then have the opportunity to rebut the presumption by proving impossibility of the existence of the event, injury, or disease.We got the chance to chat with Brother Derek to learn more about him as an artist, Parade Rest, his classical background, future plans, and more. Such presumption would require the veteran to provide two forms of alternative evidence, including the veteran’s own statements, to support service-connection.

This article proposes administrative and statutory remedies to give the veteran a presumption of service-connection. Any decision made without service medical records is necessarily based on a lack of evidence rather than an evaluation of the evidence. But when service medical records are lost or destroyed and there is no other contemporaneous medical evidence, the veteran likely suffers an absolute bar to receiving a favorable decision about service-connection. When those records are unobtainable, there are alternative sources of medical or lay evidence that can be used to establish service-connection. Typically, service medical records are used to establish service-connection. These effects are not limited to veterans receiving disability benefits but extends to veterans who never make it past the claim stage because their claims are denied. Unfortunately, VA’s nagging problems including poor management and a lack of accountability produce well-documented and devastatingly negative effects on veterans.

The process of seeking benefits is intended to be non-adversarial and requires VA to assist veterans in developing their claims.

By statute, veterans are eligible for disability compensation benefits for illness or injury connected to the veteran’s service in the armed forces.

Parade rest