My schedule has been insane lately. Sometimes it’s possible to play in four bands and record people in my studio, get freelance web and interactive work done, and even meet friends at a bar or restaurant occasionally. And sometimes everything hits at once and I can’t help wondering what I was thinking when I agreed to all these commitments.

In the midst of this, last week came news of three friends, from various periods of my life, who were taken from us all and who left holes in the lives of those around them.

Tal Schneider was drummer for a band called Teaser back in the mid-’70s. They booked through the same agency as Airborne, the Top 40 band I was playing with at the time. We would run into each other at the rehearsal hall in Lawrence, KS or at a gig in South Dakota or whatever. Musicians are social creatures, and somehow lasting bonds between those doing this kind of work, especially those on the road for months at a stretch, can be formed in a short time. I was saddened to hear from Teaser’s former bass player, Steve Jordan, that Tal lost his battle with lung cancer last week.

John Kessler was a luminary in Kansas City’s music scene for many years, probably best known for his work as keyboardist in Glow back in the ’80s. I’ll always remember him for his sense of humor, though. He always made me laugh. And we were both big fans of the English band XTC. Sadly, John passed away from complications of a brain tumor last Thursday. A virtual community for friends and family has been formed at http://www.carepages.com/carepages/JohnBKessler.

You never forget the people you went to college with. Those of us who lived in the scholarship hall system at the University of Kansas, way back when, always seemed to have a special connection—probably because the schol halls have about 50 students apiece, who do the cooking and cleaning to keep the place running and thus depend on each other in a way typical student residents don’t. Gary Hardiman was a friend from those days, though we hadn’t spoken in years. Saturday I got the news that he had been found dead in his apartment in San Francisco, probably the result of ongoing health problems.

News like this makes one want to be sure that the hustle and bustle of daily life really means something, that there is a reason for all this, that it’s not busy-ness for busy-ness’s sake. It provides, to use a hoary cliche, a bit of perspective. As Spinal Tap once put it, “A bit too much fucking perspective.” I like to think all three of these guys would have chuckled at that.