Last Sunday I was in Richmond, VA to say goodbye to my friend Ross Harman. As  you probably know from reading my site recently my friend Ross passed away on September 6th.  The funeral was in Louisiana and it happened right away so none of his friends got to attend.  A bunch of his friends and coworkers got together and threw a big party in his honor at Cous Cous in Richmond.

It was a very sad occasion but through periodic moments of tears I managed to have a really great time. It was wonderful seeing so many old friends and meeting Ross’ new ones. It brought together so many people and I got to hear a lot of great stories about Ross I never knew. There was a slide show with hundreds of images of Ross and in pretty much every photo he seemed like he was having so much fun.  People brought so much food although I couldn’t really eat anything.  We played a live video of his band The Gaskets and then played his solo material after that was over.

After the party was over a few of his close friends went on to the roof of Sticky Rice, the sushi place he worked at, and set these flaming lanterns off on the roof.  They were paper lanterns that when set on fire they fill with hot air and rise into the sky until you can’t see them any longer. They were very beautiful but I think the best part about them was how dangerous they seemed.  We kept making jokes about setting Richmond on fire or getting arrested for arson. This seems really silly but I think it cheered everyone up a bit as they went home. I know it cheered me up a lot. We actually got stopped by the fire department after one of the lanterns got stuck in a tree. But the fireman who stopped us was really nice and actually suggested we set them off in the middle of the street. He actually lit one of them himself.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone who came out and everyone who helped out. Special thanks to Cous Cous, Sticky Rice and Sticky Togogo who provided food, drinks and a place for everyone to gather. Also I wanted to thank Ryan Jones and Heather Bregman who put the slide show together and possibly most importantly my old friend Kirsten Lewis who organized this whole thing and bought all the lanterns and memorial wrist bands and dealt with a lot of shit that Teddy and I couldn’t deal with. Oh, and I also wanted to thank Ross’ older brother Braden for giving me Ross’ flask. That really means a lot to me.

This is probably my last update about Ross for a while but I am not going to let people forget about him. We have a tribute album in the works and we are going to organize a show to raise money for a scholarship fund set up in Ross’s name. I also just wanted to mention one more time that you can download all of Ross’ music for free at TheGaskets.com.

Now please click here to see photos from the Ross N. Harman memorial party at Cous Cous. Thanks.

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