About me (for Owen's Geopolitical Analysis Page)

I was born in Athens, GA 65 years ago. I came of age during the 1960s, the era of the Space Race, the Cold War, the Beatles, Vietnam, the major Civil Rights milestones psychedelic drugs and music, hippies and so on. I played electric guitar and hung out with older art students at the University of Georgia where my Dad was a statistics and research design prof in the School of Education. Along with Jon Brayton's older brother, Danny, who moved to Athens from Miami my junior year, I was the first guy at Athens High to grow long hair. From early childhood I attended the major sporting events (football, basketball and even baseball games) at UGA which got it into my blood. I know it's only a game but anyway...

Both sides of my family have roots in Alabama. My mother was born on a little farm, went to college and became a high school Home Economics teacher where she met my Dad who was the new math teacher. Six months after they married in June 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Dad got drafted and served in WW2. Through very good luck, he ended up in the Army Air Corp (now the US Air Force) as a supply officer and got sent to a safe overseas assignment in India. The trip over in a ship was the most dangerous thing he experienced and, more good luck, his convoy didn't get attacked by Japanese submarines.  Growing up in Montgomery, Alabama in an old aristocratic Southern family fallen on hard economic times, my Dad was steeped in that idealized view of the Confederacy prevalent among white Southerners. I've mentioned elsewhere Dad became fascinated with the Civil War at an early age when an elderly janitor at the YMCA told him about being a Rebel drummer boy at the Battle of Shiloh and getting wounded in the leg by a musket ball which he wore around his neck on a chain. Dad went on to be extremely well read on the Civil War with particular interest in the generals and major leaders. Dad had a realistically respectful view of the ones on both sides who were competent and who demonstrated authentic moral character. However, he didn't buy into the racist views of the Jim Crow era he grew up in. He and my Mom both supported full civil rights for African-Americans and taught us not to be prejudiced. They were both modest, kind and compassionate people for which I'm forever grateful.

 I wanted to be in a rock & roll band and didn't take high school or my first few years of college very seriously. I dropped out of college for about 2 years to become a famous rock star which didn't work out very well. (Some very close friends did better- they got together to play music at my house one night and went on to become the B-52s). Forced to develop a Plan B, I hit upon becoming a psychologist. I went back to college highly motivated not to end up as a career convenience store clerk, worked hard at it, and finally completed a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from West Virginia University in 1982. My wife, Mary Lou Kelley, and I met in grad school and have been married since 1980. She got hired at LSU in 1982 and we've lived in Baton Rouge ever since. Mary Lou remained in academia and I developed a busy private practice as a therapist. She still works full-time, while I've recently cut back to a minimal work schedule and resumed pursuing my rock & roll career. We have three adult daughters who are all single, college graduates with good jobs of various sorts. To sum up, the USA has been very good to us and we have no legitimate grounds for complaining.

Dr. Morpheus Rides Again

Perhaps the absence of recent posts is because I'm psychologically in a good place, highly motivated, and absorbed in preparing a two-night gig at the Office Lounge in Athens, GA Oct 20-21 performing my own original songs and arrangements. Dave Stammer will be playing bass along with Rick Burgess on guitar and vocals and a friend of Rick's from Atlanta whom I've only spoke to on the phone, John Lewis, playing drums. My studio is now equipped with a Yamaha Passport portable PA and a used bass amp I just bought from Kenny Kazimir. Kenny put a new speaker in my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp and I sent my Gibson SG to the shop under warranty for a new bridge pickup. A Boss VE-5 voice enhancer is on the way and I'm going to Atlanta the last weekend of August to rehearse with John and Rick.


It's going to be grand.