But Rubin wound up going the more practical higher-ed route. Until last summer, when the recently widowed Rubin got talking with a friend about life being short and dreams dying hard.
The friend happened to know a Seattle jazz pianist and hooked Rubin up with him. Rubin flew out to the West Coast, rehearsed with the pianist for three days, then performed with him at a lounge called The Pink Door. Back in Baltimore a few months later, he sang (for free) at Della Notte restaurant.
"Talent questionable, but guts, no question," said Rubin, who croons the old Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett standards but draws his inspiration from Bon Jovi: "I just want to live while I'm alive."
Rubin's next gig is tomorrow night at Della Notte. He also has a one-man show at a Towson U. recital hall in March.
Never too soon to be speculating
Tired of wondering what office the term-limited but still fundraising Baltimore County exec intends to seek, political gossips have found a new source of speculation - in Jim Smith's spokesman.
The buzz at the Arbutus Roundtable last week was that Don Mohler might run for County Council. True?
"The answer is, it's three years until the next election, and as far as I know, Councilman Sam Moxley has not made a definite decision not to run," Mohler told me. If Moxley doesn't run, does that mean Mohler will?
"Three years is an eternity, and now I'm very much enjoying working for Jim Smith."
Connect the dots
Sen. Barbara Mikulski will host a $1,000-a-head fundraiser for Hillary Clinton a week from today, but those big bucks won't buy facetime with the presidential candidate or her husband. At least not right away. Neither Clinton will attend the Annapolis reception with Mikulski, but donors will get access to that event - plus a ticket to some future, up-close-and-personal encounter with either Hillary or Bill. Date and details to be determined. Of course we can trust these people, right? ... In a TV ad, congressional aspirant Andy Harris calls Rep. Wayne Gilchrest and E.J. Pipkin "two tax-and-spend peas in a giant liberal pod." Sound familiar? In the race for comptroller last year, Peter Franchot linked rivals William Donald Schaefer and Janet Owens to then-Gov. Robert Ehrlich, calling them pro-sprawl, pro-slots "peas in a pod." Not the first case of political plagiarism, but should the conservative state senator lift from somebody so liberal?
