Bill Roorbach — nature writer, story writer, elder statesman, and Mr. Companionable (if his literary voice is to be trusted) — has shed the curmudgeonly Luddite persona he adopted in the early years of the Internet. Big time, too. Together with David Gessner, editor of Ecotone (which is a damn good magazine), he’s launched Bill and Dave’s Cocktail Hour, where he’s blogging, trading punches (but mostly kisses) with Gessner, and, best of all, posting a massive “video memoir” in irregular installments, as he completes the installments. The project, titled “I Used to Play in Bands,” chronicles his present family-man life in rural Maine alongside reminiscences of his wilder past life as a carpenter, piano player, and aspiring writer in New York and other places. It’s simply done, and strangely hypnotic.

Here’s Chapter 13. To see the rest, you’ve got to visit I Used to Play in Bands.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ5YQPVCb4Q&feature=player_embedded