Tony Hazapis, former executive director of the Seattle AFTRA office (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), died March 22, 2008, in Seattle. He had been hospitalized since December.
Tony was such an incredible, phenomenal human being and accomplished so much in his lifetime of service to mankind and to our AFTRA union members in particular. He was a great guy, a bright guy, had a wonderful laugh and a winning way with people.
He used to listen to my radio show, The Overnight Club on KOMO AM 1000, from Seattle. His favorite song of all time was Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto. The song was originally a hit in the 1960s, but it remained Tony's favorite song throughout his entire life. He'd call me on-the-air occasionally to request that I play it for him.
We became friends through work-related issues surrounding my employment and lack thereof, and kept in touch off and on over the years.
Ironically, it was only a few months ago that I heard Sukiyaki being played on the radio in the middle of the night on 570 AM KVI, Seattle, as bumper music during Coast to Coast AM with George Noory (Art Bell's former haunt).
Instantaneously, when I heard Sukiyaki wafting out of my radio speaker here at home, I thought of Tony and all the times he had called me to play that song for him. I dashed off an e-mail to him and told him that if per chance he was still awake and could turn the radio on to KVI and do it quickly, he could still hear the rest of Sukiyaki.
Tony was awake. He was astonished that I was awake...and that I was still remembering after all these years that he loved that song so much. He picked up the phone and called me since he knew by then that I was awake also -- even though it was after midnight.
We talked for a couple of hours. We laughed a lot. I don't even remember now what all we talked about, but we covered a lot of ground.
The irony of that conversation was that over the years Tony has been building a collection of recordings of Sukiyaki by various artists not just the original one in Japanese, but he even had acquired a more recent version in Spanish. I think there were nine of them altogether. As we talked, Tony played each of those renditions of Sukiyaki into the telephone for me. It was hilarious. Nutty as hell, but hilarious, simple, heartwarming, innocent fun and sharing. Tony's wife, Dale, was somewhat bemused by our wackiness and affinity for Sukiyaki, but she was tolerant of it and was good natured about all the laughter in the middle of the night...and the endless playing of Sukiyaki.
Little did I realize that that would be the last time I'd ever hear Tony's voice. I'm so glad that we had that time together to share our thoughts and his joy in particular, his pride and joy in having amassed a collection of recordings of Sukiyaki.
You'd think with all of the really, really big deals in his life (union contracts and other labor matters, dispute resolutions, etc) that those would have been the really big deals.
But I think one of the simple pleasures that he took such pride in was having built a collection of music -- variations on a theme, you might say -- various artists' interpretations of his all-time favorite song Sukiyaki.
The circle of life is complete. In this context, it began with Tony Hazapis calling me and asking me to play Sukiyaki for him. It ended with our last conversation, when Tony played Sukiyaki for me.
When I hear Sukiyaki, I'll think of Tony. I hope you will, too. As a tribute to Tony and his love of that song, I'm including the lyrics here...
Sukiyaki Lyrics (English)
It's all because of you,
It's all because of you,
I'm feeling sad and blue
You went away,
Now my life is just a rainy day and I love you so,
How much you'll never know
You've gone away and left me lonely.
Untouchable memories
Untouchable memories
Seem to keep haunting me
Another love so true,
That once turned all my gray skies blue
But you disappeared,
Now my eyes are filled with tears
And I'm wishing you were here
With me soaked with love
all my thoughts of you
Now that you're gone
I just don't know what to do
If only you were here,
You'd wash away my tears
The sun would shine,
Once again you'll be mine all mine
But in reality,
you and I will never be 'cause
You took your love away from me.
ChorusGirl,
ChorusGirl,
I don't know what I did to make you leave me
But what I do know is
That since you've been gone
there's such an emptiness inside,
I'm wishing you to come back to me.
If only you were here,
If only you were here,
You'd wash away my tears
The sun would shine,
Once again you'll be mine all mine
But in reality,
You and I will never be 'cause
You took your love away from me.
Oh -- Baby you took your love away from me.
Sukiyaki Lyrics (Japanese)
Ue o muite arukou
Namida ga kobore naiyouni
Omoidasu harunohi
Hitoribotchi no yoru
Ue o muite arukou
Nijinda hosi o kazoete
Omoidasu natsunohi
Hitoribotchi no yoru
Shiawase wa kumo no ueni
Shiawase wa sora no ueni
Ue o muite arukou
Namida ga kobore naiyouni
Nakinagara aruku
Hitoribotchi no yoru
WhistlingOmoidasu akinohi
Hitoribotchi no yoru
Kanashimi wa hosino kageni
Kanashimi wa tsukino kageni
Ue o muite arukou
Namida ga kobore naiyouni
Nakinagara aruku
