Not Fake

Well, dear readers, I have not gone into hiding with Tony Soprano. I have, however, been juggling chain saws and kittens, mostly with a high percentage of success.

Here's what has been happening in Hexland:

I'm in the midst of scoring the film Happy Holidays. I'm armed with a new low-budge ProTools rig and a new laptop.

How about a moment of silence for my old iBook, which was the computer that brought you almost all of the 169 blogs I've written.

(Sound of Silence...)
(Hello darkness my old furrrend)

This past weekend I played and sang at my close friend and long-time musical companion, Bill Shupp's wedding. It was in Yosemite National Park, which is just stupidly gorgeous. It's so breath-taking you would think it's fake. Maybe that's a by-product of my living in Los Angeles, where, as you may have read, many things are fake. Zing!

The beauty, however was not fake. The bears are also not fake. I saw one, and lived to tell the tale. It was 100 yards away, and there was a surly ranger with a gun who was more danger than the animal, but I'm sure in my latter years I'll turn my bear tale into a tall tale and tell my grandkids that I punched it in the nose to keep it from eating a kitten. Todays secret word is kitten, scream real loud!

Back in reality, the big news is I'm going on tour with Drake Bell. You may know Drake from Nickelodeon's Drake and Josh. Drake is a musician as well as an actor. I'll be playing keyboards, saxophone, and a little guitar, as well as singing backup for him (insert Simon Cowell joke here). This is a big gig for me, we'll be touring in a ¡bus!, not an SUV or compact car, like on my own D.I.Y. tours in the past.

We had our first rehearsal last night and it was great. Each member of the band is a pro, and sings like a Beach Boy. We'll be doing lots of harmonies. This excites me. We'll be on the road in July, August, and some of September.

In the meantime, I have two more gigs before I'm in Drakeville, tomorrow (Friday) at Zoey's in Ventura and next Thursday, the 14th at the Hotel Cafe.

Zoey's is going to be a double set, acoustic show, just me, a keyboard, and a guitar or two. I'm going to do some new covers. Make reservations, it sold out last time.

While I'm on the road, I'm going to keep (maybe restart, is more apropos) working on my own record and planning world domination. I'll keep you posted on this cyberspace.

And on that note, cats and kittens, it's back to the work and play of making music.

More to follow.