Eecha, Aacha, Oocha.

Last night at The Bamboo Room, we broke the land speed record for loud power trios. Blue Cheer had nothing on us...'cept cool hair. Some SpoonBenders were there and I had a guitar conversation with their guitarist Matt. Today, I finally got in touch with my cousin Jimmy who's here (Naples area) on vacation. I haven't seen him since the last time I was in New York which was probably 1988? He was my favorite cousin when I was little. Most of the memories I have of him are when I was five. I'm gonna go see him tomorrow and I hope we are similar. Unfortunately, we didn't grow up together. I envy people who's relatives are close. All of mine are in New York so I can't say I really know them well.

Jimmy's parents were the cool couple in our family. They were into music and dance and had a great record collection. Jimmy told me my Uncle Anthony died a few months back. Uncle Anthony was my first musical influence. He could play guitar and he did so at family parties. He had a Dion-Van Morrison kind of voice and he sang a lot of Beatles and doo-wop stuff. Last time I saw him, he gave me a tape of some unfinished songs he was writing and he asked me to finish them. I never got around to it because a lot of the ideas were just short fragments. RIP, Anthony Giattino. I hope you would have been proud of me for carrying on the tradition.