Unkey's Monkle.

Friday, we saw Bruce Springsteen with Keith and it was a good show. We had nosebleed seats but it was OK. I had a little something to contain the vertigo and anxiety that concerts and heights usually give me. The show was really long and in a good way. I'm amazed that his voice holds out for an entire tour. I was also impressed with his guitar sound and the fact that he did most of the leads. I kinda knew that from the last time we saw him. The quality of the show kinda took away the pain of paying 20 bucks to park. Man, things are really starting to get expensive! I gassed up the other day and spent a small fortune filling up. And i've only got an 11-gallon tank!

Saturday, I can't remember what happened.




Sunday, we went to my friend Steven's house and had lunch (homemade pizza) there. That was a great time. Jojo got to ride on the Puke-O-Rama in the backyard and Kris made some new friends. Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. E and Mahoneys! Steven's drum student Tess accompanied us to Resurrection Drums where I was allowed to buy a new cymbal. I wanted a 20' Paiste Giant Beat multi-function (crash/ride) cymbal but they were out of those (which is good 'cause they're REALLY expensive). I ended up finding a Paiste 2002 20' Medium something cymbal. I set it up on a kit and gave it a few good seconds of whacking and it was sold. I did some research and found out it's a crash. Duhr! Well, it sounds good as a ride or crash so i'm not disappointed in the least. I tried it out at my gig at Elwood's that night and I thought it sounded great. Some friends came to visit and cupcakes were consumed thanks to Kristie. Jojo was there too and she did a swell job helping pander for tips.

Yesterday I had a nice, quiet dinner with the family at Red Lobster. I apologize to anyone I upset by not answering my phone. I needed to lose the world for a day...i hope you understand.
Today, was a freakin' mess. I arrived at my job late 'cause Starbucks made me wait. Almost everything I did today was wrong. I had to undo a lot of stuff I did. Can't say it made me feel good. Turned in my suit to the dry cleaners for Saturday's Bar Mitzvah. Tomorrow can only be better. Normally, I would wallow in a pool of self-pity but i'm too tired. Good night. And thank you friends.

The Best Songs In The World #312

I Don't Get It. I JUST DON'T GET IT!

Kris emailed me and let me know i'm on imbd.
How weird is that? Now you can tell all your friend(s) that you know someone who was in a movie with Johnny Depp. No, I was not in Benny And Joon. Or Edward Boogerhands. Well, I guess it's cool anyway. I wanted to be credited as Clark Bent but I had to be "himself". Can't wait to see what other credits I can rack up. How about credits for YouTube videos?




Don't look at me. I don't have anything to do with it. Personal highlight? Pulling up my pants near the end...how subtle, Grandpa! And what's with the infrared? I wasn't wearing peach-colored pants. OK, I was.

Sucka!!!

Yes, that's me hangin' with Mr. T. I'd like to say things are getting easier but they're not. I couldn't sleep too well last night because of anxiety over this job. There's a lot of stuff to remember and that's not one of my strong points. Friday, Kris and I went to a birthday party for Funkabilly Tim. It was at some fancy-schmancy place in Byoca where the rich singles mingle. We had a blackened appetizer which was two bitty pieces of fish, two shrimp (scrumps) and some other black seafood. It came to roughly 306 dollars (OK, it was 12.95). Granted, the fish was good. But not 12.95 good. Am I cheap? Currently, yes. The party was fun. We didn't stay too long 'cause we had limited Jojo coverage but we did have a good time. I got to hang with my Funkamates and other assorted friends.

Saturday, I did a bunch of errands and hung out with The Jojo. The O'Hara's gig went OK, I guess. The vibe in the place was really weird and it made me fight off a few panic attacks and nervous sweats. I love nights where we finish a big. loud song and then nothing. We really had to work and the score was a tie. I played like crap. My calluses were all soft from sweating and the skin on the tops of my fingers was peeling off. OUCH! Thankfully, Keith was there for a hearty pep talk which he's real good at. Thanks, Pally!

Sunday we went to Morikami Park in Byoca with Jojo. It was some kind of Kid's day and we met a classmate of hers and his Dad and had some fun. We also saw The Bongos there. That was unexpected but nice 'cause I never have the chance to sit and talk with him. Elwood's went as planned and here we are now. Boring.

Whaddya Crazy?

Two in one day? Who'da thunk it? Actually, I was just reviewing the posts I made and I realized there was quite a gap in time there so I thought i'd try to remember a bit about the NAEMI show. I was really nervous about doing it. We had a rehearsal with Rick and that went fine. The man to really come through during this time was my friend Matt. I'd never played with him before and I kinda dumped him in the deep end learning two songs he wasn't all that familiar with. He ended up really making it great and he came up with some great arrangement ideas. And we had lots of time to bond. I miss those days when we seemed to have more time and I was spending more time with my guitar. Right now, the skin underneath my pinky nail on my fretting hand has dried and cracked and playing is painful right now but I need to anyway. Back to the story; We ended up not having a considerable amount of time to rehearse with Pete. We did about 20 minutes right before the gig. Even though it was only two songs, I wish we could've tightened it up some more. Matt, Rick and I had some BBQ before heading down to the gig. It was in a record store and that made it cooler. During the final rehearsal, something in my mind kept making me play the wrong chord in "I'm Waiting For The Day" and come showtime I was so nervous that I did it again. I can't say I ruined it but I helped. The Skip Spence song, "War In Peace" was played better but by the end, my guitar solos were buried by the sheer noise in the place. It seemed like we were up there for about 5 minutes. I was really pissed off at myself for being so nervous and not playing so well after having high hopes. At my gig that night, everyone who was at the show was full of praise and they especially singled out the crummy Pet Sounds song. Go figger. Also, I thought i'd throw in some pictures while we're at it. This is my Rickenbackers and Vox AC-30 with my friend John's Epiphone Casino.



I don't know what this is but it looks cool.

A post or two ago, I talked about bringing a song idea to my friend Steve's house and it was too wordy. This is what it was. I got bored trying to fix it and I just started jotting down random ideas. I hope you can't read my handwriting. And I have no idea why I can't get rid of this fucking underlining shit and it's driving me insane!

She's Got Everything She Needs. She's An Artist. She Don't Look Back.

This is a picture of Jojo in her room although you'd probably think it was mine. I was going through some old stuff last week and I found this Beatles tapestry my Mom had gotten me for Christmas or a birthday or something. Jojo wanted to use it as a blanket so I compromised and tacked it on her wall. Now, before she goes to bed, she makes me pretend I'm the Beatles on her wall and imitate their accents and say things like "Put down your sitar, Johanna, and go to bed".
On the way to school in the morning, she pretends to play the sitar and I play "Love You To" or "Norwegian Wood" on the stereo and then she makes me applaud at the end (it's great being a Dad!). This morning she said,"I'm gonna play and the Beatles (meaning me) are gonna watch me". I said, " Honey, The Beatles are driving the car". She said, " But Daddy, we're not listening to that song!"

What? I Cn't Hear You. I Have An Ear Infction.

This first picture was actually sent up to us this Sunday at Elwood's. Part of me wants to have this bravado thing I've carried with me all my life and used in times of confidence crisis that sounds like "Fuck 'em! I'm loud. That's who I am and what you get!". The real me feels bad 'cause I have a real problem getting happy when I play and I just start beating the shit out of my drums. As soon as they were big and famous, nobody ever complained about John Bonham or Keith Moon being loud. And they were. It's widely documented (this is where i break in the line and say i'm not comparing myself to either of those guys/heroes). Last Saturday, I played a gig/party with the White Owls (wet towels) and our guitarist Rick (not that one...the other Rick) let me know quite unabashedly that I was killing his hearing with my Amazing Drumming Style (i added the last part). I really took this to heart and played the rest of the night like a very respectable Holiday Inn Lounge drummer/machine. So to hear the same comments Sunday has me reeling.

What the hell am I gonna do about it? I know the people are right. I am loud. And not so proud. I've got a smaller snare drum I can use and that might help. I know if I start thinking too hard about it, i'll end up playing crummily (?). Any ideas? (and don't say "give up", Pete!) Today was Day 2 of the new job and it's not getting any easier. Not like I expected it to. My feet are hamburgery (?). My back is killing me and I think I'm allergic to ground coffee dust. Last night, I woke up with a sore throat and today I was sneezing. Will somebody turn up the little violins, please! Cry for me, Argentina! OK, how 'bout Apopka? Recently, I had some re-constructive surgery on my face and, for those who know me, I thought i'd post Before and After photos.