Clickity-Clack or I Dropped My Birth Control Pill Down The Loo.

I forgot to mention Whole Foods. I haven't been there in forever but I went to find a voice remedy after dropping the Kid off this morning. People aren't kidding when they call it WHOLE PAYCHECK! And I wish it wasn't in snobby old Boca...i'm not gonna get into that! That said, the staff are always laid back and cool...even though they're constantly bombarded by confused and angry Botox Betties who are 100 going on 16. Oooops... I'll shut up now. Love ya, Whole Paycheck. Come to Lantana sometime. I'll make you a sandwich and we can listen to Coltrane and you can vent. I'm here for you.

My,My The Clock In The Sky Is Pounding Away...There's So Much To Say.

The cat's out of the bag and scratching my LP spines to bits! Last night's rehearsal was fun. Got to hold a real live '62 Fender Jaguar. It even smelled old! Had the Kid. She was great this morning. Here was the playlist on the way to school; This Is Radio Clash, Neat Neat Neat by The Damned, Do Wah Diddy by Manfred Mann, Black Is Black by Los Bravos, Suzy Is A Headbanger by The Ramones...Love this Kid! I switched gears to It Makes No Difference by The Band and got sad. Doesn't look like Levon Helm is long for this world. I need to lose weight! I shouldn't have shaved off the beard. Now my double chin is on display for the punching. I've been depressed about the lack of employment (and, consequently, the lack of money) and my recurring back/side pain and i've been eating too much. Waaahhh. I'm such a whiney bitch. On a good note, the muscle relaxers are working and everything's glowing. I love you, Man!!!

It Rears It's Ugly Head

I'm back. Much older. A little wiser. I'm now almost 44 and I feel like i've been shot with one. When I left my home, i went nuts and stopped communicating with some friends. Don't know why. Slowly, i'm getting back to them and finding not much has changed. Last night, I went back in the studio with Bob Wlos after nearly two years apart. Thankfully, the magic hadn't deserted us and things went really well. We're gonna start working on another project with Jeff Perkins tomorrow and that should be fun. Other changes? My love life has never been better. My girlfriend, Vena, keeps me happy when the drugs wear off. She's good people. I have six gigs in three days this weekend! I don't know how i'm gonna do it, either. Stay tuned, loyal friends and family, and see how the drama unfolds!

Part Two.

Next Week, I Got A Prayer For The Girl...Well You Know What Kind Of Eyes She Got!

I must be fighting something off. I've been feeling sluggish for a short while now. Maybe i'm not getting enough sleep. Tomorrow is gonna be a stressful day but thankfully it'll end with Charlie's record store gig. Tallahassee was fun. We (the band and Karen Wideen) left real early in the morning. Even riding up there was fun. It was nice to be stuck with some fellow music freaks. We talked a lot about it. Charlie would ask us weird questions like "If you could form a fantasy band, who would be in it alive or dead?" I never really thought about that stuff. And I got to play Ipod DJ which is one of my most favorite things to do. Last weekend, I was talking to Steven and he said that was also one of his favorite things (insert John Coltrane right about now). I asked him if I could show up with some records at the store and spin them and he thought it would be a good idea so hopefully i'll do that someday.

Anyway, we went to the venue which happened to be an American Legion hall and met up with Jeff and did a soundcheck. They had a piano so I helped myself to it. The place was pretty big and empty so it was plenty loud. Can't say I was happy about the drum situation. They were older Tamas and they sounded real dead but I was glad to not have to lug all my shit up there (but if there is a next time, that's exactly what i'm going to do). Next stop? Guitar Center so Rick could buy some strings. We all found instruments to bang on and I had a ten-second jam with Charlie on dobro and me on banjo. With strings in hand, we headed to a Econolodge and got a room. Rick, Jeff and I headed to the local Goodwill on foot to maybe get lucky and buy some cool souvenirs. Rick bought a wallet and a shirt ( I think). I got a record of Chet Atkins' of Christmas music. I also bought something to wear for the gig. I thought it was a dress but it turned out to be a really large dashiki. I wore it like a dress anyway. We got back and went out to Mexican dinner with a friend of Rick's that he used to play with named Tom. The swell guy bought everybody dinner! Thanks, Tom!

Gig time rolled around and we went back to the Legion hall. The first band was already playing. I poked my head in the door and saw mostly old people and not very many of them. There was a coffee shop behind the place so we ended up there. Ed's nephew, Ryan, met us there and stayed for the show. The next band started (a Neil Young tribute band!) so we thought we would go over and check them out. There was this great couple ballroom dancing to every song no matter the tempo. We finally went on and it was a good show. Can't really remember anything unusual happening except we went over pretty well. Karen sold 13 cds! Charlie signed some autographs and we were out of there.

Back at the hotel, it was lights out pretty quickly. It was a long day. I woke up after a short while and had to put some earplugs in 'cause somebody was sawing logs. I woke up and things were already in motion. I was the last to get up. We got out of there, got breakfast through a window, and got home pretty quickly. I still haven't slept real well but i'm gonna try tonight.

Suddenly, I'm Out-Of-Phase or FINALLY!!!

Here are some older RoosterHead photos contributed by Sarah (thanks!). At the last Eat gig, I went to the record store that's down the street and I saw the staff there playing Beatles Monopoly and it got me started looking for it again. I found it yesterday at the Borders in Byoca. Me and Kris played it last night and she kicked my ass on it. I was happy to at least own Beatles' '65.

I'm in a new phase now and it's the Doors. I bought some magazine with them in it it a few weeks ago and that planted the seed. My first Doors memory happened when I was probably about four or so. I remember my Dad really liking Riders On The Storm (I guess it would have been pretty new at the time) and I have a clear memory of driving somewhere in New York and it was raining pretty hard and that song came on the AM radio. It was the perfect soundtrack for what was out the window. Later on, my friend Pete really got me into them in 6th grade. I knew about them but he had all the important info. I remember he made me a tape with the Apocalypse Now version of The End on it with Jim yelling Fuck and that was pretty cool in 6th grade. Pete was always ahead of his years. I remember, before knowing Pete, owning Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine which was a compilation. Through a series of trades with him, I aquired Doors 13 which was another compilation.

I was reading that Doors article and I really like something Robbie Krieger said. He said Jim was only a shaman and a sex symbol and all that junk to other people. To the band he was just Jim. I never really got into the Morrison myth. I always thought what I read about him portrayed him as a spoiled pain in the ass with really bad habits. I knew people just like him. They were weird in their own way and definitely followed their own paths. It sucks when you get older and find out your heroes could be giant assholes. Like John Lennon. When you're a kid, you're impressed with their ability to stand out from the pack and maybe what they believe in but that doesn't mean you really know them at all. But I did think Jim was a great singer for someone who couldn't sing. And Love Street and Indian Summer are cool songs. I always thought Robbie had his own stlye and sound. I learned a lot from John Densmore like the latin beat and the bossa nova. That was some of my first exposure to that stuff. Pete abandoned the Doors long ago for more heady pasture but I still find merit in what they did.

And What A Time It Was It Was It Was.

OK, short recollections on the Eat gig.... Charlie went up first and we played a few Chuck Berrys and he gave some shit to Kenny for moving away (he said he was moving to Arizona but he's going to New Mexico). Rick got a great sound out of my amp. Mr. Entertainment was next and they were superb as usual. Brandon did some Rudy Sarzo over-the-neck tricks. The Eat were next and we played pretty well. John Salton crashed the stage and sang with us. At the end, the rhythm section came out front and Kenny and I played guitar. That was fun. I did a bunch of feedback noodling that i'm sure caused a few people to go deaf. The Eat is gonna be on hiatus for a while with Kenny moving and all. I'm pretty sure I saw Karen filming so I can't wait to see the DVD.