Okay, major proud mother moment here. Last night, my son sat in on drums with Project Object on stage at World Cafe for the final show of their twenty one day tour. For those who don't know, Project Object is a band dedicated to the music of Frank Zappa, and its members include my pals Ike Willis and Napoleon Murphy Brock, both of whom played with Frank and both of with whom I've spent considerable time on the various Rock School tours. Eric has played with Ike and Napoleon separately many times, and did sit in once before with P.O. but I couldn't make it that evening. Anyway, Ike played with Frank in the days of his friendship with John Lennon, and I don't know if I ever talked about it here, but he told me an incredible story about being on stage with Zappa that horrific Monday night in December, 1980 when they got the news that Lennon had been assassinated. (Better than how I heard it - via Howard Cosell while watching Monday Night Football). Poor Napoleon got to spend 17 days in captivity with me during the infamous Rock School tour this summer - he had the seat behind me on the tour bus and we talked some serious music when I wasn't driving him nuts whining. Ha! God, I wish I had last summer back. I would have gone with such a different mindset.
Anyway...
So above is a pic of my son from last night, and as you can see, both Ike and Napi are pretty much loving him.
Eric played Uncle Remus and Peaches and Regalia and he rocked. If you guys ever get the chance to see Project Object in your city, grab tickets! They are such incredible musicians, mixing jazz and rock and funk and they are so radical politically - they did some anti-Bush stuff that I adored and a whole Michael Jackson rant -- it was awesome. They have a young guitarist who blew me away named Seahag. Man, I could listen to him all night. Ike and Napi were in top form, and so was Andre, who handles a lot of the vocals as well.
Eric Svalgard who runs the Downingtown Branch of rock school and is a Berklee grad is their keyboard player at the moment and his daughter, Maddie, a Rock School graduate prominently featured in the movie Rock School and a sophomore at Berklee herself, came down for the show and did back up vocals with Eric on Uncle Remus and sang Zomby Woof. Both Eric Svalgard and his daughter are awesome!
Here's a few more pics:
I'll post some more tomorrow morning -- I'm on the tail end of my lunch hour at work now.
Fair warning: Tomorrow will be the last post here for a few days unless I find an internet cafe in St. Louis. I leave Wednesday morning for a book fair and won't be home until Sunday night. Though knowing me, I will find said cafe (or public library) and will of course log on to rant and rave and maybe even post a pic of me schmoozing with Fabio.
Don't ask.
Couple other things: My book is now available at amazon.com; it's now in print but the print version won't be on Amazon until next week but I'll have my author copies in my hot little hand at the book fair on Wednesday as well as copies for sale there...and my publisher just told me there will be a way to arrange autographed copies. Oh, I'm so special. Ha! (Seriously, people have asked me for autographed copies. It's probably cos' my kids are going to be famous)
And I officially have a new roof. My son just called - the roofers have finished, no more leaks, and a new gorgeous skylight.
Ah...life is good. At least today, anyway.
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