An absolutely horrific photograph of me with fellow Phaze authors greeting fans at the book fair in St. Louis. Hopefully some better ones will turn up. Seated on the far left, Bridget Midway, next to her, Madeline Oh, Karen Troxel, and yours truly, the smirking one in black. Hopefully some better pics will turn up but if not, oh well, you get the idea. But you can clearly see the print version of my book -- doesn't it look so pretty? I'm going to be arranging readings in small book shops around the city and if you'd like to invite me to your home for dinner and a "salon"....hahahahaha....just kidding.
So, in other news...
You can pre-order the kids' CD, Rock School, right here at CD Universe. I checked and it's also available at Amazon, Tower, etc. but of course pre-orders as well. Just go to the damn store on May 31 and buy it, okay? Preferably a mom and pop place and not a big corporate owned hellhole. In fact, while I'm at it, please boycott all big corporations and try to give your money to the little guy, even if it costs a few dollars more. Though to be honest, I'm finding the indie stores are cheaper. How dare a place with a high volume like Tower charge what they do for CDs? Man I hope the word on the street is true and they are in financial trouble. Anyway, as far as the CD goes, they don't have the individual credits listed yet, but Eric saw all of the artwork for the CD and yep, the cover lists the name of every Rock School kid performing on each song. It's going to be surreal for me to take a look at the back of the CD and see Julie and Eric's names listed. Between the two of them, they play on 8 of the 12 songs.
God, this time three weeks from now I'll be basking in the afterglow of seeing the private premiere of the movie in Hollywood and watching Julie and Eric perform Heart of the Sunrise with Jon Anderson. They will also be performing with three other major classic rock stars but I have to keep that quiet for now and don't want to jinx anything. I do have a complete set list of all the songs the kids will be performing in LA and Seattle but since things change all the time and this might be confidential information, I'll keep that a secret for now as well. Besides, it'll be more fun to come home after the trip and broadcast it then.
For anyone in the Philadelphia area, the Rock School kids will be performing the music of Queen at Indre studios this Friday and Saturday night, and my son Eric will be sitting in on three songs. The following weekend is a Salute to the Eighties, and Eric is assistant music director for that show. He told me it's going to be incredible - the rehearsals have been going great. The weekend of May 20-21 is the biggie for me - it's Eric's last regular Spring show performance - the music of Led Zep - and it's going to be a real tear jerker. His last Rock School show exclusive of the All-Star summer tour up and down the east coast and Germany. It's not just Eric's last regular show - it's going to be the grand finale for Rock School greats Jeremy Blessing, Lauren Pollock, Max DiMezza, Matt Rothstein, and others I can't think of right now but of course I will have a lot more to say about all of these fantastic kids during the next several weeks between the shows, the soundtrack and the movie. This is a really exciting time for all of us. But of course bittersweet as well, you know?
I also can't believe Eric turns 18 on May 15. Christ, both of my kids are now "legal adults". Arghhh....
Other than the music stuff, I have a new story up at Somewhat Magazine today, a creative non fiction piece. I've been going a little nuts lately, simultaneously working on two books, so this blog posting may be a little off kilter and irregular, but hey, what the hell, you know whenever I have breaking news, I'll be here to report!
Oh, one final thing. There's a silent auction being held on behalf of Philadelphia Stories, the magazine where I moonlight as fiction editor (though I am on sabbatical this quarter while I work on my books) at Maggianos, 12th and Filbert Streets, Philadelphia, PA from 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. A $25.00 admission gets you a pasta buffet, passed hors d’oeuvres, dessert buffet, beer and wine. Read more about it here! If anyone reading this wants to go and meet up with me, drop me an email or leave a comment here and we'll hook up. It should be a fantastic evening.
Dennis! Or Denis! Hey, how's it going? Where've you been? Are you out on the west coast still? As you probably read, I'll be out there May 23-26. You've left Vegas, right? Are you anywhere near L.A. or Seattle?
ReplyDeleteAnd when is your book coming out? Hahaha - you can actually order an autographed copy of mine now (yay, in print!) or better yet, I can deliver it to you personally in a few weeks. Let me know.
And yeah, I know all about being dizzy. I'm the original dizzy broad.