So yeah, this is not another post about Neil Gaiman.
But I still wanted to post his pic, anyway. Jesus, talk about eye candy. And my luck, he'll be on tour in the UK exactly six days after I leave London!
Because, yes, it's true. I'm going to the U.K. on October 23 with my daughter, Julie, who is playing bass in McRad.
Here's the list of cities where she'll be performing:
October 25: Newcastle
October 26: Lancaster
October 27: Leeds
October 28: London
October 29: Liverpool
I am so freaked out! I've wanted to go to England ever since I heard my first Beatle song when I was a little girl.
I have a lot of friends in England so if any of you reading this will email me if I have forgotten to email you directly with this news, we can make arrangements to meet up. I also have a complete list of all of our hotels and the venues where they'll be playing.
*************
Now, let's talk about Eric, who to say is a little busy in the music world right now would be putting it mildly.
Last night, he worked at Rock School as Music Director of Team Devo, who will be performing their AWESOME show once again tomorrow night for the Katrina Relief fund as follows:
RED CROSS BENEFIT
TEAM DEVO!
with Stinking Liziveta and the Dito Van Reigersberg Band
The Tritone
1508 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
Friday, October 14, 2005 at 9:30pm
Everyone in the area reading this should try and be there tomorrow night and if you mention this blog, I'll buy you a beer!
Anyway, today, Eric woke up at 3:30 a.m. to take a 5:00 a.m. train to New Haven, Connecticut, where he'll be in rehearsal all day for Sunday's show with Doctor Dark/Project Object mentioned here yesterday. There's a "rumor" that Eric will also be sitting in on a song or two with Project Object, which is amazing, because Zappa alumnae Napoleon Murphy Brock and Ike Willis are with the band the whole tour, and of course both musicians are also Rock School alumnae as well, having played many concerts with the All-Stars. So it will be a sort of Rock School reunion for Eric to gig with them again. Ike tells me everytime he sees me that "Eric is on the list", meaning, Ike is gonna be in a band with Eric someday. Yeah, you and everybody else, Ike, har har. Nah, I'm just joking. Eric would love to be in a band with Nappi and Ike; they are two of the coolest guys I've ever met and musically, they really click with my boy. I may have mentioned this a few thousand times before, but one of the coolest conversations I've ever had was with Ike in Germany when he told me he was on stage performing with Frank Zappa the night John Lennon died. As any music historian knows, Zappa and Lennon were friends and collaborated on a few projects. So as a huge Lennon fan, it was both thrilling and quite sad to hear Ike's story of that fateful night. I was one of the unlucky ones who heard the announcement of Lennon's death via Howard Cosell during the Monday night football broadcast. I didn't believe it...I went into shock...and immediately turned on what was still free form FM radio and every station was playing Lennon so I knew it had to be true. I think I went on a two week bender...stayed out of work...and just got drunk. I don't think kids today realize what an impact the Beatles had both musically and on society to those of us growing up in that era...and John Lennon was my hero.
***********
So after taking the three and a half hour train home ride from rehearsal in Connecticut today, Eric's got to rush over to Rock School with sister Julie for a two-three hour rehearsal for the Les Paul tribute at the Roseland Ballroom in New York.
Here's the press Release regarding that "little" event:
Join all of us at Music Player Live! in the concert
that pays tribute to the musical innovator of the
century, Les Paul!
The Les Paul Tribute & Celebration Concert features an
evening of music dedicated to the legend, the spirit,
and the rock 'n' roll that Les Paul has cultured,
innovated, and promoted over the course of his amazing
90 years.
Come to the historic Roseland Ballroom and check out
Les Paul, Grammy-award winning Larry Carlton &
Firewire, the School of Rock All Stars, Jack Bruce,
Ron Carter, Adrian Belew, Jon Brion, Bakithi Kumalo,
David Ellefson, Will Lee, Billy Burnette, Lisa Loeb,
Doug Wimbish, Robben Ford, and more very special
guests!
Also, you will see awards presented to Bass Player
magazine will present Ron Carter with a Lifetime
Achievement Award; Jack Bruce will receive a Lifetime
Achievement award from Bass Player magazine and
Hartke; and Les Paul will receive the Innovator of the
Century Award from EQ Magazine!
************
Do you think I'm a little bit excited about that? My kids are playing for freaking Les Paul on a stage with the above mentioned rock stars at the freaking Roseland Ballroom in New York, and then the next day, my daughter and I leave for England.
***********
Okay, getting back to Eric, so he's drumming/rehearsing all through the day and night today. Hey, isn't that how every Jew spends Yom Kippur? I'm fasting, if you don't count coffee, but trust me, if I didn't have coffee, I might end up murdering someone and that would not be in conformance with asking that my sins for the year (what sins, she asked innocently) be absolved. Tomorrow Eric wakes up at dawn again, practices all day with the Shannon Penn Band, comes home, grabs dinner, then races to Rock School to gather up equipment to take to the Tritone, which is a very, very cool spot, and then runs Team Devo until the late hours of the night. And then, in another bizarre version of Groundhog Day, he wakes up early Saturday morning to teach drums all day at Rock School, then hops a train to Malvern so he can take the lovely Carolyn to her Homecoming Dance...and then, gets back home I guess either in the wee hours of the night or at dawn Sunday so we can all drive up to Connecticut for the Doctor Dark/Project Object gig.
God. I'm exhausted just typing that. And to think I was worried about him deferring his sophomore year at college this year and spending a lot of time on the sofa watching TV. Nope, this kid is already a working, respected musician.
In fact, here's a fun thing I just stumbled on. As I've pasted on billboards all over the internet, Eric played a fantastic gig with Chris Opperman in New York in July and will be touring with him again this coming May. Chris has a My Space webpage as well, and in it, he lists his eight top favorite people in the world, which must be pretty difficult for him as he's got over 2,000 friends on his My Space site. So guess who made it to the top eight? Here's what he writes:
"Eric Slick - 18 year old drumming FREAK. The guy has the skill and precision to play the most difficult of my pieces, but can hit the fucking drums like he's in Led Zeppelin. Deadly. He's probably at least 33% of the reason why I'm excited about touring the east coast next year."
***********
How fucking cool is that?
Sigh..I think that may be it for now. I sent my new novel off to my publisher yesterday and am biting my nails nervously, waiting to see if they like it. So rather than sit here checking my email every two seconds, I think I may actually do some domestic goddess chores today. The family is understandably resentful that I'm home all day and they have no clean clothing.
Peace and Love. Oh, and Happy Yom Kippur. I'm thinking of breaking the fast with a six pack and cheese steak from Jim's. Mmm...
No comments:
Post a Comment