Eric Slick and Julie Slick with Sweatheart at Silk City Lounge; Robin Slick in Virginia Beach; and err...Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, let's play catch up.

First of all, before I forget, and this is way important, Julie and Eric will be playing bass and drums respectively with Sweatheart at the Silk City Lounge Wedmesday, November 23 at 11:00 p.m. Silk City is located at 5th and Spring Garden in Philly and it's going to be a really cool kick off to the Thanksgiving holiday. It will be a sell-out for sure because it's an annual tradition and always mobbed with partiers. On guitar is artist Thom Lessner, and on vocals are the absolutely fabulous Rose and Amanda. Just think B-52 type music but way better...they rehearsed at my house today and I was blown away. It only costs $5.00 to get in, and you can eat some really great food at the adjoining diner...here's the menu if you don't believe me. Of course this is way past my bedtime, but I will take a nap and will be there for sure. I know I'm biased, but Julie and Eric have been playing together for years and there's a tightness and perfection when they jam together that is pretty much unparalleled in any other projects in which they've been involved.

And while I think it's kind of lame for parents, especially parents of Rock School grads, to be serial posters on the School of Rock (SOR) forum board, I still love reading Paul's comments and was teary eyed this morning over this exchange, which appears in the "Ask the Uberlord" section of the forum:

Subject: Real Potential

Posted by Anonymous on 11/21/2005 at 11:40 PM
Paul-
Ok, let's face it. There are tons of students at SORs all over the country. Obviously, very few will really make it professionally in the rock business. Of the students you know, which ones really have "rock-star potential"? Who do you think is really going to make it?
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Der Uberlord
Super Administrator

Posted on 11/22/2005 at 12:03 AM

1st of all, please remember that the primary message of SOR is that hard work, dedication, and honesty in your work will greatly benefit you and your abilities, whatever you choose to do with your life.

Secondly, you don't have to "make it" to enjoy playing music. There are many SOR students, and there will be many, many, more to come. If the vast majority of them do nothing more than play in a band in college, or use their skills to make recordings at home, that is great. I never made it, but i would not trade my memories of trying for anything.

Also, making it is tough. There are LOTS of variables, including tons of luck, and a very conservative music industry to contend with.

That all being said, Eric Slick, Julie Slick, CJ, Branden King, Louis Graff, and Max DiMezza are all fantastic musicians who could easily have careers in the field and never work a day in their life.

Jeremy Blessing, Dom Malandro, Joe and Gina Randazzo are all amazing performers, and could easily be some kind of rock stars with the right breaks.

Coming up, Sara Zimm, Courtney Cox, Anna Marrinelli, and Sara Neidorf are well on their way to writing their own tickets.

The whole band Flamingo are great, and will due some things, together or separately, once they figure a few things out. Same with Atlas.

Kenny Lu and Bosco could easily play guitar for a living. Courtney Drew could play bass-once she learns to believe it herself. Madi-Diaz Svalgard I have always said has "it."

If I had to pick just one kid: Eric Slick. He will be a drum legend one day.
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Yep, that's a post by Paul Green himself. Eric Slick will be a drum legend one day. Oh god, here come the tears again. But I know it's true. And of course Julie's going to be a star as well -- let's not forget Paul mentioned her, too. I know she's got a gig somewhere next week with Chuck Treece and I'll post details about that in a few days.

And one more note regarding Eric, you can now hear sound clips from some of the show he performed with Doctor Dark right here.

In other news...

So yeah, my book is finally available in a few brick and mortar book stores, most notably in Philadelphia at Voices and Visions Bookstore at the lower level of the Bourse Building, 4th Street between Market and Chestnut Streets. You can type "Three Days in New York City" in the search box provided on the site and order it on line as well. I will be talking with Voices and Visions about giving a joint reading with Leslie Van Newkirk, author of Crush, and look for more info on that in a future post. Les and I are discussing the possibility of doing a tandem reading thing in both New York and Philly and since she is just an awesome person/writer, that would be just too cool.

The reading in Virginia was a blast. I met a bunch of other authors published by Phaze, met a real dominatrix and her slave, attended a BDSM workshop...ha ha...I really wish I could go into detail here but the innocent must be protected. I suppose had I been interested I would have been "fed by a submissive" in a loose sense of the word but I wasn't hungry and turned down his kind offer of refreshments.

Speaking of food, for those of you food freaks, below is the official Slick family Thanksgiving menu. We made a unanimous decision a few years ago that in order to avoid stress at all costs and concentrate solely on what Thanksgiving means to us -- being thankful for each other and stuffing our faces with food cooked in my kitchen -- that our holiday would always just be the immediate family at our house.

So here's what we are eating for dinner on Thursday:

Seven pound turkey breast stuffed with my standard recipe - a mix of toasted baguettes, onions, celery and carrots, along with a beaten egg and tons of fresh herbs.

Corn pudding, which is self-explanatory and so good it's sick cos' I make it with heavy cream.

Macaroni and cheese for Eric because he wants to relive his childhood.

Cranberry chutney -- a mixture of fresh cranberries, oranges, diced apples, raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, ginger, brown sugar, and a touch of vinegar.

Yukon gold mashed potatoes with crispy shallots.

String beans with ricotta cheese and bacon and string beans with just fresh tomato chunks and basil for Julie.

Eric wants a traditional lattice topped apple pie; Julie wants chocolate pecan pie though I just saw a recipe on T.V. yesterday that I want to do instead and have to run it by her though they used cranberries instead of chocolate chips. They made upside down individual bread puddings but they used croissants for the bread and the upside down part was caramel made from brown sugar and butter, pecans, and said cranberries. If I substitute chocolate, I think that'll be outrageous, especially topped with fresh whipped cream.

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Anyway, that's all for now -- be back later with a review of the show tomorrow night and any breaking news, of course.