Of Dominatrix Spiders and Autographed Breasts...

Julie Slick, Eric Slick, and Adrian Belew in Germany -- July, 2006

Hard to believe how the summer flew by, but the Belew Trio is taking off in a couple of days for a very cool west coast tour -- here are the dates and venues:

● Nov. 01 - Granada Theater - Dallas, TX
● Nov. 02 - Cactus Cafe - Austin, TX
● Nov. 04 - Santa Fe Brew. Co. - Santa Fe, NM
● Nov. 05 - Rhythm Room - Phoenix, AZ
● Nov. 07 - Belly Up - Solana Beach, CA
● Nov. 08 - The Vault 350 - Long Beach, CA
● Nov. 09 - Slim's - San Francisco, CA
● Nov. 10 - Villa Montalvo - Saratoga, CA
● Nov. 11 - The Catalyst - Santa Cruz, CA
● Nov. 13 - McDonald Theatre - Eugene, OR
● Nov. 14 - Triple Door - Seattle, WA
● Nov. 15 - Aladdin Theater - Portland, OR

Alas I will not be tagging along this time because I have serious writing and editing to do, but Gary is joining the tour in Phoenix and will remain for its entirety, so if you can make a show, by all means go up and introduce yourself -- he's doing the merch -- and hey, pick up some of Adrian's incredible solo CDs which he'll be happy to autograph for you after the show.

In other news, Julie and Eric's project with guitarist Sarah Zimmermann was such a hit in NYC over the weekend that they spent last night in New York again -- this time at an audition -- at the request of an A&R guy and another executive from a record company and no, I haven't talked to them yet, have no idea how it went, and I shouldn't even be saying anything here because it could jinx things so pretend you didn't read this blurb.

Speaking of Eric Slick, here are some fun comments following Mike Keneally's blog post which I posted here a few days about the St. Louis show he did with Eric...scroll down and have a read...but yeah, okay, I'll paste one of the remarks here because it cracked me up:

"Your comments regarding Eric are dead on the mark. Saw him recently in Philly playing with Mr. Belew and his sister on bass. It was unbelievable and I'm certain I will be listening to him for years to come...and chasing shows where I can see him and talk to him again.

Even his parents were there...and it prompted a strange "thank you" from me...thanks for procreating because your children are INCREDIBLE".

Ha ha - yep, I remember the man who made that remark, and I also remember getting all teary eyed. Heh heh...but I won't say it's the first time I've ever been thanked for...never mind.

Oh, admit it. You know you've missed me these past few days. I've been in blogger hell - I've lost two posts and ended up saying Screw it; my new website isn't ready -- not because of my new webmistress, who is absolutely wonderful and has indulged every one of my vain, silly nitpicks -- but because I transferred domain and hosting servers. I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, my webmistress -- and I just love saying that word...it makes me think of a dominatrix spider...has been handling it and apparently my prior domain was "locked" and Eric, former webmaster, had to authorize the transfer...and as I write about it now, I find this whole thing hilarious (my repeated use of techie words which have absolutely no meaning to me at all). So I was going to try and post again the other day even though the new site isn't ready and I haven't finished the CD review I promised...well, I haven't finished it to my liking because I want to get it right and do it justice...but then, while doing the rather unglamorous domestic goddess task of taking out the trash, I bent down the wrong way and twisted my back. Sitting at the computer yesterday was sheer torture and I ended up going to bed at like 8:00 p.m. all stoned on Advil and Pinot Grigio. I'm still not up to snuff this morning and find I have to keep getting up out of my chair and walking around, damn it, but it's too early for wine at the moment though I suppose I could pretend I'm in England where it's now lunchtime. I sob at that thought because exactly one year ago today, I was in London following an outrageously fun evening in Leeds with a fellow writer I've known for years in cyberworld but I'd never met him in the flesh prior to that time and don't believe what they say about internet friendships...they can be the coolest thing ever...well, if you aren't a psycho and have built in psycho-radar, that is...I do believe I reported my very first cyber experience here..but if not, suffice it to say I met someone in an on line writing community who enjoyed water sports and suffice it to say I almost had a heart attack when I realized he wasn't talking about boating.

Okay, where was I. Right. Getting back to Eric, who seems to appear on forum boards all over the world daily, here's something I found on Mike Keneally's Google group where a member had this to say:

"...Stayed for the show Friday night at Off Broadway. The bar is located across the street from the now defunct Lemp Brewery and the oldest building in the US still standing that brewed beer. I ran into Dan Kinney at the clinic and he was promoting the show so I offered my services to help him in whatever capacity he needed in so I could sit in on rehearsal Friday afternoon. The guys showed up at around 3 and since this was Eric's first chance to play live with the guys they went thru pretty much the whole show. The sound man wasn't anywhere to be found so they just went with stage sound, no vocals and played for 2 1/2 hours. Quite a fantastic experience might I add. Mr. Slick is obviously a tremendously talented drummer - they dove right in to Breakfast and where all the crazy-assed 13/4 time changes are were a little rough at first, but after 10 minutes he had it down. I was amazed at how well he executed on the material after just listening to various shows and CD's. Watching someone 19 years old play for the very first time with Mike and Bryan was a genuine treat. Around 6pm Bryan and Scott took off to get coffee and Mike started playing Zombie Woof with Eric which was also a great treat....

Someone was videoing and Dan Kinney has a soundboard so I hope to have a copy of this show to trade soon. Here's an incomplete setlist (again, listening rather than obsessing on details....)

Snowcow
Uglytown
Pencil Music
Scotch
Supermarket People
My Dilemma
1988 / Dolphins Suite
Panda
Pride is a Sin
Cause of Breakfast
Quimby
Inca Roads
First 90 seconds of The Entertainer
Secret Word - "Lemp" - Mike would make a rock gesture and the crowd was instructed to yell LEMP!

Never seen Mike in trio format and very much enjoyed it. All three definitely went "balls the the wall" and I was staggered that after having his first rehearsal with the guys 8 hours earlier Eric NAILED the show. What really amazed me most is that the kid didn't sweat - every drummer I know has to change shirts during set breaks - this kid walks off stage after shredding thru a marathon 2 hour Keneally show bone dry.

All in all a great 48 hours even though I am absolutely shagged. I drove back from St Louis at 6 am Sat morning (3 1/2 hours) after getting about 3 hours sleep, picked up my family and headed to Omaha (3 hour drive) for a housewarming party and then drove back to KC this morning in the rain. I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

Aw, thank you, kind sir. Eric will blush when I show him this.

Jeff Duke over at Krimson News had this to say about Slick brownies and the upcoming Podcast he did with Julie and Eric which will be broadcast on the site next week:

"It is SO Monday…
23 10 2006

A good weekend. Got to make Slick brownies with my sister in law which was mucho fun!..."

Hooray for the Slicks!
20 10 2006

This evening we did a really fun interview with Eric and Julie Slick from the Adrian Belew Power Trio. They were absolutely too cool and went to great lengths to fit the interview into their schedule. Three cheers to them and Robin, their mother, who helped get it all setup. It’s always a pleasing to me when we do the podcast. It reminds me what’s fun about it. The rest is just work. The interview itself is generally fun.

I have one more part to the interview with the Redundant Rocker which will be out next week. I had to take another week off due to some further personal needs. Don’t worry, I don’t plan on making this a habit, but I’m sure you all understand.

This week has been productive in many ways, and tomorrow should provide some completion in that respect.

More Later-

Slick Brownies
16 10 2006

First, sunrise from last Friday @ 8:23AM:

Sunrise 10-13-06

Big thanks to Julie Slick who cleared up a confusion point for me regarding the “Slick Brownie” recipe of delight, terror and torment. The recipe calls for a 12×18 baking sheet. I’d never used a cookie sheet to make brownies before, and since I needed to split them anyways, I went with two 12×9 inch pans.

Although I have not yet tried them, they look perfect, half went with me to work, half went with Laurie to work, both intended for our respective bosses. Of course we’ll have to assist them in eating.

The recipe is insane, I could almost imagine the Fonz jumping the brownie batter with a motorcycle. ;)

I can’t wait to try them, but my boss is stuck downtown today in meetings. Hopefully she’ll be back soon...."

Ha ha, I've spoken with Jeff and yep, he loves Julie's brownies...I guess so if he made them again with his sister-in-law and let me tell you, besides the massive quanity of ingredients, those things are hard work so good on you, Jeff. Hey, if they are good enough for Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, and Porcupine Tree...

Okay, enough about my kids.

Writing news time. My daily google stalking has yielded a find: Joyfully Reviewed had very nice things to say about Another Bite of the Apple (which is still highest rated in erotica over at Fictionwise -- here's an excerpt of their review:

"...Another Bite of the Apple is a truly captivating story. This triangle of friends and past lovers will hold your attention to the very end. I couldn’t put this book down until I was done. Elizabeth’s emotions ring true to her character, and you’ll be hoping that this good girl gets the right guy in the end. Rob is a hot character who really just makes Elizabeth sparkle. I love Another Bite of the Apple and will eagerly look for more stories from Robin Slick!"

So thanks to the readers over at Joyfully Reviewed...I really appreciate that.

Finally, of course it wouldn't be a true Robin post without a blurb or two about Neil Gaiman.

Okay, first of all, I read in his journal that he participated in the six word writing contest over at Wired Magazine. This contest was based on a Hemingway story which was merely this: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Brilliant, isn't it? If I have to explain why, go away. Ha. Anyway, Neil's contribution to this was pretty damn cool...

"I’m dead. I’ve missed you. Kiss … ?"

What's funny is that I remember doing this very contest as an exercise a couple of years ago in a real world writing workshop I belonged to at the time...I did a bunch of them but think they are on my old computer, damn it, which had a very ugly crash two years ago and I was remiss in backing up. I do remember this one I wrote, though, because it was my favorite:

"My husband was wearing a negligee."

I dunno, I kind of like that. Too bad I didn't know about the Wired thing...or...err...wasn't solicited. Ha. As if.

And now for Susan Henderson, who had the world's coolest question on her blog this week...and if you haven't answered yet there's still time (and it's about music!)...here is the latest from the private sick Slick Gaiman photo album:

First, we have Neil looking very Neil-like (sigh...) at Icon, where, at first, it appears he's doing a question and answer session and nothing seems amiss.



But wait. What's that you see up there, Neil?



Blimey! Are they what I think they are?



Why yes. They are. What's that? You want my autograph where?



Well, okay. I guess I can do that. I'm a very obliging guy.

Ha ha...seriously, he's so sweet and easygoing it's insane. But I wonder what that's really like for him as a man. I mean, obviously, those are very nice breasts. And um, one can't help but notice he did a lot more than merely sign his name...

So here's what I want to know. After millions of what has to be similar requests and many years of marriage, is Neil now like a doctor? Immune to that sort of thing?

God I hope not.

Later,
xo