Oy Vey Baby

So the title of my blog post today pretty much sums it up, and having spent the last eight days camped out in the Critical Care Unit at ye olde hospital, there's a lot I could say but I will spare you the gory details and tell you instead that Oy Vey Baby is actually a live album from 1992 by Tin Machine featuring David Bowie and guitarist extraordinaire Reeves Gabrels.



You might be wondering why I am telling you this.

I'm so glad you asked.

Eric Slick is about to complete a trifecta, meaning that on May 23, 2008, at The Brighton Bar in Long Branch, New Jersey, he will have officially played with three of David Bowie's lead guitarists.

Back in June of 2005, Eric was at the late, great CBGBs in New York City for the premiere of the documentary Rock School (in which a very young Eric and Julie appear throughout - if you are new to this blog, click on the link and watch the trailer, it's hilarious - that's Eric with a brush haircut banging his head with his sticks - you'll see him a bunch, and there's a brief interview where he sits side by side with Julie and trashes the band 311...and they are at the end, performing a bit o'Zappa music). Anyway, lo and behold, at said party, the then Rock School All-Stars performed - these were the original 22 kids before Rock School went global - and they were joined on stage by the brilliant Carlos Alomar. Carlos was David Bowie's guitarist from 1974 to...hmmm...I see he recorded with him on and off up until 2003...but I am going by his wikipedia entry so this statement comes with the usual cautionary "well, it is wikipedia..."

Here's Eric with Carlos at CBGB - Eric still has his long hair and he's wearing shades:



And of course last but hardly least, Eric has now teamed up with another former Bowie guitarist where he's been happily part of the Adrian Belew Power Trio for the past two years.



I adore that pic of Eric and Ade - it's from one of their rehearsals at Casa Belew down in Nashville, where Eric and Julie are headed again on May 17 in preparation of their upcoming tour at the end of May...and let's just say that I've heard some of the new material and it's mind blowing...be prepared for a revised set list and some incredible, incredible music. More on that in a minute.

So...to sum up my little trifecta/Eric story, on May 23, 2008 at the Brighton Bar as mentioned above, Eric will be behind the skins with Reeves Gabrels on guitar and the absolutely awesome Jair-Rohm Parker Wells on bass.



The band that Eric, Jair-Rohm, and Reeves will be is called "Doom Dogs" and it's a double bill with Lunar Ensemble which features the spoken word artist John "Lunar" Richey. Bob Musso, Lunar and Jair-Rohm were in a band called Machine Gun a long time ago.

Erm, how many twenty-one year olds can say they've played drums with three of David Bowie's former guitarists? Ha ha - how many forty year olds can say that? And you will notice I said "twenty-one". Yep, because by May 23, Eric will finally be legal. The big day is May 15 and a huge celebration is in order. While I've been busy with medical matters of anguish, exasperation, and terror, I even neglected to blog that yep, it's true, Eric now resides in a way cool townhouse several blocks away with his significant other, the gorgeous Katy, and I can't ever say Katy's name without using the adjective gorgeous...it's impossible...last week I went for a walk into town with Julie and Katy and I had to laugh as I couldn't help but notice the two of them bringing grown men to their knees on the street - all I can say is there were probably an awful lot of sore necks that night.

From swiveling to look at them, that is. Wash out your brains with soap if you thought anything else. Ha!

Here's Katy:



And the equally stunning Julie Slick, who gets an incredible mention in the current issue of Bass Player Magazine as concerns a review of Side Four Live. She's got an interview complete with photos in next month's issue as well.



By now you also might have heard some exciting news about the upcoming Belew Trio tour. Such as the Ottawa Blues Fest on July 5, which not only features the Adrian Belew Power Trio but...oh my god...take a look at the other performers!

What is so totally cool about this date is that the trio goes on at 7:15 p.m. followed by...gasp...Zappa Plays Zappa at 8:30 p.m. I am so psyched it's ridiculous.

And now for some other really big news I've been sitting on - the Adrian Belew Power Trio will also be playing at the Quebec City Summer Music Festival on Sunday, July 6 and Tuesday, July 8, 2008. On July 6, they'll be headlining one of the smaller stages but on July 8, they will be joined by friends California Guitar Trio, Tony Levin, and Pat Mastelotto on the main stage, opening for Primus. Do you think I'm a little excited about that?

Oh...they are not on the website yet but I also have to add that on July 6, Zappa Plays Zappa will also be at the Quebec Music Fest but I don't have the schedule yet as to who plays when and where. All I know is, I am so, so there.

And for for my writing pals...

As I mentioned what seems like a decade ago, on April 14 I did a reading on behalf of Tuesday Shorts at the Boxcar Lounge in New York City. I had an absolute blast, and there was a very nice write up of the event by an author I just adore, Richard Grayson. I was really happy to spend some time with Richard after the reading as well as another pal of mine, Dennis DiClaudio and oh.my.God - take a look at the titles of his books - everyone should order all of them. Thank you so much to Shelly Rae Rich for setting this up - she's hilarious and a fine writer in her own right.

Here are some photos from the event, the first of which is me made into a Warhol by using Photobucket's new photoshop for dummies feature. The actual "real" pic of me from that evening is obviously someone else because, seriously, I just know I am not that hideously deformed so I warhol-ed myself to disguise whoever the creature in the original photograph is.



Next up to read was a very cool writer named Nick Antosca who read an excerpt from his latest novel:



And the evening ended with one of my favorites, Todd Zuniga, and he killed it, reading snippets of stories which span his lifetime as a writer, starting at like age eight, and I am so, so stealing that idea next time I read. I have this one story I wrote when I was six which is a fictional tale of how I ran away from home with my sister and we hid in a cave until she sliced her finger on a rusty nail (yeah, a rusty nail in a cave, which was inexplicably in downtown Philly) and because she was bleeding, I had no choice but to run home and get her a band-aid. The upshoot of the story is that when I returned home to get the band-aid, our mom hadn't even realized we'd run away so it was all for nothing. Ha ha - pretty deep for a six year old, huh. The story is written on pink stationary in big, block lettering - I will take a pic one of these days for the blog but like Todd, will bring it and read from it "in person" at my next event. Here's Todd at the Boxcar - and yes, everyone loves Todd and I especially love him because he loves his mother. And I am probably older than his mother which is starting to get to me - I go to these readings, thinking I'm such a hipster, and it turns out I'm the senior citizen in the room. Oh the horror.



By the way, speaking of Todd, click on this link which I also gave you above. Opium Magazine needs our help to survive, and you can get a two year subscription for a mere $34.00. Do it! I did, and now I feel all warm and crunchy.

Seated in the audience are...well, I have no idea who the two guys are, but the beautiful redhead is Kimberly Wetherell and the equally stunning brunette is Susan Henderson and yeah, yeah, that's the back of my blond curly head you see next to them and as daily readers know, both Kimberly and Susan regularly appear in this blog as they are both amazing women with amazing careers ahead of them and after I'm done stealing Todd's idea for a reading I'm stealing Kimberly and Susan's youth and beauty. Oh, and their talent, too.



Let's see, what else. Look what happens when I don't blog for ten days...I can't stop. But this is kind of important - on May 17 and May 18, 2008 I will have a table and be selling/signing my books at the Philadelphia Book Festival! Here's the official poster:



Holy cow - have a look at the authors/celebrities I'll be rubbing elbows with!

One of the books I will be selling is my latest, a short story anthology called 39 and Holding...Him.

There is an incredible article about this book in a recent edition of Baktopia Magazine and their editor, Matt Munoz, was kind enough to forward me the print copies as well. So a huge thank you to Matt and I hope you all enjoy the article as it includes sexy photos, a very cool You Tube about the cover girl, Matilda Kay, and it's written by one of my favorite authors, N.L. Belardes. So yeah, click on the Baktopia link and enjoy!

Wow...I think I've finally run out of things to say. Well, I do naturally have other news brewing but I have to tease you with something now, don't I? I just hope it's not another ten days before I blog again, but things being what they are in the Slick family right now, I am just taking it a day at a time with my fingers crossed big time.

Later,
xo

Every once in a while you get a gift...

Man, after another impossibly frustrating day dealing with our lovely United States health care system which I hope none of you ever have to experience, I sat at the computer tonight emotionally exhausted and idly surfed the web and yes! I just found something I'd never seen before which made my spirits soar - a You Tube of Eric Slick, Mike Keneally, and Dave Dreiwitz doing Dave's brilliant song, "Hammer to the Skull" at last summer's School of Rock Festival.



I hope you enjoy this as much as I just did.

Later,
xo

Odds and Sods for Friday, April 18, 2008

Ack, life continues to be extremely tough right now - without going into it, let's just say for the past three weeks, Gary and I have personally been experiencing on a daily basis various events that could be right out of Michael Moore's (hey, click on that link - it is awesome) Sicko (another great link - I gave you the blog which is current and important, damn it and gives you some insight on what a debacle a McCain presidency would be, as if you don't all know that already). It's hard not to be completely beaten down and demoralized...and we're dealing with what is allegedly one of the best hospitals in the country.

Anyway...this is the happy, Republican hating, I love music and writing blog so let's go in that direction instead.



Eric has been on tour this week with Delicious and Crescent Moon, doing double drum duty, and above and below are some photos of Tuesday night's show at John and Peter's in New Hope, Pennsylvania courtesy of "Fredington" from the Ween forum board, which also contains some pretty cool commentary:



"Great time! Delicious plays heavy, spacey instrumental rock. Their web site is called "satansjamband.com" and that explains their sound perfectly. The first CM set was their standard approach. Aside from the covers already mentioned, they also did some Instant Death classics, including Doesn't Really Matter, Pharmaceuticals (with a DD trumpet solo in the middle) and Hammer to the Skull. The second CM set was crazy. It was entirely improv (aside from a couple of covers), and entirely badass. Most of the time it was DD and Andrew Weiss on bass and Eric on drums. Andre from Delicious joined in on guitar for a few jams. On one jam, Eric played bass and Andrew played drums -- and it still sounded badass. Toward the end, Ed Wilson came onstage and played DD's bass, with DD taking over trumpet and vocals -- I forget what he sang. DD took the bass back for the encore and Ed sang Missisippi Queen."
*****


"yeah nice to see the folk. I couldn't stay late because of the sucky job I got these days but got to spend some time shooting the shit with Kirk, Dave, Andrew, Eric etc.

damn that kid can play the drums."
*****


"Thanks guys~ what a blast....
Delicious was a tasty treat....image that left us wanting more~
hope they play J&P's again sometime soon. I esp. loved
it when both the bass player & the guitar player were right
up into their amps grinding the feedback....just amazing.

Dave & Erik put on a great show, per usual, which included
a few special guests; both the guitar player from Delicious
(Andre'?) & the bass player too...as well as Andrew Weiss
taking the stage for a few songs....very cool.
At one point, one of Erik's drumstick's went flying out of
his hand, & in an instant it looked like he pulled another out
of his shoe...without missing a beat! That kid rocks!
I don't have a setlist, but hopefully someone else might....I know
Dave played "Fearless", which always is a fav.....

Great to hang out with those of you that made it~ I'm still smilin'....
definitely worth being tired for."

*****
Hey, I cannot help but notice bass player Andrew Weiss plays in his bare feet. Remind you of anyone?



Here's a You Tube of the Andrew Weiss, Eric Slick, and Dave Dreiwitz jam mentioned above. Interesting stuff!



By the way, if anyone reading this is in the Vermont area, Eric will be playing with Delicious tonight at Nectar's in Burlington.

And then tomorrow he comes home...and...gasp...is moving out! Yep, it's true - he is renting a very cool house; his girlfriend, the gorgeous Katy, is moving to Philadelphia this weekend as well...and no worries, I'm not losing a son because he's still close by and oh God, guess who is moving back home coincidentally? Julie has decided to return, figuring that by this time next year, she'll be able to buy herself a mansion somewhere between the money she saves by living here and the money she earns working at least three jobs simultaneously. Not only does she tour and record with Adrian, she works as a server at an awesome restaurant in her down time and also has her own studio where she records local bands. In between that she has also become a huge hot yoga devotee and I'm pretty much expecting her to end up teaching that as well. I need to take a photo of her diploma just received from Drexel University - yep, there's a gold Magna Cum Laude seal on it...way to go, Julie, graduating in the top 1% of her class.

While I am on the subject of the trio, I think I missed linking an awesome review by the fellows at 1600 TV. So just in case I did, here it is now:

Three of A Perfect Pair

INCOMPARABLE: Julie Slick, Adrian Belew, Eric Slick- Still Making Beautiful Music Together

The Adrian Belew Power Trio returned to Jammin' Java in Vienna for their second show in just under a year, this time at the very end of the tour and holding absolutely nothing back for their final SOLD OUT performance. From the opening notes of their first song, Writing on the Wall, to the last echoing feedback of Crimson-era compositions Neurotica and the autobiographical Thela Hun Ginjeet (wherein Belew, on tape loop, describes an ugly confrontation with would-be muggers in London), the band was even tighter and more practiced than their last trip. At the same time, this visit found them more relaxed and confident than ever, stretching their wings and experimenting, improvising, and building to wild crescendoes, only to stop on a dime and come back together in unison.

The capacity crowd was then treated to another intimate, intense performance, showcasing the material that is featured in the band's new release, the live "Side Four." The disc captures the sheer joy of this band as they give it their all, playing with reckless abandon and staggering musicianship, especially impressive for a bassist and drummer barely old enough to vote! As a good musician and close friend once observed, it's enough to make longtime players lock themselves in their rooms for months on end trying to learn the chops that Julie and Eric Slick demonstrated so effortlessly, or else make you throw your instrument down (perhaps in many pieces) because you know that you'll never be as good as they are if you spend every moment you have left trying...

Nonetheless, as a non-musician, I dwelled on the positive and inspiring side of that equation, wondering what new tricks (and perhaps which old favorites) Mr. Belew and Co. would have up their sleeves. And as always, I was not disappointed. Saul Zonana, co-producer of forementioned "Side Four", warmed up with his uniquely expressive blend of vocals and guitar, with songs that ran the gamut from Beatles-influenced pop (Mr. Blue, Midnight Rain, If I Don't) to more provacative and daring, edgier songs, using guitar loops and occasional drum programs for good effect. He too has used the last year to hone his skills, especially as a guitarist. I look forward to his next release to mark his progress as a songwriter.

The Power Trio played much of the new album, but also many favorites from Adrian's solo career (Matchless Man and Drive were standouts once again), as well as several of the songs he co-wrote as a member of King Crimson (Dinosaur remains among my favorite songs of all time, and their rendition of Three of A Perfect Pair was spot on). Naturally, the arrangements were different with a trio format, but none of them suffered for it. In fact, it breathed new life into some of the songs, propelled by Eric's furious barrage on drums (I have to wonder how many heads he must go through in a year!), with Julie more than capably playing Tony Levin's best licks, while adding some twists and more than a few original touches of her own. Afterward, she told me that she follows her brother's drumming and really plays off of him- and credits their amazing empathy and affinity that allows them to anticipate each other and flow in flawless precision. I don't think I heard a sour note all night- and I was listening pretty closely!

Other highlights were Adrian's transcendent solo on Within You Without You that has apparently become a staple, as Eric and Julie take a well-earned breather; Ampersand, which found the band tearing up the stage in glorious cacophony; and Big Electric Cat, a favorite from Adrian's first solo record, the ambitious "Lone Rhino," still luxuriant with the same innovation and whimsical charm that makes it's way into all the music that bears his imprint, 25+ years later...

So, the good news is: they're coming back AGAIN, to the Ram's Head in Annapolis on June 6th! Well? What are you waiting for?? 'Cause you KNOW that show will be sold out too-

And while you're at it, sign the petition to put this most deserving guitar hero in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame! The link is below- and it also contains a nice outline of Adrian's career, recordings, and contributions to the world. If they can induct Madonna (who has yet to do anything remotely approaching rock n' roll music) the least we can do is put this guy in there for all the great work he's done! (At least, as long as he promises not to play a guitar rendition of Like A Virgin when they honor him!)

Sign the Petition!

*******

Meanwhile, I have a bunch of writing news and I also want to tell you all about my reading in New York City this past Monday but I am waiting on some photos from the event so I guess I will make that a separate post next.

Right now, though, it's back to stressful matters at hand..

Later,
xo

Time out for some political commentary...

Look, all of you know I despise Republicans and think Bush and Cheney should be arrested for war crimes. But I just received this email from Peter Coyote about last night's Democratic debate in Philadelphia and I feel compelled to post it here because it's so, so true and infuriating:

Peter Coyote

An open letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapoulos

Will Bunch: Thursday, April 17, 2008

Dear Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos,

It's hard to know where to begin with this, less than an hour after you signed off from your Democratic presidential debate here in my hometown of Philadelphia, a televised train wreck that my friend and colleague Greg Mitchell has already called, quite accurately, "a shameful night for the U.S. media." It's hard because -- like many other Americans -- I am still angry at what I just witnesses, so angry that it's hard to even type accurately because my hands are shaking. Look, I know that "media criticism" -- especially when it's one journalist speaking to another -- tends to be a genteel, colleagial thing, but there's no genteel way to say this.

With your performance tonight -- your focus on issues that were at best trivial wastes of valuable airtime and at worst restatements of right-wing falsehoods, punctuated by inane "issue" questions that in no way resembled the real world concerns of American voters -- you disgraced my profession of journalism, and, by association, me and a lot of hard-working colleagues who do still try to ferret out the truth, rather than worry about who can give us the best deal on our capital gains taxes. But it's even worse than that. By so badly botching arguably the most critical debate of such an important election, in a time of both war and economic misery, you disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself. Indeed, if I were a citizen of one of those nations where America is seeking to "export democracy," and I had watched the debate, I probably would have said, "no thank you." Because that was no way to promote democracy.

You implied throughout the broadcast that you wanted to reflect the concerns of voters in Pennsylvania. Well, I'm a Pennsylvanian voter, and so are my neighbors and most of my friends and co-workers. You asked virtually nothing that reflected our everyday issues -- trying to fill our gas tanks and save for college at the same time, our crumbling bridges and inadequate mass transit, or the root causes of crime here in Philadelphia. In fact, there almost isn't enough space -- and this is cyberspace, where room is unlimited -- to list all the things you could have asked about but did not, from health care to climate change to alternative energy to our policy toward China to the deterioration of Afghanistan to veterans' benefits to improving education. You ignored virtually everything that just happened in what most historians agree is one of the worst presidencies in American history, including the condoning of torture and the trashing of the Constitution, although to be fair you also ignored the policy concerns of people on the right, like immigration issues.

You asked about gun control -- phrased to try for a "gotcha" in a state where that's such a divisive issue -- but not about what we really care about, which is how to reduce crime. You pressed and pressed on those capital gains taxes, but Senators Clinton and Obama were forced to bring up the housing crisis on their own initiative.

Instead, you wasted more than half of the debate -- a full hour -- on tabloid trivia that for the most part wasn't even that interesting, because most of it was infertile ground that has already been covered again and again and again. I'm not saying that Rev. Wright and Bosnia sniper fire and "bitter" were never newsworthy -- I myself wrote about all of these for the Philadelphia Daily News or my Attytood blog, back when they were more relevant -- but the questions were stale yet clearly intended to gin up controversy (they didn't, by the way, other than the controversy over you.) The final questions of that section, asking Obama whether he thought Rev. Wright "loved America" and then suggesting that Obama himself is somehow a hater of the American flag, or worse, were flat-out repulsive.

Are you even thinking when simply echo some of the vilest talking points from far-right talk radio? What are actually getting at -- do you honestly believe that someone with a solid track record as a lawmaker in a Heartland state which elected him to the U.S. Senate, who is now seeking to make some positive American history as our first black president, is somehow un-American, or unpatriotic? Does that even make any sense? Question his policies, or question his leadership. because that is your job as a journalist. But don't insult our intelligence by questioning his patriotism.

Here's a question for you, George. Is it true that yesterday you appeared on the radio with conservative talk radio host Sean Hannity, and that you said you were "taking notes" when he urged you to ask a question about Obama's supposed ties to a former member of the Weather Underground -- which in fact you did. With all the fabulous resources of ABC News at your disposal, is that an appropriate way for a supposed journalist to come up with debate questions, by pandering to divisive radio shows?

And Charlie...could you be any more out of touch with your viewers? Most people aren't millionaires like you, and if Pennsylvanians are losing sleep over economic matters, it is not over whether the capital gains tax will go back up again. I was a little shocked when you pressed and pressed on that back-burner issue and left almost no time for high gas prices, but then I learned tonight that you did the same thing in the last debate, that you fretted over that middle-class family that made $200,000 a year. Charlie, the nicest way that I can put this is that you need to get out more.

But I'm not ready to make nice. What I just watched was an outrage. As a journalist, you appeared to confirm all of the worst qualities that cause people to hold our profession in such low esteem, especially your obsession with cornering the candidates with lame "trick" questions and your complete lack of interest or concern about substance -- or about the American people, or the state of our nation. You embarassed some good people who work at ABC News -- for example, the journalists who worked hard to break this story just last week -- and you embarassed yourselves. The millions of people who watched the debate were embarassed, too -- at the state of our political discourse, and what it has finally become, at long last.

Quickly, a word to any and all of my fellow journalists who happen to read this open letter. This. Must . Stop. Tonight, if possible. I thought that we had hit rock bottom in March 2003, when we failed to ask the tough questions in the run-up to the Iraq war. But this feels even lower. We need to pick ourselves up, right now, and start doing our job -- to take a deep breath and remind ourselves of what voters really need to know, and how we get there, that's it's not all horserace and "gotcha." Although, to be blunt, I would also urge the major candidates in 2012 to agree only to debates that are organized by the League of Women Voters, with citizen moderators and questioners. Because we have proven without a doubt in 2008 that working journalists don't deserve to be the debate "deciders."

Charlie, I'm going to sign off this letter the way that you always sign off the news, that "I hope you had a great day."

Because America just had a horrible night.

Odds and Sods for Wednesday, April 9, 2008

If you only knew all the reasons I have not been blogging...

But I think I will spare the details - just know that since the first of this year, Gary and I have gone through a series of mind-boggling events, any one of which would bring most people to their knees -- and they just keep coming and somehow we are still standing but let's put it like this - we're only managing by holding each other up.



All I can do at this point is shake my head and be thankful the two of us live a day at a time and also have a dark sense of humor.

Anyway...

Let's talk about some good stuff.

Over the past several months, I've mentioned (more than once har har) a little documentary I'm in, written and produced by my pal Kimberly Wetherell, which is making the rounds of several film festivals. Well, guess what. "WHY WE WAX" won BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY at the Phoenix Film Festival this past weekend!!!

The next festival screenings are in Indianapolis, at the Indianapolis International Film Festival, screening on April 25 & 26 and it's also just been accepted by the Portland Women's Film Festival, screening on May 16th.

Here's an interview with Kimberly's co-producer, Amy Axelson. I feel that I should, um, clarify that my contribution to the film is talking about growing up at the beginnings of the Womens' Liberation Movement and how we didn't even wear a bra let alone shave our legs -- I know I was young at the time but I am pretty sure no hippie worth her salt would have ever considered a bikini wax and I would normally have added "and I doubt they were even invented yet" but after seeing Why We Wax, I learned otherwise as you will as well after watching this clip:



In other news, I will be in New York City this coming Monday, April 14, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. for a reading at the Boxcar Lounge.



I'm going with a brand new essay called "My Brilliant Writing Career" which sounds sarcastic and okay, okay, it is, but actually I have had some good news in that regard lately so it isn't as bad as it seems and I should probably change the title to "My Brilliant Film Career" though with my recent "successes" in both co-starring in a short film and writing a story upon which another film making the festivals is based, I can't really say that, either...but oh boy do I have a story about something else.

Here's the first paragraph of the essay I intend to read:

"So right before Labor Day weekend, 2007, I got this email:

Dear Robin,

I am a Movie and Television Producer/Director based in Los Angeles. I recently read your book Three Days In New York City - and wanted to discuss with you the possibilities of adapting it for Film and or Television.

Please contact me."

And from there, my friends, it all goes rapidly insane.

Anyway, here's a couple more pics of the Boxcar Lounge - very nice garden, huh - and an article about just how cool it really is:





Yeah, so when I said I did have some good news in writing world, I just wanted to announce I have a new agent, Claire Gerus, and so far it has been a real pleasure to work with her.

"Claire Gerus has been Editor-in-Chief of two publishing houses, worked for eight major publishers, including Harlequin, Rodale, Random House and Doubleday, John Wiley, Kensington, and Adams Media, written articles for national media, and taught corporate communications to such clients as IBM, Kelloggs, Mutual of Omaha, and Procter & Gamble.

In 1996, she established a thriving business as a New York literary agent, selling publishers books on a wide variety of subjects: business, history, memoirs, religion, health, spirituality, psychology, politics, pop culture, and women’s studies.

She has sold a 3-million copy health bestseller, and brought film star Esther Williams’ story to Simon & Schuster. It went on to become a New York Times bestseller and is now being made into a feature film.

In 1999, she joined Kensington Publishing in New York and founded Twin Streams Books, an alternative healing imprint. Later, as Executive Editor at Citadel Press, she acquired and edited a variety of titles: celebrity biographies, self-help, relationship, spirituality, new age, diet books, and health books.

From 2001-August, 2002, she was Executive Editor at Adams Media, where she published the first biography of Laura Bush. She also published a wide range of new age, business, self-help, and inspirational books.

She is presently working as a literary agent and book development consultant. Among her clients are an ex-CIA agent, a psychologist, ten CEOs, a private eye, a scientist on the verge of a major health breakthrough, a specialist in Soviet history, and others too fascinating to describe in just a few words."

So I am pretty psyched about that, yes.

I also mentioned that on April 20, 2008, I am a guest on a radio program known as The Writing Show and my spot is aptly named "Is There Such a Thing as an Erotic Comedy?"

Trust me, there is.

On to music news, and I hope you've read this far, oh music lovers who stop by, because today at 2:00 p.m. eastern, Trent Reznor will be interviewed via telephone over at XPN radio, and you can catch the live internet stream right here. According to XPN, Trent is going to discuss his upcoming tour, the new CD, and hmm, do you think he'll be mentioning the musicians who participated? Like, um, Adrian Belew? Oh, and by the way, if you click on the link, you will see new shows have been added to the upcoming Adrian Belew Power Trio tour and there will be even more additions within the next few weeks.

I was teasing Eric yesterday that while he may not be rich and famous yet, he's at least getting there. Semi-famous, that is, anyway. (Insert smiley face here) (Oh, and you need to scroll down when you click on that link)

Speaking of Eric, and when don't I, tomorrow he begins an eight day tour with Delicious at Toy Eaters Studio in Jersey City, New Jersey. You gotta love that name...

And yay, someone posted a You Tube of the Adrian Belew Power Trio which Eric gives a thumbs up - he says this one finally captures the energy/quality of their performance...you can hear the audience singing along but damn it, it's only an excerpt! I need more!



Okay, I must go back to polishing my essay and practice reading it out loud for New York on Monday night, but as usual, if there is any breaking news, I will be back.

Don't forget to tune in to XPN Radio this afternoon and hear what Trent Reznor has to say. It could be very interesting...

Later,
xo