Odds and Sods for Monday, July 28, 2008

So I just became aware of an interesting statistic: As of July, 2008, over thirty-six million women read/write blogs.

Naturally, that made me never want to blog again. I mean, really. If everyone is doing it, then it's no longer cool and therefore so, so not for me.

Ha - I've always been a total non-conformist and some things never change.



Oh well, it is what it is and wtf, if I have something interesting to share, I'll still write about it here in my journal, and I use the word "journal" since I'm no longer even going to use the word blog.

Recently, though, I stumbled on this whole gigantic web of...oh crap...already I have no choice but to use the word after all...bloggers who all know each other and even have huge blogging conventions. And here I was, all safe and sound in my own little cocoon of other writers, musicians, and one slightly deranged family of stalkers (oy vey, don't ask) not knowing this other world existed. Anyway, I found said mega-bloggers via another site I landed on one day...one belonging to LA writer Neil Kramer. He is doing this massive interview experiment on his blog where we all Q&A each other and you know me, I'm a promo whore, and I also like a good challenge...so I signed up and now I'm set to interview a complete stranger who writes over here and har har, I laughed out loud at what she had to say today. I'll be posting the results as soon as we're done but I giggled at her mention of the fan girl stuff since I just wrote the very same sentence two posts below in my journal entry about Tony Levin.

Okay, speaking of writing, a couple of things. Remember a few weeks ago when I did a reading at KGB Bar in New York? You can have a listen to me and all of my fantastic pals right here. And yes, I know. I have a Philadelphia accent just like Rocky. Gah! How many times have I heard that when I travel. Note to self: Do something about it.

(Oh, I'm kidding. What did you think, I'd move to the UK and pull a Madonna?)

By the way, next week I'll be in New York City again, this time for the Backspace Writers Conference, where on Thursday morning, August 7, I'm sitting on a panel called, what else, Edgy Fiction.

Speaking of edgy fiction, I've taken a depressing subject - my writing career - and turned it into a tragicomedy. You can read the results over at Smith Magazine.

Okay, it's not that depressing but I have not had an easy time of it this year, that is for sure. But hey, at least I'm still laughing and that's got to be good for something, eh?

But I did make some great friends when I recently visited Canada, and lucky me, one is a fantastic photographer and a fellow liberal named Hugues Bergevin. He turned me on to this really interesting pro-Constitution site (remember when we actually had a Constitution? Sob...) called Fire Dog Lake and I strongly suggest you check it out -- it's highly addictive as there are many prolific political writers with new essays/updates throughout the day.

Here's just a sample of some awesome shots Hugues took during the Friends of Crimson King rehearsal in Quebec City...these photographs of course feature Pat Mastelotto and Eric Slick on double drums; Tony Levin and Julie Slick on bass; Adrian Belew on lead guitar, and the fabulous California Guitar Trio...and I know I've said this before but I love the interaction between Pat and Eric and as far as Julie, she always looks like she's telling Tony what to do...which would not surprise me at all as she is Adrian's "director" for sure. In fact - one more funny story from Boston. After we had dinner and wine, the waitress brought us over a computerized contraption with our check.

"Are you familiar with our Pay Your Own Bill system?" she asked.

We looked at her drunkenly blankly.

She then proceeded to spew out a whole series of instructions, smiled, and walked away.

Adrian merely pushed the machine over to Julie and looked at me with a "you don't mind, do you?" expression.

Ha ha...as if.

I didn't understand one word of anything our waitress said let alone figure out how to work my own credit card machine.

Julie, of course, absorbed everything, paid the bill, figured out the tip, and with an authoritative stroke of her pen, took care of business.

And oh God, I just remembered I never finished wrapping up the tour and I still need to talk about New York and post some photos from the boat but I guess that will give me something to write about tomorrow or the next day.

But for now, let's go back to Hugues and his great shots of Friends of Crimson King:














Aren't they awesome? Yeah!

I've also been very remiss in reporting about Eric's recent gigs with Chris Harford. They've been playing some way interesting shows on this mini-tour, and the final performance of the run will be this Saturday night at John and Peters in New Hope, Pennsylvania with guess who, Mickey from Ween on guitar so I may just have to go to this one...sleep be damned. In case you've never been to a Chris Harford show, he usually goes beyond the 2:00 a.m. curfew and then by the time Eric breaks down his drums and everyone stops schmoozing, I usually roll into the house at 4-5:00 a.m. Aren't I too old for this now?

God no.

Later,
xo