What's been going down: Part II

ETA #4 added - photo of Eric's drums adorned with flowers....see below

Meh. Not much to talk about.

Oh, I'm kidding. But I've been working on my new book and kind of distracted so forgive me.

Wait. Stop. ETA: Fantastic video of Ms. Julie Slick:



Wow. Okay. I am really smiling now.

ETA #2! Dr. Dog updated their website to include Eric, whose official band name is now "TEACH" which I think is highly appropriate on so many levels it's ridiculous. Here's what they have to say:

"Tour Kickoff!

With a horseshoe balcony offering fans the choice to be right above the action or down on the floor in the thick of things, Revolution Hall was an ideal place to start tour. The crowd responded to the new songs with applause and shouts for more new music. The band was on fire from the start, and Teach aced his first official Dr. Dog show on drums.

The kid wails, and it’s going to be a blast watching him grow with the band.

There were many, highlights, but “The Pretender” stands out as being extra special. The crowd was mixed with young fans like Annie, who has been to 3 shows and said,”This was my favorite one!” to older fans like Clayton, who attended his first show (based on a recommendation from his buddy) and left clutching prized copies of Fate and We All Belong on Vinyl and fond memories of his first Dr. Dog show.

Make sure you’re following us on Twitter @drdogmusic for our daily updates!

Love, Forrest
January 28th, 2010"

ETA #3: As tweeted by @drdogmusic: "Meet "Teach" who now mans the drum kit. Killed it last night. This kid mastered the catalog in record time."



So yes, as Forrest says, last night Eric began his first tour with Dr. Dog, and as usual, I'll be stalking the internet today for reviews. If I find any, I'll come in and add them to this post. I did find a bunch of people tweeting from the show, which was at Revolution Hall in Troy, New York (where Eric has played with both Project Object and the Adrian Belew Power Trio) so here's that:

@mmmaatt: "Dr. Dog concert last night was tons of fun. Rev Hall is a solid venue." And he posted this twitpic from the show:



@christenerowicz: "Dr. Dog was awesome! Best Wednesday night ever?"

@BTPete: "Seriously good show last night by Dr. Dog. If you can go see them."

@RidingWithJG: "Dr dog was amazing."

@Gruberama: "Dr. Dog is absolutely amazing! Best concert EEEVAR!!! And orange juggling too!"

@Phantogram: "Dr. Dog is so rad live!" And he posted this twitpic:



I did have a chance to chat briefly with Eric this morning and he told me he was having a blast. He said he was psyched by just the energy of the show, the good food, the low stress, and the incredible stage production with flowers and tiger heads everywhere. Of course I had to ask about the tiger heads, and he told me that yeah, every night, their stage is decorated with flowers, mascot heads, crazy plants, flamingos...he said it was pretty astounding. I will have to be on the lookout for a photo...I'm sure one will pop up and I'll insert it here. I think you can sort of get an idea in the first pic I posted above.

ETA #4 - Here you go...wow, I see what Eric means. That is amazing!



Tonight the band is playing at Higher Ground in Burlington, Vermont, and there's a cool newspaper article about that right here. They were originally going to play the smaller room at Higher Ground but they sold it out so awesome news, they've been switched to the big room and there are still some tickets available.

On Saturday, they will be in Syracuse, and here's the press for that.

Before Eric took off, Tuesday evening we went out as a family for an early Julie Slick birthday celebration (the actual event is this Saturday, January 30) and we ate at our absolute favorite vegan restaurant -- maybe even our favorite restaurant, period -- Horizons. We decided to just share everything which was a most excellent call because every dish is better than the next and now that we are all vegetarian, there pretty much isn't anything one of us won't try. Here's what we had:

First Course:

Portobello Carpaccio
black olive blini, preserved lemon aioli, crispy capers, seaweed caviar

Smoked Eggplant Empanada
caraway dough, rapini, roasted peppers, and smoked mustard sauce

Vietnamese Tacos
crispy lemongrass tempeh, sriracha mayo, daikon, cilantro, carrot, & chile

Warm Winter Vegetable Salad
baby turnips, rutabaga & parsnips, shallots, pistachio black truffle vinaigrette

Second Course:

Pan Seared Peppercorn Tofu
creamed leeks, peas, and maitake mushrooms, braised black lentils, smoked tomato jus

Grilled Seitan
yukon mash, grilled spinach, horseradish cream and roasted red pepper tapenade

Tame and Wild Mushroom Plate
portobello shepherd's pie with deviled oyster mushrooms & truffled celery root 'crust', braised black trumpets, sage & grain mustard emulsion

Hearts of Palm & Curries
hearts of palm stuffed crêpe, crushed saffron cauliflower, green chutney raita, spiced yellow split pea mulligatawny

Dessert:

Meyer Lemon Cheesecake
oatmeal cookie crumble, cranberry caramel

Sticky Toffee Bread Pudding
caramel apples, eggnog ice cream

Chocolate Stuffed Beignets
marshmallow cocoa

If I had to pick my favorite out of each course, it would be really difficult, but what the hell, I can do it. The smoked eggplant empanada, the hearts of palm and curries crepe, and the chocolate stuffed beignets were pretty much to die for. Yeah, yeah, naturally my favorites were also the most fattening. So what else is new?

Anyway, the bottom line is, if you live in Philadelphia or come for a visit, Horizons restaurant is a must. Oh yeah, they have a great bar, too. Julie and I had the usual insane crazy cocktails made with weird spices that somehow taste fantastic and knock you on your ass, then Julie and Eric switched to a great red wine but I'll have to defer to Julie on that one (hopefully she'll blog it, I mean) because I have no idea what it was...just know they were both glowy happy drinking it. Ha.

In other Julie news, she's busy recording her first solo CD and I've heard a couple of tracks from it -- I have to admit, my jaw dropped. Who knew Julie could write such amazing music? Is there anything she can't do? Also, I know Eric has a brief window in his massive tour in mid-February and a few dates open in March so they are definitely going to try and book a few Paper Cat gigs...beyond that, I'm staying quiet for now because I don't want to jinx things.

Julie and I have decided to go full steam ahead with our cookbook, which is going to have the same name as Julie's blog: Having My Bass and Eating It, Too. We're considering the self-publishing route because we want to get it out quickly and be able to offer it from our respective websites, Amazon, etc. I thought about going the traditional route and sent out some queries but truthfully, I know only too well how the publishing world has changed and maybe in this case, putting the book out ourselves is the way to go. In any event, Julie has an awesome array of recipes she's concocted from restaurants and cultures in cities all over the world and we both have some serious food porn and personal photos...anyway, it's going to be a total rock and roll cookbook heavy on the vegetarian and full of anecdotes from the road..between the two of us, we have many, many stories. So we're thinking we'll do a print and digital version, and in a perfect world, we should have it ready within the next few months.

By the way, be on the lookout for the launch of Julie's fabulous new website. We'll both be pasting billboards all over the internet when it's live.

Speaking of writing, as I've announced a few thousand times, the third book in my "Sins in the City"series, which is called Bitten to the Core is available for sale by clicking the link on the book or over at Amazon, Smashwords, Fictionwise, AllRomance, and more. Night Owl Romance just gave it a stellar review which you can read by clicking on that link - there's an excerpt, too -- but I love how they wrap it up: "I recommend this easy and delightful read if you like your erotica with a funny leading lady and an absolutely charmingly sexy love interest."

Ah, that was nice. I could use a couple more reviews like that if anyone is so inclined. (insert smiley face emoticon here).

So that is it for now. I'll keep checking for Dr. Dog updates and if I find them, I'll be back.

Later,
xo