Thursday, January 13, 2005
I want one of these for my desk!
Hahahaha - I could have designed this thing.
Sooo...unless a miracle occurs, I have the distinction of last place in Best New Blog 2004. But not to sound like a crappy actress, it was so cool being nominated and better to be last place then mediocre in the middle.
What did I just say?
I have no idea.
Remember a few days ago I posted about my pal Ellen Meister? Well, she's got an unbelievable mention at Hobart Pulp. Go take a look and order this great magazine for God sakes!
Ellen and a few other, oh, not so famous (ha ha) authors
I have left my sick bed...
Okay, even I can't stay in bed for four straight days.
So today's news:
(1) I have a tongue in cheek interview in the Santa Fe Writers Project today, courtesy of fellow writer Alan Baird and I invite you to please check it out. Hopefully it will also entice you to buy my book!
(2) The kids (well, not by name) are once again mentioned in today's Philadelphia Daily News as recording their movie soundtrack and now the name of Deep Purple's Ian Gilliam has been added to the mix as he's going to record "Highway Star" with them next week. Don't know the song and I'm gonna admit it, I was never a Deep Purple fan, but I'm sure I will be one now.
Or not.
Ugh, I really am sick. Physically, I mean. We already know about mentally. It's been confirmed by several people, even me.
Anyway, more later.
I hope.
Ugh...
Sorry...I've been battling the flu all week.
Updates on everything as soon as I can sit in the chair for more than a minute without feeling like I'm going to fall the hell off.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
ROCK SCHOOL, THE MOVIE
Julie and C.J., performing at Zappanale, which is the finale of Rock School, the movie.
Yeah! Finally! When you go to the Newmarket Films website, you can read the synopsis of Rock School, and oh hell, I see they've pushed the release date back to April 15. Tax day? Yikes! Ha. Anyway, here's what they have on their site, which, interestingly enough, is basically just how I describe Paul in my memoir, The Tour.
ROCK SCHOOL
Rocks Stars. Guitar Gods. Kids. At some point in most everyone's life, we dream of becoming a rock star: feeling the roar of the crowd; basking in the adoration of legions of fans; experiencing the adventures of life on the road. Now imagine fulfilling that fantasy as a child. Welcome to ROCK SCHOOL.
First time feature documentary filmmaker Don Argott traces the ups-and-downs of the Paul Green School of Rock Music, a unique institution founded in Philadelphia in 1999, dedicated to teaching children ages nine through 17 the ins-and-outs of rock and roll.
That’s rock and roll, kids. Not hip-hop. Not Britney. Not Limp Bizkit. But a thunderous roll call of musical greats: Led Zeppelin. Pink Floyd. Black Sabbath. Carlos Santana. Frank Zappa.
ROCK SCHOOL follows an entire season of classes, in the process establishing school founder, director, and self-proclaimed “überlord” Paul Green as one of the most complex, contradictory, and unforgettable characters in recent films. A whirling dervish of manic, pinball-machine energy, Green is at once sensitive and verbally abusive; generous-spirited and mercilessly critical. As tornado-like as his tantrum-filled teaching style can be, however, Paul’s commitment to his student’s goal of achieving musical greatness is never in doubt.
Paul’s thorny relationship with his students is the true subject of ROCK SCHOOL. For while the sight of nine-year-olds performing Black Sabbath songs outfitted in full heavy metal regalia is charming, ROCK SCHOOL goes deeper: posing tough questions about the nature of prodigal talent and flamed-out youth. Is Paul—a failed guitar God himself—fostering his students’ gifts or inhibiting them? Is he living vicariously through his students? Or using the school to fulfill the rock and roll dream of suspended adolescence?
Filmed cinéma vérité to provide an intimate portrait of this one-of-a-kind instructor and his eagerly aspiring students, ROCK SCHOOL reaches its climax in Bad Doberon, Germany, where the School of Rock Music honor roll is invited to perform the music of Frank Zappa. This special festival dedicated to the prog-rocker’s oeuvre features Zappa legends such as Ike Willis and Napoleon Murphy-Brock. . .and the kids prove they can rock with the very best of them.
A meditation on talent and teaching, ROCK SCHOOL is a celebration of youthful promise and steadfast dreams. It is also a kick-ass music movie that should be played loud!
ROCK SCHOOL is directed by Don Argott and produced by Sheena M. Joyce and Don Argott.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Oh hell...
Yes. That is the international symbol for the flu bug.
God damn it, it found my house. Worse, it found me.
Be back later. Must go upstairs and pass out.
Figures. I have the usual gossip of the day but I'm too sick to share at the moment. Just came down to check my email and no one even wrote to me.
Worse, I am in LAST PLACE in the current 2004 Best New Blog contest.
What, I have no friends? I'm not cheating? What?
The foot fetish guy is running away with second place.
Please help me. And please buy my book. And if you know of any who still make house calls, please send a doctor to my house with some medicine.
Sob...
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Tonight was Caribbean night at my house....
So…I know you’re all dying to ask: How is it that you had Caribbean night at your house on Sunday?
Well, it all started with a gift certificate from Kitchen Kapers, an upscale store for aspiring gourmet cooks. Matt gave one to Julie for Christmas because this is her latest hobby. I guess it's her back up in case rock and roll stardom doesn't happen, I dunno.
Actually, no, let me say that it all started with my new stove, which Julie insisted I get for Christmas, so that she could begin her new career as a professional hobbyist chef.
Because I am me, the new stove sat near the entrance to the kitchen for a week while the old stove remained connected in the kitchen because (a) there are only so many hours in a day and (b) I was terrified by what might be behind the old stove and (c) I was also afraid, the stove being gas, that something would happen in disconnecting and re-connecting process that would cause us all to blow up.
So things have been tight around here as this is a fairly small house. Oh yeah, let me also add that the dishwasher died last week. Now, I will definitely be getting a new dishwasher. But first the stove had to be dealt with. In the meantime, I’ve been begging people around here to wash their dishes as they use them, but, well, as we all know, no one ever listens to me. I give up. The latest excuse is “I don’t want to think about the germs and I can’t make the water hot enough.” Oh yeah, and “the sponge smells”. (even though it's brand new and I throw the old one out every day).
Therefore, things are not only tight, the countertops, etc. are cluttered.
Now. Let us get back to Julie’s gift certificate. She spent an hour in Kitchen Kapers with Matt and couldn’t decide how to use it. After all, she still lives here, and face it, I have most everything.
Well, okay, I don’t have the $400.00 set of knives she now wants (but she’s very lucky at the moment I do not har har).
So she asks me to go with her and help decide.
I found the perfect thing right away: An ice cream maker.
I mean, what else could this family possibly use?
Julie is so excited, she gets home, goes on line for recipes, finds one for coconut ice cream, and hence, the beginning of Caribbean night as she starts to plan a whole meal around dessert.
This was Friday. She has to go to Rock School to record a show that evening and Saturday, so she decides to make this meal on Sunday for all of us…Matt, and even possibly Eric’s new girlfriend, who just got back from a vacation in Ireland. But as she reads the directions for her new ice cream maker, she learns that there’s certain prepping to be done – the mixing bowl has to remain in the freezer 24 hours; the actual ice cream mixture itself should really marinate and chill in the refrigerator, etc.
So she decides to make the “batter” for the coconut ice cream on Friday and leave it in the frig until Sunday.
She works really hard on this; toasting coconut, cooking eggs…it’s a whole involved process. It takes her over an hour, but she finishes up, goes to school, says “Bye Mom, I won’t see you tonight, I’m sleeping at Matt’s after the show…see you late Saturday night, I can’t wait until dinner Sunday can you?”
I smile and give her a hug.
Let’s fast forward to Saturday night at midnight. I wake up for no reason at all, which is weird. I haven’t seen either Julie or Eric since Friday, and I know midnight on a Saturday is way too early for either of them to be home.
But I have an uneasy kind of insomnia. I never get out of bed when I can’t sleep – I merely put on the TV, the CD player, or read a book. It’s also very unusual for me to have insomnia anyway….I wake up at dawn to write so I can never make it past ten o’clock at night usually and I’m dead to the world at 12:00 a.m.
Anyway, for some unknown reason, something told me to go downstairs.
I see Eric first, standing by the dining room table. And all I can hear are Julie’s sobs in the kitchen.
“What’s wrong? What is it?”
Eric points down at the carpet.
We’re both standing in two inches of coconut cream.
“I spilled it, I spilled it,” she cries.
“I can see that. Eric, get me some paper towels. What happened?”
“I just wanted to check on it and the kitchen was so messy I came out into the dining room and the new stove was there and I had no room and the bag opened and all of my ice cream spilled…all of my hard work,” she cried.
Oh God.
Meanwhile, I know I can’t look at Eric because we’ll both laugh. It’s not funny, we know that, just like we also know she’ll stab us if she catches us so much as grinning…but we get nervous, we giggle.
Eric mops up the mess while I try and calm her down until I tell him to go to bed and let me deal with it.
Julie is inconsolable but I’m like, Jules, we’re both wide awake, let’s just clean this up and you can make a new batch.
“But we don’t have the ingredients…:”
“What do you need?”
“Cream, coconut…”
“Julie, this is our house you’re talking about. We have things like cream and coconut the way other people have milk and eggs. They’re our staples, baby.” (hence my high blood pressure but let’s not go there).
Anyway, I stay up with her while she makes the ice cream mixture all over again, and discusses the rest of her planned meal. For like an hour. Make that two hours.
Jerked chicken skewers, home made pineapple salsa, salad with baby spinach, clementines, walnuts, and jasmine rice.
Okay, I’m cool with that. Even though it’s now 2:00 a.m. and I know I’m not getting any more sleep.
The next morning we finally deal with the new stove. Take the old one out and don’t find anything dead behind it but do find, oddly enough, toys from when the kids were babies which made me cry. A wooden block with a “J” on it. A pink plastic teacup. A doll’s shoe. I guess they must have somehow gotten kicked under the stove when itty bitty Julie and Eric would zoom through the kitchen in their Big Wheels.
So she’s all set for her big dinner when the phone rings. It’s Matt. He’s at his dorm, sick as a dog.
Ay yay yay, Caribbean night it is cursed, senors and senoritas.
But she woos him with promises of milkshakes made with the new ice cream maker to be served in bed, so he comes over anyway and she takes care of him. He decides he feels well enough to have dinner up there as well, and then when he has his milkshake, even feels well enough for Jules to make him hand cut french fries. Hahahahaha – I love those two, I really do.
Do not love not having a dishwasher, though.
Arghh…next project.
Friday, January 07, 2005
Hahahaha - apparently Dave Mustaine has never heard these "kids"...
This is too funny. Dave Mustaine of Megadeath does daily posts on his website. Have a look at this:
***********************
Gear and Rock School
Droogies!
The last of the touring gear showed up here in Fallbrook yesterday. And excluding the new gear that we had to get, (James bass cab cases) only my horses are left to complete my move back to Cali.
I really miss Arizona already, and I will be trying go back and visit all my friends, fans, and the land out there that I love. Other than that I am readjusting back to California life. Remember, I am a California native that was born in San Diego, so I just have to do some re-adjusting.
Now, some news: Bob Chippardi asked me if I would be interested in singing "Peace Sells" for a movie soundtrack, and I asked for more info. It seems there is a real "Rock School" behind the movie of the same name.
And the students have recorded "Peace Sells," to which I am honored and am going to be cutting vocals for a special edition of this classic for them. It should be good fun, and please don't get all critical and stuff! Its kids!
So that's that!
************************************************
Okay, I'm laughing my ass off at "Dave's" post because he's telling his fans "good fun and don't get all critical...it's kids!"
Hahahahaha - these "kids" play circles around everyone. He's gonna fucking die when he hears the tape of my son and Brandon King on drums and my daughter on bass performing Peace Sells along with Rock School greats guitarists Dan Nitz and my other "son", Louie. I wish I could be there to watch his jaw drop to the ground. It's gonna leave a six foot hole in the earth!
But...let's give him a high five for calling his fans "droogies" because as anyone who knows me is aware, that term is from the brilliant Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, which is my all time favorite film and one of my favorite classic books.
And oh crap. This means I'm gonna have to visit the Megadeath forum board every day now to see what he says when he has his first listen to the kids' treatment of Peace Sells.
Woo hoo.
MTV confirms what I've been telling you all along...(revised)
MTV NEWS: HEADLINES
01.06.2005 5:55 PM EST
Alice Cooper and Dave Mustaine are among the hard rock heavyweights slated to beef up the soundtrack to the documentary "Rock School," which focuses on the Paul Green School of Rock, a Philadelphia school that teaches its students music by dividing them up into bands. The documentary will be screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival later this month and released in theaters nationwide in March. According to a recent interview with the school's founder in the Philadelphia paper The Daily Local, the soundtrack will feature a host of artists, including Cooper and Mustaine, who will record a series of covers with the students.
— MTV News staff report
P.S. Regarding the Philadephia paper "The Daily Local", to my knowledge no such paper exists, and I'm thinking they mean the Philadelphia Daily News. I did a google search and came up empty so maybe it will be appearing in the newspaper today or tomorrow. Watch this space! Also, the MTV article is not quite that accurate - Paul does not teach by "dividing students into bands" but oh well, it's MTV, what can I say. The movie Rock School, the tour, and subsequent sound track are the School of Rock All-Stars, twenty plus members of the best and brightest students, two of whom are Julie and Eric Slick. Julie of course has since graduated the program but is back for the soundtrack in both a performance and production role since the movie Rock School was filmed while she was in fact a major part of the All Star team.
P.P.S. And of course if you are a frequent visitor to my blog, you already know they've been recording for the past two weeks!
P.P.P.S. Hey! Apparently there is a Daily Local out in the Philly suburbs and I do believe I just found the article to which MTV refers:
DAILY LOCAL.COM
THOMAS McKEE, Staff Writer
01/03/2005
Students at the Paul Green School of Rock are used to big news.
In the past year, the school has received its fair share of the national spotlight as the subject of a documentary that debuted in June at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
In addition, the school’s most advanced students performed all over the country as part of the school’s first West Coast tour -- in its very own tour bus -- and a national audience watched as one of the students performed on MTV.
As good as 2004 was for Paul Green and his rock stars in training, it appears 2005 will be even better.
The documentary, titled "Rock School," will be screened this week at the Sundance Film Festival and then released in theaters nationwide in March. It will be distributed by New Market Films, which has distributed noted films such as "The Passion of the Christ" and "Donnie Darko."
The documentary is the work of Don Argott, a local filmmaker who graduated from the Art Institute of Philadelphia. Argott said he met Green about two years ago, while searching for an idea to base a documentary on.
According to Argott, he had seen the posters Green had been hanging around the city for upcoming performances and eventually grew intrigued enough to call the school and seek out more information. Green invited him to a performance the school was doing that night, a concert of Frank Zappa material at Indre Studios in Philadelphia. Argott went, and was blown away by what he saw.
"Three minutes in, I said, ‘There’s no way I can’t do this,’" Argott said. "I called Paul the next day and we talked and set up some appointments and things kept getting bigger and bigger and before I knew it, I was there for nine months."
The school, which is based in Philadelphia with a campus in Downingtown, teaches music to children by grouping them into bands and introducing them to the catalogs of rock and roll’s musical giants. Everything from AC/DC to Zappa is fair game, with plenty of Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and Queen mixed in for good measure.
Green holds recitals in the shape of concerts at venues like the Trocadero in Philadelphia, and promotes them well enough that they are usually sold out. He also finds unique performance opportunities for the students -- like the West Coast tour, the MTV appearance and a 2003 appearance at the Zappanale festival in Germany, which spotlighted the music of Frank Zappa.
"Teaching kids to play music is the easy part," Green said. "If that’s all we were doing, we wouldn’t be as cool as we are. My job is to keep finding cool, unique and exciting opportunities for the kids. It’s about creating excitement for them."
Green and his students are currently recording the soundtrack for the film, working alongside producer Phil Nicolo. Nicolo has worked with artists as diverse as John Lennon, Billy Joel and Aerosmith.
Green said the soundtrack for the documentary will be a mix of cover songs played by the students along with the original artists. Alice Cooper, Dave Mustaine of Metallica and Megadeath and several other prominent artists are already working on the project.
The documentary focuses on Green’s interaction with his students and his unique teaching style.
"When I first watched it with my wife, I was a little worried that maybe it wasn’t balanced, but when I saw it later with the test audiences, I realized it actually was right on," Green said. "People laughed when they were supposed to be laughing and it tells both sides of our story. I come off as a dictator with a heart of gold."
Argott said there are several moments in the film that took on a magical quality as they were happening.
"They were doing a Guitar Gods show -- music like Santana and Van Halen, stuff like that." Argott said. "The second song they played was ‘Black Magic Woman’ and I knew it was going to be the opening sequence of the film. I watched it and said, ‘That’s the opening.’ And that’s been the opening of the film since before we were done shooting."
Argott said New Market Films was the best option for distribution.
"We premiered the film at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June and five days later we got an offer from New Market," Argott said. "From the very first screening they were extremely interested in it."
In addition to the documentary release, Green will begin the new year by opening three new branches of the school, in New York City, San Francisco and Salt Lake City. In addition to the Downingtown campus, the school has branches in Montgomery County and Cherry Hill, N.J.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Ellen Meister
This is my good friend, author Ellen Meister. She is one of the most terrific women I've had the pleasure of meeting. We're partners in crime at New York City Zoetrope meet-ups (Zoetrope being our on line writing community). Though of course Ellen is no criminal, that would be me. Anyway, without further ado, let me post what I read about her in the "Recent Deals" section of Publishers Marketplace this morning:
5 January, 2005
Fiction:
Debut Ellen Meister's debut novel, GEORGE CLOONEY AND OTHER SECRET LONGINGS OF THE APPLEWOOD PTA, a frank suburban comedy about three PTA women who are transformed when Hollywood announces plans to shoot a movie in their town, to Carrie Feron at Morrow/Avon, for publication in early 2006, by Andrea Cirillo and Annelise Robey at the Jane Rotrosen Agency.
arobey@janerotrosen.com
*************
How freaking cool is that! To give you a little more info, Ellen signed a hardcover deal with a major publisher and this is her first novel! I mean, you know her book is amazing because that just doesn't happen in today's financial climate. Way to go, Ellen!
Here's a link to Ellen's Publishers Marketplace webpage.
And in a shameless bit of promotion on my own behalf, here's a link to my new, improved Publishers Marketplace webpage
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Okay at last! Some more photos from the studio...
Last night, taking a much needed break after hours of recording, we have, left to right, Marky Ramone, crazy Joey Randazzo (if you read my book The Tour, he's the one who drank water out of my son's dirty rain-soaked sock, put on a dress to sing a punked out version of Scenes from an Italian Restaurant...and is just the consummate performer on stage)and of course next to Joey is my handsome wildly talented drummer son, Eric, and next to Eric is one of the best 17 year old female lead guitar players in the universe - Ms. Grace Hollander (yep, also mentioned in The Tour).
And here's one of Marky jamming out. Wow. I wonder what it must feel like, being the lone surviving Ramone. Kind of surreal, I'd imagine.
In case you're wondering where daughter Julie is, she's both the photographer and the recording engineer. But I hear a rumor someone snapped her pic so as soon as I get it, I'll post it!
Whoops -- this just in -- here's a couple more pics:
That would be Marky on drums and Grace Hollander and Madison Flego on guitar...and if you read The Tour, you already know how I feel about Madison and her fantastic vocals, plus she plays a mean guitar as well. Both of these girls are the two sweetest people you'd ever want to meet.
And that's Madison and Marky again, and the kid hunched over and hiding in the hooded sweatshirt is Madison's boyfriend and my adopted son, Louie, one of the best 18 year old male lead guitar players ever - he'd embarrass some seasoned vets...this kid grew up with my kids and he'd pick up a guitar when he'd come over to play video games since we have guitars out in stands all over the house and I could tell he had enormous talent so I hooked him up with Paul when he was fourteen/fifteen years old and now he's making a fucking CD with Marky Ramone and oh man, Eric said I have to stop mentioning the other stars involved or I'll get them all in trouble.
Hang on - Julie's in that photo! That's her in the denim coat and jeans with her face (of course) turned away from the camera.
Anyway, I'll get even with Louie for hiding when his pic was being taken - here's one of him on stage this summer in the red t-shirt and tan shorts. That's Haffie on the far left - another awesome guitarist and mentioned prominently in The Tour, and of course Napoleon again on vocals, my son on drums, and our resident diva, Teddi in the skirt and if you squint hard, daughter Julie is in there, too, playing bass on the right in the back.
So. I'm still not allowed to tell any studio stories but I did find out one thing: Both kids in unison said "Marky is really, really nice!".
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