Just a little Rock School soundtrack gossip re Ian Gillan

Allen Farmello with Ian Gillan

Allen Farmello, who is Ian Gillan's engineer, keeps a daily blog and here's what he had to say about recording Highway Star for the Rock School soundtrack:

Monday, 2-7-05
Met Ian and his mates at Chameleon West's Studio A to track vocals for "Highway Star" for something related to School of Rock, which I thought was fitting for me, since I feels as if I've enterted a a kind of elite academy of rock myself. Ian laid down his vocals in one inspired take, and the doubles were dead on. My first impression: Holy $&!#, this guy can sing! Had fun running long delays on the killer screams that open the tune.

******************

No, Allen, it's not related to "School of Rock", it's "Rock School", but as I keep saying, the rest of the world will know that soon enough.

F***them -- ha!

Another pic from the very first Rock School tour, Richardson Texas, June, 2002

In today's Philadelphia Daily News:

Dan Gross | Two schools of rock

'YOU WANT a quote? F--- them."

This is how Paul Green responds to VH1's announcement that the network will bring "Rock School," a series starring Kiss' Gene Simmons, to the United States.

Green, who's been churning out pint-size rockers for about eight years, is the subject of a documentary by local filmmaker Don Argott. It's also called "Rock School," and Argott is concerned about the series' possibly being confused with his film.

Green is believed to be the inspiration for the Jack Black film "School of Rock." Producers of that film have denied that.

Green says he and Argott met with VH1 to pitch the network on the movie, later bought by Newmarket Films.

British production company RDF Media is behind the new series, already airing in England. The six episodes featuring Simmons are due on VH1 by summer.

Argott's film, a hit at the Sundance Film Festival, premieres in New York on June 1, and opens two days later in New York and in L.A., and possibly in Philadelphia. If not, it'll open here on June 10.

Green meanwhile continues to open rock schools nationwide and is moving to New York next month, having already sold his Jenkintown home.

As for Argott, his company 9.14 Productions is about to start filming "Buddy Goldstein Live," a comedy about a singer on tour.

Neither VH1 nor RDF Media returned calls yesterday for comment.
************************

Here's a really cool review of Rock School which was published subsequent to its screening a few weeks ago at South by Southwest in Austin, TX:

Don Argott's "Rock School" played to capacity crowds who generated a vibe more like a concert than a movie. People laughed, hooted, clapped; many flashed the devil sign with raised hands. They were responding to Paul Green, the demanding dean of the School of Rock Music in Philadelphia, where kids ages 5 to 17 learn the notes, moves and collaborative dynamics of playing in a rock band. Green is mean, shouting expletives and slamming doors when a student fails to make her mark. Yet it's this flamboyant, John Belushian passion, at once crude and caring, that spurs his young charges to play their best, nailing even the most byzantine Frank Zappa compositions at a major festival in Germany. With a trajectory of pain and triumph and a compelling cast of hobbit-height headbangers, the film makes an immersive, exhilarating experience that leaves you giddy.

Oh, why did I just have to read this...or...I'm gonna be sick

Heh...Dubya listens to the Knack's My Sharona on his IPod? I wonder if he also sings along with Good Girls Don't? (Also by the Knack, and I've pasted the lyrics below). My guess is he does, with that idiot smirk on his face....

Updated: 07:22 PM EDT
George W. Bush: Rocker-in-Chief
The Presidential Shuffle Is Heavy on Country and Rock

By ELISABETH BUMILLER, The New York Times

Bush's Playlist

A sampling from President Bush's iPod; some songs were selected by Mark McKinnon, the chief media strategist in the 2004 campaign:

John Fogerty, "Centerfield"
Van Morrison, "New Biography," "Brown Eyed Girl"
John Hiatt, "Circle Back"
Alan Jackson
George Jones
Alejandro Escovedo, "Castanets"
Joni Mitchell, "(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care"
The Gourds, "El Paso"
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, "Swinging From the Chains of Love"
Stevie Ray Vaughan, "The House is Rockin' "
James McMurtry, "Valley Road"
The Thrills, "Say It Ain't So"
The Knack, "My Sharona"
(Source: The New York Times)

WASHINGTON (April 11) - Between his return on Friday from Pope John Paul II's funeral in Rome and his meeting today with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, President Bush spent an hour and a half on Saturday on an 18-mile mountain bike ride at his Texas ranch. With him, as usual, was his indispensable new exercise toy: an iPod music player loaded with country and popular rock tunes aimed at getting the presidential heart rate up to a chest-pounding 170 beats per minute.

Which brings up the inevitable question. What, exactly, is on the First iPod? In an era of celebrity playlists - Tom Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback, recently posted his on the iTunes online music store - what does the presidential selection of downloaded songs tell us about Mr. Bush?

First, Mr. Bush's iPod is heavy on traditional country singers like George Jones, Alan Jackson and Kenny Chesney. He has selections by Van Morrison, whose "Brown Eyed Girl" is a Bush favorite, and by John Fogerty, most predictably "Centerfield," which was played at Texas Rangers games when Mr. Bush was an owner and is still played at ballparks all over America. ("Oh, put me in coach, I'm ready to play today.")

The president also has an eclectic mix of songs downloaded into his iPod from Mark McKinnon, a biking buddy and his chief media strategist during the 2004 campaign. Among them are "Circle Back" by John Hiatt, "(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care" by Joni Mitchell and "My Sharona," the 1979 song by the Knack that Joe Levy, a deputy managing editor at Rolling Stone in charge of music coverage, cheerfully branded "suggestive if not outright filthy" in an interview last week.

Mr. Bush has had his Apple iPod since July, when he received it from his twin daughters as a birthday gift. He has some 250 songs on it, a paltry number compared to the 10,000 selections it can hold. Mr. Bush, as leader of the free world, does not take the time to download the music himself; that task falls to his personal aide, Blake Gottesman, who buys individual songs and albums, including Mr. Jones's and Mr. Jackson's greatest hits, from the iTunes music store.

Mr. Bush uses his iPod chiefly during bike workouts to help him pump up his heartbeat, which he monitors with a wrist strap. The strap also keeps track of calories expended for the intensely weight-focused president, who has recently lost eight pounds after eating a lot of doughnuts during the 2004 campaign. Mr. Bush burned 1,300 calories on his bike ride on Saturday, Mr. McKinnon reported.

As for an analysis of Mr. Bush's playlist, Mr. Levy of Rolling Stone started out with this: "One thing that's interesting is that the president likes artists who don't like him."

Mr. Levy was referring to Mr. Fogerty, who was part of the anti-Bush "Vote for Change" concert tour across the United States last fall. Mr. McKinnon, who once wrote songs for Kris Kristofferson's music publishing company, responded in an e-mail message that "if any president limited his music selection to pro-establishment musicians, it would be a pretty slim collection."

Nonetheless, Mr. McKinnon said that Mr. Bush had not gone so far as to include on his playlist "Fortunate Son," the angry anti-Vietnam war song about who has to go to war that Mr. Fogerty sang when he was with Creedence Clearwater Revival. ("I ain't no senator's son ... Some folks are born silver spoon in hand.") As the son of a two-term congressman and a United States Senate candidate, Mr. Bush won a coveted spot with the Texas Air National Guard to avoid combat in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Mr. Levy sized up the rest of the playlist of the 58-year-old president. "What we're talking about is a lot of great artists from the 60's and 70's and more modern artists who sound like great artists from the 60's and 70's," he said. "This is basically boomer rock 'n' roll and more recent music out of Nashville made for boomers. It's safe, it's reliable, it's loving. What I mean to say is, it's feel-good music. The Sex Pistols it's not."

Mr. Jones, Mr. Levy said, was nonetheless an interesting choice. "George Jones is the greatest living singer in country music and a recovering alcoholic who often sings about heartbreak and drinking," he said. "It tells you that the president knows a thing or two about country music and is serious about his love of country music."

The songs by Mr. Jackson indicate that the president "has a little bit of a taste for hard core and honky-tonk," Mr. Levy said, adding that both Mr. Jackson and Mr. Jones "are not about cute and pop, and they're not getting by on their looks." And while Mr. Chesney "is about cute and pop and gets by on his looks," Mr. Levy said, "he's also all about serious country music."

Mr. McKinnon, who has downloaded "Castanets" by Alejandro Escovedo and "Alive 'N' Kickin' " by Kenny Loggins into Mr. Bush's iPod, said that sometimes a presidential playlist is just a playlist, nothing more.

"No one should psychoanalyze the song selection," Mr. McKinnon said. "It's music to get over the next hill."
**************************
Music to get over the next hill? Hahahaha - is that a metaphor or what?
Lyrics to Good Girls Don't:
She's your adolescent dream,
Schoolboy stuff, a sticky sweet romance.
And she makes you want to scream,
Wishing you could get inside her pants.
So, you fantasize away.
And while you're squeezing her, you thought you heard her saying...

"Good girls don't,
Good girls don't,
Good girls don't, but I do."

So, you call her on the phone
To talk about the teachers that you hate.
And she says she's all alone,
And her parents won't be coming home til late.
There's a ringing in your brain,
Cause you could've sworn you though you heard her saying...

"Good girls don't,
Good girls don't,
Good girls don't, but I do."

And it's a teenage sadness
Everyone has got to taste.
An in-between age madness
That you know you can't erase
Til she's sitting on your face.

You're alone with her at last,
And you're waiting til you think the time is right.
Cause you've heard she's pretty fast.
And you're hoping that she'll give you some tonight.
So, you start to make your play,
Cause you could've sworn you thought you heard her saying...

"Good girls don't,
Good girls don't,
Good girls don't, but I do."

And it's a teenage sadness
Everyone has got to taste.
An in-between age madness
That you know you can't erase
Til she's sitting on your face.

Good girls don't,
Good girls don't,
Good girls don't, but I do...

Before there was a Jack Black School of Rock....

Oh my god, I just found all of these old Rock School pictures. This is one from the very first Paul Green School of Rock All-Star road trip, The Wildflower Music Festival in Richardson, Texas, June, 2002. The kids outplayed Colin Hay (Men at Work), Wilson Pickett, and ha ha ha, Doctor Hook.

We had everything during that concert to near hurricane conditions complete with a tornado warning ("We're right in Tornado Alley," a nice man was kind enough to tell me as I held on to a pole for dear life in the wind and rain. "But you know what we say in Texas - if you don't like the weather, it's okay, cos' in five minutes it'll change") to a very pregnant Lisa (Paul's wife), a pool filled with giant bugs, and the total shock of hearing that John Entwistle had died.

Anyway, it was a great time...and who knew what would be happening during those next three years...that Paul would become an international celebrity and the kids...well, it's going to be very, very interesting to see how it all pans out.

Anyway, that's the original four All-Stars - Teddi Tarnoff, Julie Slick, Allie Hauptman, and Eric Slick hamming it up in great headgear for the crowd right after their performance. They wore them on stage, too, and damn if I can remember the song....it's going to drive me crazy now.

I just called Julie. She said it was Pink Floyd's Pigs.

Of course my memory is bad from that evening. Back then, Julie was the only All-Star bassist and Eric the only drummer so they were in every song. Eric ate a corndog that didn't agree with him and he was only 15 so I had to keep running with him back and forth between songs to the porta-potty, positive he had some kind of terrible food poisoning but Eric being Eric insisted on playing every song. It was great. He'd play a song, throw up, play another song, throw up....and so on and so on and so on.

P.S.

Just saw this - the Rock School kids get a great little blurb regarding their performance last month in Las Vegas....

ShoWest news

From Blabbermouth.net

Hey, if you're not hip to it already, Blabbermouth is where I get a lot of my rock gossip.

Anyway, how cool of them to provide us with the official order of the tracks on the Rock School CD. Don't be deceived by the creds - obviously the Paul Green Rock School All-Stars are on every track playing along with the classic rock stars, but on LA Woman, for example, well, Jim Morrison couldn't make it to the session. He's busy sipping wine in France har har.

MEGADETH, DEEP PURPLE, ALICE COOPER Rockers Head Back To School - Apr. 8, 2005
The soundtrack to the much-anticipated film "Rock School" will be released on May 31, 2005 through Trillion Records.

The documentary, which will hit theaters early this summer through NewMarket Films, chronicles the inception and success of Paul Green's School Of Rock Music, which was founded in Philadelphia in 1999 to teach young musicians and singers to play and perform classic rock 'n' roll.

Produced by Grammy Award-winning Phil Nicolo (LAURYN HILL, THE ROOTS, TRAIN), the soundtrack to "Rock School" takes a unique approach by featuring the actual students that appeared in the film re-recording hits alongside legends like Alice Cooper, DEEP PURPLE's Ian Gillan, YES' Jon Anderson, THE POLICE's Stewart Copeland, THE RAMONES' Marky Ramone, HEART's Ann Wilson, MEGADETH's Dave Mustaine, and Billy Idol.

The track listing is as follows:

01. "Black Magic Woman" - GREGG ROLIE
02. "I Wanna Be Sedated" - MARKY RAMONE/TYSON RITTER (THE ALL AMERICAN REJECTS)
03. "School's Out" - ALICE COOPER
04. "Barracuda" - ANN WILSON
05. "Highway Star" - IAN GILLAN
06. "LA Woman" - THE PAUL GREEN SCHOOL OF ROCK MUSIC
07. "Heart Of The Sunrise" - JON ANDERSON
08. "Rebel Yell" - BILLY IDOL
09. "Don't Stand So Close To Me" - STEWART COPELAND
10. "Iron Man" - THE PAUL GREEN SCHOOL OF ROCK MUSIC
11. "Peace Sells" - DAVE MUSTAINE
12. "Hocus Pocus" - THE PAUL GREEN SCHOOL OF ROCK MUSIC

"When the producers asked me to be a part of 'Rock School', I said okay and asked them to send me a track of the kids performing our song. What I heard was a bunch of kids giving it 100 percent, and it sounded great. It was good fun," said Ian Gillan of DEEP PURPLE who performs the band's hit "Highway Star" on the soundtrack.

"Rock School" is the soundtrack to more than just a temporary fantasy camp. It's the beginning of the kids' new way of life.

The movie trailer can now be viewed at an FTP site (in QuickTime, Windows Media and Real Player formats in small, medium and large sizes).

You can view said trailer by clicking on the link on the top right of this page. You can't miss it.

And for those of you who didn't get to see this before, here's Julie with Jon Anderson...before they recorded Heart of the Sunrise together (heh)

Viacom/VH1 Ripping off Paul Green School of Rock Again?

Posted: Thurs., Apr. 7, 2005, 10:00pm PT
'School' is in session for VH1
Cabler in class with Simmons and RDF
By DENISE MARTIN
VH1 is enrolling in "Rock School."

Cabler has partnered with British reality shop RDF Media ("Wife Swap") for "Rock School," ordering six episodes that take the premise of the Jack Black starrer "School of Rock"to the small screen.

RDF just wrapped production on the series for the U.K.'s Channel 4 -- which has already greenlit two cycles -- with Kiss bass player Gene Simmons educating the classically trained pupils of Christ's Hospital in Horsham, Surrey, on the ways of rock.

VH1 will reformat those episodes for American auds, stocking them with new music and additional Kiss footage from the MTV Networks library in time for a late spring/early summer premiere.

Joe Houlihan, prexy of RDF's U.S. operation, says the series shows a softer side of Simmons, who has recently popped up on primetime in "The Apprentice" and as a guest judge for "American Idol."

"Gene was genuinely interested in transforming the troupe of pre-teens into a rough-round-the-edges rock band," Houlihan said. Simmons was a primary schoolteacher before he formed Kiss in 1972.

"We've been kicking this idea around for a few years," Houlihan continued. "With the Jack Black film becoming a big hit, we feel like the timing couldn't be better."

VH1 is already talking to RDF about possible artists and themes for future editions, but no deals are in place.

Execs were sold on the culture clash at the series' core, said VH1 executive VP Michael Hirschorn.

In the first episode, Simmons pulls up in a limousine -- and the boarding school kids promptly refer to him as "arrogant" and "middle-aged."

"The cultural byplay between this American rock star and these plum English kids is really quite funny," he said.

"It's sort of the trifecta for us," Hirschorn added. "It fits nicely into our Celebreality niche. It's also clearly a music show. And it's got this great multi-generational appeal."

******************************************

Hmmm...weird stuff, huh.

First VH1 films this so-called series over three years ago based on the Paul Green School of Rock; then disappears, then the Jack Black movie mysteriously appears, blatantly ripping off Paul. Now, with the huge buzz over the REAL Rock School documentary set to premier in June, VH1 decides to announce this and team up with yet another blatant rip-off?

Hahaha - I especially like the line "They've been kicking this idea around for a few years".

You're damn straight they have. Ever since they attended their first Paul Green Rock School concert three years ago, those bastards.

Also...if Gene Simmons is involved, you know it's all about money, because that fucker never made real music, he was the original corporate rock asshole.

I guess the good news is -- Paul has Newmarket Films behind him, now owned by Time Warner and from the rumors I heard, a series based on the documentary is already under negotiations with HBO and/or The Arts and Entertainment Network.

So I'm guessing VH1/Viacom/RDF will be hearing from an attorney or seventeen today.

I'd still love to know what happened to the hours of footage VH1 took at Rock School, my house and of all the kids in concert...

Oh right. That all ended up in the Jack Black movie. Silly me.

Oh man...

Okay, I don't mean to do this, but this is rapidly becoming the dead and dying rock star blog. This getting older stuff, man, it's really sad. All my "people" are dropping like flies.

Reuters: April 7, 2005

Singer/songwriter Gerry Rafferty was undergoing tests and remains in highly critical condition in a London hospital Friday for a suspected drug overdose and a fall down the stairs at home.

Authorities said prescription drugs and evidence of heavy drinking were found at his home in Hampstead, North London, the Mirror reported.

Rafferty, 57, made millions from his hit record "Baker Street," which was later used on the soundtrack of the 1997 movie "Good Will Hunting."

But, the death of his elder brother Joe and problems in his personal life made him shun the limelight. He also was reportedly frustrated with the "one-hit wonder" tag.

Whilst I write...

So while I continue to simultaneously write two books at once, worry about my taxes and my daughter's college financial aid forms, I thought I'd post a very cool article about Ike Willis which mentions his Rock School affiliation.

Also, thanks to Dave Neidorf (again!) for providing me with those fantastic DVDs. We watched the Napoleon Murphy Brock/Rock School DVD from February 29, 2004 and of course I instantly filled up with tears at the first song, City of Tiny Lights, which features now former Rock Star All-Stars Teddi Tarnoff, Louie Graff, Allie Hauptman and Julie Slick. City of Tiny Lights, along with Heart of the Sunrise, are two Rock School songs I can hear 1,000,000 times and never get bored. I cannot wait for the Jon Anderson version on the Rock School movie soundtrack coming out next month, but to be honest, I wish it were Teddi singing instead. She owns that song. Too bad she couldn't have sung it as a duet with him.

But you know, as always, big business rules. I'm still not quite understanding why Alice Cooper's School's Out for The Summer is even associated with the movie or on the soundtrack, especially since the kids never performed it in concert to my knowledge...well, at least not the All-Star students in the movie; it might have been in a beginner show I missed...but I'd better shut up because my daughter plays bass on that song on the soundtrack and rumor has it that's going to be the first MTV video. But ugh, "Alice" is a fucking golf playing Republican and yes, yes, we all know how I feel about that.

Oh yeah, in other news, I think there's a mini west coast tour in connection with the movie's LA premier June 1 but again, at this point, a rumor so I'd better not say anything further in that regard, either.

In writing news, I am happy to announce that the baseball story I've wanted to write for years (i.e., the Phillies winning the World Series for the first time ever right after my mother, a long time suffering Phillies' fan, died of a brain tumor) has been accepted at Somewhat Magazine and will be published May 4. I'll post a link when the time comes. I love the editors at Somewhat. They are so fucking cool, and not just because they dig my stuff. I visited their links page and met the most interesting character the other day via email -- Henry Dribble. We started emailing back and forth; he's going to promote Eric's band on his site; it turns out one of his kids writes for Friends and Will and Grace; the other is a drummer for a rockband in LA...anyway, how cool is that.

Okay, I'll be quiet now. Here's the Ike article:

'Object' of affection
By Ed Symkus
Wednesday, April 6, 2005

There is no shortage of Frank Zappa tribute bands. Although the singer-guitarist-composer-conductor - and founder of his own fan club, the United Mutations - died 12 years ago, his complex pop-rock-jazz music lives on. There's always his catalogue of recordings, both solo and with the Mothers of Invention. But there are also all of those bands: the Muffin Men in England, Central Scrutinizer Band in Brazil, Zappanoia in Portugal, Children of Invention in France, Great Googly Moogly! in Sweden, as well as a plethora of US-based bands, among them Bogus Pomp and Uncle Meat.

One of the longest-running American Zappa tribute bands, Project/Object, plays at the Middle East in Cambridge on Monday, with guest members Ike Willis (guitar and vocals) and Napoleon Murphy Brock (reeds and vocals), both of whom toured with Zappa as members of the Mothers.

"Just before Frank died he said to me, 'Just do what you can to keep my music alive. Play whatever you want, but keep it faithful, if you can,' " recalls Willis, who played with Zappa from 1978 till his death in 1993. "Within a month after he died I got a call from my first Zappa tribute band, the Muffin Men, out of Liverpool. I set the criteria from there: 'Let me hear your material live.' And since then I've made my choices based on how faithful the rendition of the material was live. And the attitude - Frank always told me that attitude was highly important."

About two years later, members of Project/Object, a New York band that only plays Zappa music, and often recreates an entire Zappa or Mothers album onstage, sent a live tape of one of their performances to Willis, who liked it enough to travel from his home in San Francisco to New York, where, after checking out their attitude, he joined the band for a few gigs. And has continued to do so from time to time over the years.

Willis, who currently fronts his own band of original music, the Ike Willis Project, is probably still best known as the deep, rich voice of Joe on Zappa's "Joe's Garage." He remains an ardent Zappa fan.

"I would put him as one of the top two or three most important composers in the second half of the 20th century," says Willis.

"Do they still use the word seminal?" he asks, with a laugh. "And in terms of his guitar playing ability, Frank was just incredibly underrated."

The two met when Willis was a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, and Zappa was playing a concert at the school. Willis helped out "schlepping" some equipment for the gig.

"After sound check, the band and the crew were eating backstage," remembers Willis. "I was sitting by myself, eating and reading, and Frank walked by with a plate full of lasagna. I mentioned something about the bad food there and after a few minutes he called me over to his table. I didn't really want to bother him. The last thing he'd want is to be bothered by some knit hat-wearing, would-be guitar-playing senior in college. But he called me over and we sat and talked about physics and science and history, and hung out."

They also talked about the fact that Willis had already been a professional guitarist for 12 years and actually knew some of Zappa's rather difficult music. Later, as Zappa was getting ready to warm up, he handed him a guitar and asked if he wanted to play it.

"I started playing [Zappa's] 'Carolina [Hard-core Ecstasy]' and Frank joined in and then the rest of the band joined in. But I didn't think of it as an audition or anything. After a while he said he liked the way I played but that he had to go do the show, and asked me for my address and phone number because he had auditions every year. I did, then just moved on, but eight months later he called me in my dorm room. I joined the band the following summer."

He remembers Zappa as a perfectionist who ran strict rehearsals before each concert, often conducting the band with a baton. And he regards his days singing and playing guitar with him as a major challenge and an unforgettably rewarding musical experience.

When he isn't touring with Project/Object or with his own band, he's involved with the Paul Green School of Rock, upon which the film "School of Rock" was very loosely based, and which often has classes and concerts focused on Zappa's music.

"It's an actual rock 'n' roll academy," says Willis. "They start around 10 or 12 and go up to age 18. It's nationwide - we have schools from New York City to San Francisco. I think we're working on one in Boston. I am professor emeritus of guitar and vocals."

When he finds any free time, Willis is often hired for voice-over work and jingles. At one point, while he was still working with Zappa, he also tried his hand at acting, landing a small part as a boxer in the 1983 Gregory Harrison TV movie "The Fighter."

"When I was living in L.A., my next door neighbor was a casting agent," says Willis. "And acting was something I did between tours. Hey, being in movies is nowhere near as difficult as playing with Frank Zappa."

Project/Object, featuring Ike Willis and Napoleon Murphy Brock, performs the music of Frank Zappa at the Middle East in Cambridge on April 11. The show is 18+, doors open at 8 p.m., tickets are $17. Call 617-864-3278, ext. 221.

Odds and Sods - Part 37

So, yesterday brought me all this great stuff in the mail. Dave Neidorf, who is not a professional cinematographer but a doctor who does this for a hobby though you'd never guess he's not a pro in a million years, sent me the February 29, 2004 Rock School All-Stars/Napoleon Murphy Brock DVD as well as DVDs for the fall Scottish Rite Auditorium show in Collingswood and the Project Object show in Downingtown. I can't wait to watch these tonight (last night no one was home) and am especially looking forward to the Napoleon concert because it was one of Julie's last shows before the tour and there's a really nice photo of her boyfriend Matt on the DVD cover.

Anyway, thank you so much, Dave! This was just totally awesome of you.

Also, I'd ordered a bunch of photos from when Eric, Lauren, Dom, C.J., and Mike Connor flew out to Vegas last month for ShoWest, the big theater convention where Penn Jilette was the Master of Ceremonies...and they are awesome! Beautiful 8x10 glossies taken by Image Pro, who does all of the celebrity events. I had to order them on line; they cost a fortune; and are worth every penny! I have a solo shot of Eric on a huge stage with a massive video screen behind him; one of Eric and Dom with a huge shot of Dom on the screen as well; two group shots of the whole band on stage, and an awesome group shot off-stage of all the kids, Paul, and Bob Berney, President of Newmarket Films.

(I'm still smiling over Eric telling me he had dinner at the Palm in Vegas and sat next to Bob Berney and his remark to me was "Mom, I had a $17.00 bowl of spaghetti")

Anyway, I'm not sure what our scanner status is (I don't know if our scanner works with our new computer or not) but trust me, I will find a way to post those pics here somehow. Even if it means a trip to...bleh...Kinkos.

Upcoming Rock School shows: April 23, 2005 at 12:30 p.m. - encore performance of Jesus Christ Superstar at B.B. Kings in NYC; All-Star shows: April 29, 2005 at the Funk Box in Baltimore, Maryland, April 30, 2005 at Harpers Ferry in Boston, MA, and May 1 at Higher Ground in Burlington, Vermont; as well as the whole spring performance schedule including Eric's last Rock School ensemble show - Led Zep; the final Best Of show for the current graduates which is going to be HUGE at the Electric Factory June 5, and the grand finale blow-out All-Star Pink Floyd show at the TLA August 14 a week after the kids get back from Germany. And of course there's the 12 city east coast tour immediately preceding Germany.

Not to mention the premier of Rock School, The Movie on June 3. Still waiting for news regarding a possible red carpet premier/party in Philadelphia.

In other news...

I sent the newly revised first 100 pages of The Tour to my agent yesterday and am a nervous wreck, but you know, that's all part of the writing thing and I'm a nervous wreck anyway...even crossing a busy street these days gives me a fucking heart attack. I thought one of the perks of being adult was confidence and wisdom. Yeah, right. I feel like I'm rapidly sliding in reverse and headed for a playpen. I just hope I don't have to share mine with Charleton Heston...he plays with real guns.

Julie's feeling much better and is back on a baking binge but luckily made me banana nut bread with soy flour and brown rice syrup and it's like the best healthy dessert I've ever had in my life. Of course I kept slicing away at it all night and even diet food stops being dietic when you eat a whole freaking loaf, but there you have it. I really should go to Overeaters Anonymous, but who the hell has the time. Luckily I'm vain and manage to stop the madness once my jeans stop feeling comfortable...i.e., once I have to flatten myself on the bed to zip them. But I've been walking to and from work now that the icy weather is over and I'm no longer afraid of falling on my head. (See what I mean about being a wreck?) That trek is around 4-5 miles and the way home is all up hill so I'm hoping for some damage control.

Anyway, I think that's it for now. Since I'm currently in limbo waiting to hear about the opening to the new version of The Tour before proceeding further, I've returned to the sequel to Three Days in New York and am trying to get that finished in time for the RT Convention at the end of the month. God. If only I could quit my day job and this house would run itself. My daugther gently reminded me I have to do her FAFSA forms for college, but before I can do that, I need to do my 2004 tax return, and oh my god, that's due in like 10 days. Ask me if I even know where my W2 form is. Arghhh.....