The Attack of You Tube: Eric Slick, Larry Allen, Joey Randazzo...and who?

Eddie Vedder with Madison Flego, Brian Purcell, Julia Ranier and Eric Slick in concert at Neumo's in Seattle.

So in writing news, I was Riley Dogged yesterday, though by the time I publish this post I may be on page 2. Riley Dog is an incredible blog...the link is on the right hand side and if you want to hang with the cool kids you should visit daily.

Also, Steve Smith, Associate Music Editor of New York Time Out Magazine, was kind enough to mention Eric and me today. Thanks, Steve!

For those of you who took advantage of the link to my photobucket site yesterday and emailed me, here are the answers to your questions:

(1) Yes, I will upload more photos of Rock School concerts featuring musicians other than Julie and Eric;
(2) No, I am not related to Neil Gaiman nor his personal friend (damn it)...I merely lifted those photos off his site and uploaded them to photobucket so they wouldn't "disappear" off my blog because I stole his bandwidth;
(3) Yes, I will take a course in digital photography one of these days because..
(4) Yes I am aware that I am a sucky photographer.

Now. I know you are all dying to know about the mystery rock star I mentioned yesterday and of course the above photo gives it away. So enough about me...here it is -- The Attack of You Tube, Part III.

In this totally insane Slick home movie filmed by Ms. Julie Slick following the concert Julie, Eric, and the All-Stars did with Eddie Vedder in Seattle for the premiere of the movie, Rock School, Eddie Vedder launched into an impromptu a cappella version of The Who's A Quick One with Joey Randazzo (long curls and jeff cap) on lead vocals, Eric Slick in dark glasses on supporting vocals, drumsticks, feet, and iPod (no wonder I have to replace that once a year) along with keyboardist/vocalist Larry Allen -- Larry is standing in between Joey and Eric...and standing next to Eddie Vedder and also singing harmony is Ms. Julia Ranier...and you will also see Der Uberlord of Rock School, Paul Green, give us some serious tongue, as well as Don Argott, director of the movie, (tall guy, Buddy Holly glasses) joining in on the chorus where they sing "You are forgiven"...there's also some glimpses of Teddi Tarnoff and Brian Purcell and other assorted musicians.

Don't forget to let it load all the day before playing it -- the gray line has to run all the way from left to right (for those of you technology challenged).

The quality isn't great but this film is still a lot of fun. Enjoy!

The Eric Slick/John Wetton post - Part II

CJ Tywoniak on guitar, Eric Slick on drums, John Wetton on bass, and Zach Miller on keyboards


Katie Jacoby on violin, Maureen Hayes on bass, Eric Slick on drums, CJ Tywoniak on electric guitar, John Wetton on acoustic guitar, Stevie Roberts on keyboards

I'm still kind of speechless from last night's show. I have tons more photographs and my photobucket site is open to the public so you can visit directly -- I'll be uploading more throughout the day. Plus, if you do that, you'll see the photo in its actual size and you'll be able to print it out. Just to make it easy for those technology challenged, here's the link. If you dig into the archives, you'll find everything from photos of the All-Stars with Jon Anderson and Eddie Vedder to some stuff you're probably better off not seeing, like my sick collection of Neil Gaiman photos, but well, you know, anyone who reads this blog already knows about that, anyway. But as I said, now that I finally have figured out how to submit multiple photos at one time (thank you, Eric Slick, for showing your dumb mother that it can be done), I will upload as many photos as I can so that you can see I do take photos of Rock School All-Stars other than Julie and Eric.

Anyway...John Wetton just blew me away last night. I had the world's greatest spot...center stage almost directly in front of him but a little to the left so I could see Eric on drums. The Omega Rock School All-Stars were freaking outrageous. The song selection was amazing. The fact that a guitarist who hasn't even hit puberty named Zach Page could trade licks with John brought a smile to his face...and the general consensus was, the first night of the tour, it was a little rough because I don't think Mr. Wetton knew what he was in for and he came in all stern and reserved...and these kids whipped him into shape and made him love them! Ha!

For a detailed review of the actual music, I think Steve Smith of Time Out New York does an incredible job, so I refer you to him. I also put this link up on the Rock School forum board in case anyone is interested.

There were some other real highlights for me and I apologize to anyone I'm leaving out...but Stevie Roberts singing Can't Find My Way Home with Brenna Fitzgerald on acoustic guitar almost made me cry it was so beautiful...this little kid named Paco comes on stage -- he must be twelve years old -- and belted out Dazed and Confused like he was a twenty-five year old Robert Plant -- Katie Jacoby on the violin is not only an amazing musician she's almost shockingly beautiful and her stage presence is that of a superstar. Zach Miller on keyboards is a mini-Keith Emerson but better because he's got that Billy Preston soul thing going on; Mo Hayes on bass/vocals was outstanding, but I think it was Zach Bukowski who took my breath away the most because the last time I saw him play he was just starting to get chops...now he's up there with the best of them. (I just realized something. There are three boys named Zach in the All-Stars? Ha ha - the Zach tour) Oh god, I'm forgetting the drummers -- Sara Neidorf is freaking amazing and there's another twelve year old named Asher Bank who is going to be a star. Oh god, and Sara & Andy Zimmerman...holy crap...on guitar and bass respectively.

But of course for me when Paul announced he was bringing out "ringers", i.e., Eric and CJ to perform a couple songs because at the last moment, John decided he wanted to perform a few really difficult songs and he needed musicians who could learn them in like forty-five minutes, I practically burst into tears. C.J., Eric, and Zach were so amazing on Starless I was shaking. And Court of the Crimson King just about killed me.

After Eric finished playing a solo, John went up to the mic and said "Mr. Eric Slick!" and the crowd went crazy. This was especially touching for me because John didn't call out any other names though of course he spent a lot of one on one time with Eric this week but he did point and smile at the other musicians...and as I've said many times, Eric is a "graduate" and the audience was comprised of parents of the new kids....many of whom aren't familiar with Eric and also, prog rock fans, particularly ASIA fans. (Man...you should have seen all the mullets in that crowd. They were really impressive. I was going to take a photo but...nah...we all know what mullets look like...no need to torture ourselves any further)

I did get my Lark's Tongue in Aspic album signed. Look what John wrote on it:



Yeah, that's me. Eric's parent. So now I'm like, why bother writing any more novels...I should just capitalize on being Eric's mom.

Oh wait. I already do that. Har har.

So yeah, it's been an incredible month for my son - what eighteen year old gets to play with both Adrian Belew and John Wetton within four weeks time and gets to hear from both of them that he's an amazing talent with hints of meeting up in the future? In fact, I can't resist this...here's part of an email I got from a "fan" who attended the show last night:

Your son is incredible. He has really good touch and control on the drums and brings out such a range of sounds like I've never heard. I am honored to know him before he becomes a superstar, which he is destined to become.

Yep, I agree.

Okay, so I do have my own life and as I mentioned last week, I agreed to do an interview and project with a writer from the Middle East and now it's up on a website which has also ignited a flame war. Great. So I'm not only going to have an even thicker FBI file, now the right wingers in America are out to get me. I hear the flame war remarks are going to be removed -- the woman who conducted the interview wrote me this strange email about it...strange because of the language/translation problems which, by the way, also occur in the interview so I'm going to post both because they're pretty insane:

The email:

the site was harmed by some new-cons.
now it should be all right.

good to know you.

So I got that email and wondered what the hell a new-con was and why the site was harmed and then I went to the interview and found out. Oy. Of course I had to do a bio check on that JB who thinks I'm ruining civilization or whatever she babbles about and I find out she lives in Texas and is proud to be living in the same state as our President (oh, now that's a big surprise). I like the reader who stood up to her...I was dying to respond but if the site is going to be purged of the comments I'm not going to bother. But in the event that JB's comments are not erased, if any of my pals want to speak up in my defense, cool, or at the very least, threaten JB with something painful...like messing up her countertops. (I'm guessing by the comments that she wrote a story about cleaning her countertops which is also on the site...I'll check later...I was too nauseous when I saw her comment because really, I hate all confrontation and the last thing I expected when I agreed to do this project was some right wing asshole coming after me)

Anyway, that's all for now...but here's some advance warning. Tomorrow I'm going to post the first real attack of You Tube - my personal home movies. In my first real contribution, you'll see Eric Slick and company backstage hanging out with one of the world's most famous rockstars and you're not going to believe what you see and hear. No one has seen this film yet but my immediate family. Be on high alert!

I leave you with one final John Wetton photo which I love because John kept walking up to Eric and jamming with him and he was obviously having an awesome time (John that is...well, so was Eric. For sure.)



Later,
xo

The Eric Slick/John Wetton post - Part I

The Rock Star All-Stars with John Wetton (and Eric Slick sitting in on drums)

More All-Stars and John and the lovely Katie Jacoby on violin (Thank you for these photos, Katie's mom Esther!)



So Eric has been sharing all kinds of fun John Wetton stories with me because in addition to sitting in on drums on some songs, Eric has been his roadie and right hand man the past four days and driving with him back and forth between Philadelphia and New York.

Fun fact #1: John loves junk food. When they made a food/bathroom stop on the New Jersey Turnpike at The Vince Lombardi Plaza, John simply had to have a Cinnabon.

Eric was like: Do I believe I'm at a truck stop in New Jersey called the Vince Lombardi Plaza eating Cinnabons with John Wetton? This is surreal.

Eric then turned him on to the chocolate chip muffins at WaWa. John thought they were among the best muffins he ever had.

Okay...

The hotel where John is staying is surrounded by some of the finest four and five star restaurants on the East Coast. But on the suggestion of Rock School kids, John ate at Little Pete's, which is a Greek restaurant/diner hole in the wall open 24 hours and serves breakfast all day. He loved it! John then made a Mr. Creosote reference and was duly impressed when Eric knew who Mr. Creosote was and after that the two of them bantered back and forth with various Monty Python lines. Which leads us to...

Fun fact #2: John is extremely reserved but has a understated sense of humor and is actually very funny and sarcastic. Unlike Adrian Belew who absolutely lavished praise on everyone and was very laid back, John calls it as it is and he makes everyone play hard and is quick to point out mistakes, etc. but usually with some dark humor on the side. I actually think that's not a bad thing. But maybe that's because Eric was exempt from criticism. John looked at Eric after last night's performance and said very quietly "You know you're good, right?"

Coming from John Wetton, that was pretty high praise.

Part II to follow after I attend the show so I can write about the actual music, take more pics, and get my Lark's Tongue in Aspic album (yeah, you heard me, ALBUM) signed. Though I won't reveal other stuff Eric told me...like, what musician never tours without a suitcase packed with whips and cuffs. I was like, wait, you mean there's one who doesn't?)

Later,
xo

Happy Green (whoops...I was going to say "Day" until I realized those googling a band I despise will end up on my blog and we just can't have that!)

So Juked Magazine published Star Man today, my first so-called Scifi attempt though of course as I mentioned a few days ago it seems to have turned out otherwise and smacks of my usual warped themes.

Last night I forced myself outdoors and had dinner with Julie at one of her suggestions: Standard Tap. Yep, she was right. I absolutely loved it. Right up there with the best bar food I've ever had. It was definitely my kind of place...like it says, no T.V., just hipsters spanning all ages sitting around talking and drinking a great selection of beer or in my case, moaning over hand cut french fries. The highlight of our meal though was this outrageous, buttery flaky warm pecan pie topped with homemade whipped cream. You would have thought I was having a sexual experience while I ate that. Ha. Last night was a set-back for me; I've actually lost almost ten pounds in the past month without really trying. See what obsessing over a novel will do to you? I've been forgetting to eat or just not hungry in general while I work on that thing.

They need to do something about their music choices, though. I felt like I was listening to an up-dated version of disco. Oh my god, if disco is back I'm just going to end it all now.

(Actually, on their website they mention a juke box playing everything from Iggy Pop to Tom Waits. So I must have gotten screwed last night by a patron with really bad taste in music feeding said juke box. Okay, now that I know that, I will go next time armed with dollar bills and load that sucker up before I even sit down to eat.)

Speaking of writing, recently I was contacted by a group of writers from the Middle East who are interested in learning more about American authors. Their website is all in Arabic so exactly what they are all about I can't tell you, but they were referred to me by a great writer pal I trust who had also furnished them with his stories and an interview. Anyway, I agreed to be a part of their project, and it was way interesting, especially due to language differences. Our email correspondence alone was pretty amusing. They started out by seeking out like everything I've ever written and analyzing it and then they furnished me with a set of questions in line with my writing. I don't want to publish the questions and my answers yet in case the interview is published in English (well, they sort of say it will be in their last email) but I do want to share a bit of the experience.

Here's part of the first email when I didn't respond to the interview right away because (1) I was working on my novel and (2) I had to read over the questions several times before I at least thought I understood what they meant.

Dear Robin,
Answer as you wish, omit what you disliked, and ask for details or modifications when necessary. You will be our guest for some time. Help us to show your qualities and abilities. Fresh photo and a brief are needed then, we expect you to look shiny and marvelous, as you are indeed.

I'm shiny and marvelous? Hey, I like that!

When a few days passed and I didn't respond to their questions right away, I got the following:

Dear Robin,
we did some progress with your materials, dear Robin, but so far we do not know if you are happy about the interview, and when the expected date for answers. We need to know to update our schedule. Please do make your word.

We're waiting for you.

We read a lot and prepared a lot.

we like to have you with us as a friend, member of the family.

So then I felt bad/guilty and also a bit shaken by the "We're waiting for you" part, I completed the interview as best I could and sent them my shiny, marvelous photograph. After which I received the following:

Dear Robin,

Many thanks for this fabulous response. We are pleased to inform you that the materials were passed on for translations.

In few days to come you will receive a link to have a permanent access to the site, and the workshop. You will meet some old friends from the states like ____ and ___ and so on…

a link with either writesight or authors den will follow.

Be alarmed...

Ahem. Be alarmed? Okay...not a problem.

Be Alarmed! is definitely going to be the title of my next novel. I'm dead serious about this. Really. I think it's awesome and I'm using it.

I showed the above correspondence to the man who referred them to me and after he finished laughing and teasing me about my new NSA file, we both agreed it was a cool experience and I'm actually looking forward to seeing the interview and their impressions of my work. What really intrigued me is that they went back to a story I'd written in 2004 and left a comment under it on the magazine's website dated March 6, 2006 which was most interesting. How do I know this? Because as you already know, I'm an anal retentive who googles herself every five minutes.

Just kidding. I only do it a couple times a week.

Oh god I'm such a mess.

But one positive thing: I've taken what might be a permanent leave of absence from Zoetrope Studios. I've made my friends there and they are fantastic but the others...the trolls, the stalkers, the terrible writers, the self-absorbed freaks who do nothing but talk about their own work and never congratulate others on their success...arghhh....I just couldn't stand it any more. Luckily my close Zoetrope friends and I email and meet up in the real world regularly so I no longer need to be aggravated on a daily basis by "the others". But who knows, that could be just my mood of this month...I know I'll at least return temporarily when my pal Ellen's book comes out this summer because I want to be part of the excitement on her behalf.

Most importantly, since I stopped hanging out at Zoe I've been writing like crazy, so that's even more reason to stay away.

Anyway, yeah, Eric did play with John Wetton last night and he told me some funny stuff but since I'm going to the Saturday show I didn't go last night and therefore do not have any photos yet. I've asked a couple people who were there to email any they might have to me and if that happens today, I'll come back and do a new post; if not, I'll wait until I take my own pictures this weekend. Yeah, I know, I could write all about it now without the photos but I have my own strange way of doing things and I like to have pictures with my stories.

But in case anyone reading this is in the northern New Jersey area, Eric will be performing with John Wetton and the Rock School All-Stars tonight at Bergen County Rock School and I hear it's an amazing show.

Later,
xo

Heat of the Moment...

That, as you know, is my son Eric along with amazing Rock School violinist Katie Jacoby, who will both be performing tonight with:



John Wetton

Ha ha - I could have predicted this. Eric Slick will be behind the drums on the School of Rock John Wetton tour for at least three songs, including Court of the Crimson King, beginning tonight at the Downingtown School of Rock, tomorrow at Bergen County School of Rock, Saturday at the New York Knitting Factory, and Sunday at 6:00 p.m. at the Troc in Philadelphia.

I remember Eric telling me back in August when he graduated Rock School he was officially "retired" and wouldn't be performing with the All-Stars again. Ha! Let's see. He played the Music Player Live Tribute to Les Paul with the All-Stars in October, he went to NAMM with the All-Stars in January, he played with the All-Stars and Belew two weeks ago...and now Wetton. He went to Rock School just to hang out last night and ended up sitting in on drums because one of the new All-Stars couldn't make rehearsal, and well, you know...Eric rules.

I love you, Eric. Music is the best!

Okay, back to my novel, which finally has "legs"! Now. Which one of my good pals would like to read the first 50-100 pages next week?

Just kidding, just kidding.

The Ides of March post

The above photo of Bosco with Adrian Belew when he realized the camera was on him makes me laugh out loud.

So sorry, sorry, things have been quiet around here...wait, that's not actually true, I've been working like a crazy on novel revisions and my brain is in total turmoil so I'm trying to focus solely on finally finishing this book so I can sleep at night again. Today needs to be a turning point...Julie goes on Spring break next week and we've hardly spent any time together this entire semester. She really had a heavy, all day class load and her remaining hours were spent in the studio, at work, and with Matt. So I'm really looking forward to our dates to the Italian market and breakfast and lunch in cool restaurants...maybe even a day trip to New York. I've been a complete shut-in lately which is kind of scarey but I'm obsessing over this book. If I can have a finished draft by Sunday, I'll feel really good about taking a week off and then going back to the manuscript with fresh eyes for edits.

Eric, on the other hand, has been running around like a maniac. I think I've seen him maybe a total of one hour since Friday. He's been rehearsing with Project Object for the upcoming tour (and I provided the link because there are more dates and venues added), rehearsing with Shannon Penn because they're going into the studio at the end of this month, getting ready for an April Fool's Day gig with Doctor Dark...and yesterday, after coming from one of the above rehearsals he met up with John Wetton and then ended up hanging out with him at Rock School and "reminding" John of a few licks...in fact, Eric is going back tonight to help out again. He said John is funny as hell and the two of them had a very interesting one on one conversation.

And while I'm talking about Eric, as I've said, he's also scheduled to do an east coast tour with Chris Opperman, who plays keyboard with Steve Vai and the song they did together was nominated for a Grammy this year. Chris is a character, and I'm one of his My Space friends (Yes, I know. I cannot believe I have a My Space friend, either. I agree, I'm about ninety years too old to even be anywhere near that site, but music nut that I am, I go where the music is). Anyway, I got the My Space "Your Friend Chris has posted something" email message and I clicked on it and how interesting is this:

"Today I attended the "Art of Writing" class that The Learning Annex put on with Ray Bradbury. Well, how could I possibly pass up a chance to meet someone as amazing and wonderful as Ray Bradbury? Especially considering that he inspired the song "Telepathy on Mars?" as well as the painting of the same name, which is my favorite painting of mine.

Anyway, it was an extreme treat. He told a lot of stories about his life which was very interesting and his basic message was a message of love. You can tell from the way he spoke how much in love he is with everyone and his life. It was really excellent.

He also said that everyone should just piss on their computers because they don't give out information, just factoids, and he said that he told the New York Times that he thought that we should move all of the Jews out of Israel and into Florida where they would be safe from harm, that magazines are now pathetic because they're more about the advertising than they are about the information, and that they'd better damn well build a monorail in LA soon because the freeways are going to become to congested to use at all. I thought he was a riot and he signed a book of short stories for me, and I felt very honored.

He wants Peter Jackson to direct a movie of "The Martian Chronicles" and Peter said he'd consider it in a year. Ray said he's going to do his best to hold onto his life until it's finished. I sure hope it happens, that would be awesome. And he said that it was awful that King Kong was ignored at the Oscars this year."

Okay, I'm new to SciFi and don't know the personalities of even the most famous authors in that genre so I don't quite know what to make of Ray. I'm not sure if I should be offended by the moving all the Jews out of Israel and into Florida statement or laugh my ass off. I'm not sure about his other comments, either...wonder what Neil Gaiman thinks of him. Maybe I'll try out that search feature on his journal and dig into the archives and see. (This coming from the person who announced at the top of this blogpost that she's focusing solely on the novel. So far I've resisted going into Neil's journal archives -- which date back to 2001 -- because I know once I start I'll have to read everything. And that will probably depress me, because I'll see how he first starts out five years ago and damn it, right as I discover him, that's when he goes Hollywood. I'm almost dreading reading his newest posts because he's on the Stardust set in Scotland and I'm not sure if I want to know about Clare Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert DeNiro, etc. But we'll see. I'm no one to talk. I'm the first one to broadcast names, photos, and stories about all of the rock stars I hang out with courtesy of Julie and Eric. Oh alright, I admit it. I'm looking forward to reading about Clare Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert DeNiro, etc. I'm just jealous it's not me who wrote a book optioned for a movie starring the above and tooling around Scotland with them. By the way, here's a fun fact. Robert DeNiro and I share the same birthday along with Mae West)

Anyway, back to Ray Bradbury...right now I'm going with Chris' opinion that he was hilarious and maybe his remarks were all tongue in cheek. Yeah, on second thought, they've got to be, right?

Okay, I choose to laugh my ass off.

And now said ass must go offline and upstairs to write.

Later,
xo

For die-hard music fans only....the first of the Attack of You Tube

You have to let this load about 6 minutes...it's a highlight clip from Zappanale in Germany last summer...but if you are patient and a true die-hard Zappa fan, you'll get to see the Paul Green School of Rock Music All-Stars in action, including some impressive drum solos by Eric Slick, he of the long brown hair, sunglasses and bright red t-shirt. I think I also saw All-Star drummers Dave M., Sara Neidorf, and Joey Reno in there, too...Dave at the very beginning, then Sara, and Joey towards the end. And you will also see a cool solo by C.J. Tywoniak, Jeremy Blessing, Fil Smith, and Kenny Luu among others.

This was Eric's second or third to the last All-Star performance before he officially graduated, but he is still occasionally brought out of retirement to join the new All-Stars...like last Sunday when he played with Adrian Belew. And Eric is of course not retired, he merely turned 18 and graduated...right now, one month before his 19th birthday, he's about to go on tour with Project Object as I've mentioned here ad nauseam.

By the way, this is not my personal film...this is a Rock School You Tuber...but just you wait. (Sigh...maybe not for a few days...Eric slept out last night and is way busy with various rehearsals and teaching this week...but once he gives me instructions as to how to line up the music with the video, the full assault will begin!)

Happy Sundae

Louie Graff and Eddie Vedder -- Julie is against the wall watching with Eddie's equipment guy; that's Paul Green seated on the stage floor

So this will have to be a short post because no one is home and I must write!

Anyway, unfortunately, I cannot start deluging you with my You Tube films today because I still need Eric (who will not be home until late tonight) to show me how to do something...but rest assured the torture is on its way.

You'll see everything from snippets of the kids in concert (muhahahaha - starting at age eleven) to Louie Graff (see above photo -- Louie is a Rock School grad guitarist extraordinaire) and my daughter Julie as pre-teens busy painting son Eric's face with Hershey's chocolate syrup when he fell asleep on my sofa.

Ahem. At least I think they were pre-teens. Watch. Eric will tell me it was last year.

But yeah, that's right. They poured chocolate syrup on Eric WHILE ON MY SOFA in an attempt to turn him into some sort of human sundae. Obviously, I was upstairs at the time. So they filmed it, all proud of themselves.

Luckily I decided early on that I was not going to care about furniture while the kids were young and I got heavy duty leather stuff which I just recently finally replaced.

But still.

So yeah, I'll probably make it a weekly feature -- Slick Family Warped Home Movies brought to you by You Tube.

Wait: Hang on, here's one which shows a brief glimpse of Eric when he was musical director of the Devo show at Rock School last year. That's Eric with the long brown hair and turquoise shirt leading the group chant "Devo! Devo! Devo!" and you also see him right before the show...with a clipboard? Eric! You nerd!



In other news, Juked Magazine is publishing my first ever SciFi piece, Star Man, so I'm very stoked about that. I'm in some heavy duty company at that magazine...like most of my favorite authors, so okay, I admit it, when I just got the editor's email I started whooping. I'll post a link when it's published.

I fell asleep early and did not get to see the Arctic Monkeys on Saturday Night Live last evening so in case anyone cares about my opinion, I still have none. I guess I could pull them up on Pandora but right now I've got like ten windows open doing a little research for the novel I should be working on at the moment...

Later,
xo

John Wetton of King Crimson/Asia to appear with The Rock School All-Stars...and some other stuff

So this should really be cool. John Wetton is appearing with the Paul Green School of Rock Music All-Stars for four shows as follows:

Thursday March 16, 7pm
School of Rock, Downingtown

Friday March 17, 8pm
School of Rock, Bergen County

Saturday March 18, 6pm
New York Knitting Factory

Sunday March 19, 6pm
The Troc, Philadelphia

By the way, here's a group shot of Adrian Belew when he played with the Rock School All-Stars a couple weeks ago as well as a couple more on stage:








I dunno, if the Wetton shows are even half as good as the Belew shows, you are in for a hell of a treat and it's my understanding that the Troc is running a two for one special so you should check that out if you're in the Philadelphia area.

In further adventures with Google, it's hard to believe how many magazines and news agencies have picked up that crazy could-it-really-be-him Amazon blurb on my son, Eric, when he played with Carlos Alomar and the Rock School All-Stars at CBGBs in New York following the premier of the documentary, Rock School, and its subsequent soundtrack.

"This is my first on-line review and I only ventured onto the site to see if others had anything to say about this CD. I am doing it as a favour to the wonderful group I saw perform at CBGB's Wednesday night. I did not see the movie but was invited by my mates to the after party and bought the CD solely based on the music I heard. I've been a drummer with what many say is the world's greatest rock and roll band for several decades and I have to tell you, any one of those kids could fill in for my mates in the band. I understand the little lad, C.J., is the star of the movie and he is just wonderful but for me, there were three heroes that night...the singer, Maddie, the bare chested lad Jeremy, and the drummer, Eric. Maddie has the voice of an old time rocker. No stony faced, spaced out monotones for her. She roared, she was the music. Jeremy Blessing (and is that a name!) is the stuff of the Mississippi Delta combined with Jimmy Page; in fact, I'd like Jimmy to see him live the next time he's in town. I intend to write to the School of Rock for his contact information. There was soul in every note and he owned the stage. But as a drummer, for me the main attraction was Eric Slick. This is a young lad who has obviously studied the masters. He has listened to people like Buddy Rich and Max Roach I am certain, and while I am loathe to say it, I believe he has also listened to me. This kid has no peers in terms of innovation; he has a deeply personal sound and approach. He had a fixed pulse on his cymbals as well as his bass drum; and while many of the young guitar lads would falter from time to time due to what I trust was a problem with the monitors, Mr. Slick never lost a beat and was the driving force that evening. He brought tears to this old man's eyes and he is another I intend to keep my eye on for future projects. He could fill my shoes any time.

I insist you people in the States buy this CD. Don't buy it for the old geezers; buy it for the kids and learn something from them.


Yeah, that freaks me out every time I read it.

Speaking of Eric, I made a grievous error when I reported that he'd turned me on to the Arctic Monkeys. While they are the guests on Saturday Night Live tonight...and I must have heard that in the background on the television while I was typing the blogpost...they are not the band Eric and I both love, but rather, that would be Arcade Fire.

I'll let you know Sunday or Monday what I really think of the Arctic Monkeys after I see them "live". They're the ones who did all the internet promo and other weird related stuff to get famous in a deliberate, shrewd business plan on the order of the White Stripes, who, in my opinion, are the most overrated band of this millenium and while I normally adore Jon Stewart and Conan O'Brien, I've lost a bit o'respect for both of them because they are White Stripes groupies. Now come on. There isn't one Rock School All-Star or even one kid on the Rock School B team who can't play circles around those two; plus, their stage presence is just plain WEIRD. And their songwriting -- in the words of the late George Harrison..."it's been done". (and better)

So yeah, add the White Stripes to my U2 and Aerosmith list as bands which will be playing on the soundtrack in hell when I die. (You realize I do not believe in hell, but it's my standard line)

Anyway, I'm a wreck, I just sent something to a new potential agent; I'm waiting to hear from an editor regarding a story I revised for their magazine...arghh...and I continue to plug away at the new novel with my fingers crossed that I know what the hell I'm doing. Plus, I'd entered my Neil Gaiman essay in a contest and the judges just announced they've extended the deadline by one month. This tells me one of two things. Either they hate every single essay they've received so far (and that of course would include mine), or, only two people entered and they have a grand total of $26.00 prize money. Either/or, it doesn't look good, huh.

What the hell, I'll try and be optimistic. I mean, what other choice do I have? Well, except for the dreaded simul-subbing...

One final note on writing: Here is the absolute best list I've stumbled on yet as concerns places for writers to submit: The Big Ass List of Pubs.

And on a private, personal note: I love you, Dan. I've been devastated that you think otherwise. I play around a lot in this blog and sometimes joking doesn't translate well on line. I love all Rock School kids, but especially those with whom I've had the pleasure of touring and seeing in concert with my kids. I think you all are the most amazing group of human beings I've ever met. But yeah, I admit when it comes to Julie and Eric, I can be, um, a little over-sensitive and protective even though they're both bigger, smarter, and more mature than I am. But I'm working on it, I'm working on it.

Later,
xo

Robin Slick and Neil Gaiman - together again at last

Ha ha - so here is our official portrait. I can thank David Niall Wilson for his photoshop skills and the fact that despite being a brilliant, respected writer, he has a nine to five job working for the government and therefore has plenty of time on his hands during the day.

Here we are taking a stroll on the beach. Neil is obviously cold blooded (he's really bundled up, isn't he?) while I on the other hand am always hot...


Err...is it just me or does Neil have three arms? Woo hoo - I like those possibilities.

Actually, in case you are reading this blog today for the first time, you need to know that I have a running joke here that I'm in lust with Neil Gaiman and in the comments section of yesterday's blog post, David Niall Wilson and I giggled back and forth about the various uses of photoshop after he presented me with a photo of yours truly and the evil, ugly Kenny Chesney. David was then kind enough to make it up to me by sending me Neil and Robin photos.

And the reason I'm messing around here now is that I really needed a laugh. I know I have a very cool, interesting life but every once in a while, reality rears its head and my said life is far from perfect so I figured I'd use this forum to let off a little steam by having some fun with these pics.

Oh crap, here's Neil with my decapitated head in his backpack as a result of spending a couple of hours listening to me babble non-stop during our walk.



Oh nooo...I bet he's going to bury it in the snow among all those trees where no one will ever find me.

And to think - a mere few hours ago we were out frolicking in the sunshine.

Sigh...I'll never learn to shut up, will I.

Neil, you could have just stuck a gag in my mouth. (Oh right, I might have liked that.)

Anyway, as you can tell, my legs and torso made it home okay, but did you ever try and get dressed while missing your head? I'm guessing a turtleneck sweater is out of the question today.

Oh well. I'll be back. I'm going out in search of a new brain -- I'm thinking I'll take Lorrie Moore's -- and for a head...hmmm...Catherine Zeta Jones? Catherine is gonna be pissed as hell to find herself stuck with my out of shape body, but trust me, Lorrie Moore will bitch slap her if she puts up a fuss.

Ha.

Ack, in reality it's back to writing/revising my new novel and struggling with self-doubt.

The usual.

Later,
xo