Julie Slick in Seattle (show with Ann Wilson and Eddie Vedder May, 2005)
Julie on stage at The Troc in Philadelphia
Okay, I admit it - this is a frivolous post. I miss J&E so I'm merely here to post my favorite pics of the two of them (for a change ha ha) and send positive vibes to both down in Nashville. I guess I can safely assume that they and the basses/bass drum pedal made it okay despite a plane change and all is well in their world.
I haven't heard a word from them but then again, why should I...they are adults now and they're in heavy rehearsal mode.
But um, since they are away for the next four days and there is thankfully no construction going on next door during Saturday and Sunday, I should really go work on my novel and stop worrying/thinking so much about everything else, huh.
Julie Slick, Eric Slick, and their dad...riding something probably more dangerous/scary than an airplane last summer
So. It's 7:30 a.m. and I've already been home from the airport for an hour, having dropped Julie and Eric off at 5:00 a.m. for their trip to Nashville.
Before I go on with this story, answer me one question. When does it ever thunderstorm early in the morning? Arghh...I thought it only thundered and lightning'ed at night. Right now it's a monsoon out there with the aforesaid crashing thunder and all I can think of is that the two people most important to me in the world are bouncing around in a plane at the moment.
Okay. Deep breath. Relax, Rob. It's going to be fine.
But yeah, this is the first time the two of them have flown alone together without me and I had to fight off a major panic attack when I left them off at "ticketed passengers only". I don't even remember the ride back home...it seemed like the minute I left the airport, the thunder started and I went into full lunatic mode.
So bear with me here. I'm blog posting to stay sane.
Right now I should have been in Daytona Beach, Florida at the RT Convention hawking my new book but other stuff prevented me from attending. What a crazy, surreal week this has been.
And assuming everything goes as planned, in six hours Julie and Eric will be at the Nashville home of a legendary guitarist who has played with everyone from Tori Amos (ha ha -- another Neil Gaiman coincidence) to the Talking Heads in preparation for a U.S./Europe Power Trio Tour. (See, I'm not going to give you the name of the bands with which said legendary rock guitarist is most famous for being associated...I'm throwing a curve because I'm superstitious and until I hear the rehearsals are going wonderfully and everyone is thrilled I have to keep my usually loose lips zipped)
Oh my god, it's thundering even worse now. I know. I should go have some cake. Ha. I was so nerved out when I left Julie and Eric at the airport I actually bought four pastries at this really sick bakery, even though I'm the only one home. Apparently this means I intend to eat all four croissants/scones myself. Right. Into the kitchen I go.
Stay tuned. As soon as I hear anything from Camp Nashville, I will be back with a report.
You must immediately go read a short story by my extremely talented pal, Kathy Fish over at Juked Magazine. Kathy rocks -- I'm a big fan. Google her and read some of her other stuff...she's amazing.
In other not so good writing news, I was supposed to be packing to leave for the RT Convention in Daytona Beach today to promote my new book, Another Bite of the Apple but some personal stuff has derailed my plans and I'm really bummed out to be missing five days hanging out with fellow authors in sunny Florida but, you know, shit happens. The book is not available for sale yet but I do have the advance review copy and it will most likely be released by the end of this month when my publisher returns from the convention. Sigh...by tomorrow I would have been holding it in my hand, damn it. (Hey! Stop having those dirty thoughts!)
I am, however, still hoping to make Balticon over Memorial Day weekend and no, no, not because Neil Gaiman is there -- I had those plans way before I even knew he was the speaker and god knows I'm not going to be able to get anywhere near him though it makes for a good fantasy, huh. Hey, speaking of Neil, how about some eye candy?
This is really for you, Susan -- I know how you get when you see Neil in glasses. But as far as the outfit goes, you know me -- I am a black t-shirt person. If this was Neil's typical attire, I wouldn't be nearly as in lust with him. (Note to Neil: If you don't want me stalking you, just wear a suit. It will be your talisman against all things Slick)
Oh, one more thing - I am allowed to blab this much: Barring any unforseen circumstances, both Eric and Julie are headed for Nashville on Friday for a stay at the home of a rock and roll legend for four days to prepare for something pretty damn spectacular and I'll have more on that next week as soon as I get the official okay to broadcast the news, but um, I think there's going to be a press release so I may just be cutting and pasting that here instead. Ah, how I wish I could spill it all now but I'm far too superstitious. All I can say now is: Stay tuned...
So Sunday night was the final evening of almost five weeks of the Project Object tour. It was bittersweet -- I couldn't wait to see Eric again and have him back home, but on the other hand, after all that time on the road this band is so fucking amazing I wish (and I know the band feels the same) that it could have gone on forever. It was both cool and sad it ended at Rock School Bergen County. Cool because Andy Lucibello who runs the school is an incredible guy with a long music history and a group of the Rock School kids were there and sat in on a couple of songs (and did an amazing job!) but kinda sad because the place was more than half empty. But you know, it was a Sunday night, Mothers Day, and it wasn't the typical P/O venue with the alcohol flowing so it's understandable. But the upside is...and it's a huge upside...P/O played for three hours, they were loose, there were a couple of blips and they laughed it off...it was just a fun time and after it was all over, everyone hugged and had birthday cake in honor of Eric's 19th birthday.
Funny story about Eric's birthday cake. He almost didn't have one because I am officially a total ditz. I have tons of stuff on my mind right now and am so distracted I'm liable to get hit by a truck if I walk outside. But anyway, I had my killer chocolate cake recipe out, all of the ingredients, and I figured I'd double the recipe so there'd be enough for everyone. So in goes a pound of butter, two cups of sugar, chocolate, six eggs...blah blah blah...and I'm beating it with the mixer for two minutes and I'm like, wow, this is strange, this batter seems really loose -- I'm not even going to have to scrape the bowl; this stuff is going to pour right out. I checked the recipe again...checked my math to make sure I'd doubled everything correctly, and shook my head and said to myself "Well, you've been used to making brownies (ahem...more on that later in the post) and brownies are a very thick batter -- it's been a while since you've baked an actual cake -- you're just being your usual paranoid self. The cake is going to be fine, stick it in the oven and go upstairs and get over yourself."
So that's what I did...an hour later the timer went off in the kitchen and I went downstairs and checked. It looked fine, the top of the cake was nicely browned, and I go to pull it out of the oven and oh my god, the entire thing was hot molten liquid that poured all over me, the oven, the floor -- it was completely uncooked despite being in a hot oven for sixty minutes. I knew something was wrong with that recipe! I was completely freaked out because not only did I have a huge mess, I had no cake and only three hours before I had to leave for the show.
And then I looked up at the countertop and there it was. Sitting behind my mixer -- two and a half cups of flour - carefully measured out -- which I never added to the bowl when I was adding the ingredients. (In other words, I put in the original two and a half cups which is for the usual recipe but forgot to add the next two and a half cups for double the recipe). Which is why I had chocolate soup instead of cake.
I get seriously worried about myself. Do I have early Alzheimers? Ha! Hardly. Just so much crap on my mind right now I can't think straight. Eric's dad to the rescue - he ran to the store for me and got me more chocolate, eggs, etc.
"Rob, would you mind if I make the cake?"
"PLEASE MAKE THE CAKE! I WILL OWE YOU FOR LIFE!"
Heh.
Think that's the end of the story?
I wish.
I had one and a half pounds of butter sitting out softening. One pound went into the cake, the other two sticks of butter were for the frosting. Gary shoos me out of the kitchen. I was only too happy to get out of there, especially as I'd just spent the last half hour cleaning up spilled chocolate so I went upstairs in my bedroom and put the pillow over my head, worrying about all sorts of things and trying not to freak out.
"Hey Rob?" I hear the holler from downstairs.
"Yeah?" I fly down the steps. What now?
"All done. The cake is in the oven. Man that thing takes a lot of butter."
"Well, it's a pound cake." Whew.
"Yeah, but six sticks of butter is a pound and a half."
He thought all six sticks of butter went into the batter so into the batter they went. I know I told him otherwise but maybe I didn't...I don't know what the hell happened or if I told him and since he's in the same insane state I am over some stuff, he didn't absorb the information or what.
"Oh my god...."
Anyway, within fifteen minutes the cake started spilling out of the pan -- my oven is never going to be the same again...we were like the Three Stooges in the kitchen...and we now had like an hour and a half before we had to leave and I still had to frost that thing.
He took it out of the oven and again, it's a wobbly mess but at least it stayed fairly in one piece when we got it out of the pan. We put it by the open window to cool and I made icing. I started frosting it -- so far, so good, but then I began to decorate it with little Reese's peanut butter cups -- Eric's favorite -- and it started to sink down.
"Shall I get a bicycle pump?" Gary quipped.
"Oh be quiet, you. I think we should just forget this whole thing and go to Whole Foods and buy a cake like we should have done in the first place when my original cake failed," I sighed.
But Gary refused to give up -- he gave me a taste of the cake from the pan and it was sick -- I mean, six sticks of butter, how could it not taste sick -- so we packed it up, I threw chocolate chips all over it to at least make it look a little better but of course that caused it to cave in even more -- and we just decided to laugh about it and take a huge spoon and scoop it out for people instead of slicing it. It was more like a giant chocolate peanut butter mousse.
Okay, so that's the cake story.
Now let's talk some more about Project Object. I think keyboardist Eric Svalgard sums it all up the best in his journal entry of last night:
Some Final Thoughts
Okay, last time I said I would post in a couple of days after I got back and I never did. SO HERE GOES!
Final thoughts. First and foremost this is the best band I have ever played with. I was so happy that the Hag played almost the whole tour with us. André has really stepped up to the plate as well. His playing on this tour was inspired and inspiring. His retirement from retail may have left a void in the Red Bank Vegan community, but it is WELL worth what the focus on playing hath wrought. Some of his Inca solos were tear inducing. No shit. Dave, I am almost speechless. Always keeps me on my toes, always blows the crowd and all of us away, always working to make it better. Following in the footsteps of Jaco in creating a new voice for the instrument. More like Hendrix or Coltrane than Clark. He is an innovator, and I know he will hate me for this. Ike was on. Except for some vocal fatigue in the last week of the tour, he hasn’t sounded or played better in P/O since I have been a member. Denise, his wife is a trooper, a hard working, humorous helpful addition to the tour. She also has some hot moves on stage, but don’t tell Ike I said so. Laura, you know I love you, and it was great that you got up on stage for a couple of songs this tour. Great work again on the merch, the driving and just being around. I would really have liked to have another 20 minutes in Harrisburg.
That leaves the Slickmiester, with whom I have been working for 4 years now, but never before as a bandmate. Jesus, is this kid good or what. He survived the grueling schedule, the bad food, the Motel 6 beds and the brownies and played his ass off every night (well maybe not in Rochester). He was my roommate and we had a blast. Some nights he made me laugh so hard I couldn’t sing, others I couldn’t even play. The kid has a fantastic future in this business and I hope to have the honor of sharing a stage with him again in the near future.
Dré has been making serious waves with the fans by talking about this being the last tour. I hope not, but you have to look at the ZPZ and how their tour will affect our market to see what the future holds. He is not being negative but is, as he always is, thoughtful and cognizant of the effects that the ZPZ may have. Thanks to all the people who sat in on this tour. I am sure that André has a complete list. Thanks to all the fans who come out early and leave late to help us with the gear, you guy RULE!!!!! Thanks to the Zappa car for making it to Pittsburgh (was it worth the drive, Tami?)
This has been the best yet. I have been playing better, the band sounds better and tighter, the crowd were great (with 3 or 4 exceptions) and we really had a great time. Thanks to all of you fans out there. Your support and the tireless work of André have made this last two years the best of my musical life. If/When we go out again, it will only be better. Hope to see you all at ZPZ, as I will be at the Beacon in NY and Tower in Philly. THANKS AGAIN!!!!!! Eric Svalgård a.k.a. Sluggo Oh, and Slick, YOU DON’T PLAY TOO HARD!!!!
Anyway, thank you so much to Andre, Dave, Seahag, Ike, and Eric Svalgard for making my son's first professional tour such an amazing experience. He came home a man...a man with muscles! I'm so proud of him I'm bursting.
Now. Let's talk about brownies and Eric Svalgard's remark about Eric Slick maybe "not so good in Rochester".
Before every show, the guys, who are all vegans/vegetarians, usually have a meal prepared for them by their fans or if the venue serves food, the chef there. The ride to Rochester was long and they arrived late and didn't have a chance to eat before the show. Eric had gone all day without food. So he was quite stoked to see a tray of brownies backstage donated by a fan. He was so hungry he gobbled up two huge ones and headed back out for soundcheck.
Heh. Eric has now learned that you never eat anything you do not unwrap or cook yourself. He started to levitate off the stage, and I understand he ran backstage an hour later and barfed altogether. I know it's not funny and I should be outraged, but come on, it's not such a big deal. So my son got stoned on some pot brownies. The good news is he hated the feeling. (Now if he had just eaten one, we might have had problems with him liking it ha ha). The bad news is someone recorded that show, which he does not remember playing, and it's on You Tube. Not just him playing, but being accosted by a sock puppet named Pisspot who has its own cable access TV show in Rochester and who totally freaked out my poor stoned son...
You may want to fast forward a lot of that...and don't forget you can make You Tube movies whole screen by clicking on that little square. I still can't believe I didn't know that and have been watching tiny films this whole time.
Okay, I think I've reported all that I'm able to report at this point. As I said, I still have major news regarding Julie and Eric, my own writing career, and a slew of other stuff, but this post is long enough and I'll be back with more news than you could possibly want tomorrow.
Ha! Let's say Happy Mothers Day to the world's biggest Mother(f**ker)!
No. Let's not. All of us real Moms...as a special present to ourselves, let's just pretend he doesn't exist today and starting tomorrow, let's take to the streets and get him the fuck out of office.
Sorry, sorry, sorry - things have been really crazy here and I don't want to get into it. Some really bad stuff mixed in with what has to be the most incredible news I've ever gotten.
Know this. I have to sign off now because if I even start to hint at everything that's happened and is about to happen I will surely explode and never be able to control myself so I won't be making any official announcements until next week.
If I get a chance later, I will come in and edit this post to include yet more "ERIC IS THE WORLD'S GREATEST DRUMMER" remarks (ha), but in the meantime...sigh...Julie just left for work and asked me to please do her wash because she's down to no underwear and I have a special birthday present planned for Eric which I still haven't finished...so um, Happy Mothers Day to me, I guess...but tonight Eric is coming home and the tour is over so that's great because I really, really miss him...but then by Tuesday he's off again to New York and so on and so on and so on...
So only four shows left on the Project Object tour -- tonight they'll be at The River Street Cafe near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. I hear that's a very cool venue (big surprise) and wish I could make it but it's a bit far...and of course I'll be there for the grand finale Sunday night (Happy Mothers Day to me!) in Bergen County, New Jersey where some special guests will be popping up to sit in with the band. More on that later...
I'm still surfing the web for reviews and found a couple brief blurbs -- both from My Space or Live Journals:
1. Got a wee bit drunk with my Momski at a [monthlate] birthday dinner. 2. Flirted with a cute Irish guy. 3. Went to the Rongo with Rob & Garth-icus to see Igor's Eye [Rob's friend's band] open for Project/Object, a Frank Zappa cover/tribute band which includes Ike Willis [Frank Zappa's lead singer & guitarist for 15ish years]. They also had a killer [18 year old] drummer, Eric Slick. It wouldn't surprise me if he became big shit in a few years. ***** Project Object = best band i've ever seen
I went to a Project Object show here in PA. They play jazz mixed with rock, soul, humour and general madness. Whats cool about them is they do zappa songs. The lead singer was a member in Frank Zappa's old band, and he is continuing the legend, which is even more awesome (ike willis)
Half the band couldnt have been over 22, and they all rocked really hard. Awesome musicians. They had moments which had every element of music you could ask for.
Was blown off my metal feet.
Just shows ye. ***** And finally, here's a link to photos from several nights of shows -- very, very insane stuff:
Mustaches and Hats! ***** In writing news, Susan Henderson interviews our way cool friend, author Jordan Rosenfeld, right here.
A new, indie print publisher has accepted one of my short stories for its collection and there will be more news on who, what, when, where as soon as I get the okay to blab but from what I hear, I'm in some incredible company so I'm more than a little bit psyched about that.
And finally, the banging next door is so horrible it sounds like it's my house that's being rehabbed -- and don't think I'm not scared as hell that my house will require rehab by the time they're finished. So I'm off to the park with the dog until it rains or the workers leave, whichever happens first, and when I come back if there's anything interesting that occurs in the meantime I'll edit this post to include it.
Eric Slick in Baltimore on May 6, 2006. As you can see by the (much better) quality of the recent photos, I've abandoned the idea of photography as a hobby and turned the camera over to Eric's dad.
Hey, have I mentioned I've been surfing the web all OCD every day looking for Project Object reviews? Ha! Only like a gazillion times. But hurrah, I found a goldmine this morning at the forum board of The Breakfast, an amazing blues/rock band from Connecticut who opened for P/O in Baltimore Saturday night. Rock School people take note - they also had really cool stuff to say about you guys and when I joined the forum and saw some footage of the show, I suggested they put it up on You Tube and they were kind enough to immediately comply!
So without further ado, here is Project Object, featuring the awesome drum work and back-up vocals of Eric Slick along with The Breakfast’ guitarist extraordinaire Tim Palmieri, performing the Zappa masterpiece Cosmik Debris:
Thank you to the folks at The Breakfast again, and I understand they'll be at Coda at 34th and Madison in New York City this Saturday night. They are really worth checking out -- and once you see their guitarist in action in the above You Tube movie I'm sure you'll agree.
Anyway, getting back to Project Object, remember, I'm Eric's mother (ha -- as if I'd ever let anyone forget) so the following reviews plucked off The Breakfast forum board are excerpts which mention him:
The drummer who is now with Project Object from school of rock was unbelieveable-19 year old kid totally ripping it up on stage. ***** This was my 24th Object show and by far the best. Even though Napoleon was off playing with that farce Zappa Plays Zappa, Object brought the energy to a new level thanks to a 19 year old Terry Bozzio clone. This kid is probably the best drummer I've ever seen live. The amount of energy he gives off, the playing with one hand, the theatrics, the display of technical prowess and his overall apperance were second to none. They covered my favorite Ike Willis solo song, which featured his funky wife on backup vocals. I couldn't contain myself, Object destroyed every shred of sanity I had left. ***** This was my first Project Object show and I was blown away. Drummer was incredible and the bass player was a freakin' animal. Don't understand how that kids hand weren't a bloody mess by the end of the show. ***** Lots of talent on the stage last night, wow. PO drummer/ school of rock grad is so energetic and nasty on the drums...definitely gives it a whole fresh feel. He is in a Captain Beefheart tribute band out of New Haven too. ***** Ahhhh...I'm happy now.
So today started out really great. The dog woke me up with a big stuffed animal in his mouth which cracked me the hell up. When I rolled over and went back to sleep, he tried a stronger tactic -- this time he got one of his big ass chew bones and stabbed me in the head with it. I'm serious. He repeatedly poked me with that thing until I opened my eyes.
"What do you want, Monty?"
He raced downstairs and I followed.
Breakfast. He wanted breakfast.
God he makes me laugh.
And then how weirdly fitting that after I fed him, I got the above cool info from a band called The Breakfast. I love serendipity!
Next, I checked my e-mail and there it was at last. The ARC (Advance Review Copy) for Another Bite of the Apple! All of my edits were on the mark. Okay, I had two little mistakes which I was aware of last night and fixed and sent off to my publisher before I went to bed. They were pretty funny -- I had my characters doing two things which were physically impossible -- one which would have required the female character to have double FF cup breasts and another which would have meant the man was also of, err freakish proportions.
Sheesh. Next time I'm trying these things out personally before I write about them.
(Yes, I know. I have a very hard life)
(Did I just say "hard"? Ha! Oh god, it'll take me a few days to get all of those references out of my head after writing about them for three days straight)
But err...since I am having such a good day, let's top it off with a serious twisted Neil Gaiman moment. If you were to ask me my favorite food...and I think it's even on my Amazon author's profile...I'd have to say sushi. So this combination is almost too much for me to bear:
Eric Slick at Ram's Head Live, Baltimore, MD on May 6,2006
Hi there.
I'm finally decompressing from the weekend which included three days of editing and a visit to Baltimore to see Eric in his final week of the Project Object tour after which his dad remarked to me "Rob, do you believe we've been awake for twenty-four hours?"
But I digress.
So yeah, on Friday I received an e-mail from my editor with final major changes to Another Bite of the Apple, which normally would not have been a problem for me because I'm a geeky weirdo who loves to edit. But the timing was terrible because I knew I'd be in Baltimore on Saturday and wouldn't be home until late and I also knew the construction workers would be back early this morning to resume the death and destruction next door. And if I wanted the book released by the time of the upcoming convention in Florida, I needed to get those edits done in - ha ha - three days.
And of course the edits all concerned sex. I knew it! Because as I'm always trying to justify here, I'm not an erotica writer and Three Days in New York City was a fluke -- a chick lit book with graphic sex. I was really surprised when my publisher asked for a sequel and thought it would be a piece of cake but realized when I was finished that I had written a chick lit book for sure but I'd left out most of the hot stuff and since Phaze is a publisher of quality erotica they were understandably a bit unhappy and wanted me to, ahem, insert a lot more.
So I tried to take care of that Friday afternoon and Saturday morning but I had a lot on my mind and wasn't feeling very horny. Yeah, I know. Why do I need to feel horny to write a good sex scene? Beats me. Ha.
Right now I'm so sick of "glistening cocks" and "dripping pussies" if Neil Gaiman himself asked me for sex I'd probably run in the other direction.
Oh, okay, I'm a big fat liar but still.
Anyway, it wasn't easy but I pulled it off. At least I think I did -- I sent the edits to my publisher about two hours ago and am sitting here now biting my nails in between screaming obscenities at the men next door who are now banging so hard there is dust all over my kitchen and things are falling out of cabinets. And because these are brownstones, when I scream out the window trust me they heard and what I hollered wasn't nice. In fact, it concerns an act which two of the characters in my new book perform while drunk (cos' in my mind, you'd have to be drunk to...never mind)
Alright, enough of that. Let's talk about Eric.
My son is fucking amazing. Not having seen him in three weeks, when we got to Baltimore and I saw him on stage I almost fainted. The boy has muscles! He's thin as a rail but playing music four hours a night on stage and being his own roadie have resulted in, dare I say it, a bit o'buffness? And he wore a sleeveless muscle shirt!
Anyway, he's really come into his own on tour, and he's such a showman, I was dying. He plays drums standing up a la Keith Moon, he plays with one drumstick in his mouth and one in his hand, he sings unbelievable harmonies and cracks jokes all night into the mic...and every one of the band members told his dad and me and told us how great he is -- not just as a musician but as a human being.
My favorite remark was keyboardist Eric Svalgard who came up to Gary and me and said "You guys are the shit, you know that? If only my parents had supported my music when I was a kid..."
Svalgard is fifty now and even though he's a Berklee School of Music grad, he finally got to live out his dream to go out on tour when he joined Project Object two years ago.
Hi, Mr. Svalgard!
We also surprised Eric by bringing his girlfriend Carolyn to the show with us even though..sob...we knew he'd be spending all his down time with her instead of us. But hey, that's how it should be!
Anyway, I continue to surf for reviews but when I looked in the usual places, I was extremely pissed to see that all references to Project Object were removed from the Frank Zappa forum board. That's too bad. Frank's widow apparently has real issues with Project Object playing her late husband's music. I don't want to get into it here as I know she has her own extremely misguided reasons but I will say this: Censorship is never cool. In fact, here's what her late husband had to say on the subject.
I did, however, find a journal entry from one of the Rock School kids who opened for Project Object in Baltimore, and I'll respect her privacy and not mention her name (though I'd love to because she not only ruled on bass that night but was drop dead beautiful) but I will copy a bit from her blurb right here:
"Project Object was mind-blowingly tight. Dave Johnson's bass solo is probably the sickest, most amazing this I've EVER EVER EVER seen, and I am so happy that they closed with Village of the Sun which has rapidly climbed to my #4 favorite Zappa song. It has to be #4 because #1 is Packard Goose, #2 is Stick It Out and #3 is City of Tiny Lites and they're pretty cemented that way.
Anyway, I'm proud to have played with Eric. I hadn't really understood just how good he was until I watched him play Starless with John Wetton at the Troc and last night topped even that. Wow. When we walked in and saw P/O soundchecking, it seemed like a different kid behind the drums but he greeted us with "EVERYBODY GO ON TOUR... RIGHT NOW." And was in the dressing room with us talking about Svalgard's burrito farts while we ate and so I ceased to worry. I'm so happy for him."
So thank you, Ms. Anonymous, and I also read in your journal where you are so excited to be going to Germany for Zappanale 17. In a perfect world, I'll see you there! More details on that later...
But in the meantime, here's a little present for you, and trust me, if I were 20 years younger, I'd have a fan girl crush for sure on bassist Dave Johnsen, too:
Speaking of the Omega Rock School All-Stars, they were freaking fantastic in Baltimore despite missing some key players like Katie Jacoby on violin, Sara Zimmerman on slide guitar, and Foster L. on keyboards. But every one of those kids was fantastic and poised, and what a great song selection. I mean, really. Starting off with King Crimson's Red and acing it. Holy shit, Ms. Anonymous.
And while I didn't find anything else, yay! Eric updated his tour blog and once again, yeah, I'm taking credit for his humorous and wonderful writing skills. Oh come on, he got his music genes from his dad and my family; he got his looks and writing from me, right? Right!
Monday, April 24 Magic Bag Detroit
Ok, they had wireless and Dr. Dot's massage therapy. Two points there! Eh, I don't wanna talk about the gig.
Note to self: Ask Eric about this later!
Tuesday, April 25 The Poison Room
Back on the chain gang. After what I considered a lackluster night in Detroit, we had a dazzling one in Cincinnati! C'mon they had wireless, a buy out for food (I had hummus wrap because the place was out of Falafel. Out of Falafel? What the hell!), and they had the best drum mic setup ever. A mic over the kit and one for the bass drum. Bonham style for sure, I was proud. They showed the best of Will Ferrell DVD before the show, and Svalgard never saw the more cowbell skit before. Always a good laugh. The Poison Room had amazing DVD's, they showed '69 Doors, '77 Marley, and '62 Ray Charles to top it all off. Ray Charles played saxophone?? One of the best sax solos I'd ever heard? I guess that's why his record was called 'The Genius of Ray Charles'. Everybody was fantastic tonight, Dre's solos were tasteful as always, Dave was just funkier than ever. Highlights of the night: Getting to play Roxy version of Pygmy Twylyte for the first time of this tour; the guy who enjoyed the show so much that he was depressed and put his head down on the bar for the entire second set.
Wednesday, April 26 Shank Hall
Shank Hall was originally a fictitious venue created in This Is Spinal Tap. Some guy decided to open up a place a dedicate it the movie, in fact there was a 18 inch Stonehenge hanging behind the kit. If there were midgets, it would've been crushed. We had Indian food beforehand, my first Indian food experience. The first set was weak because I had no monitor mix for the first song, and we blew an entrance. The audience didn't seem too excited which can be detrimental to my playing because I almost entirely feed off of them. The second set was almost a different show, it was precise and energetic. It's crazy how a show could take a 180 turn like that. The best is when you impress the people working there and they ask for autographs after the show. I jokingly signed my name as something else. I broke a couple of sticks that night, but that's almost every night. I think I play too hard.
Right on to the home of the baseball bat.
Thursday, April 27 Headliners
We were damn late to Louisville, Kentucky. There were so many broken exits, ramps with tons of road work, and intersections that didn't make any sense. I didn't get to eat anything all day except for tons of fruit so I was lacking the complete meal feeling. I will say that the energy was right on that night, and even though we played a big hall with not so many people, they were wild and enjoyed every minute. I loved the guy in the front who screamed at us the whole night - 'You guys f**kin rule!' 'Hey...hey....slick!' He had us cracking up. We also had a wonderful re-enactment of Carolina Hard Core Ecstasy by Taylor the drag queen....quite interesting! Props to the sound guy for getting everything done (monitor mixes, etc) in under 20 minutes. He had my Roland sampler mixed perfectly so when I did the gong in 'Broken Hearts' (..you came back on Sunday for the Gong show) you could hear it and twas powerful. After the show we went to a place called Spinelli's Philadelphia Pizzeria. They had Sopranos stuff everywhere (I mean, i thought it was Joisey), Frank Sinatra pictures, and Sixers memorabilia. Ok, they were a little off, but they did have Tastykakes, which was an impressive southern import. I got a Stromboli the size of a toddler. An Aryan Toddler (nobody will ever get that joke and it will remain a secret)
A RAMADA INN WITH WIRELESS. I like the star treatment nights. Svalgard and I watched Gentle Giant videos on YouTube and I officially renamed them to 'The Band that Never Got Laid'. Hideously ugly dudes who can play music better than anyone.
Friday, April 28 Stella Blue
Ok, I must say that I love Mountain Dave. Mountain Dave, wherever you are, thanks for feeding us (an organic buffet of sorts),thanks for lending me a 50's bass drum pedal. He even gave me his 20 year old sticks because he said I was the only young drummer to ever impress him. Mountain Dave will eventually get a huge paycheck for some reason, because he gives so much to everyone and deserves a lot back. Asheville, NC! The southern hippie home. We literally drove down the Main street and there was a enormous drum circle with lights and a drumset and people freaking out. It was like we had been transported to the sixties or something. This was an important show for me because Denny Walley (70's Zappa, Captain Beefheart) was playing with us and I had never met him before. Denny is THE MAN. Nobody can come close to his slide playing and his voice is like buttah. He even did the voice of the Mom from Joe's Garage for me and I almost passed out. We had a great crowd that night, but during the second set I was feeling very woozy and probably still a little queasy from the late night stromboli. Still, a good show overall but one of Seahag's last. Onto HOTLANTA!
Motel 6? Hard to compare to a Ramada.
Saturday, April 29 The Five Spot
I can finally say that I went crusin' in the ATL (OutKast references, anyone? Anyone). Atlanta was hectic, there were people all over because there was a block party in the Little 5 Points area where we were playing. Our stage was small, but that usually means that you can hear EVERYTHING which is an opportunity we don't get too often. Denny came again to this show and brought his lovely wife Janet the Planet (the girl who danced in Baby Snakes...Donna U Wanna was at Valentine's, I forgot to mention). During the soundcheck he whupped out 'My Human Gets Me Blues' on guitar and I started playing along. It was a touching experience for me, I worship Captain Beefheart and associated...Dr. Dot's massage therapy ruled, 4 bones cracked into place. She should've charged me for chiropractic! They had wireless, another plus. We had a screen showing the OUTrio DVD. The OUTrio is amazing...Terry Bozzio and Patrick O' Hearn back together - mindblowing. Just when you think Terry Bozzio couldn't push the boundaries of drumming further, he does and he is light years ahead of a lot of guys and gals on the scene. After OUTrio the Fillmore Flo and Eddie footage came on and that's always good for a hearty laugh. The show that night was right on again, cept Svalgard messed up Inca! Haha, it's okay, he's been kicking ass this tour, I served a decent amount of mistakes during my first 2 and a half weeks on this tour. What can I say, we don't have a rigorous rehearsal schedule like we all would want! My old high school buddy Eli came to the show (he goes to Emory, or as I call it Coca-Cola University). Thanks Eli!
Preparing nicely for a day off in Hotlanta... ***** So getting back to the Baltimore show, yeah, it was wild, and Andre and the boys were joined by an incredible trumpet player named Jimmy Wilson.
And here's a shot I took of Andre C. and Ike Willis:
Andre C.
Ike Willis
It was an amazing night of music but they didn't finish playing until 2:00 a.m., and this was only because Baltimore has a curfew. They were actually going to keep on playing and ended up cutting six songs from their set! Of course we hung out afterwards and talked some more, and when we left the venue, it was total insanity! Rams Head Live is right near the waterfront complex they have down there and no, I do not wish Philadelphia was like that at all. I imagine Philly is like that at 2:00 a.m. though because our nightclub scene is down at the waterfront as well but since I've never been a "clubber" even when I was young because I was a total hippie and then into punk, I was freaked by the vast amount of drunk people in sleazy evening clothes and glittery shoes swarming the streets as the bars closed. The parking lot where we left our car had police everywhere. Yuck! The worst thing about it, though, was that even though Baltimore has this lovely built up section at its harbor, it's the same damn thing as New York and as I've said repeatedly, even London. All of this gorgeous architecture is rented out to fucking Office Depot, Houlihans, and Fudruckers. In other words, no one but corporate chains can afford the rentals. So you have this gorgeous setting and all this money poured into the neighborhood and tourists come in droves to shop at the same damn stores and eat in the same stupid chain restaurants that you find in every single city in the universe.
At least Philadelphia still has cool neighborhoods full of mom and pop stores, art galleries, and small music venues. I've been all over the world now -- especially all over the United States -- and I can honestly say that I now appreciate Philadelphia more than ever. We're like mini-New York only much more accessible, and the mountains, beach, and said NY are all within a two hour drive depending on which direction you go.
But okay, yeah, if I could afford it we all know I'd be living in the UK tomorrow. But I think that's more for other reasons...(though politically they are as bad if not worse than we are)
Anyway, so we leave the venue and we're on the road home but we have to drop Carolyn off in the 'burbs and we have no idea where we are going. All I know is, I had to pee for about ninety miles and when Carolyn hinted that we might be lost, I almost asked Gary to pull over to the side of the road, that's how bad it was. It's now like 4:00 a.m. and people are getting their morning papers delivered already! Anyway, somehow at 4:30 a.m. we found her house, found our way back to Philadelphia, and at 5:15 a.m. practically fell through the door. Hence Gary's remark to be about being awake for 24 hours.
Now you might have thought I'd have slept until 2:00 p.m. Sunday, right? Well, I might have if Julie didn't knock on my bedroom door at 9:45 a.m.
"Mom?"
"Mmmurfff?"
"I made waffles!"
"Blezheskske?"
"Waffles! Here, Mom! Breakfast in bed!"
I opened one eye to see two huge Belgian waffles (Julie has a new toy) on one of my best plates, loaded with syrup and whipped cream.
"xo&%4xkx so sorry m*fuck* can't eat must sleep" I moaned.
"Okay...." she sighed, closing the door behind her.
And then of course I felt guilty as hell. Her brother is on tour having this totally exciting time and here I am not even making a fuss over what was surely delicious and beautifully presented homemade waffles.
I stumbled out of bed and thought Oh well, I have to do those edits anyway...
So from drippy waffles I went straight to drippy...
Never mind. You get the idea.
Anyway, one final note. Obviously I named this post for another favorite song of mine, but here's the real reason -- also from the Baltimore show:
So I've been getting antsy because I haven't found any new reviews of the Project Object tour but they've left the south and did a gig in Harrisburg, PA last night and will be in Baltimore, Maryland tonight where -- yay -- I will finally be seeing my son again. I cannot wait for this show! I've spoken with Eric on the phone and he told me they are unbelievably tight as a band right now after three weeks on the road and he wishes this could go on forever. Anyway, the venue this evening is another cool one, namely, Rams Head Live and the Omega Rock School All-Stars will be their opening act.
No post yesterday because I wasn't home most of the morning dealing with lovely things like having air shot into my eyeballs. Not for the sqeamish. Ha, actually, I went to see the eye doctor because I needed a new rx for contacts and apparently this air thing is what they do to you instead of eye drops now. I don't know, all I can tell you is after having to stare into a brightly lit box and click on a mouse every time I saw a squiggly line which made me have flashbacks to the seventies and drug memories, the grand prize was a shot of air into my cornea. I mean, it didn't hurt, it was just a totally weird sensation and then uh oh, the doctor said "next eye" and I thought FUCK you mean I have to do this again, it wasn't both eyes? So the whole time I'm clicking the mouse that time instead of getting all trippy I'm waiting with a sinking stomach for that blast in the eye and honestly, I am the world's biggest baby, I wanted to cry out STOP I CAN'T TAKE THIS even though I knew it was nothing and didn't really hurt.
So that kind of destroyed my day.
Then I got home and the construction noise next door had reached an all time fevered pitch. I just kind of threw my hands up in the air and thought forget it, I'm getting no writing done today. This pissed me off because I'd just received major edits for my new book with a deadline of oh, like three days. And as I said, tonight I'm traveling to Baltimore. Sooo...as soon as I'm done this post, it's off to write and tomorrow I'm clearing everyone from this house, putting on headphones, and diving headfirst into an editing/writing marathon. Last evening I had a crappy sleepless night worrying about it all and then for once I got rational -- I decided instead of tossing and turning with fear I should just think about the edits so that's what I did and knock wood, I think I'm in pretty good shape right now as to proceed.
But of course I'll take sanity breaks throughout today and if I find any Project Object news/reviews, I'll come in here with my ETAs and stick them in this post.
Anyway, one thing that did make me laugh yesterday is a newsletter I received from my new pal, The Idiot Bastard. As I mentioned, he visited my blog and wrote to me with Neil Gaiman questions because he really didn't know anything about him and he's a big Tori Amos fan and the two of them are friends blah blah blah...and then Andrew (The Idiot Bastard) ended up taking the Which Neil Gaiman book are you quiz I'd posted and we had an email exchange over that. So I broke up laughing when I received said newsletter because I saw the following notation at the bottom:
"If you don't want to be included on the distribution of future Newsletters from The Idiot, please send an email with "I'm Coraline" in the subject line. On the other hand, if you know someone who might like to receive these updates, write and ask for them to be added to the list."
Ha! That's great, Andrew. You made me laugh out loud.
And now on to some serious business. Sorry.
As anyone who reads this blog knows, I despise Republicans and everything they stand for. One issue I'm especially furious about is their stance on gun control. And so I'm particularly heartbroken over the following events which have occurred in the past few weeks:
It's going to take me a while to recover from that one. Ha! But he does offer an explanation if you read his blog posts which I put up here a few days ago....
Robbie "Seahag" Mangano, Eric Slick, and Ike Willis -- outside the "tour van"
Ha ha - I love that photo. Meanwhile, like I said, in reading over Eric's blog from the tour there's mention of the band going hat shopping, etc. and I can just imagine the stares those guys get down south. They're a very charismatic bunch, with ages spanning 18 (Eric) to 50 (Ike Willis and Eric Svalgard) and I believe Robbie and Dave Johnsen are around thirty; Andre is forty...sooo...these guys must generate lots of attention when they travel together.
Fan reviews of Project Object shows have been tough to find since the band landed in the south...but I did find this one which cracked me up bigtime. It was posted by....who else...someone named "Cletis":
frank zappa the greatest man whom has ever lived, so sad that one of his magnitudy must pass into the next adventure before i had the chance to see the wonder... but last night, the coolest thing happened. i along with a handful of coleages ventured to the cat's cradle in carboro, nc not quite sure what to expect... four guys whom call demselves PROJECT OBJECT along with the one and only IKE WILLIS did what they call busting it out, throwin down a groovy groovy groove, doin da rockin, for a good four hour show maybe longer see i wasn't really keeping up with the time even though i still had to get up and gos to work taday..( which i woke up still drunk, went to work still drunk and hung out on dem forklift in the damn sun fer about 8 hours) they play a bunch of classics ( in an example) ... "titties and beer" to "flakes" and "montana" and don't fool yer self girl it's going right up yer pooooouuuuuuuuuuuooooooooop chute... "broken hearts are for assholes" i may never have the opportunity to meet zappa in this life but i ike and the gang is the next closes thing. i'd like to toast a shot fer the good o'l cat's cradle... they gots dem cold beer, nice vibe, good music, they seem not to mind yous taping da shows and when most of the crowd splits the fellas on dem stage lower demselves to the norm... just to say hi,....... fuck you, you ugly son of a bitch........................... and i dig dat... can you!!!... can ya dig it...
Yes, Cletis. We can dig it.
Anyway, I'm so psyched - two more days until the Baltimore show. I haven't seen my son since April 16! But if you are in the Charleston, West Virginia area, they will be at The Empty Glass tonight and once again, it looks to be a very cool venue. ***** So in other news, I did something in total character yesterday -- meaning, something incredibly stupid. I've been subbing my short stories like crazy and found a magazine I really liked. And in their submission guidelines, they say they get back to you right away; they put stories up daily/weekly, etc., and they've published some of my favorite authors. Err...this would all be great except I neglected to read the editor's letter before I sent off my story. Apparently her "in-box" was full of stories written by stoners or people who think being stoned is interesting and she cannot stress enough how much she finds that NOT INTERESTING.
Naturally, the hero in my story smokes pot.
I was going to immediately write to the editor and withdraw the story so she wouldn't even waste her time reading it, but she beat me to it with a warm "looking forward to the read" e-mail. I should have left it alone, but no, no, I can never do that, and I sheepishly wrote back this morning, apologizing for subbing a drug story though it's not a drug story at all and of course I had to ramble on about that, too.
You realize, of course, what I've set myself up for.
"It's not the fact that your male character smokes pot, Robin. We are rejecting the story because it's a piece of crap."
Nah, I'm just kidding. I'm sure she'll be much kinder with her rejection than that. But will I ever learn? I have two things I do that drive me nuts. One: I sub a piece almost immediately after finishing it, instead of letting it "marinate" a while. Then of course I can't resist reading it over after it's been subbed...and that's when I start finding rookie mistakes like the same words/phrase used six times, etc. And then we have what happened yesterday -- I sub without reading the letter from the editor because I'm so busy reading the stories they publish and checking out the names of the authors that I neglect to read anything else before subbing.
Oh well.
In other news, have I mentioned how much I despise Tom Cruise? I hated him from the first time I saw him in Risky Business. This is sexy? I was mystified. And now that he's revealed to the world that he's also a complete lunatic and not in a good way...feh. Who the hell wants to see Mission Impossible III? Christ, the old black and white T.V. show reruns have way better plots and acting. I'm so tired of special effect blockbusters without any coherent storyline starring idiots.
You want sexy? I'll show you sexy! From the Robin Slick "Neil Gaiman Collection":
Funny story about that, too. My daughter was doing homework with her boyfriend here yesterday and they're both music industry majors. Julie's boyfriend had to do a paper on a concert he saw recently along with producing a ticket stub and/or photos from the show. Julie asked me to send her the link to my photobucket site so they could pluck some Project Object photos off it.
"Eww, Mom, why do you have all these pictures of Neil Gaiman on your photobucket site?"
Eww? How can she possibly say that? I wondered.
I admit it, I was as dumbfounded as I was mortified/embarrassed. But then I remembered her father. Oh. Right.
"Oh, those photos aren't mine. They belong to my friend Susan Henderson," I replied.
Luckily, being a totally self-absorbed twenty year old who never reads my blog, she bought it and was already onto the next topic as I slinked out of the room, muttering to myself like the madwoman I am.
Later, xo P.S. In case you are wondering about the title of this post, it is, quite fittingly, from David Bowie's "Thursday's Child"...
