Dreaming and other cool stuff...

So of course that's Eric Slick on drums and Julie Slick on bass and here's the official Adrian Belew press release on the School of Rock website written by Paul Green:

SCHOOL OF ROCK STUDENTS MAKE GOOD
PGSORM alumni and Uber Rhythm section Eric and Julie Slick have gotten a dream gig-they are now the back up band for guitar legend ADRIAN BELEW! For those who aren't familiar with Adrian, he's a former guitarist for Frank Zappa, David Bowie, and The Talking Heads, as well as the frontman for King Crimson since 1981, not to mention his own fantastic (GRAMMY NOMINATED) solo career. He is also, IMHO, one of the greatest guitarists walking the earth, and a beautiful human being to boot.

Eric and Julie will be joining him for his upcoming tour dates, including Zappanale 2006 (which also features the School of Rock All-Stars.) While on tour, they will also be recording a live album: SIDE FOUR!

To see all of the tour dates for the Adrian Belew Trio, as well as read Adrian's own announcement about Eric and Julie, please check out Adrian Belew's website.

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

Pretty wild, huh?

Actually, I'm so excited let me cut and paste the dates here and yes! I see the Rome, Italy date confirmed and now I can get my act together and see if I can swing the Italy/Amersterdam portion of the tour:

2006 TOUR DATES
●07/06 Music Mill - Indianapolis, IN
●07/07 VPASAC - Springfield, OH
●07/08 Double Door - Chicago, IL
●07/16 Zappanale - Bad Doberan, GER (more)
●07/17 Laghetto Di Villa Ada - Rome, IT
●07/19 De Boederij - Zoetermeer, Netherlands
●07/21 Berg Herzbert - Herzberg, GER
●08/08 B. B. King's House O Blues - NY, NY
●08/09 Stephen Talkhouse - Amagansett, NY
●08/10 Turning Point - Piermont, NY
●08/11 Buffalo Icon - Buffalo, NY
●08/16 Chastain Park - Atlanta, GA

Also, I'm pretty sure August 13 and August 14 are the World Cafe Live in Philadelphia but it's not on their website yet because their webmaster has been on vacation. And I believe they expect to add more shows after the Georgia date...Florida is one possibility.

Okay, on to some writing news. In spite of the tooth from hell and construction next door, I've been on a real tear to finally finish Baby Boomer (and I may change the title yet again but that's the least of my worries) so that I can send out the whole thing before I start bouncing around Europe. Congratulations to Jordan Rosenfeld who also just signed with a new and wonderful agent as did two of my other close friends who are always in the comments section here but since I didn't read it on their respective blogs, I don't want to let the cat out of the bag for either until they are ready.

And please take notice that another one of my great pals Ellen Meister has a brand new website and finally, Amazon put the cover of her new book on their site so now it appears in all its glory on the right hand side here where I have "recommended reading" instead of that sad empty white box that's been there for the past several weeks. I say take this opportunity to pre-order it! Trust me on this, it's an incredible read.

Okay, you know this post so far has been too normal for me, and I can't even believe I'm sharing this because I swore I was going to give the whole Neil Gaiman thing a rest but yeah, it's true -- after writing about him for months and giggling about how adorable he is with my pals, last night I had my first official dream about him. While I was asleep, I mean har har. It's what just woke me up and initially I couldn't make heads or tails of what it means -- which is fine, I worry about people who take dreams too seriously -- but sitting here now and sipping my first cup of coffee of the day I do have a few theories which I'll share at the end of this thing.

But first, remember that I am still on antibiotics and painkillers so my imagination is on overdrive...the tooth from hell gets removed tomorrow which is a whole 'nother story. I'm scared!

Anyway, the dream. I'm sitting in a cafe in Germany with my family -- and that would be my entire family -- Julie, Eric, and yes, even Gary, who, exactly like Neil's Mary, likes to stay in the shadows and hardly ever travels with me except maybe once or twice a year where again, he keeps himself distant from my writing life -- affords me both solitude and freedom to come and go as I please -- hence why the relationship still continues after all of these years. And mutual adoration for Julie and Eric along with all things music of course. (As a side note, because I'm a yenta I freely admit to googling Mary/Gary but I got nothing. Well, in Gary's case that's not entirely true. There is a very staid, academic Dr. Gary Slick who is a doctor/college professor and lives in Oklahoma -- not my Gary for sure, who spent last night hollering at the television and clamoring for a revolution to overthrow the Bush administration and take control of the oil fields. Anyway, even stranger there is yet a third Gary Slick who does the dog show circuit with beagle gundogs. I couldn't resist clicking on Google Images and there he was, Beagle Gary, with a dog that looked exactly like my Monty! They won third place. What's hilarious is that our Monty isn't even a purebred but a mix of beagle and God knows what else but I swear, he's a ringer for the award winner. But as far as Beagle Gary goes, he looks Republican and wears a baseball cap. He raises gundogs for Christ sake. Wait. What is a gundog exactly? I don't think I want to know. For those of you wondering, my Gary has shoulder length hair, a full beard, and plays guitar.)

Okay, I'm digressing for a change. So the four of us are at this little cafe in Germany, and I'm pretty sure it's the restaurant which really exists with the yellow umbrellas outside in Bad Doberan where all the musicians hang during the Zappanale Festival. The waitress hands us menus and none of us could understand anything on them, even Gary, who believe it or not took German in high school because like me, who took Latin, wanted to be "different" and god forbid either of us took anything normal like Spanish. Even in my dream, I knew to warn everyone that we had to be careful of what we ordered because Julie and Eric are both vegetarians now, so that eliminated anything schnitzel-wise but as Gary pointed out, there was nothing schnitzel on the menu, anyway, and were we really sure we were even in Germany? (Another side note: Gary is the one going to Zappanale this year in spite of his hatred of airplanes and I'm incredibly jealous but I've got to stay here and baby-sit the dog. Don't ask. But as I said, I'm obviously going to immediately see about Amsterdam and Italy and a bunch of U.S. dates, too, now that they are official. Gary and I will probably be on planes flying in opposite directions on July 17. And did you ever see anyone digress so much and take so long to just spit out a story? Okay...I promise to just tell the rest of the dream now.)

So...we're sitting there all confused and starving and trying to comprehend the menu when I look up and see with a jolt that Neil Gaiman has joined us. He takes an empty seat next to me and says "Hi" and Julie, Eric, and Gary all said "Hi"...he takes a menu, looks it over, sees our anxious faces, and says "Don't worry...I'll handle this," he said.

"Julie and Eric are vegetarians," I warned him.

"I know. I read your blog," he replied. (Oh please. He probably read it twice and both times caught me gushing about him which wasn't too mortifying and there I go sidetracking the dream again)

So I blushed and could hardly talk at all and Neil says "Relax, Robin, you're part of the family now."

Ha ha - I'm still trying to figure out what that meant. I'm part of my own family now or I'm part of Neil's?

No, it means you are insane, Robin. Continue on with the dream before you lose the rest of your three remaining readers.

So Neil motions the waitress to come over and he speaks to her in some strange, foreign language that sounded more Martian than anything else. She writes down what he says and walks away. Neil looks at us and says "I've ordered us all the same thing. You will absolutely love it."

And then a few minutes later our food is delivered and we look down and we all have four huge black bowls (ha...a little Neil/Robin dining attire thrown in) filled to the top with peanut butter and milk. I'm totally serious. It was like two scoops of Skippy Extra Crunchy swimming in milk, as if it were cold cereal or something. And we all just kind of stared at each other and then at Neil, who was happily spooning the stuff into his mouth so naturally I took the first spoonful on behalf of the Slick family, my family followed suit and from that moment on, none of us could talk because the peanut butter was totally stuck to the roofs of our mouths and had rendered us all mute.

And that's when I woke up, gasping for air, and when I realized I wasn't dying of peanut butter suffocation I started laughing out loud and went downstairs to write this up before I forgot the details.

I am sure dream analysts could have a field day with me but as I sit here now, I've just come up with five explanations on my own:

(1) The dream means that in reality, I have a terrible longing to return to my childhood and peanut butter sandwiches and big glasses of cold milk were a part of that. Also, I know that Neil writes childrens' books;
(2) I am very worried that Julie and Eric aren't getting proper nutrition since they've decided to be vegetarians but that doesn't explain Neil Gaiman at our table unless I just wanted him there to look at;
(3) I really want to go to Zappanale and I'm pissed that I can't because Gary is and someone has to stay home and take care of the dog. That doesn't explain Neil Gaiman at our table, either, unless I just wanted him there to look at;
(4) I am a complete lunatic who is even being badgered by my sleeping sub-conscious to shut up by attempting to glue my tongue to the roof of my mouth;
(5) All of the above.

And now with this post I realize that I've probably finally given my Gary his first real Google listing. He would be extremely annoyed if he knew but he won't find out unless someone tells him. He never goes anywhere near a computer unless he absolutely must and considers the internet and most modern technology the Mother/Father of All Evil and the death of true creativity.

Ho ho. Not me. Give me anything electronic with either a battery and/or a plug and I can guarantee you I'll find happiness.

Later,
xo

I Did Warn You That He Is A God...

"You didn't mention that he was a complete and utter pain in the arse, though."

Ha ha - hardly. So I will spare you all the gory details of the last few days and focus on the way cool stuff instead. A couple of days ago when I blogged the whole sad story of my infected tooth, I was completely freaked out to receive an e-mail from Neil Gaiman Himself along with this..ahem...previously unpublished devil-eyed photo as bribery to get to a hospital or at least let him know that I was on the mend. Right. Like I would ever say no to Neil.

(And I finally learned the secret of uploading a photo to blogger so that when you click on it, the photo goes full size so if you want to really swoon, click away...)

Actually, dire pain and fear of death led me back to bed and conferring with the dentist again after which I am now happy to report that I am home and the infection and fever are gone from my body...just not the area of the tooth itself which alas must be extracted on Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. Root canal is no longer an option because I was such an idiot but okay, I admit it, I'm relieved about that. Then woo hoo, I get to spend another week or two on antibiotics recovering. Luckily, it's the back tooth so my perfect beauty will not be ruined. Oh god. That's the pain pills talking, trust me. Anyway, I should (but won't) post a photo of the new, improved skinny me as a result of not being able to eat solid food for a week...right now I am sitting here in bed wearing a pair of size ten jeans "just because" even though I'd be way more comfortable in pajamas.

So speaking of Neil Gaiman and how cool he is, I recently read an interview in which he was asked "What is your greatest achievement?" and he replied "My children."

No wonder his fans love him the way they do. And of course my answer would have been exactly the same.

Because really, the true silver lining of this tooth debacle and being bedridden at home is that Julie and Eric have been rehearsing non-stop for the up-coming Adrian Belew tour and I am their ecstatic audience. They've got the CD from their rehearsals with him down in Nashville last month (which I totally confess to downloading on my iPod and have been listening to whenever they aren't rehearsing) and they've been playing along. First of all, what a freaking awesome set list. It spans Adrian's career. Secondly, I am just blown away by my kids' talent. I've been turning off all sound in my room and opening the door so I can hear every note and it's like I'm living in some kind of wonderful musical fantasy world. Yep, I admit it -- I am the luckiest woman in the universe right now, wonky tooth and all.

I'm plotting and planning to see if I can make their show in Amsterdam in July. I've never been there and well, you know, I'm a natural for that place. They're also playing in Italy but that date isn't confirmed yet so I can't schedule a flight but I understand the Amsterdam and Italy dates are a few days apart so it would be amazing if I could attend both. But if I can't manage it, there's always the midwest U.S. shows in early July and of course the east coast swing in August -- I'll post the entire tour schedule as soon as it's complete but there's a partial up on Pollstar.

And finally, if you don't understand the heading of this post or the subsequent quote beneath, do yourself a HUGE favor and treat yourself to Mr. Gaiman's Anansi Boys. Hey, I'll even provide you with the Amazon link. You will not be sorry - it was my one of my favorite books of 2005 and I was fortunate enough to have read it while traveling through England by train last October which was the coolest thing ever. I was reading one particular chapter while on the train to Newcastle and I looked up and saw the most beautiful double rainbow. And then in January when Neil was in Philadelphia, I got the book autographed and got to meet him and oh god...

Okay, enough. It's all in good fun.

Meanwhile, this you can't believe but knowing me, you probably will. While I was in the middle of writing this post last night and was about three-quarters of the way finished, I received a second e-mail from Neil because I'd written back to him and asked if it was okay to post the above pic he sent me on my blog and obviously he said okay. Sigh...what a guy. He really does have a generous heart. Anyway, I use AOL mail so I heard "You've Got Mail" as I was writing this. When I saw who it was from, I got so excited that I closed my Firefox browser so I could read it instead of merely minimizing the screen. Unfortunately, Firefox was what I was using to type this entry and I lost the entire post. I just stared at the screen numbly in disbelief because in almost two years of blogging that's the very first time that's ever happened to me. I tried the "recover post" thing but because I'd closed the browswer altogether without saving anything I wrote, there was nothing to recover.

Anyway, I did the best I could this morning to try and reconstruct what I wrote last evening but damn it, I know I'm missing some of my best material. Have I mentioned what a dork I am?

Later,
xo

Sick Slick

Eric Slick performing with Dave Dreiwitz, bassist for Ween in Dave's side project, Crescent Moon, on Thursday night

So it's a lot of fun to google my kids lately. Ever since Adrian Belew hired them to be his new power trio, their names are appearing on forum boards across the world.

Here's a mention of Julie and Eric Slick on the Yes forum board, All Good People;

Here's another one on the Primus forum board, The Bull Board;

They get some blurbage on yet two other King Crimson forum boards, Elephant Talk and ProjeKction

And finally, here's one from the Ween Forum Board which mentions Eric's performance with their bassist the other night in his side project, Crescent Moon. And um, while Eric was performing with Crescent Moon, he got an offer to sit in as a substitute drummer from time to time for a band opening for the Flaming Lips which is one of his favorite bands so to say he was a bit excited over that is an understatement.

Anyway, the reason for the title of this post and my three day absence from this blog (and oh my god, the whole My Space writers' crew -- I'm not ignoring you and thanks for all the invites) is that I've been incredibly sick and am terrified I may be in the hospital in another day or two. Worse, it's my own damn fault. So if stuff like this makes you queasy, stop reading now.

I knew I needed a root canal on a bad tooth -- an upper left molar -- a few months ago but the dentist put in a temporary filling and it felt fine so I decided not to deal with it because it's not the root canal itself I hate, it's that whole biting into the jelly so they can make you a new crown and the whole time thing -- it's usually a once a week visit for five or six weeks to the dentist, etc. and I dreaded it so I just put it on the back burner.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The temporary filling fell out recently but shockingly, there was no pain at all, the tooth felt fine, and once again, I went on with my life and didn't call the dentist.

When Julie and I went out for dinner Thursday night (more on that later...sheesh...I have to at least be able to end this post on a positive note) I bit into a soft, warm piece of bread and all hell broke loose. I felt like I'd been shot in the face. I have a pretty high pain threshhold but let me tell you, I almost fainted. But I wasn't going to ruin dinner because Julie and I had been looking forward to going out all week and we'd already told our waitress what we wanted for our appetizers and entrees. So I quickly ordered two very potent house made Sangrias and downed them both within five minutes. Somehow I got through the meal but I knew I was in big trouble because I could see my cheek. You know what I'm talking about? Ever get a bruise or swelling on your cheek that makes it so puffy you can see it out of your eye and it's almost like an obstruction?

And then Julie looks at me and says "Oh my god, Mom, you look like Quasimoto!"

Not sure if that was an accurate remark -- wasn't he the guy with the hump on his back...but anyway, it's not exactly a remark you should make to a hypochondriac -- especially one who just had two very potent drinks and could see her cheek.

Julie didn't realize the seriousness of the situation and I guess neither did I and I didn't want to ruin the evening so when she suggested walking the three miles home instead of cabbing it, I numbly agreed, even though I felt like throwing myself down on the pavement and letting out primal screams of pain.

Got home, took a handful of Advil, and prayed it would pass.

No such luck.

Friday morning I woke up with my left eye completely swollen shut and the entire side of my left face looking like I had the mumps.

Oh my god, I must have an abscess, thought I, and called the dentist hysterical. Lucky for me, he said I could come in at 2:00 p.m. I called his office at 9:00 a.m. That meant I had five hours to scream in pain and worry, so what do I do? I went on the internet and started researching what happens when you neglect an infected upper molar.

Did you know that an upper molar is like one inch from the sinus cavity and two inches from your brain? And that if you have a serious infection it can rapidly travel and literally kill you?

I couldn't stop reading and by the time I got to the dentist, I was both a physical and emotional wreck. Plus, in all of my internet research, I also learned that these infections are so insiduous that a lot of times even the strongest antibiotics don't work and you need to be hospitalized with an I.V. drip.

So at least I was prepared when the dentist saw my face, my x-ray, wrote out the prescription and said "If you aren't feeling better by Monday or Tuesday, call me immediately and we may have to hospitalize you. And whatever you do, stay in bed or calm in a chair and don't do anything around the house because you never know where these infections can go and a lot of movement on your part could be very, very bad."

Of course all I could think about was the three mile walk home the night before and how lucky I am I didn't pass out then.

He prescribed a very potent antibiotic and some wicked pain killers, which I hate. How the hell does anyone ever get addicted to those things? God. They make me so fucking dizzy and sick in the stomach it's almost as bad as the pain in my face. But I broke down and took them because I was literally screaming and luckily I had warm pudding and a Xantac as well because finally I got at least a bit of relief.

But it's now Sunday and I don't feel much better. Admittedly, I've only been on the drugs for part of Friday and all day yesterday so I am praying that I turn a corner today or yeah, I suspect I'm in the hospital tomorrow. My eye is still swollen and I have a lump on my cheek directly under it which tells me the damn infection got to my sinus cavity. I'm weak, nauseous, and just about as sick as I've ever been in my life and what makes it worse is that it's all my damn fault for being an idiot and not going to the dentist months ago.

So the bottom line is, if I disappear for a few days, I'll have Eric post my hospital room number and telephone so you can all call me and tell me how dumb I am and then send me flowers and balloons. Ha.

Actually, I was going to end this post talking about the absolutely marvellous restaurant where I had my...sob...last supper Thursday night but I find I can't even sit here at the computer and must go back to bed and god damn it, I'm crying right now.

Have I mentioned how STUPID I AM?

This is one time not even Neil Gaiman can make me feel better, but to continue on with tradition, here's another cool photo so at least my friend Susan Henderson will be a happy camper today:



Later, (I hope!)
xo

Odds and Sods for Thursday, June 8

Studio Belew - photograph by Eric Slick during the Nashville rehearsals last month

So I'm taking a quick break from writing my novel to report a few interesting things here.

First of all, Eric has a gig with Dave Dreiwitz, bass player for Ween tonight at Mexicali Blues in Teaneck, New Jersey. It's a crazy bass and drum only thing called "Crescent Moon" -- Eric's pretty stoked about it, so if you are in the area, the show starts at 9:00 p.m.

Because of this gig, which is like a half hour from New York City and Eric's dad is tagging along, Julie and I decided to stay home and go out to dinner tonight here instead and we were looking in the Philadelphia City Paper for some new, cool downtown restaurants and what do I stumble on but an article about Julie and Eric written by music columnist A.D. Amorosi in his Icepack column...and of course as usual because I am both anal retentive and excited, I will cut and paste the pertinent part here as well:

You know that I know that you know Philly expat Paul Green's School of Rock gets greedier daily. A new CEO—Matt Ross from Clear Channel. A Hollywood branch so to be close to Jack Black's kids. Yet, it's funnest knowing that chicken-choking guitarist Adrian Belew (King Crimson) just plucked a duo of Philly Greenies, siblings Eric and Julie Slick, to anchor Belew's new power trio, this after playing Zappa's "City of Tiny Lights" at February's School of Rock gig at World Café Live. "Musically it's closer in spirit to Crimson than Cream," says Belew of his trio's odd time signatures and dark chordal shapes. "But we'll follow the Cream/Hendrix mold of adventurous playing and loads of stunt guitar work." And if the kids act up, will Belew take away their allowance? "Worse yet, their credit cards!" says Belew, who's "pretty much of a kid myself."

Um, I have to admit I don't exactly love what A.D. wrote...either about Paul Green or the kids, but hey, what's that they say about publicity? Even crappy/inaccurate publicity is better than no publicity at all.

First of all, Julie and Eric are Rock School grads who played with Adrian at the New York Knitting Factory in March of this year, not at the World Cafe in Philly and not as Paul Green's students. Julie will be twenty one years old and Eric is nineteen and as readers of this blog know, just came off a five week tour with Project Object featuring the legendary Ike Willis. As far as having their allowance/credit cards taken away, don't count on it. Julie has more money than God and can buy and sell me. So yeah, I sort of beg to differ with A.D.'s jab that they're kiddies and the stuff he says about Paul but I do love Adrian's response and wonder if A.D. called him directly for those quotes. Hmmm...

Anyway, as luck/serendipity would have it, I just caught A.D. Amorosi on our local news/entertainment television show, 10 Live! and he goes on and on talking about Harry Connick, Jr. and Nelly Furtado, and Ice Cube...oh, and the dreaded American Idol people, so that tells me all I need to know about him.

But still, you know me, I'm going to be picking up 100 copies of the City Paper today, anyway.

Also, I see that Krimson-News has picked up my blogpost about Adrian Belew and Julie and Eric and did a nice job of plucking the relevant parts from a few different blurbs I made last week so I'm very pleased about that...especially as they also used some photos and the link to the Rock School soundtrack.

I am also humiliated to announce that I now have a My Space Account to help promote my books and the new anthology in which I have a story which will be out next month. I am a truly pathetic person who has no understanding or knowledge of how My Space works but if you are interested in being one of my "friends" or seeing just how pitiful I am, here's the link. You are welcome to add me as a friend, ask to be my friend, whatever it is you have to do and if anyone wants to volunteer any info as to how to make my site prettier and automatically hear the music (Adrian Belew, of course) when you sign on instead of having to hit the play button, I will be happy for your assistance. As far as the blog portion goes, I guess I'm just gonna cut and paste what I type here for now until my new books come out -- both Another Bite of the Apple and the short story anthology -- but really, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Funny story already. I have a pal, Grant Jarrett, who also has a short story in the anthology and he said yesterday that he was going to start a My Space site, too (that's how this whole thing started -- all 12 of us in the anthology said we'd do it) so this morning I get an invite to be Grant's friend. So that much I knew how to do -- I clicked "Accept" and went to Grant's site to comment. What do I see? He's got 83 friends already! I'm like, how the hell did that happen? Up until yesterday, I only had four friends, one of whom was that bot "Tom" who I honestly thought was the kid who lived next door because yep his name is Tom and the bot bears an uncanny resemblance to him. I was like, oh my god, how did Tom find my site already and why does he want to be friends with me when he's 21 years old and friends with Julie and Eric? And then I see another "friend" is not a friend at all but a pair of swingers or a porn couple of some sort but I must have hit "accept" thinking they were someone I knew. I hear I can delete them but to be honest, what if I do know them and I hurt their feelings? They may be someone I know from the erotica web ring to which I belong, what do I know. They haven't commented so they aren't hurting me. Huh. Actually, I just clicked on them and it turns out they are writers so it's a good thing I didn't delete them and I apologize for calling them swingers.

One thing I do find weird about My Space is that people comment and you can't comment back so their remarks just kind of hang there. I don't know if I'm going to get used to that.

Oh...back to the Grant story. So I asked him in a comment on his site How the hell did you get 83 friends already and it turns out it's not the Grant I know but another Grant -- a writer named Grant Baille who is also a member of my on line writing group. So now I've been an active My Spacer for a few days and I've already made two faux pas. Oh well. I'm guessing there's a search option where other writers seek each other out and that's how he found me...I have no idea...all I know is I'm extremely worried that My Space is going to become a huge addiction for me and that's the last thing I need...not to mention the fact that I really do feel too old for it. I have to giggle, though. I notice everyone over thirty lists their age as 99. Yeah, like we're all really going to type in our correct dates of birth.

Whatever. All I know is, I've promised someone a perfect, newly revised one hundred pages of my new novel, Baby Boomer, by the end of this month so I've got to close all windows, get off the internet, and resume writing.

But for you, Susan, here's our daily twisted Neil Gaiman moment, fresh from Balticon:



Oh my. I don't know about Neil, who is currently in bed with a sore throat, the poor baby (oh god...don't even go there, Rob) but I know seeing that pic just made me feel a hell of a lot better.

Later,
xo

Are we not men?

The Hall of Famers from Rock School performing DEVO

So, I hear I missed a great School of Rock Best of Season show Saturday night because not only was Skunk Baxter fantastic but they brought Eric Slick, Dan Nitz, Mike Connor, Matt Manser and Joey "Reno" Randazzo out of retirement to perform DEVO one final time.

Here's the You Tube, though. It's wild and crazy though you really need to be there live to see it and believe it. This was a spur of the moment surprise so they didn't have their white suits (I took the above photo during the west coast tour of 2004) so they improvised for costumes Saturday night (and I'm trying not to think about the fact that they resemble terrorist beheaders)...anyway, I love the way Eric drums on this:

Oh crap, for some reason the embedded version isn't working, so here's the direct link to the You Tube Film.

In Adrian Belew news, the tour schedule for the eastern part of the United States is starting to fill up nicely. I have some dates but I want to wait until they all appear on the venues listed so I can post links, however, here is the first one and I'm so stoked I can't even begin to tell you - they're playing BB Kings in New York on August 8. Here are the details!

Ha - you will note this is an old advertisement for the Power Trio and mentions Les Claypool on bass and Danny Carey on drums. Well, how cool is it that Julie is replacing Les and Eric is replacing Danny -- I mean, really -- those are some shoes to fill, huh.

Anyway, in my world, forgive the brief blog posts - I'm going to be absent most of June completing Baby Boomer as yes yes yes someone is interested in it and would like to have it by the end of this month. I just need to tweak it a bit more before I'm confident about the edits. Okay, you know I'll never be confident nor will I ever able to stay away from this blog for a month but I really need to devote serious time to writing so yeah, I may not be here every day.

I know there's other news but right now my son and his girlfriend are fooling around on the sofa next to me (ack!) and my daughter is hocking me about going out to buy a new cartridge for the printer and I also need to visit a crazy herbal store to buy Oil of Peppermint because apparently this is the natural way to keep squirrels from eating the apples off my tree (do you believe it? I have a twelve foot by twelve foot oh poor me I live in the city garden in the back and planted a little tree a few years ago which is now this huge gorgeous thing bearing fruit!)...though I'm not so confident about this peppermint stuff cos' I tried it before as well as other natural ways to rid us of pests/rodents and um, they don't work. But poison just isn't an option so it may be the squirrels who end up enjoying my apples, not me...oh well...that's what Whole Foods is for, huh.

So let me get out of here so I can take care of my errands early and come home and work on the novel. If anything exciting happens in the meantime, I'll be back.

Later,
xo

With a Rebel Yell, She Cried More, More, More...

Hey hey hey, I'm full of news today, and -- gasp -- some of it actually has to do with writing. First, I am really stoked to announce that one of my short stories has been selected (along with work by some other pretty impressive authors in the literary world) to appear in a new anthology called REBELLION published by Rebel Press which should be available for sale shortly at the usual places (Amazon, etc.) as well as the publisher's website. If you click on the link, you'll find author bios, excerpts, and further details.

Secondly, if you are in the Philadelphia area and are looking for something cool to do tonight, please join the extremely hard working editors/writers from Philadelphia Stories for a silent auction at the Mummers Museum. I've donated an autographed copy of Three Days in New York City as well as two coffee cups embellished with two of my short stories from Flash Fiction (which I am pleased to see are still for sale on their site) for said auction. In a perfect world, I plan on attending the event tonight as well but I'm not one hundred per cent sure I can make it. In any event, let me just reiterate how wonderful Philadelphia Stories is -- it's a magazine devoted to publishing the work of local authors and is distributed free of charge at places like Borders, coffee shops, etc. It's not an inexpensive endeavor to put out a literary magazine like this and it's important to support it so I hope some of my local readers can make it or if not, even a small contribution (details on their website) would really be appreciated.

Third, my beautiful and talented daughter Julie has produced a song by the Jangling Sparrows which will appear on a new CD titled "Unleashed II" and the release party is tomorrow night at World Cafe Live at 7:00 p.m.. For tickets and further details, follow this link. All who attend this party will in fact receive a free CD!

Fourth, tomorrow evening is also the PAUL GREEN SCHOOL OF ROCK BEST OF THE SEASON FUNDRAISER with very special guest JEFF "SKUNK" BAXTER, legendary guitar player for STEELY DAN & THE DOOBIE BROTHERS. Advance tickets are $12.00; $15.00 at the door. Speaking of said doors, they open at 6:00 p.m., the show starts at 7:00 p.m., and this is one of those times I need to be able to clone myself -- my son's lovely significant other, Carolyn, will be singing back-up with Skunk on two songs.

Fifth, in what will be their final performance before Eric and Julie go out on tour with Adrian Belew, Eric will perform with the band, Flamingo, as part of the Troc's Sunday Balcony series. Showtime is June 4 at 2:00 p.m.

And finally, for my good pal Susan, and you should click on that link because today she interviews the amazing Hillary Carlip (whose book I am currently reading and just being blown away by)...here is a photo I wish I did not find because I think aliens captured him for the evening, tied him up, tortured him, and dressed him against his will...Neil Gaiman as you've never seen him before:



Oh, Sue, I can't end my blogpost with something as traumatic as that. Wait...I know!



Ahhhh. All better.

Later,
xo

Surreys and Death, among other things...

So as promised on Tuesday, here we all are in our cornball surrey on the boardwalk in Ocean City -- unfortunately Eric's girlfriend Carolyn is not in the pic as she was the photographer...the photo we got the unsuspecting tourist to take was horrible and completely cut off Carolyn's head so I couldn't post it. Notice the only one smiling is Julie, because she is driving and well, she's a maniac and the rest of us were hanging on for dear life. Nah, in all fairness, it was a lot of fun because as you can see by her determined expression, it was her goal to run as many yuppies over as possible within an hour's time -- she got extra points if she hit power walkers wearing big-ass iPod headphones ignorantlly and obliviously blocking the specified surrey lane on said boardwalk. I mean, come on. It's not rocket science. There are three clearly drawn lanes in each direction on the boardwalk. Bicycles on the left, surreys in the middle, pedestrians, who have the widest lane, on the right. But no, we have our power walkers who not only choose the surrey lane but walk in pairs so you can't even pass them without getting hit head-on by some lunatic in the bike lane going in the opposite direction who thinks he's Lance Armstrong.

Enough of that. Let's talk about music. In stalking my son on Google, I found Mike Keneally's forum board. Look at all the mentions of Eric! And in case you don't know who Mike Keneally is, here's his website. So to say this is cool is putting it mildly.

Hey, did you know DC Comics has decided to make Batwoman a lesbian? Read all about it here. Good for them. Up yours, conservative Bush asswipes!

And also as promised -- or should I say threatened -- here I am in my official Neil Gaiman Death t-shirt. And yes I know -- I have very cool refrigerator magnets and the reason I'm wearing sunglasses is that we'd just come in from walking the dog and I made Julie snap the photo before she left for class and there wasn't time to think properly...she was rushing me cos' she was late. I really am the least photogenic person I know, but wtf, the t-shirt looks good, anyway.



Oh okay. I always wear dark glasses. Just call me Blind Lemon Jello.

And yeah, I'm still sitting on some writing news but I haven't been given the official okay to say anything yet so maybe tomorrow? Oh well. Speaking of writing, today I hope to get another chapter or two done though the noise level from the construction next door seems to be getting worse and I didn't think that was possible. If it's not ninety degrees again today, I'll probably take the dog to the park with my journal and pen. Eric and Julie are doing intense rehearsing for their upcoming tour with Adrian Belew and then Eric will probably take off to hang out with friends; Julie and Matt are going to see Radiohead at the Tower Theater...so if nothing else, maybe I can adjust my body clock and do some serious writing tonight. I'm starting to have painful nightmares over how long it's taking me to finish editing/writing this novel and self-destructive is just not my style!

Later,
xo

The Adrian Belew Interview

Eric Slick and Dave Johnsen two weeks ago on the final night of the Project Object Tour

After all of the excitement of the past couple of months and the incredible things to come this summer, I needed a couple of days just to chill. So I did that and yesterday I went to the beach with Julie and Eric and their significant others, Matt and Carolyn. We stuffed our faces and then decided to do an outrageous cheesy tourist thing mostly because we were so full of food -- we rented a surrey that could hold up to nine people and pedaled that thing up and down the boardwalk laughing like idiots and beeping our horn at everyone to get out of our way. Carolyn had her camera and we got an unsuspecting real tourist to snap us all together so as soon as she sends me the photo, I'll post it here.

Here's sort of what it looked like:



Anyway, after that wild and crazy fun (hey, it was!) I came home to this really great e-mail from Thomas Dippel, President of the Arf Society:

Dear Robin,

I'm Thomas one of the organizers from Zappanale. For years now I'm reading your blog and enjoy it very much how enthousiastic you are writing about your kids and the festival.

Right at the moment I read your article about Julie and Eric beeing the new power-trio with Adrian, I had the idea to tell it to our fans here in europe and packed it in a little interview with Adrian for my last Zappanale-newsletter. This newsletter has a huge number of readers, you can find it at the following homepages from germanies biggest newspapers and TV/Radio-stations:

kulturkurier.de: 520.000
DeutschlandRadio: 12,0 Mio
DIE ZEIT: 10,5 Mio
ARTE-TV: 3,3 Mio
FAZ.NET: 37,0 Mio
FOCUS Online: 132 Mio
Brigitte: 14,0 Mio
Perlentaucher: 1,2 Mio
Handelsblatt: 12,5 Mio
Telepolis: 9,2 Mio

Take care! Music is the best!

So naturally, as soon as I read Thomas' email, I raced over to read the interview...an excerpt of which I'm posting here:

Arf:
As we heard you changed your power-trio to include Eric and Julie Slick as drummer and bassist for your upcoming tours. We all know these two young and high talented musicians from earlier Zappanale-Festivals. Why did you choose especially these two for the future?

Adrian:
Eric and Julie played "city of tiny lights" with me during a school of rock show. They are such eager bright young people but mature and mindful. Secretly I am drawn to the role of teacher but likely they'll end up teaching me more than I'll teach them.

I needed a clean slate, to start fresh with players who aren't "jaded" to the oppressing music business, people who respect my work and are willing to put as much into it as I do. Many of the "virtuoso" players I have known have too many outside entangle-ments (wives, kids, car payments, mortgages, etc.) and can't surrender themselves to the music like we did when we were younger. That's what I hope to find with Eric and Julie: not just the joy of playing great music together but the ability to ignore everything else.

Arf:
What can your fans exspect from your show at Zappanale? Will it be a mix of Adrian Belew and King Crimson? Should there be the chance to listen to some Frank Zappa tunes? For example "City of tiny lights", a song all fans are waiting for, or is it still a secret?

Adrian:
It's a secret whether or not we'll play something of Frank's. But certainly we will play a challenging dose of Crimson/Belew.

Arf:
What are your next plans for 2006?

Adrian:
Following last week's rehearsals with Eric and Julie I am now writing the last two songs for the next Bear's record. It's perhaps the best Bear's record yet and these two songs will complete it. I hope it can be released early this fall. Following that the power trio will play shows throughout the U.S. and parts of europe. Then I have plans to work with Robert Fripp in the guise of project six (fripp n' adrian) a two man group aimed at improvising live material to become the building blocks for the next generation of King Crimson material. Robert and I hope to have something to present Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto by the end of 2007 to get the ball rolling towards a new King Crimson record. Somewhere along the way I want to record my first-ever live record with the trio, to be called "Side Four".

You can read the rest of the interview -- which is very, very cool, on Adrian Belew's website.

And um, you had to see my face when I read that last line: "Somewhere along the way I want to record my first-ever live record with the trio, to be called "Side Four".

While Julie and Eric did mention the possibility when they came home from Nashville last week, to see it confirmed in print made me almost swallow my tongue.

I do have writing news and I think I'll make a separate post for that this afternoon or tomorrow..but in the meantime, I'm totally stoked. As I wrote here a few months ago, I was bored one day and took one of those Quizzilla things to see which Endless I am (Endless being characters from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series), and found that I am Death, the second of The Endless, responsible for ending all lives and taking them to my realm, from which no one ever returns. I am bright, positive, happy, optimistic and enjoy everything about life, but that does not mean I am silly or stupid. I can lay the smack down when I have to! Everyone loves me, and they don't know why.

Well, it sounded good to me and oh god, a few days ago I found the t-shirt for sale, bought it, and sadly am wearing it right now. If I can get one of the family to snap my pic later, I'll post it but I'm not sure if I'm willing to take the verbal abuse (ha) that will follow, so for now how about if I just post a photo of the shirt itself:



Later,
xo

The Adrian Belew Power Trio: Can you say sensational and stunning?

Julie Slick and Eric Slick performing with Ann Wilson of Heart

Good morning and Happy Holiday Weekend!

Okay, so even though I've been broadcasting it everywhere, Adrian Belew has made it offical last night on his website but of course me being me, I'm so excited I'm cutting and pasting it here anyway:

"dear tribe,
in case you haven't heard I have changed my power trio to include eric slick a nineteen-year-old drummer from philly who has been causing a sensation playing spot-on versions of zappa material with the zappa tribute group project object and his twenty-year-old sister julie slick who is a bassist of equally stunning talent. eric and julie have played together most of their lives and have a maturity and knowledge beyond their ages. both are graduates of the paul green school of rock and former members of the school of rock all-stars which puts them in a rare class of players indeed. I want to thank their parents robin and gary slick for nurturing such bright gifted people and paul green for putting me in touch with them.

I can't wait to play for all of you again soon.

cheers,
adrian
may 25, 2006"

Can you imagine waking up to that first thing this morning? And a really lovely letter from Adrian's webmaster Rob Murphree welcoming Julie and Eric to the band, too? I'm having major breathing problems here!

Anyway, it's going to be a really crazy weekend. In between rehearsing, Julie and Eric have all kinds of stuff going on and it's going to be a hotel here over the next four days with boyfriends and girlfriends and big dances and parties, a concert by Ween down by the river, and a day trip to the beach at Ocean City where we will have our first Brown's donuts and Mack and Manco's pizza of the season.

I was supposed to go to Balticon this weekend but all of these recent exciting developments are keeping me with the family so no, I do not get to hang out with Neil Gaiman after all (as if) but since my spirits are so high right now, this will hold me until I do get the chance one of these days...



Hey, Neil! My kids are in Adrian Belew's band! You going to be in Italy, Holland, or Germany in July? How about Chicago, Indiana, or Atlanta? I can get you backstage!

(insert smiley face emoticon here)

Happy weekend everyone.

xo
The Sassy Mum

Belew Plus Two: Part II

Julie and Eric Slick stage-side in Seattle where they performed with Ann Wilson of Heart and Eddie Vedder. Was that really a year ago already? I mean it was a year ago to the day! Um, give or take a day or two...it might actually be one year tomorrow. So shoot me.

Anyway, thank you to Andrew Greenaway, a/k/a The Idiot Bastard, for announcing the awesome news on his very awesome website as concerns Julie and Eric joining Adrian Belew on tour and more - here's his blurb on the subject and while I'm at it, another big thanks to Sid Smith over at DGM Live who wrote about it here.

Of course both news articles lead you right back to my blog -- what can I tell you, the Robin Slick publicity machine is on full throttle for a change. Ha! Do you think I'm a little bit excited?

Gary and I are still working on travel details - he may drop in on some of the U.S. shows and of course I'm eyeing the European ones but we're still digesting all that's happened and trying to figure things out. What we're really trying to do is discover how to clone ourselves so we can both attend Zappanale because I have a third offspring -- dog Monty -- and I refuse to put him in a kennel so we take turns watching him when Julie and Eric tour.

I realized yesterday in my post that because I'm crazed beyond belief over the events of the past week, I neglected to mention names of other future stars who are coming out of Rock School, and if I were a betting person...wait, I am a betting person...well, let's just say my money is safe with these names: Katie Jacoby, Julia Ranier, Matt Manser, Louis Graff, (already playing and touring the world with Leiana) Joey Randazzo, a/k/a "Reno", Maureen Hayes, Andrew Haff...oh forget it, I'm bound to leave out more names and I don't want to hurt any feelings, but these are the kids I know for a few years now and yep, my money's on all of them bigtime.

And now for something completely different.

Except for the Simpsons, I hate television and rarely watch it -- I just leave it on in my bedroom so I can go to sleep. Yes, I am one of those and also need a night light. Hey, did I ever even attempt to appear normal? So nothing I say should surprise anyone. Anyway, because I wake up at dawn to write, I usually fall asleep pretty early...only one night I couldn't sleep and unfortunately, that was the night that the television show "24" started its new season.

Damn it, I got hooked and I am humiliated to admit it. It's easy to get addicted to that show because you get the feeling that it's reflecting in some strange way what's happening in our government today, but as a writer, I was deeply offended. There were so many flaws in the story line I found it impossible to suspend my belief, and I got really pissed off because this show could be fucking fantastic if the writers used common sense and gave us, the viewers, more credit for intelligence.

Okay, so most of the country, as evidenced by the election and re-election of that idiot President of ours, is not intelligent. But still! They took what could be one of the most clever, action-packed shows in T.V. history and turned it into a stupid soap opera. And still I watched. Every Monday at 9:00 p.m., no one was allowed to talk to me.

Anyway, the reason I am saying all of this here is because yesterday I stumbled on a blog by an editor of Barrelhouse Magazine who summed it up in such a hilarious manner and whose thoughts reflected mine so eerily I have no choice but to cut and paste it and post it here now. And as I just did that, I realize the writer even echoed my feelings and used my same phrase "belief-suspension"...

Tuesday, May 23, 2006
24 Thoughts on 24

After last night's whiz-bang conclusion of the fifth and perhaps most belief-suspension required season of 24, here are some random thoughts that have been floating around my head this season.

What the fuck is in that messenger bag? Like, an FBI-issue sig sauer, lock picking tools, City Paper, PDA, cell phone, bonus burrito card, flashlight, mirror, torture devices, cyanide pill, Starbucks travel mug...

Best initiation of romantic dialogue ever: "When I heard you had kidnapped the president..."

Dead or Alive? Secretary Heller. Wayne Palmer. Curtis (I missed last week due to President Bush dicking my Tivo over with his lame-ass immigration speech; and you thought television was the one thing that fucker couldn't fuck up...).

What was all that about? Kim and that weirdly overprotective boyfriend, who I think had the name and personality of that guru/psychiatrist who had Brian Wilson "under his care" for a period of time in the 80s. The redhead from The Brothers McMullen and Spin City and her overprotective son who eventually learned to love and respect Jack Bauer.

Bit players who seem too good-looking, interesting, or obviously random to not be coming into play in season 6: That hot Italian arms dealer. The Scottish or German or whatever spy guy, who Jack dicked over (and is also Declan, from Lost). Chloe's ex-husband Morris.

The question everybody is asking: why didn't he just download that stupid voice file to Chloe and save us about twelve episodes?

Mary Lynn Rajskub is the Sam Elliott of Television: One facial expression to fit all moods and situations. Same Elliott = the eye twinkle. Mary Lynn = the scowl.

They Took One for the Team (the old fashioned way): That guy who slept with Chloe. The first lady.

Is that a Shacket or a Jirt? What was that thing Jack was wearing all season? Jacket? Shirt? Jirt? Shacket? It had a hood. It had some kind of lapel-ish collar-y thing. What was that? Why didn't he ever take it off?

RIP: Anybody who tried to help Jack in any way at all.

Best Executive IT Training Program: Goes to the CTU and Homeland Security IT staff, who somehow trained executives as high-ranking as Bill Buchanon and Karen Hughes to hack and override and download and do all kinds of kickass stuff usually reserved for twelve year old Thai hackers.

He Took the Precious: Is it just me, or was that Miles guy doing a kind of Gollum-as-middle-manager impression?

The Lundberg Award for Best Management Style: To, who else, Jack Bauer, who proved that you really can get people to accomplish anything -- for instance, land a plane on a highway without enough room, while being chased by airforce fighter jets -- by yelling "NOW!" and "FASTER!" and "Do it DO IT NOW!"

Ziskey Rates the Russians: They're Pussies! Don't you think 24 should end like Stripes, with the mocked up magazine covers that follow? Chloe on Wired, Curtis on Guns and Ammo, Morris on Audio Engineer Weekly, Kim in Maxim...oh, well, I guess that last one actually came true.

Rudy...Rudy! Dude, nice try. But you'll always be Rudy.

Most Enterprising Criminal: Rudy's skeevy sister's skeevy boyfriend, who somehow managed to get in touch with high-level Russian terrorists about five minutes after he nabbed Rudy's CTU scan card.

Best Casting: Speaking of...who was that scuzzy sister anyway? She seemed way to real, right down to the rugburns on her knees. Ugh.

Did We Ever Learn? Who those dudes in the room were? You know who I mean, the gay guy from Fame who was the doctor on ER. I get it that they're, you know, Shadowy Operatives, or Halliburton Executives or whatever, but did they ever actually tell us who they were?

Pscych! Come on, as soon as you hear the lovely music and Jack Bauer says, "that's right, Audrey, it's all over," you KNOW the shits just about to go down. Anybody who says otherwise is a sucka.

Worst. Boyfriend. Ever. Last season Jack killed Audrey's husband and brother and then faked his own death. This season he almost killed her dad and got himself all kidnapped on a slow boat to China.

I Don't Think He's Dead. Robocop. No bleeding. We never saw his body, right?

Ancient Chinese Plot Twist. Not bad. Those Chinese bastards sure do hold a grudge, don't they?

Acme Company, This is Jack Bauer, I'd Like to Order an Anvil. 24 is the best cartoon since Roadrunner.

Why Am I So Fucking Stupid? I'm already looking forward to next season.
*****
Ha! I especially love his last line because even though I'm growling now, I know damn well that come January, 2007 and the first new episode, I'll be in front of that freaking television again, too.

Unless Adrian Belew Plus Two* are in concert somewhere cool, that is.

Later,
xo

*my name for them - easier for me to say/write than Adrian Belew with Julie Slick on bass and Eric Slick on drums