By the time they got to Phoenix (Okay, kill me now for typing that but yikes I'm feeling sentimental today)

Photo of Julie on stage in Phoenix Sunday night courtesy of photographer Joel Klein

Before I start "talking", I just saw that Eric has once again updated his tour blog and all I can say is, he is one hell of a writer and I take full credit for his talent. Ha! Well, his dad takes credit for the music -- Gary is an awesome guitar player whose musical influence is one of the reasons Eric and Julie are Eric and Julie and Adrian -- so please let me have my one moment in the sun in this family. (Insert smiley face emoticon here)

Anyway...

One of the coolest things about being a writer and having this blog is that people who attend the Belew shows find me, and I've been getting emails from all sorts of fans who are attending the shows all over the west coast.

Two more insanely interesting people I've met via Julie and Eric are Joel Klein and Dan Tomlinson.

Joel is a New York native and has been shooting pics for forty-four years; now he lives in Phoenix. Besides supplying me with the above photo of Julie (and the ones I'm also going to post below), Joel wrote me the following review of the Adrian Belew Power Trio's performance in Arizona:

"As always Mr Belew is right on with his eclectic and progressive guitar playing. As for your wonderful children Julie and Eric allow me to indulge:

If Adrian took away one thing (among many) from Mr Zappa, I hope that was Frank's insight to discover, nurture and promote untapped talent in musical genius. If he has acquired this ear for talent, then all I can say is that Julie and Eric will (if they choose to continue) have an incredible career as musicians. They are truly fine young talented people and also are not affected by the egomaniacal world we are surrounded by today in a lot of the music (or crap) coming out on bits and bytes.

You see, true artists need not surround themselves with such tripe, as true artists rely on their own merit as musicians that enhance the lives of folks like myself. Egos diminish this talent in many of today's artists. I can truly say that as a pretty good judge of people, Julie and Eric are true and pure musicians in every sense of the word when they are up on stage. As their Mom, you would be the best judge of this.

So, Robin and Gary, be proud that your have nurtured such wonderful people that will bring years of enjoyment to the ears of this world!!"
*****

Man, that makes me cry every time I read it. And I adore what he has to say...very clever, the "bit and bytes", isn't it? So, so true.

Here are a few more photos Joel took of the trio:



Tbere's my Eric, or Eric the Animal as he's called on drumming forum boards all across the universe (ducking because I know Eric is going to throw a cyber shoe at my head when he reads this)



And the man responsible for my family's current state of bliss, Mr. Adrian Belew (with a lovely shot of Julie in the background, of course)

Now this next shot is most interesting. Normally I would be spilling the whole story behind it but Eric has been keeping such an awesome tour blog that I don't want to steal his glory and talk about what happened following the show. Plus, I understand there's a lot more pictures to "prove it". So let me instead identify some of the people in this photo...



Okay, the man front and center wearing the Twang Bar King t-shirt is my husband, Gary (ha ha - Gary has decided I can post his pic after all on the evil internet so I guess I lose my Neil Gaiman with the secret hidden spouse status har har). Obviously you know Julie, Eric, and Adrian. But standing next to Adrian is the mystery man, the guy who provided the Belews and the Slicks with one hell of an evening following the show -- he's the promoter, Danny Zelisko. The man front row, right in the green shirt works for Danny - his name is Beef. God I love that name. Beef. Remind me to use that in a story. Anyway, here's just a tiny taste of who Danny is.

Oh hell. I can't keep this in. Okay, Danny invited everyone back to his house after the show...he lives in a Frank Lloyd Wright home on the side of a mountain...and he's got a guitar signed by all four of the Beatles.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. I'd better shut up now. Eric will kill me and I know he must be dying to tell this whole story himself.

But have I mentioned that Baby Hippie Gary saw the Beatles with his mother in 1966 and if I go upstairs and snoop in his top drawer, he still has the original ticket stubs. If he didn't take my camera with him to the west coast, I'd be up there taking a shot right now. But yeah, Gary was in the Beatle Fan Club until it finally dis...dismembered? in like 1980. So to say he's a Beatle freak is putting it mildly...and how funny that this goes perfectly in sync with Susan Henderson's Question of the Week at Lit Park today.

Alrighty, then. I'd better get off this topic. So, let's talk about who else has come to the shows. We have the guitar player for the Tubes (sorry...I don't know his name), and the man I mention above, Dan Tomlinson. As a fellow drummer, Dan was really taken with Eric's playing and he immediately contacted me the next day and actually made some phone calls to try and get Eric endorsements which would be totally awesome. If you do a little research on Dan, you'll see he was with Lyle Lovett's band, played on The Tonight Show...anyway, it's just so cool that he reached out to Eric like that and really wanted to help him get said endorsements because face it, drum equipment is expensive and Eric goes through massive quantities of sticks, drum heads, pedals...you name it.

Yesterday the band had the night off so they drove to California - they play at the Belly Up Tavern in San Diego tonight and Eric already spoke with Mike Keneally and he's coming to the show tonight...sigh...yet another great moment I'm missing.

But I will say this. I'm really happy for my family and thrilled Gary is getting a chance to see the west coast and bond with J&E and the Belews. As for me, while I am getting a lot of writing done, I'm getting absolutely no sleep (what's with all those strange noises I'm hearing in the middle of the night and why does the dog seem to think it's necessary that he drape all 65 of his pounds across my chest no matter which way I turn)...and worse, I am eating like a little spoiled kid...meaning, one night I had chocolate cake for dinner, last night I didn't eat at all, but the fabulous Julie made me fresh salmon cakes which are in the freezer right now so I'm going to be good tonight and cook 'em up -- she even left me instructions on how to make an accompanying chipolte dipping sauce.

Arghhh...who am I kidding. I MISS MY FAMILY! And I think I'm in shock that they won't be home until next Thursday. But hey, I really do believe I will have two finished novels ready to go by then.

At least in theory.

Oh. One final thing before I head into the kitchen and fry up some salmon. I would be remiss if I didn't say VOTE, DAMN IT! LET'S GET THOSE REPUBLICAN FUCKERS OUT OF OFFICE!

Later,
xo

Eric...

...has updated his tour blog.

I defer to him today...his stories are so great that I'll let him have the glory for now but oh my god do I have some new tales from the road to report. Stay tuned!

Later,
xo

The Adrian Belew Trio: Live in Austin...and I mean, LIVE!

Adrian Belew on stage Thursday night in Austin, TX

Okay. I am totally stoked. I found someone who did an awesome review of Thursday night's show but more importantly, he put up some video! (It's a little blurry but I miss Julie and Eric so much that even seeing them play Big Electric Cat with Adrian on this You Tube is causing me to get all teary-eyed which isn't helping things)



Also, Google blog stalking has unearthed a review of the show last night in New Mexico written last night by someone who visits this blog occasionally - here's the link...thanks, Richard!

More later,
xo

The Adrian Belew Trio: Santa Fe, New Mexico...or...The Love Belew

That would be Pat Mastelotto making devil horns behind the heads of Adrian Belew and Todd Wolfson (see my post of yesterday for the whole story)

Anyway, the title of today's blog entry comes from this wonderful article I found this morning in the Santa Fe Reporter:

"The Love Belew
By Mark Sanders

Adrian Belew is walking around his back porch in the Nashville suburb of Mount Juliet, swatting away curious bumblebees and chatting on his phone. Occasionally, we are interrupted by his outbursts, which are G-rated but kind of humorous, too. He’s trying to stay on topic while avoiding the stingers.

Songs from many sides will rock the Brewing Company.

“I’m sorry,” he says, stopping himself in mid-sentence.

Obnoxious bees aside, Belew has lived in north-central Tennessee for 12 years because he loves it there. His wife’s family is located nearby. Plus, the Kentucky native says, he likes the rural vibe there—Belew saw two deer in his yard this morning, he says—adding that he lives in Mount Juliet because he has a studio there, where he records frequently.

“Frequently” is maybe not the right word to describe his recording schedule. “Obsessively” is more like it, since the past couple years’ worth of studio sessions have resulted in Side One, Side Two and Side Three, albums that show off the iconic guitarist’s different tastes.

As anyone who’s followed Belew’s career path can imagine, those tastes are fairly unpredictable. Belew’s career took off after Frank Zappa discovered him gigging in a Nashville cover band in the late ’70s, after which he began touring and recording with David Bowie, Talking Heads, King Crimson and, more recently, members of prog rock bands Tool and Primus.

Drummer Danny Carey and bassist Les Claypool (of Tool and Primus, respectively), backed Belew on Side One and Side Three, albums that show off the artist’s more experimental side. British Invasion-era rock is wrapped in electronic blips and synthesizer noises on some tracks; most songs, such as the cumbersomely titled “The Red Bull Rides a Boomerang Across the Blue Constellation,” show the 56-year-old guitarist in prime form, and not giving a damn about mass appeal.

Nevertheless, a healthy number of fans continue coming to him, and not just because he’s the guy who backed Bowie.

“They’re not being serviced by the mainstream,” Belew says between swats. “They’re music people, and they really want to hear different kinds of live music.”

“So now you have bands like Ump­hree’s McGee and Tool and Primus, and they’re fans of what I’ve been a part of.”

The fact that Belew has had such a big influence on bands he’s played with is something the artist has thought about. Especially in his current band, a trio that includes musicians still under the legal drinking age.

Philadelphia natives Eric and Julie Slick are a brother and sister who studied at the Paul Green School of Rock, located in their hometown. As top players at the school, the Slicks got a chance to study under Belew, who was encouraged by School of Rock founder Green to consider taking them on tour.

“I flew them down here to audition,” Belew says, now a few months after the fact. Eric is 19; Julie is 20. They weren’t even born until Belew’s career was already firmly established.

“They don’t even drive cars. They’re really just consumed with music. We play from different segments of my solo work, and end with my King Crimson work. The challenge of that is to deliver it in a power trio format.”

All of it happened unexpectedly; Belew never really anticipated plucking two young musicians out of their hometown to go on tour with him. Thinking aloud, the guitarist relates the experience to his career path. Which is to say, nothing was ever planned.

Belew left his last non-music-related job when he was bassist Julie Slick’s age, 20. He worked at a furniture factory, where his father was a foreman. “Oh my gosh, I’m happy I’m not doin’ that,” Belew says, “inhaling sawdust all day.”

While on tour with Zappa, Belew met David Bowie, who subsequently had him play on his late-’70s albums Stage and Lodger. At the same time, the Talking Heads hired Belew to play on their iconic 1980 album Remain in Light. Soon after, the guys from King Crimson called.

“I thought I’d go about things the way that most musicians do: Put together a band…” the guitarist says, trailing off.

He adds, “It worked the opposite way for me. I worked with famous people first, then formed my own band.”

Now, the artist who is best known for those he’s worked with is standing firmly in the limelight. It’s a matter of timing, Belew says.

“Over the past four or five years, I was putting a lot of time into resurrecting King Crimson and, to a lesser extent, [Cincinnati-based experimental pop group] The Bears. I’d record between the cracks of other work I was doing.”

Gradually, Belew says, he realized he had 30 or so quality songs. The result was the Side albums and, now, tour dates with the Slick siblings.

Unexpected as it all was, Belew takes the developments in stride. Besides, the fact that he’s playing with musicians less than half his age is just testimony to his own outlook.

“I never take myself seriously as a full-grown adult,” he says calmly. “I’ve been associated with 100 or so records, but I’m still a kid. I still challenge myself with ideas. The kid in me is still very much in charge.”

ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO
8 pm
Saturday, Nov. 4
$30 advance
$32 day of show
Santa Fe Brewing Company
35 Fire Place
424-3333

And here's another fan review I found:

Adrian Belew Live at the Granada Theater 11/1/2006

"I’m sitting here writing this in the odd confines of a service department waiting room. I wanted to get this down while it’s fresh in my mind. Last night, (Wednesday night), Jeff and Ryan and I went to see Adrian Belew live in Dallas at the Granada Theater. They were good sports for coming along, even though I am the one who is freakishly fanatical about Belew and his music.

First of all, the Granada. I had never seen a show there before. It was surprisingly easy to get to and parking was so easy it seemed like we were committing a crime, parking for free no more than thirty yards from the front door. And the usher was tearing our tickets just as Adrian and his two young musical co-conspirators were beginning their show with the blistering “Writing on the Wall.” We could not have planned the pre-show timing any better. The Granada is in a part of Dallas that reminds me of Western Ave in Northwest Oklahoma City. The venue itself is reminiscent of the Will Rogers Theater.

It was rather bizarre to walk up into a mostly empty balcony with the crushing rhythm of the Adrian Belew Trio as the soundtrack. I can’t describe to you the rush of walking into that room and seeing and hearing one of my musical heroes in person, so close that he could possibly see and hear me. It was just surreal. Until last night Adrian Belew didn’t even exist in the same plane of reality for me. He existed in my ears, on CDs, on King Crimson DVDs, but not in the same three dimensions as me. It didn’t seem possible. (Do I sound like a fanboy yet?)

But there he was, pulling off that strange beautiful music with more power than I had experienced before: the subs pumping when Julie Slick would play low down on the bass. (Insert comment about testicle-rumbling bass tones here.) We discussed in the car on the way down about the vague “something extra” that accompanies seeing music performed live. And I know I was certainly transfixed for the whole show. I know this music really well, so I can’t possibly give a clear, unbiased account of what occurred, but I can speak in some generalities.

The venue felt like just the perfect size for this group. They weren’t swallowed by a cavernous space and the mix was pretty clear and powerful the whole time, the vocals pretty comprehensible, those magnificently weird guitar sounds up front. As far as material, most of the Crimson standards were represented—Jeff and I sharing knowing looks during his new faves-“Dinosaur” and “Three of a Perfect Pair,” which sounded really powerful, as did “Frame by Frame” and “Elephant Talk,” off the Discipline album. The Belew solo material focused on the newest Sides 1-3 stuff: “Drive,” “Ampersand,” “Beat Box Guitar,” (which I have just recently come to love), and “Matchless Man.” But I was very pleased to hear some middle period stuff like “Of Bow and Drum” off my favorite album Op Zop Too Wah, which Adrian said he never got a chance to tour behind and “Young Lions,” both of which I didn’t expect to hear.

It’s quite a thrill to see music like this stuff pulled off live with such aplomb. Adrian seems to be having a good time up there, with his young band, making those odd meters and guitar gymnastics look pretty easy. And I haven’t even begun to discuss how great his voice is. But all things come to an end, as this concert did. (I could have listened to them for another hour and a half or so, my love for the music is so great.) And Adrian ended the show a little oddly, by improvising some loops with synth and guitar and creating “walk-off music” for the audience, inviting them to leave whenever they wanted to or hang around and listen to the music “do its’ thing,” betraying the musical Minimalist mindset that I have come to know and love over the years.

I haven’t smiled so much during a concert in a long time.

It was pretty easy for me to stay awake for the three hour drive back home."

So that's the Belew part of my day; I do have some other stuff to report but I need to do some...gasp...domestic goddess duties around here so I can write in a nice, calm, clean, tranquil environment (for like the first time ever...I'm serious...this really is the first time in my life I'm alone for two weeks with the family out west on tour and I don't think it's entirely hit me yet. Right now it's kind of...weird).

Anyway...

Maybe later?
xo

Belew Trio on Tour: Texas!

Photo of Adrian Belew, Eric Slick, and Julie Slick taken last evening courtesy of the wildly talented Todd V. Wolfson. More on the amazing Todd below.

I'm having the best day.

First, I spoke with Eric this morning and he told me last night's Adrian Belew Power Trio show in Austin, Texas was a blast. Not only did he get to meet one of his heroes in the audience, Pat Mastelotto, but when it was discovered that Eric's drum pedal had been um, decimated during travel, Pat kindly offered his to Eric for the rest of the tour and Eric took him up on it.

"You're playing Pat Mastelotto's pedal?" I asked Eric, totally psyched for him.

"Yep!" He sounded only "slightly stoked". Ha.

After much motherly prodding, Eric reluctantly admitted that "Yes, Pat told me he really enjoyed the show. He's really very nice and laid back. I wasn't nervous at all."

Eric addressed the nervous part in answer to my question: "Was playing in front of Pat as bad as when this guy stood on the side of the stage while you played at the LA Knitting Factory with his arms crossed, staring at you?"

"No way," Eric replied.

So after talking with Eric, I did my usual Google stalk and stumbled upon an interesting Live Journal post:

"the adrian belew power trio

the adrian belew power trio
Originally uploaded by Nosflow V Ddot.
this intimate set at the Cactus Cafe was up there with any/all Belew shows I have seen.

his band was a brother and sister from philly.

added together their ages are younger than me. damn GREAT musicians.

"i remember you!" said adrian, when he came up to shake my hand.

amiable, amicable, approachable, benevolent, benign, breezy, civil, clubby*, congenial, cordial, courteous, genial, gentle, good-humored, good-natured, gracious, kindly, mild, obliging, pleasant, polite, sociable, urbane, warm and such a talented & fun guy!"

That Live Journal entry included the above Belew Trio photo so I then wrote to the writer of the post and asked if he would please send me a jpg of the shot he'd posted so that I could include it here.

Well, how cool is this. He wrote back to me immediately, and it turns out that he's an amazing professional photographer with some very interesting creds named Todd V. Wolfson and Holy small world, batman. Here's his response:

"i was sitting with my friend pat mastelooto before the gig and eric came and sat down with us, he even grabbed my new lil digi point and shoot and took a picture of me. we talked a bit about how all this came to be, and i am very happy and proud for you....

what sweet freaking kiddos you have.

OY! and talented.....what a fun show!

hey, keep in touch with me....

i am also friends with terry bozzio.. i do his portraits...(austin, home to the prog rock drummers?)

anyhoo, if you google me you will see that i am the music photographer of austin, who both takes it professionally and just for kicks everyday of my life...you must be great parents to have such great kiddoz."




Todd's very cool photo of two Erics with one Adrian.

So yeah, Todd was the one sitting with Pat Mastelotto - they've been friends for years. Naturally we start emailing back and forth, and of course I had to mention how cool it was that he was also friends with another of Eric's heroes, Terry Bozzio. So with Todd's permission, here's a little story he shared with me about Terry:

"a quick story...
one night (after once having been introduced to terry) i was playing some film cans i turned into folky-type percussion (12" sized for long rolls of copy 35mm film) with brushes, with two of my singer songwriter friends and terry and ev bozzio were sitting in the audience at this club. i look up and terry is standing right next to our little stage like an 8 year old boy, rocking back and forth on his heels, waiting for the song to end. when it ends, he says"todd, can i play your cans?"

(this MF has more drums and shit than god. i have seen his garage)

i thought, here is this idol of mine and he is taken away with my ingenuity...how fucking cool is that?

so, of course i let him sit in with the guys on my film cans.

we have been buddies for a decade.

i have been lucky enought to jam with him at neighborhood parties (with chris layton of SRV fame, no less)and take his portraits...ev bozzio is a doll, an i love their li'l family."



Todd's incredible photo of Terry with the film cans.

Anyway, next thing you know Todd and I are talking on the phone and we're like total kindred spirits. He tells me he met Frank Zappa at the Whole Food Markets in Austin in 1980 (ha ha - he said it was the very first Whole Foods and I googled it and yep, it's true...who knew?) So Todd and Frank get to talking and Frank sees Todd's camera case -- it was a brand new camera he'd just gotten -- and said "Hey, you wanna take my picture?"

Here's the sweet, sweet result:



So that's been my day so far and I repeat, am I like the luckiest woman in the world or what? My kids on tour with Belew, meeting awesome people like Todd on line (and this I can't believe altogether -- he's offered to help me with my book covers)...then doing a little more Google stalking and finding these little tidbit west coast tour reviews...to read each in its entirety, click on the links provided:

At Projekction, a fan writes:

"...I really expected the night to be more sedate. I knew Belew could get freaky on his six-string but I didn’t expect such a thunderous performance. The trio stomped every song into the ground, scooped them up with a shovel, reconstructed their dilapidated bodies and squashed them again. All during a Cat5 hurricane. Yeah… or something like that.

Anyway, on to the particulars. On several songs, Adrian would sit down, work on crazy effects, and set up loops. He broke a string during “Young Lions” and had his golden Belew guitar replaced with…a red Belew guitar, all while continuing to sing. I have never heard KC play “Dinosaur” as well as the Trio, heresy though that may be. He also played the oft-neglected bridge. I never cared for “Matchless Man”, but a strong performance showed me how strong the song could actually be. Ditto with “Madness.” Before playing “The Last Rhinoceros” Adrian announced he was working on a project that involved arranging his songs to piano. (A pretty version of “Last Rhino” played during setup.) No major brown moments, only one awkwardly timed loop that was quickly worked around. Belew seemed to be having a great time, ad-libbing quirky effects and cracking jokes. Is he always this happy to perform?

The Trio’s tremendous performance of the Crimson songs was spectacular. Adrian played the final interlocking part of “FxF” with himself via delay. “3aoPP” was very strong, and Belew encouraged the audience to sing Tony’s part. On “Elephant Talk”, Julie Slick played her bass as though it was a stick, and “Thela” (accompanied by the original recording’s speech) brought the house down for a thunderous finale. But not the last word (um… notes) from Belew. He set up what he called an “improvised symphony” using his guitar and synth voices like bells, thunderclaps, a string section, and a bit of the “Power Circle” muezzin, to loop and mutate as we left the venue. My sister, who was mildly impressed by the “Neal Jack and Me” DVD and hates “Heartbeat” was suitably moved.

Then we stayed up late and watched High Fidelity. Forget the relationship angst, it’s fun just to spot record covers in his store. "Ooo Ooo! It's Before and After Science! Tonight's The Night! Joe's Garage! Discipline!!!! I got back into town just in time for exams but I would have gladly flunked my tests for the chance to see this incredible concert.

Adrian has been making some of the best music of his career recently. The energetic performances of these great songs make them even better. If he is coming to a city near you, do not pass up this opportunity. I hope that the evening was recorded and that DGMLive or Belew himself will release it. Not only for a memento of the night, but… I just can’t articulate how good the concert was. I’ll be preordering “Side Four”, for sure..."

Here's a blurb off the forum board at Planet Crimson:

"I saw Adrian Belew at the Granada. [omG! That was freaking fantastic. I ended up dreaming about the show all night. If you have an opportunity to see him play on this tour and you don't, you are an utterly ridiculous human.]"

Over at DGM Live, Kenneth Pyron writes:

"What a great show. The Granada Theater is a rather intimate venue with no more than twenty rows of seats on the lower level and a great balcony. My friend and I chose in the lower rear, near the bar (great selection of beer) with a good full view of the stage (Cue the beer).

You simply can’t knock the smile off of AB when he’s on stage. Even when a string broke or his new "Adrian Belew Signature Series Parker Fly" would go out of tune (his words, as if I could tell). His interaction with the audience was, as I see it, classic Adrian. Friendly, sharp, with humor....

AB was ably backed by Julie and Eric Slick. They handled everything thrown at them by AB with true professionalism. Unfazed, fully up to the task and having as much fun as Adrian seemed to be having. Adrian is obviously happy to be working with them again, enjoying it thoroughly.

This was a great evening, thoroughly enjoyable. I highly recommend attending any of his shows on this tour if you can..."

So...today the trio has the day off and they're flying to New Mexico; I'm going to make a pot of tea and spend the rest of the day/evening writing with breaks only to eat and further stalk my kiddies on line.

Ah, life is good.

Later,
xo

My New Website and a New Song by SZ3

Yeah, baby. Tonight marks the launch of my revamped website.



The site's logo is designed by Julie after I took a digital photo of Times Square in New York City and a photo of Julie in my living room eating an apple. Julie then photoshopped and layered the two pics and I know I'm prejudiced because Julie is my daughter but she is just so freaking creative...anyway, I think the result is pretty cool...so cool that I showed it to my publisher as a possible idea for the new book cover for Three Days in New York City and they're working on that as we speak, though whether they will use any part of it I have no idea. But even if they don't, I love it for my website so what the hell. My new webmistress, who is just awesome, tweaked it further on my website and added the white edging, and let me take this opportunity to introduce her because she's incredible... Josephine Piraneo of Glass Slipper Web Design. I love the name Glass Slipper...but then again, I adored Cinderella as a kid...in fact, I'm still waiting for my fairy godmother to appear and sprinkle something magical on me. (And no, I'm not talking about mushrooms. Repeat after me. Those days are over. Right.)

Anyway, the MySpace I posted earlier today for SZ3, a/k/a the Sarah Zimmerman Trio, wasn't functioning properly so Sarah went in and fixed it, and I'm totally in love with this song -- Fire -- and not just because Julie wrote it. She's also bassist for the band, Eric is on drums and the amazing, amazing, Sarah Zimmermann is on guitar and vocals...also Julie recorded and mixed it in her new studio. And on this particular cut, Eric is actually playing electric mandolin as the song begins and simultaneously playing the drums with his feet. Yeah, I know, I know, I'm overdoing it with the parental pride here but today is the first day I'm home alone for the next two weeks and I miss my family already. So here's the new link and I hope you think it's as awesome as I do.

Sarah has this to say in the trio's MySpace blog:

"Wednesday, November 01, 2006

1st song is up!

yooo doggies....so the first song is up! we had some trouble there, but i (sarah) came to the resuce and solved the problem because I'm amazing. woooo. thats why they call me Handy Sarah. now, remember its a rough take and sarah's vocals sound like a mouse, BUT it'll do for now. just don't be hatin on us!

also an update, eric and julie left today for a west coast tour with Adrian Belew! so i'm definitely gonna miss them...two weeks with out my slicks..i don't know how i'm going to survive! when they come back I PROMISE we'll have some new better recorded stuff..we just kinda threw this one together to get it out there.

so give a little listen, a little love, and if you're on the west coast check out www.adrianbelew.net for eric and julie's tour dates!!

~Sarah"

Ha. She'll hate me for this, but Sarah is really cute, isn't she?

Speaking of Adrian Belew, I know I posted this earlier today, too, but just a reminder that J&E did a podcast over at Krimson News and the interview also includes them joining Jon Anderson of Yes for Heart of the Sunrise -- and you can find that cut as well as some other pretty cool stuff on the Rock School soundtrack.

Finally, today's Gaiman moment comes courtesy of Blog Critics and it's a very interesting/inspiring post - especially if you are a writer. Or hope to be one, anyway.

Later,
xo

The Tour! The Podcast!

Julie Slick, Adrian Belew, and Eric Slick at World Cafe Live, August, 2006

The Adrian Belew Power Trio on tour: Tonight, at the Granada Theater in Dallas, Texas

So I say goodbye to my family this morning for sixteen days and what excited me a week ago now leaves me with a sense of dread. I've never been alone more than a few days in my life. Sad, but true. Writing wise, this is going to be awesome...but oy, I guess this is a glimpse into my very near future...no way are Julie and Eric going to hang around Philadelphia much longer with all that they have going on and I'm just going to have to make this empty nest thing work for me somehow. Like, I have an idea for a novel that literally has been keeping me up at night and I'm actually going to do Nanowrimo because I'm very competitive and this is the kind of book which will write itself...I have it all mapped out in my brain and every aspect is falling into place in that wonderful way which rarely occurs in my frenzied world. And since I'm pretty sure I've done Nano every year since 2003 it would be bad luck to stop now -- I've gotten one published book out of it (Three Days in New York City)...the sequel I wrote in October of last year arose from it (Another Bite of the Apple)... and the book that's been causing me to tear out my hair for the past two years also originated from a Nano rough draft and yes, yes, every last revision is finally done (all 5,000 words...arghhh) -- but to be on the safe side I'm just letting it marinate another week or two for one last read before sending it out.

So. Actually, I have much more interesting news to report. First, Krimson News has an absolutely amazing podcast up on their site where Jeff Duke and Steve Turnidge interview Julie and Eric and right smack in the middle of the podcast they play the version of Heart of the Sunrise Julie and Eric recorded with Jon Anderson of Yes for the Rock School soundtrack. They play the entire seven minute and something song before wrapping up part one -- this podcast is in three parts to be broadcast over the next couple of weeks in conjunction with the tour. Yeah I know I've posted the tour dates a couple of times but I figure I'll do it again over the next two weeks so none of my friends out on the west coast can say I didn't tell them...but how cool...they're going to be everywhere from San Francisco to Seattle to Oregon. Damn I'm regretting not going. This always happens! When will I ever learn?

Anyway, getting back to the podcast, my pal Sid Smith over at DGM Live also has a couple of news blurbs about the Belew tour and links to the podcast and tour dates as well.

Also, the other band in which Julie and Eric are the rhythm section is the Sarah Zimmermann Trio, and they have launched a MySpace site which features two of their original songs and a jam...Julie recorded it in her studio on Monday and did the mixing yesterday.

In other news, if you are interested in my Halloween attire for yesterday, I suggest you visit the comments section of Susan Henderson's blog...and scroll down to like the 10th or 11th comment...apparently there's another Robin making the rounds on Sue's blog so now I guess I'll be known as SLICK...anyway, you know you are dying to see what I came up with and I must admit, this year I have outdone myself and Susan was kind enough indulge me by letting me post a photo in her comments section.

Anyway, getting back to my family's departure, have I mentioned it's suddenly occurred to me that I am the sole caretaker for the dog for the next sixteen days? Arghh...early morning, afternoon, and late night walks in cold and rain and blah blah blah. Good thing I love the little knucklehead...here he is last Christmas with one of his favorite toys and yes, as you can tell, I live in a nuthouse scatered with toys of my own and I wouldn't have it any other way.



Later,
xo

Music is the Best!

So since tomorrow is going to be spent packing and running around like maniacs for an early morning Wednesday flight to Texas, Julie, Eric and I decided to have a "Have an Awesome Successful West Coast Tour" lunch together at Morimoto, the ridiculously cool restaurant featured above. Damn I wish I had a photograph of the huge hologram on the wall as you enter to post here, but, you get the idea just by looking at the interior where we ate.

What can I say. There's a reason Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton and the like dine at Morimoto when their tours bring them to Philadelphia. It's like nothing you've ever seen; the food is INSANE. And um, yeah, for those on a budget, forget it...lunch for the three of us, without alcohol, was triple digits. But oh my God, so, so worth it.

Eric, who is hardcore vegetarian, started off with the cold vegetable and creamy tofu salad, which was like eating a veggie cheesecake without the dairy. It was so sick Julie and I kept reaching over the table with our chopsticks and stealing bites. Julie and I were actually less adventurous which is very rare -- we split a roasted eel and avocado roll which we deemed to be the absolute best we've ever had, and that counts stellar restaurants we've visited in both San Francisco and Seattle. Julie, who is a vegetarian who eats seafood (yeah, I know), ordered a smoked bronzino salad, which was a huge heap of greens with not only fresh raw fish but smoked strips of bronzino that actually looked and tasted like bacon. Eric's main course was udon noodles with ginger, sesame, and scallions in a home made soy based sauce; I wimped out on anything more adventurous because they had fresh artic char which I adore and it was sick...plus it came with miso soup which included that creamy, in house made tofu in huge sheets...it was a like a warped version of french onion soup. But it was the dessert that really got us...Julie had a slab of fudge topped with brown sugar gelato, chopped banana ganache, and a banana tuille...I had marscapone wasabi tiramisu (don't even try to picture it...just know that it was the best dessert I've ever had in my life)...Eric had a chocolate caramel parfait which was really two thick Belgian chocolate cookies held together with frozen chocolate mousse and green tea caramel, dotted with a blood orange drizzle.

Right now I'm so full I may never eat again.

And if you believe that...

Okay, what else. Let's see. For the past week, I've been struggling to write my first CD review, and if this were the old days, I'd be surrounded by a thousand sheets of crumpled papers. I suck as a music critic. I don't know how to do it without coming off like a pompous poseur. I only know that I'm a music fanatic and every once in a while -- though alas a lot less these days thanks to the music industry being what it is -- a CD comes along which moves my soul to the point where I want to listen to it exclusively...and even better, it makes me want to write, have sex, call all my friends and make them buy it...and well, that's my gut reaction to View by Bryan Beller. By the way, please click on the link for View even if you aren't flush right now, because it's got great sources for ordering CDs on line.

Anyway, as I struggled to find the right words to describe the CD and sound like the hell I know what I'm talking about (musically, that is), I went to Bryan's site to see if I could read any prior reviews which would help me out, and I ended up instead reading what Bryan himself had written about the CD...and trust me, I'm not taking the easy way out...what he had to say is so fucking interesting I'm posting the link here...and just to whet your appetites, the following excerpt:

"Writing and recording a solo album was the absolute last thing on my mind in the summer of 2002. I'd just hiked Mt. Whitney and was thinking about buying a house - that's how far away my mind was from any kind of creative musical output. But like a lot of good things, it all came to me when I wasn't looking for it.

I was down in San Diego in August of 2002, doing some recording for Mike Keneally's upcoming 2004 release (working title: Dog). Since I was down for the weekend anyway, I brought my bike along with me and decided to go riding in the hills of a small mountain town called Alpine. Somewhere along the ride, a melody popped into my head. Ten minutes later, there was a second part to go along with it. I turned around and headed back to my Motel 6 to see if I could remember what I'd heard.

I had my Taylor acoustic/electric with me. I also had a little microcassette recorder I carried with me, in case I got any literary ideas I wanted to capture. So I turned the thing on "record" and played the melody. Then I played the harmony while the melody played back through the worst little speaker you've ever heard. The idea became the core for the first track on the record, "Bear Divide."

It suddenly hit me that I was going to have to buy a digital multi-track recorder and see if this was an isolated incident or not..."

And if for some strange reason I haven't tempted you to click on the above links, well, here's a photo of the extremely good looking Bryan:



Still undecided? Well then, go have a listen and get yourself a free download right here.

Let me know what you think, okay? Bryan's a kindred spirit and I'm hoping to catch him playing in person sooner rather than later.

I actually met Bryan in cyberworld via my son, Eric, who recently played a gig with him and Mike Keneally (another musical monster and more on him in a future post). Which brings me to my next comment - how cool it is to have a blog which connects me with incredible people all over the world.

My latest acquaintenance comes via my usual daily blog stalking. I saw that the same blog which I linked a few days ago and called me a Rock and Roll Mama (ha) picked up the Wal-Mart piece I wrote last week and here I am again!. I really like his treatment of my story but I got nervous over his tags...heh...you'll see what I mean if you go over and have a look. Anyway, the fellow who runs the site emailed me to give me a heads up and of course I wrote back and told him I'd already found it...anyway, after a few emails it turns out we have bizarre things in common ...but more importantly, don't just read the article about me...he's got incredibly cool things in his blog, even a recipe I printed out for chick pea curry.

Anyway, he's one of "us"...I'm just happy there are some of us left...music loving liberals -- you know, people who would like to see Rush Limbaugh and his listeners hanging by their testicles in Times Square. (Well, testicles if applicable...if not, use your imagination)...I know I'm a week late to this controversy but don't think I haven't been ranting and raving for days that said asshole is still on the radio and not in jail and worse, that he's got an legion of idiots tuning in and nodding their moronic heads in agreement.

Oh, and by the way. I hope all of you are boycotting CBS. Don't know why? Google the Dixie Chicks. And for god sakes, go see their new documentary. I don't like country music as a rule, but Natalie is my hero.

Oh well. More tomorrow. Still waiting for approval of my domain transfer (still don't know what I'm talking about but I'm quoting an email I got) so the new site still isn't ready to go live but I have the link for the mock-up (if that's the term) and it's so awesome...I'm really excited.

But...I'm really gonna miss my kids. The next time I see them again after tomorrow will be like Thanksgiving. Arghhhh......

Later,
xo

Of Dominatrix Spiders and Autographed Breasts...

Julie Slick, Eric Slick, and Adrian Belew in Germany -- July, 2006

Hard to believe how the summer flew by, but the Belew Trio is taking off in a couple of days for a very cool west coast tour -- here are the dates and venues:

● Nov. 01 - Granada Theater - Dallas, TX
● Nov. 02 - Cactus Cafe - Austin, TX
● Nov. 04 - Santa Fe Brew. Co. - Santa Fe, NM
● Nov. 05 - Rhythm Room - Phoenix, AZ
● Nov. 07 - Belly Up - Solana Beach, CA
● Nov. 08 - The Vault 350 - Long Beach, CA
● Nov. 09 - Slim's - San Francisco, CA
● Nov. 10 - Villa Montalvo - Saratoga, CA
● Nov. 11 - The Catalyst - Santa Cruz, CA
● Nov. 13 - McDonald Theatre - Eugene, OR
● Nov. 14 - Triple Door - Seattle, WA
● Nov. 15 - Aladdin Theater - Portland, OR

Alas I will not be tagging along this time because I have serious writing and editing to do, but Gary is joining the tour in Phoenix and will remain for its entirety, so if you can make a show, by all means go up and introduce yourself -- he's doing the merch -- and hey, pick up some of Adrian's incredible solo CDs which he'll be happy to autograph for you after the show.

In other news, Julie and Eric's project with guitarist Sarah Zimmermann was such a hit in NYC over the weekend that they spent last night in New York again -- this time at an audition -- at the request of an A&R guy and another executive from a record company and no, I haven't talked to them yet, have no idea how it went, and I shouldn't even be saying anything here because it could jinx things so pretend you didn't read this blurb.

Speaking of Eric Slick, here are some fun comments following Mike Keneally's blog post which I posted here a few days about the St. Louis show he did with Eric...scroll down and have a read...but yeah, okay, I'll paste one of the remarks here because it cracked me up:

"Your comments regarding Eric are dead on the mark. Saw him recently in Philly playing with Mr. Belew and his sister on bass. It was unbelievable and I'm certain I will be listening to him for years to come...and chasing shows where I can see him and talk to him again.

Even his parents were there...and it prompted a strange "thank you" from me...thanks for procreating because your children are INCREDIBLE".

Ha ha - yep, I remember the man who made that remark, and I also remember getting all teary eyed. Heh heh...but I won't say it's the first time I've ever been thanked for...never mind.

Oh, admit it. You know you've missed me these past few days. I've been in blogger hell - I've lost two posts and ended up saying Screw it; my new website isn't ready -- not because of my new webmistress, who is absolutely wonderful and has indulged every one of my vain, silly nitpicks -- but because I transferred domain and hosting servers. I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, my webmistress -- and I just love saying that word...it makes me think of a dominatrix spider...has been handling it and apparently my prior domain was "locked" and Eric, former webmaster, had to authorize the transfer...and as I write about it now, I find this whole thing hilarious (my repeated use of techie words which have absolutely no meaning to me at all). So I was going to try and post again the other day even though the new site isn't ready and I haven't finished the CD review I promised...well, I haven't finished it to my liking because I want to get it right and do it justice...but then, while doing the rather unglamorous domestic goddess task of taking out the trash, I bent down the wrong way and twisted my back. Sitting at the computer yesterday was sheer torture and I ended up going to bed at like 8:00 p.m. all stoned on Advil and Pinot Grigio. I'm still not up to snuff this morning and find I have to keep getting up out of my chair and walking around, damn it, but it's too early for wine at the moment though I suppose I could pretend I'm in England where it's now lunchtime. I sob at that thought because exactly one year ago today, I was in London following an outrageously fun evening in Leeds with a fellow writer I've known for years in cyberworld but I'd never met him in the flesh prior to that time and don't believe what they say about internet friendships...they can be the coolest thing ever...well, if you aren't a psycho and have built in psycho-radar, that is...I do believe I reported my very first cyber experience here..but if not, suffice it to say I met someone in an on line writing community who enjoyed water sports and suffice it to say I almost had a heart attack when I realized he wasn't talking about boating.

Okay, where was I. Right. Getting back to Eric, who seems to appear on forum boards all over the world daily, here's something I found on Mike Keneally's Google group where a member had this to say:

"...Stayed for the show Friday night at Off Broadway. The bar is located across the street from the now defunct Lemp Brewery and the oldest building in the US still standing that brewed beer. I ran into Dan Kinney at the clinic and he was promoting the show so I offered my services to help him in whatever capacity he needed in so I could sit in on rehearsal Friday afternoon. The guys showed up at around 3 and since this was Eric's first chance to play live with the guys they went thru pretty much the whole show. The sound man wasn't anywhere to be found so they just went with stage sound, no vocals and played for 2 1/2 hours. Quite a fantastic experience might I add. Mr. Slick is obviously a tremendously talented drummer - they dove right in to Breakfast and where all the crazy-assed 13/4 time changes are were a little rough at first, but after 10 minutes he had it down. I was amazed at how well he executed on the material after just listening to various shows and CD's. Watching someone 19 years old play for the very first time with Mike and Bryan was a genuine treat. Around 6pm Bryan and Scott took off to get coffee and Mike started playing Zombie Woof with Eric which was also a great treat....

Someone was videoing and Dan Kinney has a soundboard so I hope to have a copy of this show to trade soon. Here's an incomplete setlist (again, listening rather than obsessing on details....)

Snowcow
Uglytown
Pencil Music
Scotch
Supermarket People
My Dilemma
1988 / Dolphins Suite
Panda
Pride is a Sin
Cause of Breakfast
Quimby
Inca Roads
First 90 seconds of The Entertainer
Secret Word - "Lemp" - Mike would make a rock gesture and the crowd was instructed to yell LEMP!

Never seen Mike in trio format and very much enjoyed it. All three definitely went "balls the the wall" and I was staggered that after having his first rehearsal with the guys 8 hours earlier Eric NAILED the show. What really amazed me most is that the kid didn't sweat - every drummer I know has to change shirts during set breaks - this kid walks off stage after shredding thru a marathon 2 hour Keneally show bone dry.

All in all a great 48 hours even though I am absolutely shagged. I drove back from St Louis at 6 am Sat morning (3 1/2 hours) after getting about 3 hours sleep, picked up my family and headed to Omaha (3 hour drive) for a housewarming party and then drove back to KC this morning in the rain. I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

Aw, thank you, kind sir. Eric will blush when I show him this.

Jeff Duke over at Krimson News had this to say about Slick brownies and the upcoming Podcast he did with Julie and Eric which will be broadcast on the site next week:

"It is SO Monday…
23 10 2006

A good weekend. Got to make Slick brownies with my sister in law which was mucho fun!..."

Hooray for the Slicks!
20 10 2006

This evening we did a really fun interview with Eric and Julie Slick from the Adrian Belew Power Trio. They were absolutely too cool and went to great lengths to fit the interview into their schedule. Three cheers to them and Robin, their mother, who helped get it all setup. It’s always a pleasing to me when we do the podcast. It reminds me what’s fun about it. The rest is just work. The interview itself is generally fun.

I have one more part to the interview with the Redundant Rocker which will be out next week. I had to take another week off due to some further personal needs. Don’t worry, I don’t plan on making this a habit, but I’m sure you all understand.

This week has been productive in many ways, and tomorrow should provide some completion in that respect.

More Later-

Slick Brownies
16 10 2006

First, sunrise from last Friday @ 8:23AM:

Sunrise 10-13-06

Big thanks to Julie Slick who cleared up a confusion point for me regarding the “Slick Brownie” recipe of delight, terror and torment. The recipe calls for a 12×18 baking sheet. I’d never used a cookie sheet to make brownies before, and since I needed to split them anyways, I went with two 12×9 inch pans.

Although I have not yet tried them, they look perfect, half went with me to work, half went with Laurie to work, both intended for our respective bosses. Of course we’ll have to assist them in eating.

The recipe is insane, I could almost imagine the Fonz jumping the brownie batter with a motorcycle. ;)

I can’t wait to try them, but my boss is stuck downtown today in meetings. Hopefully she’ll be back soon...."

Ha ha, I've spoken with Jeff and yep, he loves Julie's brownies...I guess so if he made them again with his sister-in-law and let me tell you, besides the massive quanity of ingredients, those things are hard work so good on you, Jeff. Hey, if they are good enough for Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, and Porcupine Tree...

Okay, enough about my kids.

Writing news time. My daily google stalking has yielded a find: Joyfully Reviewed had very nice things to say about Another Bite of the Apple (which is still highest rated in erotica over at Fictionwise -- here's an excerpt of their review:

"...Another Bite of the Apple is a truly captivating story. This triangle of friends and past lovers will hold your attention to the very end. I couldn’t put this book down until I was done. Elizabeth’s emotions ring true to her character, and you’ll be hoping that this good girl gets the right guy in the end. Rob is a hot character who really just makes Elizabeth sparkle. I love Another Bite of the Apple and will eagerly look for more stories from Robin Slick!"

So thanks to the readers over at Joyfully Reviewed...I really appreciate that.

Finally, of course it wouldn't be a true Robin post without a blurb or two about Neil Gaiman.

Okay, first of all, I read in his journal that he participated in the six word writing contest over at Wired Magazine. This contest was based on a Hemingway story which was merely this: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Brilliant, isn't it? If I have to explain why, go away. Ha. Anyway, Neil's contribution to this was pretty damn cool...

"I’m dead. I’ve missed you. Kiss … ?"

What's funny is that I remember doing this very contest as an exercise a couple of years ago in a real world writing workshop I belonged to at the time...I did a bunch of them but think they are on my old computer, damn it, which had a very ugly crash two years ago and I was remiss in backing up. I do remember this one I wrote, though, because it was my favorite:

"My husband was wearing a negligee."

I dunno, I kind of like that. Too bad I didn't know about the Wired thing...or...err...wasn't solicited. Ha. As if.

And now for Susan Henderson, who had the world's coolest question on her blog this week...and if you haven't answered yet there's still time (and it's about music!)...here is the latest from the private sick Slick Gaiman photo album:

First, we have Neil looking very Neil-like (sigh...) at Icon, where, at first, it appears he's doing a question and answer session and nothing seems amiss.



But wait. What's that you see up there, Neil?



Blimey! Are they what I think they are?



Why yes. They are. What's that? You want my autograph where?



Well, okay. I guess I can do that. I'm a very obliging guy.

Ha ha...seriously, he's so sweet and easygoing it's insane. But I wonder what that's really like for him as a man. I mean, obviously, those are very nice breasts. And um, one can't help but notice he did a lot more than merely sign his name...

So here's what I want to know. After millions of what has to be similar requests and many years of marriage, is Neil now like a doctor? Immune to that sort of thing?

God I hope not.

Later,
xo

The high/low post...or...seeing your kids perform an awesome show and then being pulled over by a State Trooper

The Sarah Zimmermann Trio featuring the amazing Sarah Z on guitar, Julie Slick on bass, and Eric Slick on drums...and yeah..finally some good pics of Eric with his Gaiman haircut and um, Eric, who is now "available", is a freaking chick magnet and I'm glad he's not home to read this or he'd make me delete it but like, you know, I refuse to be censored.



Hi, Eric.



Julie and Sarah trading licks



The beautiful Julie Slick, playing, as usual, with pic in mouth.

So last night was unbelievable...this trio of Paul Green School of Rock Music All-Star grads decided to form a band, had a total of four practices, and courtesy of Paul, landed gigs over the weekend at three separate venues -- one in Philadelphia Thursday night, one at the New York Knitting Factory Saturday night, and last night at the Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, New Jersey, where I'd never been, by the way, and was chuffed to be right around the corner from the infamous The Stone Pony.

Sigh..the Stone Pony is where Bruce Springsteen got his start, and not to go off topic, but those of you who know me are aware that I am not a Bruce fan (well, I thought his first 2-3 albums were decent when he had David Sancious on keyboards and there was some good song writing...but when he did the Born in the USA CD he lost me totally and I became a huge non-fan). Which leads me to my next off-topic topic: Our local pseudo-intellectual public radio college radio station out of University of Pennsylvania, WXPN, has been running a countdown for the past few weeks of the top all time 885 artists (their station is FM 88.5) and right now we are up to #10, Joni Mitchell. Anyway, click on the site and have a look at the list so far. I'm having heart failure over the listeners' votes. Arghh...you are all such geeks! Oh, there's a surprise. Anyway, I'm outraged at how far down some true musical heroes are on the list and what crap singer songwriter lame-o stuff made the top 50. And I'm gritting my teeth right now because I just know Springsteen is coming in at #3 or #2, beating out just about everyone.

Here's my guesses for the remaining 8: Beatles, Stones, U2, Dylan, Springsteen, Neil Young, and are they really going to do this but...oh god, I don't think they played John Mayer yet and if he beats out everyone from David Bowie to Lou Reed to John Lennon I may take a bullet to the head; and The Grateful Dead (kill me now, please...I hate few bands more than I hated the Dead).

Anyone want to send me a quick email and make a wager? Cos' you know these are the remaining eight bands. How original.

Don't get me started.

Anyway, back to the show. So Saturday night the SZ Trio played the Knit to an ultra hipster crowd who came up to them after the show and told them they're going to be famous. Julie and Eric are both deferring to Sarah in this project and neither one are advertising that they are currently in Adrian Belew's band. They didn't have a huge crowd but it was an enthusiastic one, which is basically what they had last night at Asbury Lanes. What an awesome venue that was, as you can see by the photos I hope. A bowling alley straight out of the late fifties. And there had been a wedding (yeah, I know...how cool) there the night before so the way cool chef who runs the snack bar there took out all of these huge shrimp and crabcakes and pasta and not only heated them up, but he made like dijon sauces and scampi and we felt like we were at a black-tie event stuffing our faces with all this fantastic food before the doors opened to the general public.

These kids rock. They played a mix of originals but since they are such a new band, did a couple covers -- Message in a Bottle, Third Stone from the Sun, and Traveling Riverside Blues. They freaking brought the house down. This guy behind me was going nuts. "There should be a million people here to witness this...this band is fucking amazing!" When they launched into an original tune, he lost it altogether. "Listen to this! Listen to this! I'm going to be singing this song all night. I'm never going to get it out of my head. This is unbelievable."

And then he took like a hundred pics of them with his cell phone. It was like he knew he was witnessing something really special. So Gary goes out to have a cigarette with him and spills the beans about J&E being in Adrian's band and the guy just about pooped himself. He ran back into the venue and reported back to all of his friends, who then swarmed the band after the show and shook their hands, etc.

Sooo...it was an awesome night, except for one thing. We got pulled over by the State Police on the way home. I'm still shaking and even this morning, still not over it. God Bless America (snort).

Julie and Eric had opted to go home with Sarah so that they could have another practice today at Julie's studio in Downingtown. So Gary and I are driving down the New Jersey Turnpike. We drive a wussy Jeep Liberty because we've needed to have SUVs ever since it became obvious that we were J&E's roadies. In other words, no more fun MG convertibles and Camaros and the like which we used to own...we were forced to be grown-ups and get a huge gas guzzling car big enough to cart drum sets and amplifiers around. Gary sets cruise control for 65 mph. First of all, that car can't even go any faster without shaking; secondly and most important, before ditching my full-time job to write, I worked for two decades as a personal injury paralegal and spent my days looking at photographs of hideous accidents and bruised and battered victims. So no way in hell would I allow Gary to speed. Though he's not a speeder anyway.

But here's what Gary does do. He smokes cigarettes (a habit he started at age 30 when he stopped drinking!) and has shoulder length hair. It's my guess that the State Troopers saw a long haired hippie with something lit hanging out of his mouth driving a Jeep; it was late at night; and we were the subject of age old sixties' discrimination.

It was just a week or two ago that I blogged here about sharing Alfred Hitchcock's irrational fear of policemen. When I saw those flashing blue and red lights behind us, even though I'm the one who had the two beers and not Gary, I started to shake uncontrollably. Naturally, after getting pulled over, I'm the one who had to roll down their window. I could barely get a coherent sentence out. There were two officers. The first one said "New Jersey State Police. Please give me your license, registration, and insurance card."

Gary starts fumbling through his wallet. Of course he'd just removed his registration card from his wallet two weeks ago when he had the car inspected and I was acting like such a nutcase he couldn't remember where he put it. He had me empty the glove compartment in my lap and I started dropping stuff everywhere.

The other trooper glares at me and says "Where are you coming from tonight!"

"Asbury Lanes," I stuttered.

"What were you doing there?"

Huh? When did I leave America? Oh right. This is Bush country.

Okay, here's where I should tell you that Gary is still a hard core hippie and I could see a snarl starting to form on his face. Oh dear god, Gary, I silently pleaded...please don't.

"We went to see our kids play in a band," he barked back, barely disguising his hatred.

"They're in a famous rock band," I blabbered.

"How old are your kids," asked the completely humorless trooper, who, by the way, looked young enough to be my son. The other one had meanwhile returned to his car to do a computer check on big bad Gary.

"19 and 20" Gary replied, because by now of course, I was having a complete nervous breakdown wondering if Gary'd received any parking tickets I'd neglected to pay and we were going to end up in jail. Another horrible thought I had was that the troopers were going to pull us from the car and handcuff us and Julie, Eric, and Sarah would be driving by at any moment and witness this.

Have I mentioned we were completely innocent??? I mean, I could see if they pulled us over in 1977...yeah, yeah, we both would have had cans of beers between our legs and lit joints hanging out of our mouths, but Jesus Christ, those days are long gone...like, twenty years gone. But they made me feel so damn guilty and terrified (just call me Mrs. Hitchcock) I acted like we were hauling 18 kilos of cocaine in our yuppie-mobile.

Gary then says "How could I have been speeding? I'm on cruise control at 65."

"You were also cruising in the left lane, Sir. The left lane in New Jersey is for passing only."

That WAS SO NOT TRUE!

Oh god, Gary, please don't argue with them, I again begged him subliminally. Sadly, I was very close to losing control of my bladder. (Damn those two beers and the two hour ride home)

And then, in a completely bizarre joke by my twisted higher power, and I swear to God this is true...we were listening to the radio and Pink Floyd's "PIGS" came on. I looked over at Gary completely mortified because I knew exactly what he was going to do: He turned it up!

(Okay, by this time, trooper #2 had also gone back to his vehicle...I guess they needed to figure out what to do with us. Gary the rebel and Robin sitting there with eyes like saucers and drool dripping from the side of her mouth)

Anyway, after making us sit there for twenty minutes, they returned to our car, gave us a ticket for speeding at 83 miles an hour (totally fucking impossible and we're going to fight this like you would not believe...plus, get this, they no longer put the amount of the ticket on it; I have to go on line this morning to get the amount and I'm guessing it's going to be like $300.00 in which case I'm going to have a stroke altogether).

So that was my night.

Gary made me calm down and started laughing.

"Look, Rob, would you rather they think we're middle-aged grandparents? Be happy we still look cool enough to be pulled over by the cops."

Right. I'll remember that when I have to go to court with you and again come face to face with those horrible, horrible Nazi State Troopers.

Actually, Gary is correct and I am so glad we still look young and hip and are going to fight "The Man"...our hearing is scheduled for November 2, but that's when Gary and the kids are going to be on tour with Adrian out in California and they won't be back until November 16. So I'm going to have said hearing continued until January, 2007 I hope. Have I mentioned I'm going to be all alone here for 16 days? I'm so excited I can't stand it, but it did occur to me that makes me the sole caretaker for the dog, which means early morning and late night walks (arghhh...) and feeding myself. I'm a really great cook but for the past couple of years, Gary and Julie have been having some sort of gourmet battle every night, and while I've been the lucky recipient of their incredible efforts, I've lost control of my own kitchen and if they aren't around, I forget to eat.

So one of two things will happen. I'm either going to lose ten pounds while they are away or order take-out every night and it's going to be stuff like Thai food and pizza. Here's hoping for the former, not the latter.

Anyway, in other news, and yeah, yeah, there's more, my new website will launch later today -- should it be ready this morning I will come in and edit this post -- and I'm going to do my first bonafide CD review tomorrow -- something I seldom do because I'm not a music critic but a music lover who will do exactly what a writer isn't supposed to do and start it out with "I love this CD!" But this is a special one and warrants some serious attention and so I will leave you now so that I can work on it and give it the justice it deserves.

Later,
xo