Rock School All--Stars DVDs

Wow! I don't know what else to say. As I wrote here yesterday, David Neidorf, Sara's father, sent me DVDs of all three Rock School All-Star/Ike Willis DVDs as well as a DVD of the December 26 show at B.B. Kings. We watched some of them last night and they are fucking incredible! The filming itself, the sound quality, the way they're packaged...I was blown away.

But of course that's just a tiny piece of it.

The music -- man, I just couldn't get enough. It's really the first time I've seen this group of All Stars filmed "professionally" and their level of excellence is mind blowing.

I want to talk about the final Ike Show in New York on Sunday because that's the one that made me lose it altogether and it's the one we watched in its entirety before we started getting sleepy.

It begins with the first Rock School Shred A Thon. Haffie, Matt Manser, and Matt Bosco competed, each stepping into the spotlight for a shredding solo. They were all fucking amazing! Then Paul says "Anyone else?", and out walks C.J. C.J. launches into a King Diamond type lead, the crowd goes crazy -- well, the crowd went crazy from the first note Haffie played to start it off -- and then Paul says, anyone else? And bass player Mike Connor stepped up. It was great! (and hilarious)

Anyway, the audience picked the winner by applause, and Haffie won, though all four guitarists and Mike were so good it's frightening. There aren't any other guitarists out there, famous or otherwise, as good as this group. Well, let me amend that, the only other guitarists just as good are the former Rock School All-Stars who've since graduated the program like Louie Graf, Matt Hollenberg, Jon Hauptman, etc. I always have believed, and I know I'm the first one who ever said it but now everyone connected with Rock School is saying it, that in the very near future you're going to see a whole slew of famous musicians who are Paul Green School of Rock graduates. These Rock School All Stars, past and present, are going to make the 90s Seattle grunge movement look like a minor blip on the music radar scene...and you heard it here first!

Anyway, getting back to the show...

Watching/hearing Allie Hauptman perform her last All-Star show before heading off to college was a real heartbreaker. I don't think she ever sounded better singing Whipping Post and Ike Willis really added another dimension when he sang back up. Holy cow, what a send off - doing your last performance with someone who played and partied with John Lennon.

Again, I have to really commend Dave Neidorf on his filming. I wonder if he does this for a living?

The next song was Packard Goose. Ike sang, Eric played drums, and then Paul Green brought out Allie and remarked to the audience how much she's meant to the program (and he's not kidding!) and then she grabbed a mic and quoted Frank Zappa...the camera zoomed in on her again along with Ike on guitar and Eric playing drums in between...I was a blithering idiot and must have gone through a box of Kleenex. Then Eric launched into one of the most amazing drum solos - I was watching his hands...man, he is so fast the sticks were making "trails".

Speaking of drum solos, 14 year old Ms. Sara Neidorf smoked the crowd with one, and as I've said, if I shut my eyes and didn't know better, I would have thought I was listening to my son doing that solo at her age.

That's the highest compliment I can pay a drummer, Sara. And she totally rocks out on Hot for Teacher as does our boy Joey Randazzo, or Joey Reno as he's now called, who does the vocals on that number, and is yet another drummer who breaks the mold -- i.e., he can sing! (As Paul says, it's scary to give a drummer a mic...I guess he's thinking of Phil Collins ha ha...well, I am, anyway. Bleh. Best episode of South Park ever: Phil Collins walking around with his Oscar. Ha!)

There are so many other details I can't go in to them all, but I do want to add that of course other than Packard Goose, I really lost it when my son played drums and sang on The Weight with strep throat, (okay, it was before he was diagnosed the following day. I never would have let him perform had I know how sick he really was; he went to the doctor the following morning) and to hear his voice all husky as he tried for those notes made me cry big time.

Anyway, I need to watch the rest of the DVDs tonight and I'll report back with more highlights.

I also need to get Eric to upload the tons of photographs I've taken at recent Rock School concerts so that I can show everyone better pics of the current All-Stars as well as more of Madison Flego's amazing photos. She's got the whole Women What Rock series and I'm dying to post them here.

Okay, that's my Rock School report for the day.

I forget if I have anything else to report in the writing world, but you know me, if anything interesting occurs there or otherwise, I'll be back.

Just call me The Terminator.

On second thought, please don't.

Ever.

Happy Birthday Eric Clapton!

So today my man Eric Clapton is sixty years old. How is that possible? If he's sixty, that must mean I'm....substantially younger. Ha.

I was going to do a whole tribute thing here today but Blogspot was out of service this morning when I usually do my entries and I got all pissed and forget what I was going to say.

Just know that Eric and I have a "history" of sorts and someday I will talk about it in detail.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, E.C.! (He named his daughter Julie, too, by the way -- she must be around three years old or so now)

In other news, I am so psyched. One of the Rock School dads, David Neidorf, father of amazing All-Star drummer Sarah, reads my blog and wrote to me asking if I'd like copies of the three DVDs he made of the Ike Willis/Rock School shows earlier this month. Uh, ya think? Ha! So they came in the mail today, and he threw in a bonus - a DVD of the BB King show at Christmas. The DVDs are all beautifully packaged, with pictures of Rock School All-Stars and Ike Willis on the cover, and I cannot wait to get home tonight and watch all four! Of course you know there will be a full report here if I don't die from pleasure first*

By the way, Eric was Sarah's drum teacher and I hear so much of Eric in her playing it makes me teary eyed. She's truly amazing and a future superstar. She's pretty young - I think around 14? I know she's moved on to another teacher now, but it's the same teacher who worked with Eric when he was around Sarah's age - Tim Karsten - and he's great!

I picked Julie up at the airport last night at midnight which means I'm operating on no sleep because I'm awake at dawn. She had an incredible time and is full of stories of cows and chickens running rampant in the roads, dogs on the beach, hippie surfer dudes...Costa Rica sounds wild, my kind of place. It was back to reality for her bigtime, too. Spring Break is over and she had a 9:00 a.m. class.

Oh well. I guess I'd better get back to work. I took a late lunch today and am kind of zoned out from exhaustion. But someone still has to pay the bills...

Alright!

Julie out fishing in Costa Rica. God I love the digital age - she emailed me this pic yesterday.

So hooray! Julie comes home today! Her flight will be in late tonight but she's coming home and I can't wait. Sigh...I know this is in my imminent future, but I really miss her when she's not around. This is the longest separation we've ever had. At least I know if she gets her own apartment this summer I'll still be able to visit for dinner (like every night - god I miss her cooking) but having her in Central America for a week has been torture. I've been walking around here talking to anyone who will listen, which means that the poor dog has had to hear it all.

In other news, I just heard on CNN that Philadelphia is the most depressed city in the United States? We have the most people on anti-depressants and the most suicides per capita?

No fucking way. Who did that survey? Why do I think it's somehow connected with the Schiavo case since of course both families are from Philly?

Ah, screw it. I don't believe in "surveys" anyway. But I do believe that all we get on our news, both local and national, is propaganda. Sad, isn't it? Watch the news on BBC or some of the public T.V. stations with European feeds and you'll see what I mean. Their take on international events is completely different than the homogenized versions we're fed here.

Though they do spend an awful lot of time discussing soccer.

Getting back to the Schiavo case - this never fails to amaze me. Right to lifers threaten death to those who don't share their "right to life" views.

Ah, and to think that's who is running our government right now.

Anyway, enough of that. Here's some more photos from Costa Rica:


Julie's boyfriend Matt petting God knows what...is it a monkey? Is that safe? Hope so!

Matt surfing (who knew?)

Dolphins that came right up to their fishing boat - how cool

Julie, Matt, and Matt's sister, Paige, taking a swim

As promised, Rock School photos

Now that I have the uploading of photos thing worked out thanks to son Eric, I'm reposting my entry of a few days ago.
***************************

Many thanks to one of my all time favorite Rock School female vocalist/guitarists, Madison Flego, for providing me with all of these great photographs. So not only is she an awesome musician, these pics prove she's a very talented photographer as well!

Anyway, I really appreciate her sending these to me - I'm too busy working on the novel writing thing to do any real blogging at the moment.

I may have to post these in batches. The first set is from the infamous Rock School tour this summer:


That's Grace, Lauren, and Stevie laughing (though I'm sure secretly horrified) upon first seeing their hotel room in the now condemned Wild Wild West Casino in Las Vegas.

That's the photographer herself, Madison, on stage in Las Vegas

Louie on stage in Vegas

Allie in the hallway at the Gershwin Hostel in Los Angeles

Everyone jumping into the pool after the final show of the tour in Vegas

Abel, our bus driver throughout

Well, I think that's Jeremy and who, Gina and maybe Cameron? Can't tell...but you Rock School kids will know. Heh. Rough night, guys?

Linkage!

Okay, I'm full of really cool links at the moment.

First, here's a link to hear three songs by Flamingo, my son's fantastic band.

Second, here's a link to see one of his 18th birthday presents, which I must admit, is the coolest gift ever. He gets to go to upstate New York and spend up close and personal time with Levon Helm in his own private studio. Levon Helm is of course the drummer for The Band, and as I've been bragging non stop, Eric now sings "The Weight" and drums along with it and it brings me to tears every time I hear it.

Third, here's a link to a new website, www.Farmer-Ted.com, dedicated to political activism...i.e...stop the madness currently going on in the White House; get off your asses and PROTEST!!! You can submit stories, photos, and there's a talk back forum as well. Make this site a daily stop, okay?

What Does It All Mean?

So Newmarket Films is disbanding and was sold to Time Warner/HBO last week and I've read this article a couple of times this morning and it's still confusing me. I don't know if it will or won't affect the release of Rock School. So I'll post it here and maybe you guys can figure out. I note that the paragraph titled "Release Slate Unclear" is where they mention Rock School.

Sigh...I hope everything is cool. It seems like it, but it's early and I probably should re-read this article when I'm more awake and can make sense of it. I can't see them holding back the release date yet again but eww, I so hate Time Warner...I'm unhappy about this latest development. I guess you already know how I feel about companies who back the President. Ha.

Remember when we were kids and we were told in school how America was so great because monopolies were illegal? My my, how times have changed. Now big corporations buy out other corporations all the time and eventually, the United States (and rest of the world) is probably going to be owned by one mother company if that hasn't secretly happened already. Mom and pop stores have disappeared on every level -- from local drug stores to hardware stores to book shops--ugh, it makes me physically ill.

In other news, I'm missing my daughter, Julie, so much I can't take it. As you might have read here, she's been in Costa Rica all week on spring break. She emailed me a digital pic yesterday which she'd kill me if I posted here even though she looks drop dead beautiful, glowing, even, but, well, she's in a bikini playing in the surf on the beach and I think I'd better not. She's having a blast - every day an adventure. But thank God, she's coming home tomorrow night.

Julie, you'll be so proud of me - we're having turkey chili for dinner tonight - low fat. They'll be leftovers for you when you get home. Though we did discover something very, very nasty over the weekend - Eric and I bought pints of Dove Ice Cream. You don't want to know how good that is. So good that I made a comparison to dessert at Le Bec Fin. Eric had chocolate ganache...the most incredible chocolate ice cream ever, topped with Dove ganache, and full of Dove Chocolate chunks throughout. I opted for the toffee ganache...vanilla ice cream with chunks of toffee and topped with the same chocolate ganache.

It's to die for. I don't think I will eat anything else this week but my low fat chili and ice cream. Ha.

Finally, I finished the revised first 100 pages of The Tour this weekend which means I did absolutely nothing else around here (other than make chili and eat ice cream) but I'm feeling pretty good about it. I figure I'll print it out today and go over it again tonight while Eric is out - he's going to Guitar Center to buy a new mandolin. He plays about 75 different instruments; he's so fucking talented.

And yep, the kids are definitely playing in Vermont on Sunday, May 1 - it's part of a three day mini swing through New England. I can't believe I'm missing this trip -- I have so many writer friends living in that area. Anyway, the All-Stars are playing Harpers Ferry, MA, Burlington, and there may be a third date but I haven't found it yet. Damn it! But okay, I am extremely excited to be attending the book convention those dates and signing real live print copies of Three Days in New York so I guess I will survive. Sorry to keep repeating that - I guess I still don't believe it's finally happening.

Anyway, there's always the twelve city east coast tour at the end of July. It ends on August 3 on one of those cruises around the Statue of Liberty in NYC; then the kids leave the next morning for Germany from the Newark airport so they'll be sleeping over. Though I will be taking the NYC cruise (ha - how could I miss that?) I'll be on the train home solo that night. I'm going to pass on Germany. Eric's dad will be going instead.

Hahahaha - can't wait to hear those stories upon his return.

P.S. The Rock School tour photographs I posted below sent to me by Madison Flego seem to have disappeared. I will have to get Eric to upload them for me to another site later on so I can re-post them. I have no idea how that happened.

Holy shit, another drummer!

MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters) -- Drummer Paul Hester from the New Zealand bands Split Enz and Crowded House has been found dead in a park in the southern Australian city of Melbourne, apparently after committing suicide, a fan Web site says.

Australian police on Monday confirmed the body of a man in his 40s was found in Elsternwick Park near Hester's Melbourne home. Police said the death was not suspicious, but they would not release the man's name.

"I am devastated. I have lost one of my best mates," former Crowded House singer Neil Finn told Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Hester, 46, failed to return home from walking his two dogs on Saturday night, said the newspaper on Monday.

The Web site, frenz.com, said "...Paul Hester of Split Enz, Crowded House, Largest Living Things, and many other great projects, has taken his own life."

"It is not a hoax or a rumor. At this point, it has been confirmed though we have no other details at this time."

Hester played in several Melbourne bands before joining New Zealand band Split Enz in 1983.

He and Neil Finn formed Crowded House with bassist Nick Seymour in 1985. Hester quit Crowded House in 1994.

Finn, along with brother Tim, is on tour in Britain.

"I was a big fan and liked him enormously," Australian entertainment reporter Richard Wilkins, who worked with Hester during his Crowded House days, said.

"He was really well respected. He was a great drummer and a great singer and a great band member," Wilkins said.

Quick note: 2004 Million Writers Award

Just a reminder to place your vote for best on line story, 2004, and I admit it, I'm campaigning for my pal, Alicia Gifford, who wrote this amazing story, Toggling the Switch. Vote here but please, don't just vote, read her story as well as the others nominated. They are all incredible.

Back later with some really great Rock School photos.

Higher Ground?

Anyone know anything about this?

As I was making my usual Google rounds, I see the kids are scheduled for a performance Sunday May 1 at Higher Ground in Burlington, Vermont? I just asked a still asleep Eric, who said he has no idea what I'm talking about.

Sigh...it figures. I'll be on a plane coming home from a book signing in St. Louis the afternoon of May 1.

I'll post more info as soon as I find out about this. Damn it, I always wanted to visit Vermont! Oh well.

Another one bites the dust...

Guitarist Rod Price of Foghat Dies at 57

Thu Mar 24, 9:39 AM ET

WILTON, New Hampshire - Guitarist Rod Price, founding member of the blues boogie band Foghat, died Tuesday after falling down a stairway at his home, a family friend said. He was 57.

The London native's solos drove Foghat to three platinum and eight gold records during the band's quarter-century career. After many years of touring he settled in Wilton in 1994.

Many in town knew Price as a loving father who never missed his son's baseball, soccer or basketball games. Fewer people knew of Price's musical background.

Price had played with Champion Jack Dupree, Eddie Kirkland, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon and Honey Boy Edwards.

In recent years, Price concentrated on his blues projects, cutting several CDs and giving private guitar lessons at his home.

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

Damn it, this getting older stuff sucks, though yeah, yeah, it does beat the alternative. While I admit I am not a die hard Foghat fan, I was in fact a die hard Savoy Brown fan, which is the band from which Foghat arose. Also, another member/producer of Foghat was Philadelphia native Nicky Jameson, who started out with the American Dream, and if anyone out there ever gets their hands on that CD (I have the album), you can name your price and I'll pay it.

Yeah, the rock world as I know it is slowing crumbling. John and George are dead; my man Eric Clapton will be sixty years old next Wednesday. My brain can't comprehend that. And ugh, 2005 started out as year of the dead drummer - within a month we lost Jim Capaldi, Keith Knudsen, Elvin Jones, and Spencer Dryden. If you don't know who they are, use Google and learn, damn it.

And for fuck's sake, if one more person tries to discuss American Idol with me today, I promise you, I will climb up in a tower with a high powered rifle and start shooting. Got it?

I do not watch that show; I will not watch that show; I hate everything connected with that show. It's not music. It's dogshit. It's what Republicans want kids to watch so they won't actually pick up instruments and write protest songs.

The end.