I'm home finally but not without a bit of drama. Our genius of a tour manager booked us a flight from Palm Beach to LA with a 30 min. layover in Houston. 30 min. is not enough and we missed our connection in Houston. Why did we miss it? Because Continental Airlines is run by a bunch of friggin' morons. I'm usually not hard on airline workers, I travel enough I know it's a tough gig. But I've never seen such a collection of incompetence as I did yesterday in Houston which is Continental's hub.

First of all our flight from FL to TX was 2.5 hours long. Not bad unless you are flying on a CRJ (which is the smallest jet plane around, seats only 50 pr sp), it was terribly uncomfortable. Then we get to Houston and are in a holding pattern for about 15 minutes before we land. Then after we land the airplane keeps driving from concourse to concourse, the pilot finally comes on the speaker and tells us that the airport doesn't have a gate for us, every time they tell them a gate to go to there is another plane parked there. Genius. We finally land and miss our flight to LA. Everyone from Continental was rude. Luckily we got on the third flight from Houston to LA on standby. It sucked. Steer clear from Continental if you can.

It's amazing how many of my fellow alumns from Western Michigan University are living in LA now. An old friend is in town so I'm having some of the old Bronco gang over to the house tonight for a hang. Should be fun.

Good to be home!

Enough humidity.
Enough wind.
Enough pastel clothing.
Enough hotel food.
Enough leatherly-tanned people.

I'm ready to leave Florida and go home ... fo' real!

Sunday I'll finally be headed home. Although I was home for a minute in between the NYC and FL trips it feels like I've been gone for a much longer time. I have to say Palm Beach is pretty boring. No clubs, no cheap resteraunts, no cheap shops, not many young people ... and no wifey! So yeah, I'm ready to move on.

For those of you who haven't heard (and I'm sure there aren't many of you) Kobe Bryant scored 81 points against the Raptors the other night. This is an incredible feat. Jordan never scored that many, neither did Bird or Magic or Kareem. Some say it might be the best performance ever.

I like the Lakers and always root for them unless they are playing the Pacers, my hometown team. But I've always liked Kobe. It's been quite fashionable to diss Kobe lately with all of the drama he had with the rape accusations and all. But love him or hate him make no doubt about it he a tremendous athelete and is one his way to becoming the best ever. I only wish I'd been at that game.

I just had a couple of days off here in Palm Beach; went to the beach, went out with the boys, etc. It was fun, but I'm ready to start up again tonight so I can go home soon!

Keep watching the Lakers, y'all. You never know when Kobe's going to go off again.

There is a duet I've been singing with Steve in the show lately. It's not a big vocal part for me or anything, but it is a lot of fun to sing and the tune ("The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else") is a good onep; he sings it with Frank Sinatra Jr. on the record. It is in a good key for me so I do a pretty good job singing it.

Well I've had a lot of people come up to me this week and tell me what a great voice I have and how I should be singing more.

Great, right? Wrong!

These people usually say NOTHING about my bass playing. It's like, I play bass every beat of every song but when I sing a few lines in one of the tunes, that is what they notice. It's kind of annoying, really. What is it about singing? Playing the bass is a lot cooler than singing, for sure.

I thought everyone knew that.

Right now I am in sunny (and windy) Palm Beach, Florida with Tyrell.

My assesment so far; like Beverly Hills but with more old people

The Colts lost a heart-breaker today. It was really horrible and such a disappointing way to end a great season. Shakespere never wrote tragedy this bad.

On a better note the website that reviewed my record has put up an interview we did. It's pretty fun so check it out.

You can find it here or
here

I just did a recording session tonight for Nickelodeon.

So if any of you happen to be fans of the show "The Fairly Oddparents" keep your ears out for a swingin' big-band song called "Gimme The Wand" that Norm Macdonald sings ... that's me beatin' the four-string thundah.

I've updated the links/blogs section to the left. Sites of note:

My sister-in-law Kelly's blog is always pretty funny. There are some good NYC Christmas photos of us up at the moment.

While many of us blogger's simply ramble on about our lives and our opinions, Dominic's blog actually has a point! Dom works for the city of London surveying buildings and architecture. He does a good job of posting photos of the stuff he's working on as well. It's a really nicely done blog.

Daniel Negraunu is a professional poker player who keeps a pretty detailed journal of his career and life. It's pretty fun reading about what he does. With poker becoming so popular in the last few years most of his career these days are personal appearances and business meetings. But make no doubt about it Daniel is one of the best card players in the world and was Poker Player of the Year in '04.

Jeff Brady's blog is often cynical and funny. Jeff is a huge supporter of The Funky Supervillain and was the very first person to write a review of it on his blog.

ColtFreaks is a great site for Colts fans such as myself. Their message boards are a lot of fun and every week they link to a fansite of the Colt's opposing team. Much smack talk ensues.

And finally we have the greatest blog I've stumbled upon in a while, I Hate The New England Patriots featuring hilarious exploits of Bill Bellichoke and the Hatriots. A must for every football fan.

German music journalist Dirk Binsau has reviewed The Funky Supervillain on his website Jazz-Not-Jazz.com

Read it here!

I've finally had a few days to relax after a very busy end to '05. It was a good year, for sure. It was the year of 'The Funky Supervillain' as my first recording session was in January and the CD came out in November. I saw Syriana yesterday. All I can say is WOW. This movie is fantastic. It's disturbing and moving and makes you really think about the corruption in our government and big businesses.

So here's my favorite stuff from the past year (in no particular order):

MUSIC: The Bad Plus Suspicious Activity?, Brazilian Girls Brazilian Girls, Robert Glasper Canvas, Beck Guero, Kanye West Late Registration, Brad Meldhau Trio Day is Done, Happy Apple The Peace Between Our Companies, Jason Moran Same Mother, Nels Cline Singers The Giant Pin, Mike Doughty Haughty Melodic

MOVIES: Syriana, Crash, Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic, Sin City, King Kong, War of the Worlds

COMICS: 'Optic Nerve' by Adrianne Tomine, 'Stupid Comics' by Jim Mahfood, 'Girls' and 'Ultra' by the Luna Brothers, 'Conan' by Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord, 'New Avengers' by Brian Bendis and Brain Hitch, 'Daredevil' by Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev, 'Ex Machina' by Brain Vaughn and Tony Harris

SPORTS: The Colts thrashing the Patriots on Monday Night Football and going 14-2 their best record ever, Jose Cruz Jr. leading a late-game comeback by the Dodgers in one of only two Dodgers games I attended this year, the Colts defeating the Jaguars in their home opener (a game I was at-thanks SueAnne!), Kobe Bryant scoring 62 pts. against the Mavs

COOLEST GIGS: The Jazz Kitchen in Indy with Steve Tyrell, my first time playing at home in a long time ... the people that showed up were fantastic; Langer's in NYC with Quincy Davis, in the midst of a long gig at the Carlyle it was great playing creative music with an old friend of mine; Overstreet in Newport Beach with Gary Matsumoto, some musicians you just click with, Gary and I click; Grand Concert Hall in Moscow with Steve Tyrell; The Blue Note in Tokyo with Steve Tyrell; Corky's in West Hollywood with Quinn Johnson and Chris Wabich; Blues Alley in Washington DC with Steve Tyrell

There you go!

Here are some photos from my time in New York:

Me and Grover at the Macy's Parade.

Carrie and I with Garfield.

Carrie and M&Ms.

Carrie and I at Thanksgiving dinner.

Carrie and I with the boss at Thanksgiving.

Carrie in front of the tree at Rock Center.

Carrie and I at "Top of the Rock", a 360 degree view of New York from the top of the Rock Center.

Top of the Rock

Carrie at SantaLand in Macy's on 34th St.

Me at SantaLand.

With Santa.

The display windows for Macy's had little figures re-inacting scenes from Miracle on 34th St.. Here is Carrie in front of the final court room scene.

Me and Murph at Christmas dinner.

My now infamous apartment.

Here it is folks, my last blog from NYC. It's been a wild 9 weeks and now I'm only a couple hours away from home.

Week 9 at the Carlyle was fine. Ron Howard came one night. New Year's Eve turned out to be a lot of fun. The entire hotel was open with bands everywhere and everyone in good spirits. Regis came and sang a song. I had more fun playing than I had had for a while (perhaps it was the Laphroig). After the gig I hung out with some friends at the hotel. It was a fun way to bring in the new year.

I cannot wait to get home. While I have been pining for LA for a few weeks now I must admit I'm getting sentimental about leaving the city. 8 E 48th St. Apt. 6A in the heart of Midtown Manhattan has become my home. The deli downstairs and the funky elevator in the building have become as familiar to me as the Food 4 Less around the corner and the guard at the gate of my condo community back home. I've had some really fun times here; partying with friends, seeing great music, eating at great resteraunts, meeting incredible people, enjoying New York over the holidays ... it has been an eperience I will always remember with fondness. Rumor has it that the Carlyle has asked Steve to return for the next holiday season. Will I do it again? Who knows, that is a long time away. But weather this was a one-time eperience for me or the start of many winters in NYC, November and December of '05 will always be special to me.

But don't get me wrong, I want to be home more than anything right now. You might think a trip like this would "fly by" for me. But that's not the case. Fact is it feels like I've been in NYC for a year. I haven't driven a car, slept in my bed, or so much as left New York for two months (save for the short trip to Boston). So I'm ready to go back.

Happy New Year everyone, I wish you all nothing but prosperity and good health. 2006 has been waiting for us, it's time to show her what we're made of ... I certainly intend to.

Goodbye folks, see you soon.

I'm going home.