I drove all around Southern California working this weekend. On Friday night I had a gig in Whittier with Jess (vocalist with the Lower Level). It was a lot of fun, we played at a tapas restaurant that had great food. Then on Saturday Carrie and I drove to the Lodge at Rancho Mirage, a resort in Palm Springs. I had a gig there that evening, the organizers of the event we were playing for offered us a room for the night so of course I took it. Carrie loves hotels so its nice when a gig like this works out. We had a good time. The resort was beautiful, the gig was fun, and the weather in Palm Springs was perfect. On the way home we stopped at an outlet mall and an Indian casino so I could play a little poker. Good weekend for sure.

I have an appointment to do our taxes on Wednesday. You might recall that we got slapped with a heavy debt to the IRS last year. We've been paying in to our taxes this year so it probably won't be so bad. But all of the numbers crunching is a drag ... Its one of the drawbacks to being self-employed.

I had the first Cadbury Egg of the season tonight. I'm surprised I lasted this long.

A big shout-out to my boy Eric Morones who unbeknownst to me reads my blog I guess. Big ups Eric!

Many of you probably have seen the now infamous "Narnia Rap." It's an SNL skit that ran in December sometime and it's pretty damn funny. I personally think that the whole "goofy white guys rapping like they are tough" has been played out, but these guys are hilarious. It was all over the internet and NBC lawyers got involved to stop it. But your man Lyman has found it!

Best line: "Mr. Pibb + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious!"

Chronicles of Narnia

Now, a "respons rap" was made by some guys out here. You see the original takes place on a lazy day in NYC, so these guys wrote one about LA. It's not as funny as the other but its worth a look especially if you live in LA.

Best line: "On the way we'll be kicking it live, cranking NPR on the 405"

Color Me Mine.

Then to top it all off some guys from Muncie made yet another response rap. Far from being as clever as the other two there is some controversy as to weather or not both of these guys are actually from Muncie. Still sort of funny.

Best line: "We don't need no Google Map, what the hell's a Thomas Guide? I've been rolling down McGalliard since I was 4 or 5."

Lazy Muncie

So more stupid fun courtesy of the internet. I'm sure these are funnier to me since I've lived in all three places, hope you find them as funny.

I had a good weekend. Friday night I played at the Peninnsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, swank place for sure. The other guys were a lot of fun to play with. Then on Saturday I did a recording session for my friend Bill. Now let me just tell you that recording session can be a real drag and a lot of work sometimes. If the musicians don't gel or if someone keeps messing up you have to do multiple takes and that can wear on you. But this session went really smoothly and we got some great stuff down. These tracks were for a demo that a singer friend of Bill's is doing. It should turn out nicely.

Other than that I hung out with my friends and my dog and my wife. Good way to spend time. Not too much happening at the moment and that's the way I like it.

Here is a trailer for Basic Instinct 2. It is uncensored and probably holds the world record for most naked humping in a trailer.

The movie looks absolutely terrible. I can't wait to see it.

And I just realized that today is the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the Backbeat. I've been posting the trivial thoughts and happenings in my life for 12 months now. Thanks for reading!

I can count the number of times I've left the house the past couple of days on one hand. And that's a good thing as I'm starting to feel better.

I finished reading this comic yesterday called 'V for Vendetta'. It was written by a man highly regarded as perhaps the comics medium's best writer, Alan Moore. Now I've mentioned before how I don't get too jazzed about comic movies, not only do they rarely deliver but I usually appreciate the stories much more in comic book form anyway (it's more about the medium than the story sometimes) but a 'V for Vendetta' movie is coming out next month and after reading it I'm pretty stoked to see it.

'The League of extraordinary Gentlemen' and 'From Hell' were both written by Alan Moore as well (as well as 'The Killing Joke' which is the comic that the first Batman movie was based on). I thought the movie version of 'From Hell' was fine and 'The League ...' was practically unwatchable. But the story for 'V ...' lends itself to the screen more than the other two.

'V ...' the story of a post WW3 London that is now a fascist state. An anarchic character named V (based on Guy Fawlkes) begins an idyllic revolution by wreaking havoc on the gov't. But that is only a brief description, the story has many layers and themes. You could comment and talk and write about this book for quite a while, and some have. It's a very appropriate time to adapt this movie considering the leanings of our current administration. I think it will be a grand movie. And the cast! Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, directed by the Wychowski Bros. Should be great.

And hopefully it will draw others to Alan Moore's work, not in movie form but in their original comic form. So be on the lookout, y'all!

Well here it is; Valentine's Day. And here I am suffering from a sinus infection that my wife passed on to me. Just as soon as she starts feeling better I start feeling much worse. Is there any way around this? Any time one of us is sick, the other gets sick (unless I'm on the road of course). Well I'm miserable and will have to think long and hard about getting a hotel room next time Carrie comes down with something.

Other than that, its good to be home. I'm afraid I won't be much fun on Valentine's Day but she understands.

I hope all of you have a great (and healthy) Valentine's Day.

I'm having a good time up here in the Bay Area save for one thing, my sickness. Carrie had a sinus infection before I left and it seems as if she packed some of it for me for my trip. It sucks but I'm still managing to do some fun things.

Friday the boss and the rest of the band went to what I believe is the best Chinese place in the country, House of Nan King. If you're ever in San Francisco go there, you won't be sorry. Yesterday I went to a comic book convention downtown, how lucky am I that our trip up here coincided with that? I've been to so many conventions that I now have friends who are on the convention circuit selling comics, working for comic book companies, artists, etc. It was good to see them.

Today I'm spending time with my Aunt Tracy and will see some old friends. Hopefully I'll be able to breathe through my nose ...

I'm off to Oakland for the weekend to play with Tyrell at perhaps the best jazz club in the country, Yoshi's. I'm looking forward to it, it should be a lot more fun than Palm Beach.

And bonus points to anyone who can tell me what rapper I got the lyrics from for the title.

I've added a couple more sites to the links and blogs section on the sidebar. They are:

Tom Cruise is Nuts-This is pretty self-explanatory. The site also has a collection of Cruise quotes including "Some people, well, if they don't like Scientology, well, then, fuck you. Really. Fuck you. Period."

One Thousand Reasons-This site documents the failures of the Bush Administration (all backed up with articles and sources). I don't know how they narrowed it down.

Pop Candy-All things pop culture. This blog (from USA Today) is updated with frightening regularity.

Indigo Trails ...-Nikki's blog. She's a good writer and hella-funny.

I saw Brokeback Mountain yesterday. I'd say that pretty much does it for the big movies of '05 that I've seen. I decided to boycott all bio-pics this year ... Walk the Line, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, I haven't seen any of them. Why you ask? Well I figure its like this; if I were to make an album where I totally copped Sinatra, sang Sinatra tunes, tried to emulate Sinatra's voice, use Sinatra's arrangements, etc. I'd be looked at like a ripoff artist and there'd be no way I'd be nominated for a Grammy. But when Jamie Foxx cops Ray Charles he gets a Grammy. I don't see the difference. In my mind its easier to play a living person because you have a source instead of having to create something out of your imagination, thus the boycott.

So if I was running the Oscars here's how they'd shake down:

BEST PICTURE-Syriana
BEST ACTOR-Terrence Howard, Hustle and Flow
BEST ACTRESS-Laura Linney, The Squid and the Whale
SUPPORTING ACTOR-Mickey Rourke, Sin City
SUPPORTING ACTRESS-Michelle Willians, Brokeback Mountain
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY-Syriana
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY-Munich
BEST DIRECTOR-Paul Haggis, Crash
ART DIRECTION-Sin City


Last night my buddy Pasta calls me and tells me that this restaurant he works at occasionally has been playing The Funky Supervillain for weeks. He had given the owner a copy and the guy loved it. So I went to the restaurant after it closed to meet the guy, he was really nice and really complimentary of the record and told me it plays there at least twice a day. He even said he'd sell it behind the bar if I brought him some copies. I thought that was pretty cool, it's nice when total strangers are into your stuff (no offense family and friends). I'll take him some copies next week.

If you don't know who Christian McBride is let me catch you up. He's probably the baddest bass player living younger than 50. He's been at the forefront of the jazz scene since the early 90s when he moved to New York. For the past few years he's been leading his own band, they blend elements of jazz, R&B, soul, and fusion and are doing some things that no one else in jazz does. That's my take anyway. It's probably easy to see that he is a favorite of mine and a tremendous influence on me, my bass playing, and my music.

I actually know Christian. He was a guest artist both years I attended the Henry Mancini Institute and I have seen him live most every time he's come through LA. I haven't spoken to him in a few years, then yesterday out of the blue I get an email from him. How friggin' cool is that? He had stumbled upon my website and said it looks great and he was proud of what I'd done and he wants to hang when he comes through LA in April.

If I were a basketball player that would be like Kobe Bryant saying he wanted to shoot around with me next time we saw each other ... In my world anyway.

Just had to share that one.