Things are going well here in NYC. I'm starting to get in to a rhythm that makes it feel more like home than it has in the past. Before when we were playing at the Regency for a month the neighborhood was way too ritzy and I always felt like some tourist visiting for a while and pretending like I was rich. Last year during the Carlyle gig I stayed in Midtown right by Rockefeller Center which turned me into a jaded New Yorker really quickly. I was bugged by all of the crowds and there was nothing 'homey' about the neighborhood. All the businesses were there for tourists, grocery stores and dry cleaners were blocks and blocks away.

This time things are more convenient. The area is vibrant but far away from the insanity of midtown. There's a cleaners down stairs (Miss Lin already knows all of our names and asks how are performances are going before charging a ludicrous $16 for dry cleaning a suit with a smile on her face), a grocery store a block away, and a subway stop quite close which makes it much easier for me to bring my bass home and practice. I've joined a nearby gym and have a little routing going, work out, practice, errands, gig, etc.

Plus this neighborhood is filthy with dogs. Makes me wish Murph-Deezy could visit like he did last year. He did well in the city and had a good time here. There's a restaurant called Fetch a block away where everyone goes with their dogs so I see so a lot of them every day.

But as good as things are here I am really looking forward to flying home to LA Sunday morning. It's been way too long since I've seen my wife's belly.

So I guess the CBS Early Show is a little bush league and not on in some markets (namely INDIANAPOLIS!). Not only that but it started at 5AM in LA.

Luckily here's a link to us playing one of the songs. Enjoy:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/earlyshow/saturday/secondcup/main500256.shtml

So we're going to be on the early show in between the hours of 7-9AM. From what I understand we'll be playing a couple of songs and some 'bumpers' as well (bumpers are the short performances going in and out of commercial breaks). Let me know how tired I look.

I've really been consuming a lot of art lately. I've been reading quite a bit, novels, tearing through GQ articles. This is kind of unusual for me. Not that I don't I read, but most of the time my reading comes accompanied by pictures and sound effects (don't laugh! comics are a valid art form, natch!!). I don't nearly read as much as my wife or my sister-in-law (I don't know anyone who reads as much as Kelly), but for whatever reason I have been reading a lot. And seeing movies as well. Here's a little rundown of what I've been in to recently:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safron Foer
One of the best books I've read in years. Creative, Modern, Post-Modern, touching, and on and on. Even better than his first book Everything is Illuminated (which is also brilliant). If you've had an inkling to read it, do so.

Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis
Fantastic. If you're expecting something similar to the Robert Downey Jr. movie then brace yourself, the book is even more haunting and shocking. It's all about rich kids in LA with too much money and drugs. It might've resonated more with me since I've met a few kids who could've walked out of the pages of the book.

For Your Consideration
I love Chistopher Guest movies. Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman are some of the funniest movies you'll ever see. But For Your Consideration was a disappointment. It veers from the mockumentary format and tries to read more like a movie. But it's just not as funny as the other outings. The cast has gotten so enormous its like no one has any time to be funny. But if you're a fan of his other movies I'm sure it will keep you amused.

The Departed
Best movie I've seen this year. Incredible. It can stand right along Goodfellas as one of Scorceses' best, and that is saying quite a bit.


The Fountain comes out today, I'll probably see it tomorrow or Friday. I'm also in the middle of reading Fight Club again. Big news, I'm going to be on the CBS Early Show this Saturday with the bossman. I'll let you know more details as they come. Happy Thanksgiving Eve everyone.


p.s.
If you haven't switched to Blogger Beta yet, do so. the new spellcheck is reason enough.

The first week at the Carlyle was quite fun actually. The band is really sounding good and the audiences have been enthusiastic. Wednesday night Regis threw us a little opening party, celebrities there included Susan Lucci, Clive Davis, and Israli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (of all people!). Regis's wife Joy said I was a star. HAH! Later in the week Katie Couric and the host of either Entertainment Tonight or Access Hollywood came. I forget which one.

Friday after the show we flew to Detroit to play a very rich man's birthday party Saturday. How rich was this guy? We flew in his private jet from NYC to Detroit. I hope I work with an artist rich enough to have their own jet one day because holy moly, that is the ONLY way to travel. Comfortable, quiet, I could go on and on. I took some pictures I'll have up soon.

I'm blogging from our hotel here in Michigan, about to head back to NYC.

Good news is we land just in time for me to watch the game.

The end of the Europe trip was tiring even though we didn't have to play. At the last minute our Germany shows were cancelled because of some miscommunication with the record label and promoter. But we went anyway. Berlin was nice, it was eerie seeing where the wall used to be and the holocaust memorial, I should have pictures up soon. By the time we got to Hamburg I was pooped and had a cold, too many 4 AM lobby calls. I didn't do much besides walk around the red light district (yikes!) and have some damn good German food.

But now I'm back in my home away from home, New York City. It feels good to be back but I'm sure I'll be missing LA soon enough. Opening night at the Carlyle was last night and it went really well. I think this is going to be a good run.

Two countries,
two television shows,
about 4 hours of sleep.

That's what I've been up to the past 24 hrs.

My days off in London were nice and uneventful. Got some laundry and dry cleaning done, rested a lot, and that's about it. Some friends of mine were playing at Ronnie Scott's with a great vocalist Curtis Stigers so I checked them out on Monday. It was a great show and good to see them.

Yesterday I got up around 4AM and headed off to Heathrow. We arrived in Stuttgart and quickly got in a couple of vans to head to the television show we were taping. We were pressed for time so the driver was going about 110 mph on the Autobahn to make sure we got there. A bit of an uneasy ride, but I managed to sleep for a little bit. When we got to the venue I discovered we were playing the German television show Stars on Ice (or Star Aug Eice). It's like the American version with celebrities teaming up with pro skaters and being judged. It was actually pretty fun. We played on the ice (more accurately, we pretended like we were playing to prerecorded music). Katarina Witt was the host if you remember who she is. What a beautiful woman (the rest of the skaters looked quite nice as well). But as soon as we were done (11PM) it was back to the hotel.

This morning I was up at 3:30AM to fly back to London. Once again we were pressed for time so it was more fast driving to Stuttgart to catch our plane. We quickly found out that our plane was cancelled but they had rebooked us on a BA flight and we made it to Heathrow only a little late. We quickly rushed to the BBC to tape Parkinson. The taping was quick and painless and we're finally back at our hotel here in SoHo.

I'm ready for a nap.

But before that I must comment on the outcome of the election. And my comment is--HOOOORAY! FINALLY A SEMBLANCE OF SANITY IS RETURNING TO OUR GOVERNMENT!!! It looks like the Dems are going to take over both houses of congress and I couldn't be happier. Bush will no longer have free reign for his war mongering and maybe something can be figured out for the Iraq situation. America has spoken and it looks like everyone has wisened up. The future is finally bright. Congrats everyone.

My time here in London has been really good so far. The crowds at Ronnie Scott's were enthusiastic and I think we did pretty well there. Our hotel and the London weather are both nicer than they were when we were here a couple of months ago.

Once again I hung with London's finest host, my buddy Dom. Last Tuesday he took me to a poetry reading he reads at regularly. It was fun and there were some pretty good poets there (some mediocre ones too). Unfortunately I had to go to the club before he performed.

Saturday was the best, Dominick and I went to an actual Premier League Football Match (that's soccer to you Yanks, HA!). We had a great time even though Dom's team Evarton lost because the American goalkeeper I was rooting for let a ball fall right over his head and into the net. It was a great experience, hope I can go to another sometime.

I saw Borat last Thurs. Please go see it. I don't think I've ever laughed so much at a movie before in my life. Funny stuff, not for the easily offended.

So we have today and tomorrow off then the rest of the week is about as hectic as you can get. Wed. we fly to Hamburg to tape a television show (the German 'Dancing With The Stars'), on Thurs. we fly back to London to tape another television show (Parkinson, the English Johnny Carson), on Fri. we fly to Stuttgart for a concert, on Sat. we take a train to Berlin for a concert, and on Sun. we finally fly back to the good ol' USA, NYC to be specific. Next Tues. begins our long run at the Carlyle.

I don't know what it is about road musicians, but it seems like most of them that I've worked with want to seek out the best food in each city they hit. Everyone knows of a great Indian place or a great Sushi place. Don't get me wrong, I dig it. Heck, I love food. And I've been lucky enough to eat at some fantastic restaurants in my career (including an Indian restaurant today that prompted me to write this). Here's a list of some of the best restaurants I've been to on the road. In no particular order:

Pizzitola's Barbeque, Houston, Texas
I love barbeque and fancy myself a bit on an expert. In my mind there is nothing better than Texas barbeque and the best Texas barbeque is at Pizzitola's. Jerry Pizzitola is a childhood friend of Steve's and caters all of our sounchecks when we play in Houston. The best brisket around, and his mother's vanilla pudding is the perfect dessert.

Fourteen Carrot Cafe, Seattle, Washington
Just a great breakfast and lunch. The Eggs Benedict is a favorite of mine. There's plenty of laid-back, hippie, student vibe in the joint and the waitresses are smartasses but a lot of fun.

The Dakota Jazz Club, Minneapolis, Minnesota
The best thing about this restaurant is that it's a club too, so you eat there for free when you play. They have a carpaccio that is unreal, the lambchops are also great. The cook and the staff are also really friendly and like to hang after the gig.

Hell's Kitchen, Minneapolis, Minnesota
They take food seriously in Minneapolis. The most unique breakfast place you'll ever eat at. They make their own peanut butter, ketchup, and jams. I suggest the shrimp egg scramble with goat cheese.

Kaiten Sushi, Ropponghi, Tokyo, Japan
This isn't the name of the place, I don't know if I ever knew the name of the place as it was in Japanese. But it was some of the best sushi I've ever had. A kaiten sushi place has a conveyor belt that goes around the sushi bar and you pull off whatever you want. Each sushi is on a different colored plate and each color is a different price, when they ring up your bill they simply scan the plates to tally the check. This isn't the greatest sushi you can get in Tokyo, I don't have the wallet for that. But it certainly is some of the best I've had.

The Red Fort, London, England
This is the Indian restaurants I ate at today. It was really good (or as the English would say "its quite nice"). The Chicken Tikka was perfect and the spinach was some of the most flavorful I've ever had.

Carnegie Deli, NYC, New York
I know it's a tourist spot. I know there's usually a line around the block during the tourist season. I know you've probably heard about it from countless television shows. That doesn't make it taste any worse though. The Corned Beef is a classic, the Matzo Ball soup is amazing, and the cheesecake is the best cream cheese cake I've ever had.

House of Nan King, San Francisco, California
My favorite Chinese place ever. Just go in and let the cook bring you whatever he wants to bring you. You'll love it.

Ruthie's, Brooklyn, New York
One of my favorite places ever. The best soul food on the planet, fo' sho'!

Honorable mentions to: Fiorlinni's, NYC, New York; The Mayflower, London, England; 13 Coins, Seattle, Washington