Well our trip back to the Midwest was fantastic. After Carrie and I got over our 24-hour stomach bug (which then moved to my sister-in-law, then brother-in-law, then aunt!) it was smooth sailing. We had a lot of fun seeing family and friends although it did get a bit crazy for me as I was doing so much the last few days of our visit. Even though we've left Indiana in the past thinking "that vacation was the perfect amount of time" this time I wish we could've stayed around longer. Milo charmed everyone he saw and really enjoyed his first Christmas. Grandma even taught him how to wave!

Notable Christmas loot:

The Wire Season 4 DVD-I guess my cousin Kathy heard my no-so-subtle hints as to how much I wanted this.

Choke by Chuck Pahlaniuk, The Invisibles vols. 1 & 2by Grant Morrisson-If you know Pahlaniuk, Morrisson and my mother-in-law you will quickly realize she raided my Amazon Wish List to discover these books. I can't wait to read them.

'Heat Pillow'-I don't know what else to call this but my sis-in-law K made me this pillow-like tube that you can microwave to keep hot then put it on sore muscles and such. I'm sure it will come in handy soon.

And my Mom provided some much-needed dough to help us afford our late trip back home which was really fantastic of her.

We finally made it home and after buying a new phone I've been knee-deep in car-buying ever since. It doesn't appear I'll get the killer deal I was hoping for as the vehicle we want is a really hot item and the best-selling in its class. I'm currently playing phone-tag with a bunch of dealers trying to get the best offer.

Is it really New Year's Eve tomorrow?! Yikes! I'm working tomorrow night, the gig should be pretty fun and laid-back. I was hoping to do a long, reflective "best of 2007" blog but I'm not in the mood at the moment. But go to Top Five and tell me about your favorite '07 memories.

You forget how much of an inconvenience snow is when you don't live in it. We're sitting in O'Hare, our flight was supposed to leave at 5:30 instead its been pushed back to 8:45 (if we're lucky) ... hours and hours waiting with a squirrelly baby.

Despite our current situation we had a great Christmas in Indiana (and Chicago). I'll post more later.

Sunday night I dropped my cel phone in the toilette (or tworlett if you're from Indiana). It's fried and I can't get my numbers out so if you want to get a hold of me just leave a message but please leave your number as well.

We arrived in Indy on Wednesday but unfortunately Carrie and I got either food poisoning or a stomach virus that evening and spent all night taking turns in the bathroom. Gross. Thursday was spent recuperating and rehydrating and luckily we are both feeling much better. Baby boy didn't get ill at all and has been enjoying all of the attention he's been getting.

It's a lot of fun being home for the holidays. Hope everyone else is having a good time as well.

We arrived in Chicago this afternoon, once Milo fell asleep the flight went quite smoothly. We've got some BBQ on the way and are ready to begin the holiday festivities.

... but damn!



Colts win today and clinch a great spot in the playoffs. I trust Tony Dungy gave a speech completely unlike this one.

New Top Five, go dig.

Ever since I returned from New York Milo and I have been spending a lot of time together running errands, shopping, having lunch/breakfast, etc. The other day we were at a mall and I gave him a bottle at the little children's play area. The place was packed and I was the only father there, I felt like a housewife. Milo is just so charming and smiley and fun to be around we can't wait to come back to Indiana for the holidays.

We said "Adios!" to the Silver Bullet yesterday, it was time for me to get rid of our Ford station wagon. Besides being an eye sore because of the tire debacle earlier in the summer, it was having problems starting. Since I'm buying a new car I briefly considered trading it in for our new one, but the BlueBook value is $700-800, I knew no dealership would give me that much especially with all of the problems it had. So we donated it to the Boys and Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley (with a gaurenteed tax write-off of $500, I tell you I've really been researching car buying).

You'll all be happy to know there is a Colts game at the dome while we are in Indy on the 23rd. Despite living 3,000 mi away from the team I've been to a game every year for the past 4 seasons so this is like, serendipity. I think Milo wants to go too.

I saw the latest Todd Haynes movie I'm Not There last night. It's about the life Bob Dylan with different actors playing different identities and aspects of the man; Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Cate Blanchett and four other actors all play Dylan in one way or another.

I was really excited about the movie and from reading reviews and thought it was a brilliant idea. After seeing it I must admit I'm a little disappointed. The movie doesn't necessarily follow events of Dylan's life as they happened and it is told in a non-linear style, this is part of what attracted me to see the film. But I found myself not engaging with the characters or the story unless it was a part of his life I was familiar with. I also found myself wondering "is this from a poem Dylan wrote or something from the screenwriter?". I went in to the movie thinking that the non-linear non-factual style would be quite effective in portraying the personality and impact of an icon, instead I felt unfulfilled and detached.

I will say the movie is quite ambitious and worth seeing because of that alone. Cate Blanchett, the stunning woman she is, plays a male character embodiment of Dylan, there's Richard Gere as Billy-the-Kid-Dylan, and a young black hobo named Woody Guthrie as Dylan. Fine movie, still not in my Top Five.

Everyone need to go and read my Cousin Kathy's Blog. She tackles health care much more eloquently than I did earlier in the year. My favorite excerpt:

There's this ugly sense of "me, me, me" in this country that really irks me. "Why should I have to pay for..." and similar lines of thinking overlook a very critical element of building a strong country: A strong country is made up of strong communities. Strong communities are made up of people working together toward a common goal. Protecting your own interests to the exclusion of the wellbeing of your community is selfish and short-sighted.

Preach on Preacher! Preach on!

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I've had an office/rehearsal space for a year and a half or so. My good friend Vinny has this enormous office that he runs his photography business out of (Vinny did all of the photography for my record) and I rent out part of it to store my instruments, practice, etc. The spot is nice and big, I can have a full band rehearsal day or night. Carrie and I also have a lot of old baby stuff stored there.

Last week Vinny and I get a letter stating that the LAUSD (that is the Los Angeles Unified School District also my wife's employer) is looking to build a school in our area and our office building has been targeted as a potential site. You know what that means, bye-bye office.

Now let me just say while giving up the office would be a real inconvenience and a total drag at least its the LAUSD wanting to build a school instead of some corperation wanting to build a parking lot.

There was a community meeting about the site selection on Monday. I've never been to such a meeting so I was quite interested. Representatives from the LAUSD told us there were two sites they were targeting; one of them is at the end of our block and encompasses a parking lot and a condemmned high-rise that hasn't had anything in it for over a decade, the other site includes our building, another office building, and nine residential homes. Seems like a no-brainer right? One site contains nothing but a delapidated eye-sore and the other includes 40 small businesses and 9 homes. At the end of the meeting a few folks (including Vinny) stood up and spoke about what an inconvinience it would be to be forced to move and asked why our site would even be a consideration. I guess the condemmned tower is still prime real estate for more businesses but as I said there hasn't been a thing in the building for a long time and in all liklihood the only types of businesses that would occupy that sort of property would be corperate low-paying retail shops; in my opinion its much more important to keep small business owners around.

There will be more meetings as the LAUSD gets closer to making their decision.

So check it out.

I flew to Cabo San Lucas yesterday to meet up with Tyrell and the rest of the band for a gig. I also had a gig Friday night and had to leave at 5:30 AM Saturday morning so needless to say there wasn't much sleep to be had, but I didn't check any luggage so the airport was a breeze. Once in Cabo I found out we were staying at an all-inclusive resort; you don't have to pay for food, booze, anything. Pretty sweet. I had lunch with the guys and caught up with them, it sounds like the Carlyle is going well for them.

So here's what the gig was: this lady named Peaches (no kidding) flew her friends and family to Cabo on a chartered 737, rented out an ENTIRE resort for them (there were no other guests at the hotel, just those there for the party), and hired bands to play every night for three nights to celebrate her husband's 85th birthday. That is some wealth folks. After we played an Afro-Cuban band lead by the organizer of the Buena Vista Social club went on. They were fantastic.

good music + free booze = nasty hangover

Despite being nauseous and foggy-headed I made it the airport alright. I ordered a snack at the airport restaurant and didn't notice the 'cash only' sign until I was nearly done. I asked the bartender where the ATM was and he told me "downstairs, they only give pesos." So I would have to go through security again and withdraw pesos for a $6 tab. Drag! Luckily there was a really nice guy next to me who I was talking to who picked up my check, lucky me. So I have some good karma I need to pay forward, who needs a favor?

Its good to be home. Even though I was gone less than 36 hours there's something about leaving the country that makes your trip feel longer.

My schedule is all clear until we leave for Indy. I plan on continuing the car search, practicing and hanging with Milo until then.

And say hello to Milo's new cousin, Craig Harrison Barnett. Welcome to the family boy, your December 2023 issue of Playboy awaits.

A friend of mine turned me on to this site CarBuyingTips.com, it provides so much useful information on buying a car I can't begin to tell you how much I've learned. Tips such as finding out your credit score, getting pre-approved for an online auto loan, getting competing online quotes from different websites, and finding out how much the dealer actually pays for the car is going to help a LOT when the haggling over the price of the car begins. It also clues you in on a few scams dealers try to run. Great stuff.

The only problem is I still don't know what I want. The RAV-4 is still the front-runner with the Honda Pilot not for behind. I wasn't impressed with the Nissan Murano or GMC Acadia. I still have a couple more to look at.

For all of you fans of 'The Wire' (and sadly that's probably only Cousin Kathy and I) Amazon has posted some digital shorts that are prequels to the series here. While you're there check out my wish list ... HA!

It's that time again folks, before we get all warm and fuzzy with holiday cheer I need to once again rant about something. This time its the abuse of the word "they."

"They" is a fine pronoun with many uses, but when it is used to make a point by giving some sort of false backup to the abuser that it gets out of control. For example:

Person A: Why didn't you come to the party last night, they said you were going to be there?
Person B: Yeah, I was busy ...
Person A: Oh, because they said you were going to show up.

Now Person A has put Person B in some sort of dilemma by insinuating that the entirety of last night's party were waiting for him to arrive before starting the festivities when in fact there were probably only a couple of people who said B might show. "They" has been used to make Person A's point with ambiguity. But the worst abuse of the ambiguous "they" occurs in two areas: small business transactions and political discussions. Firstly, business:

Customer: "I'd like a Sausage Biscuit please."
Worker: "They won't let you order breakfast past 10:30."

Customer: "Mind if I finish my Coke in the theater?"
Worker: "Oh, they won't let you bring in outside food or drinks."

Customer: "I'd like special of the day please."
Worker: "They ran out of the special earlier."

In this case "they" is used to show how sympathetic the worker is to the customer's plight, "hey, I don't make the rules, they do, I just work here". When the fact is they wear the same golden arches on their breast pocket as the manager which means they have some responsibility as well and should be using the word "we" instead of "they". If the worker really was sympathetic he or she would just wrap up a biscuit and sausage patty for you. Secondly, and probably most annoying of all, is politics:

"They are all crooks!"

"They want to take away all of my rights!"

"They're going to run this country in to the ground!"

These folks use "they" as some sort of rallying point, the whole of the American political system is out to get them and anyone else listening to them. The fact is that you can't find a handful of politicians with the same ideas and agenda, each president is vastly different from the next and even the most crooked of politicians have bigger things on their minds than your problems.

The solution to this problem is a simple one boys and girls, next time you hear the ambiguous "they" being abused simply say this:

"Who are they?"

Guaranteed the person will be at a loss.

"... for the Holidays"

That's right, Carrie, Milo and I are headed back to Indiana for Christmas. We're flying in to Chicago on JetBlue (I have credit with them from canceled flights to and from NYC) and will be in the Midwest from the 18th-28th. So we hope to see you then.

Also, this is my third blog of the day so keep reading:

My Top Five blog is happening once again this time with help from sistah-in-law Special K. We hope to get a lot of folks visiting and think it will be a lot of fun. We're starting with a bunch of "Best Of 2007" Top Fives so stop by and tell us your Top Five Songs of 2007.

Carrie and I went car shopping yesterday. If you remember the debacle with my wagon this summer then you also remember it's time to by a new vehicle. My father-in-law won't be happy and my grandfather is probably rolling over in his grave but we looked at Toyotas. I need some size so we checked out their Highlanders and RAV4s. Ideally we'd like to get a Hybrid but they are just out of our price range at the moment. I really liked the RAV4 and so far it is top of the list. Next up is the Hyundai Santa Fe, Honda Pilot, Mazda CX-9, Mitsubishi Endeavor, and (yes Dave) the GMC Acadia. Hopefully we'll have a new car very soon.

Afterward we went to the grocery store. As we were shopping a lady pulled out of one of the aisles, saw Milo and said "that is such a cute baby!" Carrie chuckled and said "thank you" but I was speechless. I don't get starstruck probably because my ego is so huge that I don't see them as being on a different level as me (did I tell you about the time I met Madonna?). But this woman was none other than Tisha Campbell who played Gina on the great 90s sitcom Martin. For those who don't know my bass is named Gina after the character and how Martin used to say "Damn Gina!" all of the time. Man that show was funny. We ran into her again, she had her little 5 or 6 year-old son with her as well, Gina ... errr, Tisha said "The grow up fast, hug 'em now!" Carrie didn't recognize her at the time and I don't think she does now either. If I had had a camera I would've asked for a picture.

Big Colts game today y'all, make sure you're wearing your blue and white.

I'm in the JetBlue Terminal of JFK waiting for my flight back home where I will stay through the holidays. The apartment situation was never resolved, when I asked for different accommodations for my wife and baby's visit it was made apparent to me that that was not an option either. Since I'm not going to spend Christmas away from them and I won't even consider bringing them to that apartment I've decided to go home. Don't freak out. I talked with my boss and it appears that we're both on the same page although I don't think either of us are happy with the situation. I'll be joining the band in Los Cabos, Mexico for a private next weekend.

But I'm quite relieved to be headed home. The stress of staying in that apartment was getting to me. I took some pictures of the water damage, mold and mouse droppings, they're quite funny actually. The last few weeks haven't been totally bleak. The shows went really well and I saw some great music in the city including trumpeter Roy Hargrove at the Village Vanguard and organ player Sam Yahel at the Jazz Standard. I also had a little jam session with two old friends of mine who are both rather accomplished NY jazz musicians these days. It was a blast. And I made it to my favorite soul-food restaurant Ruthie's as well.

If I've never mentioned this, I love JetBlue. Not only do they have free WiFi at their terminals and Direct TV on the plane but the fee to change a ticket is only $10 and you can cancel your flight at any time and the money used to buy the ticket is refunded as credit towards a later flight. Not to mention the fact they fly to Burbank which is less than 20 min. from our home.

Now if we could only get them to fly to Indy ...

So sorry I haven't been online much (if you recall there was no internet at the apt.; no cable either ... and no furniture ... and no extra towels or bed linens ... and no ...) if you've been waiting on a email from me thanks for your patience. I'll be 'around' a lot more now.

Friday

Noon-woke up with every intention to see 'No Country for Old Men', instead I get a call from my old friend Koop who is a comics dealer. He had a booth at a convention in Midtown that day and invited me out. I went to the con, had lunch with another friend of mine, and geeked out on comics for the rest of the day.

6 PM-Got to the gig early, played Madden with the keyboard player. Did the gig. Uneventful.

12:30 AM-Headed out to a bar nearby the Carlyle to have a beer and watch Hawaii football with previously mentioned keyboard player (they have a really good team this year by the way).

3:30 AM-Go to another bar called American Trash. My friend and I had been there once before and a random girl had come up and kissed him out of nowhere. Didn't happen this time.

4:30 AM-Get back to the apt. to find our guitarist practicing and listening to Carole King's Tapestry. We then listen and compare her version of "You've Got A Friend" to James Taylor's. Taylor wins because of the vocal harmonies.

6:00 AM-Head to bed.

Saturday

2:00 PM-Wake up and have a bowl of cereal. Play Nintendo and veg out.

7:00 PM-Go to work, play the gig.

12:30 AM-I decide to take the train to the airport for my trip back LA. Sure the train may take longer but I have time to kill and it's about $45 cheaper than a cab.

2:00 AM-Meet some of the other guys at our hangout the Kinsale Tavern. I drink Cokes and hang out as I'm planning on staying up until I leave.

3:00 AM-Grab a tuna sandwich and head home to get my stuff.

Sunday

4:00 AM-Jump on the 6 train only to find out that the E train which is to take me to JFK isn't running. I frustratingly hail a cab out both cab and subway fares.

4:45 AM-Arrive at terminal 6 of JFK. I'm pretty familiar with it. I know after you walk out of security there is a Dunkin Donuts to the right with a line of at least 30 people, a sports bar straight ahead that you can get bacon and eggs at for $20, and I know to stay away from the Chinese place on the left. I get a coffee and donut and wait for the plane to board.

6:00 AM-Board the plane. Take and Ambien. Sleep.

9:45 AM PST-We are informed by our pilot that there is too much fog in Burbank to land. Instead we will be landing in Long Beach (about 45 min sout of Burbank) where we will refuel. Once we land we are given the option of leaving the plane or waiting on the runway for the fog to clear up in Burbank and flying back. I'm off of that plane faster than you can say "flight rage".

Noon-Carrie finally arrives and picks me up.

1:00 PM-After three weeks our family is finally reunited. Milo is much bigger and has so much energy squirming around and playing with everything. But he remains the most beautiful baby around. Carrie and I take a nap while grandma Penny watches him.
We have a nice dinner at a local restaurant and are in bed not long after.

Colts win, yay.

The apartment situation hasn't improved at all but I must say I'm dealing with it quite well. The thing is, when you're in New York the city is your home and all you really need is a place to sleep, dig? So I've been out and about doing New York things to get out of the apartment during the down-time. The Grishams (our Superfans) have taken me out to lunch the past couple of days including this afternoon at the fantastic Carnegie Deli. Best cheesecake ever. We also took a nice walk through Central Park, the weather was really nice today and the sky was clear and blue which was good since it has been gray and rainy all week.

Our days off this week aren't really days off since we have to play a private party at the Carlyle tomorrow night (during the Colts game of course, perfect).

Only one more week of work before I get to go home and see Carrie and the baby. I can't wait. There's a whole mess of in-laws at our place at the moment.

I'm hearing holiday music all over the place.

-still living in the shit apt., progress on finding a new place is slow
-feeling 100% after the food poisoning, life is a little easier for sure
-the Colts lost, BOOOOOOO!
-been going out getting back in the New York groove
-saw American Gangster today


and thatsallfuhnow

... this is pretty cool:

Steve Tyrell: Bacharach and Beyond
(Cafe Carlyle; 90 capacity; $130 top)
By STEVEN SUSKIN
Presented in-house. Musical director/piano, Quinn Johnson. Opened, reviewed Oct. 30, 2007. Runs through Dec. 31.

Band: Jon Allen, Lew Soloff, Lou Marini, Lyman Medieros, Steve Cotter, Kevin Winard; singers: Darryl Tookes, La Tanya Hall.

Fans of the big band sound can find it at the Carlyle, for an extended engagement from Halloween through New Year's Eve. Steve Tyrell, backed by eight musicians and two singers, fills the recently renovated Madison Avenue nitery with an hour's worth of swinging music; not exactly "Bacharach and Beyond" as credited, but more properly Bacharach and before.

Tyrell is a fine example of the band singer, circa today. He's neither Tony Bennett nor Harry Connick Jr. But he's a good singer, and he knows the music. After 30 or so years in the business -- he was director of promotions at Scepter Records, back in the days when Bacharach & David were turning out hit after hit -- he turned to performing, breaking through with his crooning in the "Father of the Bride" movies.
Program is split between Bacharach & David ("The Look of Love," "Walk on By," "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head") and a clutch of older favorites ("It Had to Be You," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," "Give Me the Simple Life").

This is a fine collection; Tyrell knows songs and how to pick them. The patrons at the opening set knew them too; people at every other table were singing along, silently (and politely) mouthing the words. The singer was relaxed and cool in his black velvet jacket; at one point flirting so veraciously with a willowy miss he almost fell off the stage. The arrangements -- uncredited here, except for the Quincy Jones/Sinatra chart version of "Fly Me to the Moon" -- are mostly solid.
Tyrell's two-month engagement comes at a stiff tariff ($130 plus dinner). But simply put, there aren't many places in Manhattan where you'll find such a large musical sound in such a small room, with roughly one performer per eight seats.

As a bonus, opening nighters were treated to Patti Austin joining Tyrell for "Say a Little Prayer for Me." Credit should be shared with Tyrell's fine band, led by Quinn Johnson on piano. Flavorful solos abound, including several from Lyman Medieros on bass, Lew Soloff on trumpet and Lou Marini on sax and flute.

The apartment in NYC sucks. It's really bad. On top of being terribly uncomfortable with no furniture, no cable, and no internet there are roaches and the neighborhood is a drag. The powers that be are working on finding another place but it's going to be a few days before that happens.

And I got food poisoning Tuesday night. I spent the whole night vomiting up bad mussels. I've only had one meal since and have been really tired and weak.

I guess things can only get better.

Friday we flew to Boston to play a private yesterday for an organization that works with mentally disabled adults. We played the same event last year and we were all pumped to do it again as we remembered the open bar and fantastic food. This year didn't disappoint. Before the gig I got to squeeze in lunch with the esteemed Dr. Patrick Eaton and his beautiful family at his home.

(I should add that I've always like Boston and have always had a good time visiting despite the fact that I hate the New England Patriots with ever fiber of my being. With the Boston Red Sex playing in the World Series while we were there I was ready to be around some insufferable Boston sports fans but luckily I was able to avoid any run-ins).

So lunch was great and the gig was cool, this morning we rented a couple of SUVs to make the three hour drive to Sarasota Springs, NY. Well, we thought it would be a three hour drive, our tour manager (aka Magellan) likes to rely on GPS Navigation systems and let me tell you, they are always crap. We got lost and turning around on these Toll Roads up here is impossible. After a long drive and long soundcheck we played a concert at a Casino here in Saratoga. It was cool but I'm ready to get to the city. Knowing I'm going to have a new home, neighborhood, roommate, and routine makes me pretty anxious to get things started.

The Colts won today. The Day of Reckoning draws near ...

... for me to leave.

I'm heading out to NYC for the rest of the year tomorrow. We actually have a gig in Boston and Saratoga over the weekend before opening at the Carlyle on Tues. This year is going to be pretty rough since I'll be missing Milo but we have our visits well-planned so that will help. I'm coming back to LA on Nov. 18-19 and Dec. 2-3. Then Milo and Carrie will join me in the city for the second half of April. Baby's First Christmas is going to be on tour, he's a pro already. Skype will help also. Thank heavens for grandma! Carrie's mom is coming to visit for three whole weeks which makes me feel a lot better about leaving her alone. Both Milo and Murphy can be quite a handful.

I've resolved to be as healthy as possible this trip to avoid getting sick. I've already had one cold this year, I don't need another. NYC is a beautiful place but it can really seem wretched if you have a cold and its cold and rainy outside. So I don't plan on drinking on an empty stomach and blacking out like I did last year. Hooo-boy!

So wish me well and keep Carrie and the baby in your thoughts. I'll be online with updates from the city.

Certain thoughts go through a person's mind when they look out their window and see strong winds rustling trees back and forth and blowing leaves and other junk through the air; "looks windy, I better grab a sweater," "the wind is really kicking up, its probably going to rain soon." You don't expect to walk out your door and be slammed in the face with an 80 degree wind and air dry enough to make your skin instantly ashy.

That's what we're dealing with down here, dry wind like I've never experienced before. They're called the Santa Anna winds and usually they're pretty comfortable. Not so this year. As I'm sure you've heard by now the winds have stoked fires all across Southern California. The closest fires to us are about 15 mi. away so we should be cool but not unaffected. Carrie has a co-worker who had to evacuate her home and sleep at a local high school and all outdoor activities were canceled because of poor air quality. The smoke looks like big clouds up in the sky and makes everything overcast. Pretty weird.

At a lecture in Carnegie Hall Harry Potter author JK Rowling revealed that the character Albus Dumbledore, head wizard in the series, is gay.

I can't wait to hear what kind of debate this causes, Carrie and I already had a heated discussion about the topic this morning (she thinks its okay if people read the book and think he's not gay claiming "I don't care what the author says," I for one am a firm believer of author's intent). It's very brave of Rowling to write such a powerful, gay children's character and hopefully this will do a lot for tolerance and understanding.

In news unrelated to gay wizards my cold is starting to subside finally. We had a rough weekend as I was playing at a jazz club in Hollywood every night and didn't get home until 1 AM or so. So I had to sleep all day and leave Carrie with the sick baby, she was a real champ. We're taking Milo to the doctor today, hopefully the little guy will be feeling better soon.

And if you haven't heard Los Angeles is on fire. None of the fires are too close to our home luckily. Let's hope it stays that way.

-Zicam Nasal Gel, every four hours
This stuff is magic, start taking it at the first hint of a cold and it will either
keep your symptoms pretty quiet or stop the cold entirely.

-Ibuprofen, every four hours
You can use the generic stuff but it doesn't have the sweet coating like Advil does.

-Saline Sinus rinse
Saline solution squirted in to one nostril, comes out the other. Its like snorting
pool water but does it ever clean you out.

-Multi Vitamin


Even with the best treatment regimen having a cold still sucks. Milo has one too. Hearing the little guy coughing and breathing heavy because of congestion is one heartbreaking sound. He seems oblivious though.

Al Gore has won the Nobel Prize his efforts to raise awareness about global warming.

It really makes you think about how much different the state of our country's global relations and economic situation would be if he had won the election he received the most votes for back in '00. Luckily this might be used as a springboard to run again.

What a weekend. Driving all over SoCal really wore me out. I was on the verge of a cold all weekend long put I chilled that out thanks to Zicam (this stuff really works) and a saline sinus rinse. I'm playing some electric bass in the show now which is a lot of fun. We have a few days off until Friday when we open at Catalina, a popular jazz club in Hollywood.

Later today is the long-awaited recording session for my Bossa Nova band. I don't think it will really get off the ground until next year.

In the ever-growing trend of production companies using a viral website to promote the release of an upcoming film, the Sci Fi channel has launched this website for Tin Man, a re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz, it really looks cool. I can't wait to see it.

I'm not sure if summer is over technically speaking (you know, lunar calendar, solstice and all that) but by most accounts and by my calendar it is.

I went in to this summer wanting to do two things: spend lots of time with Milo and play more quality music around L.A. Going in to the summer I knew my touring schedule was going to be very light and I'd have more time to accomplish both and looking back I'd say I did. Carrie and I were lucky enough to find a Babysitter who would only charge us for the days we took Milo to her house (most places make you pay by the week, every week). I've seen his hair fill in, teeth pop out, and watched him scoot (he's not quite crawling yet) across the floor with astonishing speed.

On the music side I've played around town about as much as I could've expected. I've reconnected with some old musician friends and made some great new ones as well playing some really great creative music. Technically speaking I'm of the belief (and it's a popular one) that you get better on you instrument in plateaus as opposed to slowly and steadily making progress. That is to say you go through periods of sharp growth in your playing then it levels out, sharp growth, level out, etc. I feel I've hit another plateau this summer which is great.

Now that October has started my touring/work schedule with Tyrell fills up again. We are literally all over the state of California this week. Last night we played in Santa Barbra (it was a casual, a private party somebody hired Steve for, but I think he charges upwards of $20,000 for private functions like this so folks are usually a lot cooler when shelling out that kind of dough for an artist), today we rehearse in Hollywood (we are working on a bunch of Burt Bacharach tunes, fun stuff), tomorrow we fly up to Napa, Friday we fly back and play in Glendora (east of Pasadena), Saturday we have a gig in Malibu, and on Sunday we wrap it up with a concert in San Diego. That's a lot of driving.

Work is pretty consistent all the way through March. I am indeed making the NYC trip for the third year in row playing in the city during November and December. That gig is looming large and I leave in less than a month. YIKES! Being away from Milo is going to be tough as hell! But I'll be coming home a couple of times and of course mommy and baby will come to the city for Christmas.

And how was your summer?

So tonight I had what we musicians on the West Coast call a 'casual'. In case I haven't mentioned what a 'casual' is before let me explain; a casual is gig at a wedding, business reception, cocktail party, corporate reception, etc. They usually involve a tuxedo, and a lot of money.

(Let me just throw in a little regional musician dialect for you here; in L.A. we call them 'casuals' but in NYC they call them 'club dates'. Both of these names are odd because they are formal gigs that don't happen at clubs. In Chicago they are called 'jobbing gigs', this seems most appropriate.)

There is no personal expression at a casual, no creativity and no artistic fulfillment. You're either playing unoffensive jazz tunes or classic rock/pop songs. There is nothing more degrading for a musician than a casual. BUT they pay more than other gigs. The casual I had tonight was pretty rough and really typifies what you go through on one of these gigs.

The gig was a wedding reception in the Malibu Canyon. I had some trouble finding the place and called the guy who booked me on the gig. He told me he'd have one of the event planners call me back and help me. I found it soon after but still got the call from the event planner telling me I had to get there as soon as possible and giving me attitude. This was at 3:40 and I was told to arrive at 3:45, already I knew this was going to be a doozy.

Let me take a moment here to tell you about even planners, they are among the most condescending and disrespectful people you will meet in any profession. And I am not joking one little bit.

I arrive on time and am surprised to see that this wedding is going to be held at a horse stable. Well, not the actual stable but a nice lawn area next to the stable. I unload my gear, go park my car and walk all the way back to the stage through the various lawns and horse stables in my suit. The horses were looking at me as if to say "why are you wearing patent leather shoes on this dirt road, sir?" I set up my gear and the event planner begins telling us all how little time we have and how we needed to hurry and sound check before the guests began to arrive. This gig was a little strange as we were going to play in three different locations (one for cocktails, one for dinner, one for the reception). So we sound check not once but three times all the while with the event planner up our asses telling us we needed to hurry.

Luckily we finished before any of the guests became offended by a sound check. So there's an hour to kill before we play, we sit around and shoot the breeze. The sun is going down and its starting to get cold. The ceremony ends, its almost time to play and the event planner literally counts us down to the moment we are to begin, "one minute ... 30 seconds ... 15 seconds ... GO!" As if the guests would up and leave if they happened to pick up their Captain n' Coke without "Girl From Ipanema" playing in the background. Its really cold outside and my fingers are numb but a sharp pain shoots through them when I press one of my bass strings down.

We play the cocktail set and move to the next stage for the dinner set. We were told we would have a 15 minute break but the event planner said we needed to begin playing immediately, I guess the guests couldn't find their seats unless they were provided with a soundtrack. So, no break. We play the set and have to stop a couple of songs when the event planner informs us that the emcee needs to say something or there is a toast to be made. Finally we get a break and by this time everyone is pretty hungry. We are lead to a table with three vats of old and cold picked-over pasta. There was nowhere to sit, no shelter or anything. It was awful, luckily there was another event planner there to tell us that the food was still good and it wasn't that cold outside. It seems we were acting like divas by expecting a decent meal in the middle of six hours of work.

So we go back after 10 minutes of choking down cold ziti and the event planner counts us down again and continues shouting directions while we are playing. This seems to be a good time to mention that nobody at the reception seems to give two shits about the music. No one claps or dances or bobs their head ... I don't know why we had to get bossed around by this fascist planner since everybody else was so indifferent.

We get another break and move to the final location. They rustle up some small pizzas for the band in the kitchen area which quickly get snatched up. A few minutes later yet another event planner comes out, sees the eaten pizza crusts and yells at one of the chefs "I NEEDED THOSE PIZZAS!!" I'm still curious as to what circumstances causes someone to yell for his lost pizzas in such a rage. We get on stage and are told that the wedding party will be walking in to some songs from a CD and we needed to act like we were playing along. You heard me, on top of actually playing we had to act like we were playing as well. The party enters and the acting commences. We then play the first dance and afterwards launch in to a stirring rendition of "Have Negila". After that, I'm done. I hear the band start "Play That Funky Music White Boy" and I leave. I walk all the way across the lawn and through the stables with my bass on my back to get to my car. By this time it was totally dark outside and the horses had on their blinders that they sleep with. If they had been able to see me I'm sure they would've asked why I was still in patent leather shoes and if I was carrying a big guitar or a cello.

I drive the car over to the stage area, load up my amp and finally leave the gig.

This, ladies and gentleman, is the typical casual for a working musician. You work so hard to become a good artist honing your craft and studying the technical aspects of your instrument only to discover that the work that usually pays the most is the worst that usually degrades you the most. And there are musicians who do casuals week in and week out their entire lives. I don't know how they do it. I'm pretty lucky.

For any of you who think I don't have a real job or what I do is 'play' and not 'work' or that I shouldn't be privy to benefits like those who hold a 'normal job' because I enjoy what do, know this: I earned every cent of my money tonight!

I just took the What Book Are You? quiz that Kelly linked to on her blog.

The result I got is quite hilarious:

You're Anne of Green Gables!

by L.M. Montgomery

Bright, chipper, vivid, but with the emotional fortitude of cottage
cheese, you make quite an impression on everyone you meet. You're impulsive, rash,
honest, and probably don't have a great relationship with your parents. People hurt
your feelings constantly, but your brazen honestly doesn't exactly treat others with
kid gloves. Ultimately, though, you win the hearts and minds of everyone that matters.
You spell your name with an E and you want everyone to know about it.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I've been checking out a lot of indie rock lately (for some reason there isn't a whole lot of great new jazz being released at the moment). I've found some really good stuff. Here's the best of what I've been digging on:

Ys, Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom is the most refreshing and talented musician I've heard in a long, long time. She plays the harp and sings with an ethereal tone (some call it child-like which at first listen might be appropriate). I don't know how to describe what it is she does; avant-garde folk? Whatever it is I guarantee you've never heard anything like it. Os Ys the great Van Dyke Parks (who was Brian Wilson's collaborator for Smile!) provides the string arrangements. Her previous record The Milk-Eyed Mender might be more accessible for some. Its really nice to hear something so original.

Mirrored, Battles

Battles provides some truly unique sonic-scapes. Some call them 'Math Rock', I prefer 'Hardcore Prog Rock'. Really interesting sounds, samples, and song arrangements. The band features the drummer from the great alt. metal group Helmut and Tondai Braxton, son of avant-gard jazz saxophonist Anthony Braxton.

Let's Stay Friends, Les Savy Fav

Good ol' melodic punk rock. Not much else needs to be said.

Class of 73 Bells, Prefuse 73

I'm not much of an electonica fan, but this extended single really creates a great mood. Very melodic and the beat sounds organic. This one is so new I can't even find the album art online.

The Dust of Retreat, Margot and the Nuclear and So and So's

Here's some Indy Indie rock. The band are local to Indianpolis and they remind me of everything that is good about original music in Indy; melodic, moody, folksy. They have quite an epic sound an an instrumentation that features horns and strings. I bet they're probably great live.

What've you been listening to? Any hidden gems on your playlists?

My gigs over the weekend really wore me out. I didn't get home until 3 AM Friday night after the punk show. Its much to hard staying out that late with a baby in the house. Maybe if we had a bigger house. Then there was football Sunday (go Colts baby), a high school friend of mine who lives in Long Beach came up. We had a great time but I was dead tired by Monday. Milo and I took naps all day yesterday.

I've got a few days with the baby this week. But not much else is happening which is fine. Once October starts I go full-speed until next year.

And in some great news for Kathy and anyone else who likes good TV; Season 4 of 'The Wire' is coming out on DVD in Dec.

In an interesting bit of gossip the aforementioned high school friend told me that another friend of ours from back in the day was arrested for trying to hook up with a 14-year old girl who he knew was 14. Creepy right?

My oh my, makes you wonder how the rest of your classmates turned out.

TV is an entirely new and exciting thing with DVR and On Demand. If you have either you know what I'm talking about. I haven't watched a regular TV series for a while but these days I'm seriously digging on a few really great ones.

Californication-Did you know that David Duchovny can act? He can! And he's really great in this show, he stars as a writer in L.A. struggling with writer's block and trying to be a good father to his twelve-year-old daughter. As an added bonus our friend Amy (who was one of Milo's first babysitters) stars in the first few epsiodes.

Weeds-This series has turned from dramatic and clever to bitter and humorous but its still the best 'sitcom' on TV.

Big Love-The second season just wrapped up and it didn't disappoint.

Feasting On Asphalt-I love Alton Brown. One day I'd like to take a long road trip across the country.

Blind Date, Intervention, Confessions of a Matchmaker-Okay, these shows are crap. Everyone needs guilty pleasures though.


This is perhaps the most diverse week of work I've ever had. Monday I had a recording session for a friend who is writing a transcription book of Paul Desmond solos that is going to be published by Hal Leonard. He recorded the sax solos with a rhythm section for the CD that is going to accompany the book. Desmond was part of the "West Coast" style of the 50's, this brand of jazz was much more laid-back and understated than other post-bop styles of the day. We had to cop the feel of the original Desmond recordings for the session. I'm usually pretty aggressive with my beat, laying back took some adjusting.

Tonight I accompanied jazz vocal majors at MI in performances for their Finals.

Friday night I am playing a gig with my buddy Vinnie's punk/hardcore/art-rock band SPIT. That's right, punk rock baby. I haven't played music like this since high school, its going to be a blast.

Saturday night I have a jazz gig at a rock club in a hip part of L.A. (Los Feliz, the neighborhood popularized in Swingers) with some very heavy cats. It will be some hard-hittin' stuff.


By now we've all heard or seen Britney Spears' debacle at the VMAs on Sunday (Man, remember when the VMAs were cool? That was a looong time ago.) Her lip-syncing was terrible, her dancing was stiff and clumsy, and she did not look well. But doesn't Miss Spears deserve a little slack? This fan certainly thinks so:

*LANGUAGE WARNING*

*PSYCHOTIC FAN WARNING*

I recently read this fascinating article by the NY Times about Rick Rubin and his place in the future of the music business. Its no secret that the industry is in terrible shape right now and less and less records are being sold. Capitol Records (one of the largest and most historic record labels in the history of the music business) has recently hired him to right the ship. The article gives insight as to how the business is suffering and what Rubin wants to do to fix it. So go read it.

Rubin thinks the future of the industry is for record labels to make all the of the music in their entire catalog available online via a subscription service. I guess it would work like Napster does at the moment, you can listen to anything you want while you are a subscriber but nothing is available for direct download. While Rubin has some good ideas I think this one stinks. I'd never join an online music subscription service. I want to own my music, people will always want to make playlists and 'mix tapes' and personalize their collection. Unless you want to be a lifelong subscriber to a label (which I'm sure is his plan), that would be impossible.

And if you hadn't noticed FOOTBALL SEASON STARTS TOMORROW!!!

FINALLY!!!

The Colts will defend their Championship missing a lot of team members from last year's roster. The media would have you believe that the Colts are in bad shape because of all of the free agents who have left the team, but they are wrong! Most of the defensive players we lost are of no concern, there are young studs ready to fill in at DB and LB who will be as good as the vets they are replacing. The biggest concern is the DT position. With Booger McFarland out the defensive line is pretty weak. We'll see if these young players can step up. Another concern is the unexpected retiring of Pro Bowl LT Tarik Glenn. There's a rookie in to replace him but there's no way he can fill Glenn's shoes. But offense has never been a concern of the Colts.

I expect a great season from the Colts and it all starts tomorrow. I plan on watching the game with my son as he will see for the first time the football team he will cheer-on and root-for for the rest of his life.

I got back from tour yesterday. It was only three cities but it was pretty eventful. The first gig was in Houston, we played for the Mayor's birthday party for the city. Lot's of rich folks and local celebrities and after four songs we were done. Not bad. And the following day (last Wed.) we had entirely off. This is a rarity on tour; no travel no gigs no rehearsal, nothing. We took advantage by having lunch at hands-down the BEST barbecue place I've ever eaten at, Pizzatolla's. Jerry Pizzatolla is a childhood friend of Steve's and invited the band over (Steve flew to NYC to do some business). We had a great time and some great food.
The secret to Jerry's barbecue brisket is this brick oven/smoker. Ovens like these aren't allowed in Houston anymore because of fire codes, but since the restaurant has been there so long (he procured the place from Houston barbecue legend Johnny Davis) its been grandfathered out of the laws. No secret rubs or sauces in his brisket, just salt, pepper, and about 10 hours of brick oven smoking. There is none better.

Here's a pic of the guys and Jerry:


That night our trumpeter Matt and I went to a Houston Astros game. And you won't believe what happened. After scalping some tickets (for face value as the Astros are kind of sad this year) we sat down to a local guy who goes to a lot of games. After the game starts he leans over and tells me "a lot of foul balls come up here so be on the lookout." I was skeptical. We were on the club level directly to the left of and behind home plate. It seemed like a long distance backwards for a ball to travel. Then in the fourth inning Cardinals Left Fielder Chris Duncan comes up to bat and *WHACK* a ball comes sailing up for us. It is coming towards my left where the local guy is sitting, he jumps up but misses the ball (this I found funny since every time a ball would go in to the stands and a fan would miss catching it he'd shout "GOTTA GRAB IT!") and it bounces high off of the concrete steps to my right. Well, Matt is sitting to my right and I'm not exaggerating when I tell you he's every bit of 6'7". I thought "there's no way I'm grabbing this ball before Matt." But sure enough the ball slips through his fingers and plops right in the unoccupied seat in front of me and I scoop it up.

I'm not sure if you can appreciate how rare catching a foul ball is, it doesn't happen to everybody and I kind of figured it would never happen to me. But the way my luck has been going this year I shouldn't be surprised. Here's my ball which I will of course give to my son (coincidently that day was also his first day at day care):

Matt and I after the game:


The Astros were celebrating the 80th birthday of their broadcast announcer. Guess what his name is?


The next day we flew to JFK and stayed at a hotel by the airport (yuck!) and the next day played a nice theater in the Hamptons. The gig went really well and the crowd had a lot of energy.

The next day we played a private event on Nantucket. I'd never been before and my first impression is this: if you've ever seen the Nantucket/Cape Cod/Martha's Vineyard-look in fashion magazines and said to yourself "people don't really dress like that" let me tell you, they do. I saw a 60-something year-old guy in teal and white seersucker shorts, a pink polo shirt with the collar popped, and a blue blazer. There are guys like this all over the island. We played a wedding (rumored to cost $1 million) and the groomsmen all wore blue blazers and khakis. Too funny. But we had a good time and Nantucket even has some pretty cool nightlife.

Home finally. I'm watching Milo all week. We're gonna find some trouble to get in to.

Well, we've had a fun time with Mom here over the past week but unfortunately my time with the family is being cut short. In a few hours I leave for tour again with Tyrell; Houston, the Hamptons, and Nantucket. I'll be back on Sunday but this is the longest tour I've been on since May. The tour schedule is pretty easy, we only have three shows and an actual day off with no travel.

There are pics up on the baby blog if you haven't seen them.

Surprisingly my last political post didn't spurn as much outrage and dissent as my previous posts had. That's probably because the position of the hospital I mentioned is flat-out indefensible even to the staunchest politically self-centered.

So you have to read an excellent post by my sister-in-law a her blog about hopelessly out-of-touch Indiana Representative Mike Pence who recently compared Iraq to an outdoor marketplace in Indiana. She links to a hilarious clip from the Daily Show where Hoosier soldiers in Iraq are interviewed and indeed they think Iraq is nothing like Indiana. Way to go Pence! Please vote this guy's ass out of office when his term is up!

***********

Mom's visit is really going well. We're not doing much besides spending a lot of time with Milo (which is the way grandma wants it).

Hopefully we'll have pics on the baby blog soon.

Last night I went to the L.A. Angels game against the New York Yankess. If you didn't know the Angels actually play in Annaheim (which is in Orange County) but they adopted the name L.A. a couple of years ago for business reasons. I live in L.A. and it took me two hours to get there so I refuse to call them the L.A. Angels. But they are still a great ball club and they are having a great season.

And everyone's heard of the Yankess, "America's Team." I once heard there are two types of baseball fan; those who love and respect the game and Yankess fans. HA! I'm amongst those who consider them the "Evil Empire" and I was looking forward to seeing them for the first time.

The highest paid player in sports, A-Rod, steps up to bat.


"Mr. Yankee" Derek Jeter.


Angels stud Vlad Guerrero.


When the Angels are behind late in a game the Rally Monkey appears to rally the crowd. If you look closely you can seem him on the screen in the corner.


The Angels won in the tenth inning off of a hit from a rookie who had only 11 major-league at-bats. It was definitely the biggest hit of his life so far and the team rushed out to celebrate with him.

Its been a busy week for me. On Tuesday and Thursday I taught Theory, Harmony, and Ear Training to some unenthusiastic students at Musician's Institute, drove an hour to a gig in Claremont on Thursday and drove two hours to gigs in Orange County on both Friday and Saturday. Throw in my Fantasy Football drafts this weekend and it really has been a busy few days.

My gigs the past couple of nights have been duets; Fri. with a singer and Sat. with a piano player. I love playing duet gigs for a couple of reasons, first off it means a lot of playing and a lot of bass solos, and secondly it really challenges me as a player. There is a lot more harmonic and rhythmic responsibility particularly in duet with a vocalist where I'm playing all of my solos unaccompanied. That really exposes you and puts a lot of melodic constraints on what you're doing. But that sort of challenge is a lot of fun.

In other news legendary drummer Max Roach has passed. His death is a bit more meaningful as he was our last living bebop pioneer. He recorded extensively with Charlie Parker and lead groups with Clifford Brown. His solo piece "The Drum Also Waltzes" remains a standard in jazz repertoire. He will be missed.

I've had a really nasty wart on the bottom of my foot for a few years now (did you know one of the technical names for this kind of wart is a Verruca?). My doctor tried liquid nitrogen, it didn't work. In fact it's gotten worse over the past year, so the last time I visited my doctor she put in for a referral for me to see a podiatrist.

I finally had the podiatry appointment today. As I'm sitting in the exam room I notice a signed poster of the 2006 World Cup on the wall. On the other wall I notice a framed jersey from the US National Team also signed and at the bottom is a little plaque saying 'Dr. L (I forget how to spell his name) US Nat'l Team Podiatrist.' Cool! If this guy is working on the feet of the US's best soccer players, he must be alright. He comes in and starts working on my verruca and I tell him my story about my experience in Italy during the World Cup finals last year. He tells me he's also been the podiatrist for Los Angeles's Major League Soccer teams the Galaxy and Chivas USA for years.

Now, maybe you haven't heard but soccer superstar David Beckham was signed to the LA Galaxy earlier this year for millions upon millions of dollars. He arrived to the team this summer but hasn't been able to play more than a couple of minutes per game because of an injured ankle. Needless to say fans are pretty disappointed that Beckham with his international celebrity, pop star wife, and enormous paycheck has yet to make a contribution to the team.

So I ask him "have you met Beckham yet?"
He says "I'm working on his ankle."
"Is he going to able to play soon?"
"He'll play 20 or 30 minutes tonight."

I felt like calling a sports talk radio program and letting them in on the breaking news I'd just heard. Then I remembered we were talking about soccer and they probably wouldn't care too much.

So he sent me away with a couple of ointments and told me to come back in a few weeks for more treatment. I left comfortable in the knowledge that if this man has helped bring David Beckham back from injury then there is a good chance that he will get rid of my nasty Verruca.

UPDATE!
Beckham started for the Galaxy and scored his first goal for the team last night.

Carrie and I were watching the Today Show this morning and were shocked to hear a preview of an upcoming story where an employer will start penalizing their employees for leading what the deemed to be "an unhealthy lifestyle."

Imagine our shock when we heard this company was in Indiana.

Imagine our outright disbelief when we found out that this is the same company that my mother works for.

Clarian Health is going to start docking their workers up to $30 every two weeks for 'failing to meet health standards set by the company'. Things like high cholesterol, high body mass index, smoking, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar will result in fines for employees that can total close to $800 a year. My jaw was on the floor when I heard this. My disbelief turned to anger when smug CEO Daniel Evans tried to defend his position. The thinking is the age-old 'why should I have to pay for someone else's care.' We've heard that one before, for sure.

So let me get this straight; my mother who has survived cancer, has a history of high blood pressure and cholesterol in her family and who most importantly has put in over 25 years of good service to Clarian (heck, she was there before it was even Clarian) is going to be penalized for the way she lives her life? I talked to mom this morning and she said they are still working out the details concerning how employees will be penalized if they are seeking treatment for said health problems or have a family history of them. But doing that reeks of discrimination.

I can hear the opposition now "it's Carian's right to run their business however they want to." Bullshit. Are corporate rights more important than your right to privacy? Where does it stop? Does Clarian have the right to penalize employees for speeding? attending loud rock concerts? flying? having unprotected sex?

A solution offered by some might be for my mom to just get another job. If she's unhappy she can do something about it, right? Suggesting so is compassionless. Like I said she's been at her job for a long, long time and has been a good employee for them. Asking her to get another job having no college degree and getting along in years (sorry Mom! hehe) is out of the question.

All this boils down to is a corporation looking to make some money off of their employees because they hate having to pay for health care. And the biggest irony of all is I see their point, they shouldn't have to pay for their employee's health care and with a public health care system intact we wouldn't have to worry about numbers-crunchers whose job it is to save money making decisions about our health.

********

In a somewhat related story, because of my recent car troubles I've been researching purchasing a new vehicle lately and in doing so came across a very interesting article. It seems that GM has to add $1,500 to the price of every car to cover health costs of employees. Again, public health care could do nothing but help this problem and perhaps strengthen our American car companies.

Kind of.

Last night I was awaken from a deep sleep by my wife shaking me and telling me there was an earthquake. She'd bolted out of bed and grabbed her shoes. I hadn't felt the earthquake at all and thought she was being melodramatic. You have to understand she is prone to babbling in her sleep and waking me up in the middle of the night mistaking the dog for the baby and telling me it was suffocating. So of course I thought she had dreamt the "earthquake". She assured me she heard the headboard and pictures rattle and that it was indeed for real. I was skeptical and went back to bed.

Sure enough a 4.5 magnitude earthquake hit near our home last night. 4.5 isn't very bad and in the media's ever-passionate attempt to keep everyone fearful channel 4 news sought out the worst damage it could find this morning. All they found was a few fallen ceiling panels at a 99 Cent Store.

So stay tuned loyal viewers, the big one has yet to hit!

While I was in Hawaii I noticed the callouses on my right-hand index finger falling off in the salt water of the ocean. I didn't play my bass for over a week while we were gone (I can't remember the last time I didn't play for so long, last time we were in Hawaii?), this softened up my fingers as well. As I said in the previous post I've been knee-deep in work since we landed and my fingers are aching. Luckily I haven't rubbed any big blisters, it just feels like my fingers are bruised and after playing for a while they start to hurt.

Bass players pay close attention to their fingers. When I was starting to play in college I'd get blisters on my finger every couple of months. Let me tell you, they can really impede your playing. It's like a basketball player with an injured knee, you simply can't perform to the best of your ability.

So here's my blisterly advice to all you of aspiring jazz bassists out there: when you rub a blister the best thing to do is to pop it, remove all of the dead skin and play you ax as much as possible (which won't be much) to develop a callous. Now, if you have a blister but have some important gigs coming up my advice is to find a small sewing needle, sterilize the tip with fire of some kind and poke the tiniest hole possible in the blister to drain all of the fluid. Leave the dead skin on and make sure the hole you punctured is as small as possible. The dead skin makes the best bandage and the smaller the whole the smaller the chance of ripping the dead skin off.

After a while you'll get some good callouses and it won't be a problem unless of course you take a beach vacation and don't play for a week.

I know its all very gross, but this is important stuff to think about when you're a bass player.

That had to be one of the fastest weeks of my life. Our time in Kona was much too short and we are both eagerly waiting the next time we visit Dad and family. From the amazing house with an incredible view of the ocean, to eating amazing food, to the beautiful beaches, to showing off Milo to his family it was the vacation of a lifetime. Next time we stay longer brah!

On Monday we headed to Hilo (my first home) to visit grandma and Tuesday we spent on the beach. Plenty of pictures on the baby blog and there will be more soon.

No rest for the wicked! I'm teaching at Musician's Institute again tomorrow, reherasal Friday, Tyrell gig Saturday, and another gig with a great LA drummer on Sunday. And the car situation is still a big-ass mess!

So far our vacation in Hawaii has been all that we hoped it would be, fun and relaxing times in paradise with the family. Grandpa and family really love Milo and are really cute around him. He really digs the Big Island of course. I'm going to make this quick so here's a day-by-day breakdown. Pictures can be found on the baby blog.

Wednesday
Flew to Honolulu then Kona. Milo was a terrific traveler as always. Dad took us to our digs, a neighbor's house of his. A fantastic home with a gorgeous views. One of the nicest joints I've ever stayed in (wireless internet even).

Thursday
Breakfast at the Big Island Grill (some ono brahddah!) and then a walk around Kailua Town. We had some great shave ice at the end of our walk. That night we ordered Thai take-out.

Friday
Lunch by the ocean. Dad took us for a drive though some of Kona's more interesting spots. That night we went to a neighbor's house for a little get-together. Milo was, of course, the hit of the party.

Saturday
We picked the two aunties up from the airport (they had been in Honolulu during the week) and went to the ocean. Milo had a great time. That night we had one of the finest dinners I've ever had in a fantastic restaurant overlooking the ocean.

Sunday
Relaxing day spent with the family. Nice dinner on our lanai looking at the sunset.

I hate to think we only have a couple more days here. Leaving will be tough.

In just 24 short hours Carrie, Milo and I will be aboard Hawaiian Airlines flight 1 for the final leg of the Milo World Tour. Our first trip to Vegas seems like such a long time ago. I can't wait to see my dad and sisters again, needless to say we are really looking forward to it. I talked to him last night and he was a little disappointed that the weather had been rainy there lately, but if you've ever been to Hawaii you know that a rainy day in Hawaii is better than a sunshiny day nearly everywhere else.

Dad's rented the house next door to him for us to stay at. I'm not sure what the internet scene will be like so I might be offline for the week that we're there.

The car headache isn't over. The insurance company still hasn't given me a number of the amount they would pay if we kept the car. I told the lady handling my claims that I'd be leaving for Hawaii for a week and I wasn't going to think about the situation until I got back. And to top it all off Carrie's car is having some troubles right now. We thought we had it fixed last week (trouble starting, warning lights coming on) but a $300 repair later and nothing has changed. We're taking it to the shop today, hopefully it will be fixed before we leave.

On a positive not our new bathtub was installed yesterday. Let me tell you, bathtubs ain't cheap but it really looks nice and I'm sure it will be worth it. I'll know later tonight when I can actually use it.

We'll be blogging plenty of pictures from the trip.

Aloha!

In what has to be the coolest movie promotion ever (a lot cooler than mysterious websites that don't even tell you the name of the movie a' la JJ Abrams next film) a handful of 7-11's across the country have been turned in to Kwik-E-Marts to promote The Simpsons Movie. As soon as I heard that there was one in Burbank I had to see it so Carrie, Milo, and I went. It is really, really cool. The outside looks exactly it does in the cartoons and various items available in Springfield are inside. Take a look.


The Kwik-E-Mart sign outside.


The security guard told us there is a line of Simpsons fans waiting to get in at all times.


Carrie and Milo wait with Marge outside.


The outside wall had been tagged up by 'El Barto'.


Maggie on top of the Buzz Cola machine.

mmm ... donuts, pink with sprinkles, Homer's favorite.


At the Squishee machine.


Best. Store. Ever.


The spoils of the trip, a six-pack of Buzz Cola, a Squishee, pink donuts with sprinkles, and a Homer cookie.

Tuesday night I was headed to a gig when I noticed my car start to jerk. A few seconds later *BOOM* I see pieces of my car fly up from the front driver's side and my car handling like I'd just had a blowout. So I pull over to the side of the freeway and check out what had happened; the tire was not flat but the tread had come off most of it but was still attached. The tread had whipped around the wheel well while I was driving and as a result the body of the car from my driver's side headlight to where the wheel well used to start was gone (my car has one of those plastic bodies that are designed to shatter for safety reasons). Not only did the car look thoroughly screwed but I was on the side of a freeway. If you're not familiar the freeways in LA have two speeds: 2 mph during gridlock and 80 mph when the traffic is clear because everyone is trying to make up for the time they lost during gridlock. Well everyone was going really fast that night I didn't have any room to change my tire on the side of the freeway. A friend of mine came out and followed me while I drove to the next exit (remember the tire wasn't flat, the tread was just off) and changed my tire. I got the spare on easily enough and made it to my gig only 1/2 hour late.

So I call my insurance company and make a claim and Carrie takes the car to the body shop to get an estimate yesterday while I'm at work. The mechanic tells her that the damages would cost more than the value of the car ($1900 Blue Book) and the insurance company won't pay for it. He says they will either buy the car from us for Blue Book value or help us pay for the repair (the latter probably isn't going to happen). We are still waiting for a call from the insurance company hear what our official options are.

Does that suck or what? I have to buy a new car or drive around a hooptie that drives fine despite being able to see directly in to the engine block.

But there is another wrinkle to the story. There is a chance that the tire that caused all of the damage is under warranty. I know I got it recently, you should see the tread it is hardly worn at all. So today I'll take it to Pep Boys (they keep warranties in their system) to see if not only I can get a free tire but if they'll pay for the damages as well. I figure if I tell them the insurance company might come after them they might be willing to take care of it.

So stay tuned.

And to top it all off I lost one of our digital cameras on Tuesday. What a day.

But professionally things have been going well lately. I've played a couple of gigs this week with some terrific players and yesterday I taught at Musician's Institute in Hollywood. I subbed for the upright teacher there and it will probably lead to more work. The pay sucks but its great for the resume and I enjoy teaching a lot more than I thought I did.

I wonder, in the history of the internet has anybody ever gone in to a political debate with an open mind? Has anyone ever actually listened to opposing sentiments and been enlightened? "You know, that's a great point you have, you've caused me to reconsider my views" is a phrase that has probably never been typed in an internet forum or chat room. I'm probably as guilty of it as the next guy.

Which brings me back to the original reason of my initial post, SiCKO. Truth is, I wasn't sold on socialized health care before seeing it. When I was touring with Buble I got to know a bunch of Canadians who were on the crew. One of them had had a bad experienced with the Canadian health care system and his ill mother. I, like we are want to do, took this one testimonial and applied it to the entire country. But after seeing the stories in SiCKO I changed my thinking about the situation and after a little research my opinion was reformed.

I'm aware of Michael Moore's antics. In my opinion he often hurts his arguments by the stunts he pulls in his films; confronting Dick Clark in Bowling for Columbine seemed like a non sequiter, confronting congressmen in Fahrenheit 911 didn't do much to drive the point home. But SiCKO is different, much less editorializing by Moore and much more personal horror stories of the U.S.'s health care system from both victims of it and those who enforced the insurance companies horrid policies. So please don't judge the movie if you haven't seen it.

Once again, my blog so I get the final word. Its in two parts. First, sorry if anyone got offended throughout the debate. I'm sure nobody was out to hurt anyone else. This is a very personal issue as it affects everybody. On a personal level I was genuinely interested in suggestions about my wife and I's insurance situation since it seems to be quite different from everyone else's. The closest I got to a direction response was that I should get another job and shouldn't expect good benefits from being a musician. This is not the country I want to live in, where good health means working a job I hate and spending more time away from my son and where a school teacher doesn't have benefits most here would deem acceptable. We've both worked very hard both in school and in our careers. The system being bad is no fault of ours, it needs to be changed.

Second, ditch-diggers, dishwashers, janitors, landscapers, lawn-mowers, waiters, stock boys, drive-through cashiers, and cheap labor of all varieties are necessary to our communities. You might think they are too lazy or stupid but the fact is that everyone who makes better money and gets better benefits than them owe the lower class a debt of gratitude. The owner of Home Depot wouldn't be where he is without the labor working his stores day in and day out. Labor is the basis of our economy. They are not being taken care of in our current health care situation and solution is not to blame them and ask them to work more, it needs to be changed.

Thanks for everyone's comments, it was a stimulating debate. In particular thanks to those who posted but never really got any feedback, you all had good things to say and I agreed with most of it.

I saw Michael Moore's latest documentary SiCKO today. It's a powerful, powerful film. I had no illusions about the U.S. health system is before seeing the movie but even so I left the theater disgusted and full of rage about how our country treats its sick and elderly (particularly the poor sick and elderly).

I'm not going to spoil the movie for you but if you've seen the trailer or heard anything about it you know it revolves around the U.S.'s desperate need for free health care. This is the only country in Western Civilization that charges its citizens enormous sums of money when they are ill. It makes no sense at all.

Here are some stories brought up in the movie (again, no huge spoilers here but if you don't one bit of the film revealed to you its best to skip the rest of the post):

-In this country insurance companies give employees bonuses for denying claims to patients. The recommended denial rate is 10%. In England doctors are given bonuses if they lower their patients heart rate and help them quite smoking.

-A baby girl in Los Angeles was denied care at a hospital after her mother had discovered the child's fever. They were told they had to go to a different hospital that their insurance company covered. The child died before getting to the other hospital.

-Volunteers from 911 are being denied health care for their various respiratory problems caused my inhaling the fumes at Ground Zero. They aren't employed by the city so therefore they get no care even though they are heroes in many people's eyes. The prisoners in Guantanamo Bay who are portrayed to us as 'evil-doers' are given round-the-clock health care including preventative care.

How is this defensible? On any level how can you say that denying a baby health care is okay? You like Bush and like the war, fine. You think guns are cool, okay. But health care affects everybody, it is too personal of a problem to make excuses for.

This is an important movie. Please see it. Things need to change.

... I didn't leave the condo once today. I literally did not step outside the door once. And I still did more work than I do on most days ... kids will do that to you.

Milo had more shots yesterday and as a result was running a bit of a fever today. Hopefully it will be gone tomorrow. Taking care of the fussy boy on top of putting together Carrie's end table that arrived today on top of finishing up our movie (see the baby blog) on top of fixing lunch and dinner made for a pretty busy day. I also watched The Devil Wears Prada (surprisingly good, either that or I just think Anne Hathaway is hot and that is clouding my judgment). Now that I think about it I make a pretty good housewife.

I finally saw Knocked Up Sunday night. (Ever since Milo was born we have to see movies in shifts, Carrie's turn is tomorrow when she'll see the new Harry Potter movie). I actually wanted to see Transformers but the lines were huge and I figured it could wait. Knocked Up was so good, I really really liked it. Judd Appatow is my hero.

Has anyone ever watched the show "Intervention" on A&E? Man, that show is such a trainwreck, you have to watch it.

I've been neglectful of my blog lately. Since our return from Indy I guess I've settled into a routine of sorts and interesting things to blog about to grab me like they do when I'm traveling. But I do have some catching up to do so in the spirit of The Grey Album and other mashups I'm going to throw everything at you in one post.

The 4th
The Fourth was good for us. As we've documented on the baby blog we went over to some friends house for a cookout. I made baked beans from a recipe of Paula Dean's. If you know Paula then you won't be surprised to hear the recipe starts out with frying a half-pound of bacon and afterwards sauteeing onions in the rest of the bacon fat. The beans turned out quite nicely as you can imagine. After dinner me and the other husbands there played Tiger Woods Golf for the Nintendo Wii. MAN was that fun. Makes me want to get one instead of a 360 ...

Watch Out For That Tree!
If you didn't know I have an office/rehearsal space about ten minutes away from our pad. Its on an industrial block with some warehouses and office buildings and such. Today I was pulling out of the parking lot when I noticed a truck with a flat-bed trailer trying to maneuver into some sort of driveway. It was sideways in the street so I had to wait for it to pull in as it was blocking traffic. While I was waiting I noticed a bunch of water pouring out of the bottom of the truck, I thought "whatever it is that trailer is carrying, its leaking bad." The truck's reverse lights come on, it backs up a couple of feet, and WHOOOOSH water shoots up about 40 ft. in the air. The dumbass had driven over a fire hydrant. Water was going everywhere and I was on my ass laughing. I left but soon realized that I'd left my wallet at the office and had to head back. Upon returning to office I noticed that the street was almost flooded (street drainage in LA is for shit because, well, it never rains) and everyone was standing on the sidewalk watching the spectacle. To cap it all off as I finally left a commercial came on the radio saying "Save water this summer Los Angeles! If you shut off the water while shampooing your hair you can conserve up to 50 gallons of water per year!" Oh the irony ...

Bluetooth
You know those little Bluetooth mobile devices people wear in their ears? And they look like total douchebags when they use them because it appears they are talking to themselves? Well, a few weeks ago I got a new cel phone and with it came a package of extras including a Bluetooth headset ... and ... I gotta admit I love it. It is so nice in the car, just touch the headset, tell it who you want to call, and you're off. I promised myself to never wear it outside of my car so as not to look like a total tool. If you have the means you should check it out.

Daycare
Carrie and I have been searching for a daycare place to take Milo once school starts for her and I hit the road again. We've found two great places and are going to have a tough time deciding between the two. Daycare A is in a nice, large house with a dozen or so kids and three daycare workers who run classes and will pick your kid up from preschool or kindergarten once they get old enough. Daycare B is run by a very nice grandmother who only has a few kids but its a very cozy and warm environment; its also cheaper and closer than A and will let us pay by the day (which is good for us since when I'm home I'm home all day long) whereas A locks you in to a contract. Its going to be a tough decision.

McThing
My hero/buddy Christian McBride called me the other night. He's doing a concert at the Bowl next week with Queen Latifah, he asked me if I knew a piano player who could do a couple of rehearsals with him and 'the Queen' before full-band rehearsals start next week. I recommended one of my boys and needless to say my friend called me today thanking me profusely. I tell you, nothing earns you more cool points than being friends with the greatest bass player on the planet. I also got the new Jeff 'Tain' Watts CD in the mail today that Christian plays on. Tain is Branford Marsalis 's drummer and is one of the baddest drummers out there. The disc sounds great after a first listen.

Back in the L.A. Groove
Slowly but surely I'm starting to work around town more and am reacquainting myself with the scene. I have some gigs in town coming up that I'm looking forward to and am playing more actual jazz which is always a good thing. The summer calendar is filling up nicely which is to say not a whole lot of work but enough to keep the chops going.

Well there you have it, I should be more consistent in my blogging from now on. I need to revamp this page a bit. And maybe I'll come up with another format for the Top Five Blog to generate more interest.

Tomorrow is 7-7-7 y'all, hope you're feeling lucky.