Well, the new Yoshi's is fantastic, every bit as good as the one in Oakland. Good food, good sound, good crowd, etc. I really dig it up here, Oakland and San Fran are both really great. And its been so hot at home, its been nice to get out of the heat. Yoshi's is only a couple blocks away from The Fillmore. Billy Idol was playing there last night, too bad I couldn't catch the show.

I have to tell you guys, I'm a big fan of the blog Hot Chicks With Douchebags. Its hilarious, pictures of jerky looking guys with cute girls. You have to listen to this audio link of a voicemail left by some douchebag to a girl he was trying to mac on. It is comedic gold.

If you read Top Five over the weekend you probably realized I mis-placed a post that was meant for The Backbeat (damn you Blogger Dashboard!). So I'll re-cap my weekend trip for you. Saturday we flew to Washington state for a one-off concert in a small town called Yakima which was about a 2.5 hr. drive from Seattle. (My mom tells me today that I have a relative from Yakima, crazy right?). Let me tell you the drive through rural Washington really is beautiful; gorgeous mountains, evergreens everywhere, waterfalls and rivers. Drives like that make you think about moving out of the big city and retreating to a scenic country town and getting away from everything. I then realize how bored I would get at the end of one week and snap out of the dream rather quickly, but its a nice daydream nonetheless.

The gig was fun and quick. I was home by Sunday evening.

Tomorrow morning I leave for 6 days in the Bay Area; two days in Oakland, four days in San Fransisco. After having a few friends and a sister-in-law move away from up north I now realize I don't really know anybody in San Fran anymore. Odd. We were trying to plan for Carrie and Milo to come visit but since gasoline (i.e. "Cheney's retirement fund") is so expensive and a we'd have to board the dog it just didn't seem economical. It should still be a fine tour anyway. We are playing what I believe to be the best jazz club in the country, Yoshi's. It is in Oakland but the owners have recently opened another Yoshi's in San Fransisco, this will be my first time playing that one. If it is as nice as the Oakland property then NoCal could have the market on spectacular jazz clubs cornered.

It looks like some justice might finally be coming for some Chinese Muslims who have been improperly detained at Guantanamo Bay for over six years. If you ever heard the Peabody Award-winning episode of "This American Live" called "Habeas Shmabeas" then you've heard part of their story. They were held prisoner for years and years without the basic human right to plead their case for anyone until now. Best of luck to them.

Carrie and I saw 'The Incredible Hulk' today. It was fun, nowhere near as clever or effective as 'Iron Man', but fun. And the ending is great. If you didn't know the plan is to now release a Captain America movie, a Thor movie, an Iron Man sequel, then an Avengers movie in 2012 featuring all of the heroes teamed-up. I think its a great idea. Sequels usually get progressively watered-down so it will be much more interesting to see the different heroes interract with each other.

And why were we at the movies today? We were celebrating our EIGHTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY! Can you believe I've been married that long? Can you believe anyone would stay married to me that long?! I'm quite proud of my wife and our marriage, each year gets better and better. Eight years from now I will be 40 and undoubtedly going through one hell of a midlife crisis ... yikes! I'm sure the awesome marriage will help with that.

The title of this post is another homage to George Carlin. I'm still digesting his passing and putting his place in history and in my life in perspective. It is a sad loss but we are much happier because of him.

See you in San Fran.

The world will be a duller place without your brilliant humor.

Because I'm such a swell and helpful husband I agreed to help Carrie out at her school's career day yesterday. All I had to do was show up and tell a few classes about my job and what it is I do. Sounds easy enough until you remember these kids are apathetic 12-year-olds who are prone to blank stares and daydreaming. I was afraid I'd talk for a few minutes then sit in silence gazing at a bunch of uninterested adolescents.

Well, it wasn't so bad. Only one out of the four classes was a problem. It's hard explaining what it is I do to adults let alone kids so I'm not too sure I really conveyed my career adequately but most of the students at least seemed interested. Here are some of the funnier questions I fielded after explaining to the kids what it means to be a professional musician:

"So ... do you give concerts?"

"Do you have to pay to go all of these places?"

"Have you been to Amsterdamn? Did you get high? Do you do drugs?"

"How much money do you make?" (asked by every single class)

"Where did you buy your shoes?"

I had an okay time and if I ever get talked in to doing it again I might just take my bass so I can play to eat up some time. But I guess I did some good; one of the teachers told Carrie today that she had two kids who heard my talk come to her and say they wanted to see their Guidance Counselor so they could take Band next year. That's pretty cool.

... such a fun city. Why must I hate your sports teams so much?

I've become quite a passionate Lakers fan since moving to L.A. The Indiana Pacers will always be first in my heart but you realize how regional pro sports are when you move across the country. The Pacers are never on TV, ever! And the only news I hear about them is which one most recently got arrested at a strip club on 38th St. This town however lives and breathes the Lakers so its quite easy to become a fan.

Tonight the Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals in a most humiliating fashion. They gave up a 24 pt. lead to lose by 6 on their own court. Awful. This coupled with my deep emotional hatred of the New England Patriots really adds to my disdain for the city of Boston which is too bad, I always have a lot of fun when I go there.

Since I'm not touring as much on the East Coast these days I can fully start despising Boston especially if they go on to win the Finals.

Boston, you're on notice!

In another one of the odd coincidences that seem to permeate my life, while I was on the road in Manila I received an email from a guy in Tokyo who told me he was interested in licensing my recording of "Feel Like Making Love" for a compilation he is putting together for his record label. I told him I would be in Tokyo in a matter of days and invited him out to the Blue Note to see the show and chat about it. He's a really nice guy who is starting a new label licensing jazz, bossa, funk, etc. in Japan, this compilation is going to be one of his first releases. It is a collection of tunes with the word 'love' in the title, he told me my version of "Feel Like Making Love" is the best he heard. He also said he thinks the entire album could sell in Japan and asked me to mail him a copy to give to a friend of his who works at Tower Records over there. With any luck "The Funky Supervillain" will get distribution over there and I'll be a big star in Japan (I'm not holding my breath for the latter, but the former is a definite possibility). I'm pretty jazzed about it.


In other news, I'm finally on one of Tyrell's records, "Back to Bacharach" hits stores at the end of the month. I'm on two tracks; "Reach Out For Me" and "Always Something There To Remind Me." I share bass duties with the legendary Will Lee from the Late Night with David Letterman band amongst others. I think its a solid record and is going to do really well for Steve.

Speaking of, we are going to be on the Tonight Show. Mark you calendars and set the TiVo, the show will be taping and airing on July 7. This will be one of the biggest TV audiences I've ever played for (my people at Dean are going to be pretty happy about that). I'll be sure to post reminders leading up to the show.

Also on tap; I'm planning a hip-hop/jazz show here in LA with my DJ friend Ethos. It will feature a set by my group, a set by him showcasing some MCs, then a freestyle set with everyone onstage jamming together. We haven't nailed down a venue or date yet but hopefully we will soon.

That's how my summer is shaping up!

The last country on our whirlwind Asia tour was Singapore. Singapore is actually a City-State; city, county, state, and country all rolled into one. English is the primary language and most folks are of Chinese dissent.

You've probably heard stories regarding all of the strict laws on littering in Singapore. Well, they are all true. Talk about Big Brother! For your first littering offense you are immediately fined $200 (there are plain-clothes cops walking around everywhere), by your fourth offense you are fined $800 with 8 hours of community service cleaning up. While cleaning you have to wear a shirt that says "I am a litterbug" and a camera crew comes and films you and puts you on Singapore television. You are allowed to chew gum, but not buy or sell it.

There is no buying or selling of porn. While on the internet in my hotel I tried going to Facebook and instead got a page saying "This website is not permitted by the IT department. Your computer's internet history is being tracked. No porn surfing allowed. Such actions will be referred to the management." Can you believe that? But oddly enough prostitution is legal.

Then there is the caning. Punishment for breaking some laws is a caning across your back. The cane is dipped in horse urine and shards of broken glass. The cane strikes you horizontally across the back, the last cane strikes you on the butt so every time you sit down the wound opens again. It is said that the cane markings never heal properly.

But for carrying drugs of any kind? Death by hanging.

I guess you can say they get results. Singapore is a very clean place and we had a lot of fun there.




I woke up in Singapore at 5 AM Sunday morning, flew seven hours to Tokyo, layover for an hour, then flew 10 hours back home to L.A. and arrived at 11 AM Sunday morning. My Sunday is going to last like 40 hrs. I had a fantastic time on my trip but it's always good to be home.

After sleeping for a mere 4 hours Wednesday night we left Tokyo for Seoul early in the morning for a performance that Thursday evening. Groggy and tired we finally made it to the hotel in the afternoon only to be told that we had to head directly to the venue where we would stay until the concert was over. Why in the world would we asked to do that?

Well, I'm sure you've all heard about the protests in South Korea regarding the importation of American beef, they started last weekend and as it turns out, the protesters weren't finished protesting and in fact were staging the next demonstration directly in front of our hotel. So for the rest of the day the hotel wouldn't be a place we would want to drive in and out of for obvious reasons.

After the sound check we walk outside of the theater for some air and find riot police gathering outside getting ready for the evening's big to-do. Trippy right? I wanted to take some more pictures but I didn't want to push my luck either. I doubt they would've minded but why risk it?

So we are all wasted, dead-tired. The concert promoter tells us there might not be many people in attendance due to the fact that all of the roads and parking lots are closed because of the demonstration. It was shaping up to be one bad gig, but as is turns out we had the best show of the entire tour. The people who were there were yelling and dancing and so enthusiastic, it felt like a rock show. I had so much fun playing for them, it made the chaos of the day worthwhile.

But things really got interesting once we left. The riot police from above were now in full motion, running to their various spots around the city like platoons of soldiers. All of the roads were barricaded with police buses and cops with shields. Our drivers were getting more and more frustrated and it became apparent that they didn't know how to get us back to the hotel, every time we thought they had found a new path the road was blocked. Eventually they found a road that would take us there but the traffic was gridlocked. In the end a trip that took us 10 minutes before the gig took about 2 hours afterwards. But we arrived safe and sound. I got to my room and saw that the time was nearing 1 AM and there was a 6 AM lobby call in front of me. Yikes.

More pictures from what little I saw of South Korea:




This pic is right in front of our hotel, it was being set up Korea's Memorial Day celebrations in addition to the demonstration.

I'm in Singapore now, almost home!

The rest of my time in Tokyo was good. I have some interesting news regarding Japan but I'll wait until I get home to blog about it. My last day there I went to the fantastic Mori Art Museum which is on the 53rd floor of Roppungi tower, there was a fantastic collection on winner's of Britain's Turner Prize that included the infamous Mother and Child Divided by Damien Hirst.

Here are some final pics from Tokyo:

Barak!

One step closer to a better future!

What can I say about Tokyo? I love this place. The food, the people, the hospitality, I could go on and on. Gyms and Spas are very popular in Asia so yesterday I worked out/swam/steamed before souncheck, there is no better way to get rid of the airplane funk that overcomes your body after so much traveling. We opened at the Blue Note last night and the crowds were great. Today I walked around the streets of Tokyo, the weather has really been great.

This sign says "bass players are to be treated as royalty" ... or something like that.

Saturday night we went to a sushi place, I ordered crab miso and that's exactly what I got-this furry guy floating in soup.

I made short work of the crab. And the sushi. And the beer.

The streets of Roppongi an area of Tokyo popular for its night clubs.

Gimme dat Ramen! Lunch today was Ramen soup with egg, seaweed paper, and pork. It was fantastic. Japan and Europe are really different culturally when it comes to food. In Spain, Italy, or France you better have a good hour or so to spare when you are having a meal. In Japan food carts, noodle shops where you stand to eat, and food on the go are normal things. In this Ramen shop you pay for your food at a machine near the front door, the machine ejected a receipt that you give to a worker who makes your food. This saves time I guess. The best part is the food is better than anything you'd get at McDonald's.