07.16.04

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:37 am

I’ve been out and about creating new experiences for myself.  Last week I was touring with Michael Franks and we had the honor to go to Tblisi, Georgia, a republic of the Soviet Union.  Wow, I’m still trying to find words to describe that experience.  I would have to say that it is in the top 5 of my Life Changing Experience list.  The warmth and generousity of the people there has renewed my own faith in life and being human, not to mention reaffirming my reason for wanting to be a musician in the first place.  Serg, wherever you are right now, I am formally thanking you and the wonderful crew of partners that you worked with to make it possible for us to play there.  You’re the man!!!!

Now on to even more exciting news.  I’ve have just been added to the play list of WBGO, and for those of you who are in the New York, New Jersery area, that would be 88.3 on your FM dial.  I’m in heaven.   Those of you who know me, know how long I’ve been out here playing my music.  I moved to New York about 27 years ago and I have been listening to WBGO for 25 years.  To finally get radio play on this station, my favorite,  has become a dream come true for me, but more than that it’s like an affirmation for hanging in there and continuing to “beat the dead horse”.  I would like to thank Gary Walker the music director for giving me an opportunity to get my music out and around and also a warm appreciation goes to Dan Karcher. on air, for his support and reminding me about my Blog.  Oh, and one more thing, congratulations to your 25 years of great music WBGO, I’m looking forward to listening for another 25 years.

01.28.04

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:37 pm

This post is for the people that were at my gig last week. It seems that I make too big a deal out of blogging, Blogging should be fun. And from this moment on, it will be fun. How is my procrastination???? So far so good. I have been right on schedule with my list of things to do everyday. The secret is to just do the thing and don’t think too much about it, as a matter of course, don’t think at all about it. I’ve also discovered that the busier I am the more things I get done. So for me, I guess I just need to stay busy.

Back to my last week gig. I had a great time seeing the master of the Internet and King of Blogging Rick Bruner, who by the way plays “the hungarian” like nothing you’ve ever seen. Also my friend from way, way, way back, David Barnes, stopped in after his show at B.B. King’s in Times Square, sat in, playing the harmonica brilliantly on a couple of tunes. It reminded me of the good ole days and I’m sure more goods days are to come. Also a shout out to my friend Nicole Mensinger on her performance monologue for tomorrow evening. Permeate their being with your truth.

12.19.03

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:21 pm

Yes, yes, it has been months. The purpose of this blog today is to make new determinations for this year and one of those is to write more blogs this year. Starting with this one. I was talking to Michael Franks about a week ago and I was adamantly promoting the wonder and beauty of blogging. He is such an incredible writer, lyricist and singer that it seemed to me to make perfect sense for him to have his own blog. I know the fans would really dig it. Anyway, I’m still working on convincing him. First I must start with myself. I definitely can see the difficulty in deciding what to write everyday without sounding like a finished idiot. But, as I’ve been told countless times, practice makes perfect, so, I can only get better if I stop worry about what others think of my intellect and start defining with words the world as I feel it. Fear is the word here for today, for me. Fear in all of it’s illusory forms. I live my life by it most of the time. The tricky part to this is that sometimes I’m not aware that I’m afraid of certain things. Like when I procrastinate. Oh, there are many other things that I’m afraid of, but to confess this early in the game would leave me with little or nothing to write about in future blogs. So for now we will just begin and end with this revelation. Major determination for this year, no more procratination. I will do, what must be done.

06.19.03

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:34 am

This blog goes out to David Wilts, yes, another David, a sound engineer most extraordinare, one who’s not only into sound but, lyrics. Rare indeed. Today I was just reacquainted with the singer-songwriter Ricki Lee Jones. I was gifted with a CD of hers entitled ‘It’s Like This’ and I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes and respects the art of subtley. The choice of songs and their arrangements are extremely pleasant to listen to and the grooves are nice and sparse. I was greatly inspired by it. Sounds like a review, well it is, buy and listen to it. It’s great and a perfect example of artistry in it’s most sincere form. I’ve always been a fan of Ms. Jones and I must admit I’ve not been current on her work over the past 5 years or so. It’s refreshing to meet her again and start the affair all over again, this time with both of us being much older and wiser.

06.18.03

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:19 am

This blog goes out to David Barnes, a fellow artist who should have a blog, but doesn’t. I was really surprised when he said that he read my blogs. So on that note, I’m now inspired to write more, now that I know at least one person reads my rantings and ravings. Lately, I’ve become aware of my dreams or more appropriately put, aware of my not remembering my dreams. At first this did not bother me, but the more I thought about it, the more I wondered why I could not remember them. Of course there are those rare times when a dream is vivid and lingers all day after waking. But most of the time, I don’t remember anything. To remedy this dilemma, I started doing research on dreams, what they are, why we have them, and more important, how to remember them. So now I am practicing the technique of Lucid Dreaming. First you start off by preparing yourself to remember your dreams by setting up a journal to record them in. You have a special notebook and a special pen to used only for recording your dreams. All throughout the day, you start prepping yourself by telling yourself and being conscious that you dream and that you will remember your dreams. You look around you at other people and muse over what type of dreams they may have at night, always keeping in mind that everyone dreams. Then right before you go to sleep, you relax and slow your mind and quietly say to yourself, “I will remember my dreams”. You keep your journal by your bed table just in case you wake up in the middle of the night and want to write down the dream that you just had. Or for first thing in the morning before you get out of bed or do anything you write down what your dream or dreams were. It has been one week since I’ve begun this exercise and I still can’t remember, although I do have this lingering feeling now that I did dream, but the story is very, very distant. It’s just a feeling that I’ve dreamed. Perhaps my repression of my own subconscious is so strong that it might take some time. This is not an obstacle however, for now I am more curious than ever to figure out what secrets, I’ve kept from myself. Hopefully, I won’t end up stark raving mad in institution once I find out what these secrets are. I’ll just keep dreaming away. There is a really good part to this Lucid Dreaming that I completely left out and that is once you become aware of your dreams and can remember them, then you can begin to consciously participate in them, changing them around and creating in them. Humm, sort of sounds like real life!!!!

05.05.03

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:02 pm

Yes, I know, it has been a while. Sometimes I don’t always feel inspired to write about anything, but today that is a different story. I want to write about the allergy season. I suffer from allergies. And when I say I suffer, I mean I suffer. Probably not anywhere near the level as people who must get allergy shots, but nevertheless, it can be a drag. Well, now that I ‘ve complained enough, let’s look at what is really happening during the allergy season. What’s happening is about mating, about spreading the seeds around so that plant life can insure that there will be other plant life. That’s a beautiful thing. I really enjoy flowers and green trees and birds and bees. And I like them more than the little inconvience I might experience during this time when life is waking up and stirring about to start the cycle all over again. This is what I think about when I’ve sneezed for the 28th time.

03.09.03

Posted in Uncategorized at 6:22 am

I’m back and the trip was fantastic!!! I didn’t take any pictures, except for the one time we were at sound check at Sweet Basil’s and I started shooting away only to discover that I hadn’t any film in the camera. Oh well. The first 5 days was challenging, for I was relating to a stomach virus that kept me, pretty much bed ridden, except when I had to perform. It was of great fortune that we had quite a few days of down time in between gigs and traveling from Osaka to Tokyo. After that incident, I felt like I had a new lease on life and everything was beautiful. We stayed at my favorite hotel in Tokyo, the Capital Tokyo Hotel right next door to the Temple where Michael and Claudia got married. Every morning after my Pilates and meditation I would walk up the temple steps and around the grounds through the back (my shortcut) to get to my morning hang. The hang being Starbucks, where for the next 6 days straight they made perfect cappaccino’s. And when I say perfect, I mean perfect. I sat there sipping away, watching people walk by, writing in my journal and listening to Frank Sinatra over the house system. It was heavenly. The remainder of the gigs were inspirational. I love working with these guys, they are such remarkable players and great individuals. They make touring incredibly fun. I also started seriously playing poker with the guys. I use to sit in on a few hands, but my limited was only 15 cents. Now I will play for at least a dollar, which keeps me in the game. A note: It’s the winning that gets you addicted. Go figure!!!! Sore-dewa sorosoro shitsuree-itashimasu. Sayonara!!

01.31.03

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:40 am

Count down to departure. Somehow I feel as if I must take everything with me. I will have so much quality time with myself, I want to make sure that I’m not bored. Also this time I want to be compact and limit the amount of unnecessary things, basically, no unnecessary things, if possible. I’m buying a Japanese phrase book today. I never thought after the first time that we played there, that I would ever need one. With this being my 5th time going, I guess you could say that there is that possiblity that I might get over there again. Let’s see how different this experience will be with me attempting to communicate in the native tongue. And of course I will tell you all about it, when I return. We leave on Monday around (9:00am), Arriving in Osaka (5:00pm) on Tuesday. Long Flight. Well I’m off and running to get my phrase book, Sayonara!!!!!!

01.29.03

Posted in Uncategorized at 12:01 pm

This peace thing. What is it about the concept of peace that people don’t understand. Why would anyone be opposed to it? Why would anyone support it? Definition: A state of mutual harmony between people or groups, especially in personal relations.

If we go and kill “the others”, would we be any happier as individuals. I mean if you were miserable and hated your life before the attack on our soil, would you love your life and be happy if we are at war with people that are on the other side of the planet? Maybe? I guess we just need to inventory our own lives and determine whether or not it will make any difference to our personal happiness as to whether or not we should be fighting? That’s what it’s really all about, dig? Personal happiness. I mean you have to admit, I would find it hard put to meet people that do not have some type of personal agenda when it comes to this living of life. Why live if it meant not being with your family or sharing your joys with another human being or whatever living means to you. Should we be denied? Should “the others”?

01.28.03

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:21 am

A friend of mine and I was talking last night and the subject of real world and dreams came up. After a good night’s rest, I woke up with these thoughts. I figured it didn’t seem that weird to me, maybe it won’t seem weird to you either.

How does one reconcile the real world and the world of fantasy and dreams? When we start out as little one’s we are always making believin’ this and make believin that, but sadly as time moves forward somewhere along the way we modify our dreams until we reach a point where we no longer dream at all. No more make believe. There’s also those frightened, horrible opinions of well meaning family and friends telling you to grow up and get your head out of the clouds. I have one question to ask. Take a look at where they are right now and ask yourself, is this where I want to be as well. If the answer is, no way, then you better start dreaming again. I have and it’s great and the real world and the dream world are beginning to share some common ground.

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