Hello friends from New York.
As I type, I am enjoying a bagel, sipping Japanese beer and listening to vocal takes from yesterday. I'm a few days away from my first trip to LA since December. I'm sort of excited about it. Traveling is such a part of my life that to not go there now seems odd. Anyway, fingers crossed it will be a good trip and the start of the next phase of my professional life. More on that eventually...
Been enjoying the freedom of not being trapped in the workforce 9-6. I'm actually more productive this way. Sure there is the fear of the future, but also it's a motivator. The timing, with the wedding just weeks away, kinda sucks, but as everyone who has gotten married or has a kid tells me, there's never a perfect time. Anyhow, work wise, the freedom is a great way to get the plates spinning and the creative juices flowing on various levels, work, music, writing etc. Feeling really good about the music right now. Always self conscious about the vocals, but I think I'm reaching a new level. I'll still never be great, but until Peter decides to come onboard full time, who the fuck else is going to do it? Anyway, Brandt is a fucking champ, knocking this bad boy into shape.
The Wedding is coming up. There's a lot of enthusiasm for it. Sometimes a bit overwhelming, especially for the bride. I just try to keep calm and let it all roll. I only usually express my thoughts when I don't like something, which honestly is rare. I think it's easily going to be the coolest wedding most of you/us have ever been to, but I can promise without a doubt you will never eat better.
The Bachelor MENS weekend is a week from this coming Thursday. Austin Texas. The MOG collective of old and older in one place. What Dulli-style chaos will be brought...? I don't know as I am out of the loop, but I do know I have to bring a suit. Wait what?
Saw TREK again. Loved it more the second time. While I am not sure is "This Generation's STAR WARS", I think it's become a fresh, cool worthy franchise deserving of my obsessive love. Nephew loved it and seems to dig the McCoy. Just like his aunt. Hmm. Clones.
Last night, we checked out the NY debut of HALLOWEEN ALASKA, a band, thanks to Charles Bob, we have been following for a few years. They had an amazing first album and the subsequent albums have been good, but not great. The live show, for me was the moment of truth. It was at Joe's Pub, which oddly, I have never been to. We did stop at the DESSERT TRUCK on St Marks first, which was fucking amazing. Anyhow, the gig, which had seats, was really good. The band is really good, but something was off and I chalk that up to a poorly conceived/paced set list. They played stuff I liked, but the gig had momentum issues. They certainly have what it takes. I'm not writing these guys off anytime soon, at least as a live band!
Finally, on a sad note, our lanky hero Ash lost his pop this week, so the Pac will be rallying around him over the coming days. Send a good thought towards him, his Mrs, and his family won't you?
F
16.5.09
3.5.09
May Showers...
Hello All:
Life moves at a hectic and constantly changing pace. All seems positive at the moment. My professional situation is going through a transition, which I am perfectly fine with and someday you will read the biography and you will be slightly stunned or amused by this chapter. Meanwhile, this blog is meant as entertainment, so we'll leave it that.
As I write, my future mother in law cooks yet another feast. This weekend was the long anticipated wedding shower thing. Supposedly it was cool. I'll leave it to you ladies to let me know. It probably went something like this:
"You don't even know what you're in for marrying my son"
You all certainly ate better than I did over at the ESPN Zone, which was my Dad's idea and confusing to me at first until I learned there was an arcade and since we had 3 kids (nephew and the two awesome cousins) with us. Then it made sense. Naturally, the kids had a blast, and I did too. This is my posse:
I also got some time in with nephew and his beloved dog, who is not speaking to me at the moment because her stay in NYC was too brief. She was not happy. Anyhow...
I'm working kinda backwards here so let me tell you about some movies. Thanks to the awesomeness of Jordan Hoffman from my UGO family, I got to see my most anticipated movie of 2009...STAR TREK. I had pretty high expectations for this movie and have always been impressed with this being s "sequel/prequel" as opposed to just a simple reboot. All I can say is, my expectations were squashed and JJ and co. have delivered a great science fiction adventure movie with a solid cast and true respect for the Trek fans. I hope it does well. It's a beautiful, well paced movie, and while not wholly original plot wise, you couldn't ask for a better film that can appease the old schoolers like me and be totally accessible for anyone who is not a Trekkie. Very curious how it will do at the box office, but man this was good stuff.
Before that, we saw the fucking INSANITY known as CRANK 2. Man. I love Statham, as you know and I thought the first movie was hilariously good, and the second one is so over the top and devoid of any respect for logic, race, creed, gender, etc that I truly had to respect it's audacity. It's a masterpiece for the ADD Generation. The actors, as Rick Meyers said, are good sports, because a LOT is asked from them. I think a third movie would be stretching it, because I simply don't know how far they can go after this crazy shit. But it was fun to turn my brain off and cry laughing a few times. It's gonna be one of those movies that when it pops up on HBO (if it does), I will drop everything to watch.
Thanks to Eric Eskenazi, I now have a DVD of the long lost aggression documentary "I'll SEE YOU IN REHAB" which covers the band from really what I consider the height of it's powers 2000 (from the second Robin joins) to about 2002 or 2003 (when we're about to go to Russia). You have to know the band and it's members to truly appreciate it, and there's TONS of footage. However, there are some interesting tidbits that sort of predict the end of the band, which I found very interesting. I can literally watch this thing and tell you the exact moment where the bands days were numbered. I can also tell you why I still work on music with certain ex aggression members. I can also tell you that we looked like shit during that entire period despite playing like champs and writing some good tunes that we never recorded. I'm ashamed most of all by my hair during this period. But the music was good. Someday, I'd like to do a doc covering the whole history, cause we have all the awesome footage during the entire run, but honestly, as a great man once said..."who fucking cares, right?"
Ok. Chat soon. More on music next.
F
Life moves at a hectic and constantly changing pace. All seems positive at the moment. My professional situation is going through a transition, which I am perfectly fine with and someday you will read the biography and you will be slightly stunned or amused by this chapter. Meanwhile, this blog is meant as entertainment, so we'll leave it that.
As I write, my future mother in law cooks yet another feast. This weekend was the long anticipated wedding shower thing. Supposedly it was cool. I'll leave it to you ladies to let me know. It probably went something like this:
"You don't even know what you're in for marrying my son"
You all certainly ate better than I did over at the ESPN Zone, which was my Dad's idea and confusing to me at first until I learned there was an arcade and since we had 3 kids (nephew and the two awesome cousins) with us. Then it made sense. Naturally, the kids had a blast, and I did too. This is my posse:
I also got some time in with nephew and his beloved dog, who is not speaking to me at the moment because her stay in NYC was too brief. She was not happy. Anyhow...
I'm working kinda backwards here so let me tell you about some movies. Thanks to the awesomeness of Jordan Hoffman from my UGO family, I got to see my most anticipated movie of 2009...STAR TREK. I had pretty high expectations for this movie and have always been impressed with this being s "sequel/prequel" as opposed to just a simple reboot. All I can say is, my expectations were squashed and JJ and co. have delivered a great science fiction adventure movie with a solid cast and true respect for the Trek fans. I hope it does well. It's a beautiful, well paced movie, and while not wholly original plot wise, you couldn't ask for a better film that can appease the old schoolers like me and be totally accessible for anyone who is not a Trekkie. Very curious how it will do at the box office, but man this was good stuff.
Before that, we saw the fucking INSANITY known as CRANK 2. Man. I love Statham, as you know and I thought the first movie was hilariously good, and the second one is so over the top and devoid of any respect for logic, race, creed, gender, etc that I truly had to respect it's audacity. It's a masterpiece for the ADD Generation. The actors, as Rick Meyers said, are good sports, because a LOT is asked from them. I think a third movie would be stretching it, because I simply don't know how far they can go after this crazy shit. But it was fun to turn my brain off and cry laughing a few times. It's gonna be one of those movies that when it pops up on HBO (if it does), I will drop everything to watch.
Thanks to Eric Eskenazi, I now have a DVD of the long lost aggression documentary "I'll SEE YOU IN REHAB" which covers the band from really what I consider the height of it's powers 2000 (from the second Robin joins) to about 2002 or 2003 (when we're about to go to Russia). You have to know the band and it's members to truly appreciate it, and there's TONS of footage. However, there are some interesting tidbits that sort of predict the end of the band, which I found very interesting. I can literally watch this thing and tell you the exact moment where the bands days were numbered. I can also tell you why I still work on music with certain ex aggression members. I can also tell you that we looked like shit during that entire period despite playing like champs and writing some good tunes that we never recorded. I'm ashamed most of all by my hair during this period. But the music was good. Someday, I'd like to do a doc covering the whole history, cause we have all the awesome footage during the entire run, but honestly, as a great man once said..."who fucking cares, right?"
Ok. Chat soon. More on music next.
F