Where Were You When Michael Jackson Died?

Big news on the large-screen downstairs in the band house today.  The anniversary of Michael Jackson's death.

I remember where I was when I learned of his passing because I happen to be working this week at the same exact place as last year when I heard the news - backstage at Disney World - EPCOT.  We get 30, 15, 10, and 5 minutes calls to show time and it was during one of these we heard something like, "Gentlemen, 10 minutes to show, 10 minutes to show....and Michael Jackson has died."

That was a little jarring!

Just finished recently during our run with the "New Kid in Town" show an insightful book of interviews Michael Jackson did some eight years ago with the hopes of eventually publishing in book form.



Rabbi Shmuley Boteach makes a case that a spiritual healing was in order to keep Michael from walking down the path that his over-powering fame was taking him.  I would agree.  I highly admire his talent.  It's heart-breaking he chose the path he did.

Where Were You When Michael Jackson Died?

287 Pages On 4 737's

Well, that was a fast read! (For me, anyway) Ontario to Phoenix to Denver to Minneapolis by 737 on Friday.  Then reverse that scenario on Sunday! (Even reversing 737 is still, well.....737)

And while I was traversing the country thousands of miles above, I had with me The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a story of a father and son's survival through a post-apocalyptic, read-between-the lines nuclear ravaged America.

The large type and spaces between the most interesting, non-indented paragraphs (see photo) probably had a little to do with my surprised completion before I even touched down in Phoenix on the trip home.  It was a good fast-paced read nonetheless.
 
A movie starring Viggo Mortensen was made based on this book as well.  Have you read this book or seen the movie?

Further notable about this trip was the special Southwest aircraft I rode in during the Phoenix leg of the jaunt back home to California with the Official State Animal, the grizzly bear, painted on it. 


I just figured I'd borrow a photo off the internet rather then taking one myself on a bad camera phone.  Grrrrrr-oovy!

287 Pages On 4 737's

Clapton - The Autobiography

Felt it was time to read a biography (I like to mix it up a little).  Better still, an autobiography.  Can't say I'm a bona fide "fan" of Eric Clapton (someone I'd go and see in concert), but an interesting read nonetheless.  Autobiographies are cool -  like the-author-is-sitting-right-there-with-you-in-the-airport, coffee shop, comfy-couch at home, or wherever-cool.

In the process, a couple of records have piqued my interest. The first is Road To Escondido whereby Mr.Clapton moved in with J.J. Cale for a week at his house in the hills of Escondido, CA and hashed out the direction for their upcoming recording - "getting ready to play" as Clapton called it.  I thought it was somewhat noteworthy as I get down that way in North County, San Diego quite often to visit my parents, having even done a gig there.

The other sample of musical coolness is Eric's Me and Mr. Johnson.  This tribute album of Robert Johnson tunes was never meant to be released, but was originally just a way to "release the tension and just have some fun" in the studio while coming up with enough material for a "normal" commercial release.

Anything you'd like to say in closing, E.C.?

"The music scene as I look at it today is a little different from where I was growing up.  The percentages are roughly the same - 95 percent rubbish, 5 percent pure...Music survives everything, and like God, it is always present.  It needs no help, and suffers no hindrance.  It has always found me, and with God's blessing and permission, it always will" ~ Eric Clapton

Clapton - The Autobiography

Colossal "Tourist Moment" Meeting A Wall Street Celeb

Finally got the time to edit & post this story from 2009 below:

Talk about timing! We had a show scheduled in Hackensack, NJ on a Tuesday in July 2009, but the weather decided not to cooperate whatsoever. So, being that the New Jersey-ites are the great forecasters of impending outdoor event-failure-due-to-rain, the concert was postponed until the following month. This was some-what great news in disguise for some of us boys in the band (Hotel California-A Salute To The Eagles), being that our base of operations for the week was in the Meadowlands, NJ area, and only a short New Jersey Transit/under-the-Lincoln-Tunnel ride away from the Big Apple. A day off so close to NYC? Are you kidding? So what if It's raining! Forgettabouddit! So, off three of us went into Town. That's, "town" with a capital "T".

After a full afternoon of exploring, my walking compadre, Scotty "V" (see photo), and I had a little time to kill before we caught a cab from the Broadway district of New York City to meet up with our cohorts for dinner down in Little Italy. We decided to find a place to plant it for a beer, and since we were by the Gershwin Theatre, home of the Broadway favorite "Wicked" (which I love and did end up seeing a number of weeks later - but that's another blog), I made the call of portage and we temporarily anchored ourselves just east of there on 50th Ave. at Emmet O'Lunney's (yes, an Irish bar/grill), and got off of our tired feet for a few (that's minute's, not beers!) and a brew.
 

Very shortly after, a guy in a plaid shirt and baseball cap carrying a box of books proceeds to walk in with his devoted woman by his side. He sits next to us at the bar, and starts enthusiastically talking to the barmaid (whom actually DOES have an Irish accent, by the way-gotta love this town!) and hands her a book from his cardboard "carrying case". This was obviously a place he'd been before and at this moment he was obviously very proud. "Wow, we were sitting next to a famous author in the heart of New York City!" thought us "wayward traveling musician/tourists only in need of a place to get off our feet."

Striking up a real, neighborly NYC conversation in a real NYC kinda good-natured way, we learned that a very good friend of his, Lawrence McDonald was actually the author of the book and, smiling, he removes one of is treasures from his box of A Colossal Failure Of Common Sense - The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers, opens to a page, and has us read one of his adventures in the book with one sentence catching my attention which read, "...later in fall 2005 we decided to go up to the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut for a couple of days." (You'll have to get the book and read the rest for yourself. This is a long blog already)

Okay, so we learn we are sitting next to and conversing with a major player in the book, Larry McCarthy, which we later ascertained after taking in the story in full, that we were actually in the presence of a Wall Street celebrity! But wait, need I say...."there's more!" ?

What immediately caught my attention right at the start (and I told Larry so) was the particular location of the narrative he was now having us read. My eyes flew open (cliche', but true), because coincidentally we had just performed at that same Mohegan Sun Casino of Larry's described adventures only 2 DAYS BEFORE! Holy Serendipity, Batman!

After further conversation, and one including talk of a possible performance opportunity in the future for Hotel California at one of the parties he hosts, he signs a copy for us, and give's it to us along with his card.

His brief visit coincided with our need to hit the streets once again and wave ourselves down a cab for our rendevous with all good and tasty things Italian-NYC style, so we all sauntered out together on that late Tuesday afternoon, eastward along the sidewalk of 50th Ave., with Larry eventually pointing out what once use to be the actual Lehman Bros. Building where he worked. (Making millions at a time makes "worked" seem like an understatement!) I took this photo on a street corner and we parted ways.

Scott and I talked about this chance encounter for weeks (and still do), reading the book and making comments about it as we went on down the road to wonderous adventures. What will top this?

Just a highlight of that trip for me, and I'm sure for Scott as well. Yes, we met a financial celebrity indeed, but more notable than that, is the priviledge, Lord willing, of just living life in all it's unexpectedness and to experience some warm generousity from a local (well, sort of - he told us he commutes from Florida) boy who didn't know us from Adam! That's the stuff that life is made of. I love New York!

Mini-book review: I find I'm fascinated with the world of finance. Maybe it's because I try to stay so in-step with my right-brain awareness of the world, always on the hunt, my "songwriter radar" being tuned into sights, sounds, words, conversations, emotions, etc. It was a fun, imaginative escape to envision myself a part of the fast-paced, high-pressure atmosphere of Wall Street. And this book really gives you an excellent feel for that (not to mention the incredible inside-story of the Lehman Brothers debacle).

And by the way, you can find the Lawrence McDonald, the author, on Twitter at: @Convertbond.

Colossal "Tourist Moment" Meeting A Wall Street Celeb

Preach it, Harriet!

Recently spent some time on the road with "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Once I got through the first paragraph of dialect/language in it's challenging-to-understand printed form, I loved it! Though it as been banned and criticized as condescending and racist toward African-Americans, I can't help but wonder if another reason just as notable for those who would want to call for it's censure today was it's strong Christian influence throughout. A quote from p. 158:

"Is is strange then that some tears fall on the pages of his Bible, as he lays it on the cotton bale, and with patient finger, threading his slow way from word to word, traces out its promises? Having learned late in life, Tom was but a slow reader, and passed on laboriously from verse to verse. Fortunate for him was it that the book he was intent on was one which slow reading cannot injure, - nay one whose words, like ingots of gold, seem often to need to be weighed separately, that the mind may take in their priceless value. Let us follow him a moment, as, pointing to each word, and pronouncing each half aloud, he reads, - 'Let - not -your - heart - be - troubled. In - my - Father's - house - are - many - mansions. I - go - to - prepare - a - place - for - you.'"

Preach it, Harriet!

Rocket, Man!

I brought the autobiography "Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey From The Moon" with me on the latest trek in July with the HC (Hotel California) and, unbeknownst to me until after I finished it, July 17th, 2009 happened to be the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the first man on the moon!  This memoir is from the guy who was actually the "2nd" man on the moon, Neil Armstrong's "sidekick", Buzz Aldrin (written along with Ken Abraham). You creative types out there might like this quote from the book:

"Exploring this place that had never been seen by human eyes, upon which no foot has stepped, or hand touched-was awe-inspiring.  But we had no time for philisophical musings.  Our time on the surface had been designed by Mission Control to be extremely limited-a mere two and a half hours outside the LM [Lunar Module]...We weren't trained to smell the roses or to utter life-changing aphorisms...That's why for years I have wanted NASA to fly a poet, a singer, or a journalist into space - someone who could capture the emotions of the experience and share them with the world.

Who's going?!  :)

Rocket, Man!

On The Road w/John & Charley

A recent short book I thoroughly enjoyed, especially since I do so much travel (more so by bus than by plane), was: "Travels With Charley: In Search Of America" by John Steinbeck.  It reads like a autobiographical slice of his life in the early 60's - very cool.  He writes:

"The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one.  It's as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California."

Guess I've passed the test many times! How about you?

On The Road w/John & Charley

Daytona Beach, C.S. Lewis, & Math!

On Friday morning, the hours of rehearsing our three-part harmony National Anthem culminated in an 8:30am, 1 minute, 39 second "Star Spangled Banner" for the Florida Federation of Fairs Convention.  Then it was, "Farewell, Daytona Beach" & two of us were off to the airport!

A good day to finish my latest read: "Surprised By Joy, The Shape Of My Early Life" by C.S. Lewis.  He writes (lol to myself on the plane):

"I could never have gone far in any science because on the path of every science the lion Mathematics lies in wait for you."

Who can relate? ;)

Daytona Beach, C.S. Lewis, & Math!

Cool Reads

Here are some books I've read during this past month or so of traveling:

The Shack  by William P. Young

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Nothing Down for the 2000s: Dynamic New Wealth Strategies in Real Estate by Robert G. Allen

Cool Reads