Had a lovely night tonight. I went to a roast. it was my first and it was quite fun. We celebrated my old friend from Local 13 here in Philly, Deach's birthday. It was very funny as others joined me in speeches mocking him. We laughed as slides showed horrific pix of him over the years. Good times.
Last week I went to SF with my mom for a vacation. I visited my birth town, Mill Valley, CA. It's just outside SF. Lovely neighborhood with amazingly high trees and crazy steep mountains. The roads were small, barely paved, and treacherous. we drove up a winding road to a tiny little log cabin at the top of a mountain where my mom lived for a long time.... this was where I may have been conceived! :) NEATO! We also went to one of her high school friend's house out in the sticks. It was lovely. We got to visit a winery and do some tasting. I brought home some goodies. I may well serve the wine at the O Bar as it tastes so darn yummy. Wouldn't it be cool if the O Bar served a small Northern California winery selection? Very posh and exclusive, right? This wine isnt even sold in PA! I'm psyched. It's a pain in the ass to order it with all the taxes and laws but we can do it. I intend to!
So, only about two weeks till all of the students return to the O Bar neighborhood. That's good news. I wonder what it's gonna be like. We are making every effort to prepare properly. We have now hired one of two 'hosts'..... hostesses, actually. They will be in charge of the front door. They will collect cover charges and institute the dress code. We want to make the place exclusive.
So, enough blabber tonight, folks. Hope to see you your town soon!
:)
I'm back! For about 24 hours the ground was still rocking much like on a cruise ship.....but I am finally feeling grounded! :) WOW! I had an amazing time on the family vacation. I'll post pix and more chatter about the trip soon. Now it's back to the grind time and gotta play a little catch-up.
I am stuffed. Cruise ships are bad for the waist line. That is for sure. However, I am fighting it. I'm eating well.... just a lot of good food. Off to the gym in a few.
IN case you didn't figure out yet, I'm on a cruise ship right now. It's a vacation with my grandpop, step grandmom, aunt, uncle, their spouses, and 4 cousins. We are really having a good time. We are cruising thru the caribbean waters on our way to Puero Rico, St Thomas and St Martin. The boat is incredible. The facts: It's 102,000 TONS, 934 feet long, 16 stories tall (taller than the Statue of Liberty) and it's moving! There is a 10 story atrium with glass elevators.... Literally 15 times a day I am shocked at the magnitude of this thing. Well, thats what $440 million will get ya. Save up, kids!
Last night, we hit just about every corner of the boat to get a grip of what is where. Boy, it gets tiring when you walk three football fields back and forth and up and down stairs, elevators, whatever to explore the other decks. There must be 8 places to eat, 12 bars, casino, night club, piano bars and several of them.... 6 or 8 decks to sun bathe, shuffle board, ping pong, golf, bla bla bla. Today I'm going to go to the beautiful gym on the top deck on the bow (front), like my seaman's language? :) Anyway, it's a very nicely equipped gym and I'm headed there. After that I may take a run on the running track on the aft (rear) deck. There I can get some sun and shed some lard.
Last night, we played $1000 BINGO and lost but we are determined. The family pools together and we are sure we will win at some point. Wish us luck. After the game, we stayed for the Welcome Aboard show which was actually pretty funny. UNTIL, the host picked me and decided to have a little fun at my expense. I came correct, though, peeps, representing in full force and joked back at him. It actually was really funny and not all that embarassing. :) I then won a bottle of champagne for being a good sport. Not bad. Then I went to the casino and lost my $.25 earnings I had won earlier in the day on a slot. Darnit. :) I'll be able to avoid that section of the boat, pretty much. It's the late night time when it is a problem, though. My aunt and her husband .... well, her English husband is actually the one... he got enticed to get his ass kicked on the open face black jack. Ouch. 4 hands, one loss after another. In and out and then off to the free 24 hour pizza place. LOLOL. And, if that's nto enough food for ya, there is 24 hours complimentary room service! OUCH!
So, before I left for here with no sleep out of Norfolk, VA, I had a really great gig. It was just like the old days of Norfolk at FLOOD. Awesome crowd, 90% participation, good times.... I thoroughly enjoyed playing for nearly three hours. I hope to come back regularly. They seemed very happy with the night and attendance so lets hope so. I swear, I know I keep mentioning it, but I am ecstatic. It seems there may be a revival for dance music and the dance music scene. Most if not all of my gigs this summer have been good or great. I can't say the same for the earlier part of the year but I see a definitive change and I hope it's not just the summer season. It used to be that things picked up more from the summer as most people were vacationing. So, cross yoru fingers.... and go out and support our fun scene. There is a rumbling wave of energy out there and we are beginning to tap it, I believe.
Oh yea... I can't forget to talk about the NYC NASA reunion party. it was slammin! Wow. Such energy... people cheering between records.... wait, did I speak abotu this already? Well, whatever... ha ha. Anywhoo... I miss the days when people were excited about an event. It was a pleasure being a part of that and I hope we have more fun things ahead like that. It was cool seeing lots of old school cats.
Ok, back to the 11th deck for some water and then to the gym to shed the junk I ate last night! :)
