Cool Bathroom pics. No, it's not what you think!

I had a gig with City Beat last at a club in Huntington Beach, CA called Martini Blues. These are photos of the painted tile in the men's bathroom. (click pics to enlarge)











Here are some pics from the women's bathroom Yes, I went in their with my camera. Twisted, huh?)

Miles Davis and Boba - The Common Thread

It's been a great couple of days as I'm "closing shop" here in Los Angeles and getting ready to embark on my Cirque du Soleil adventure-tour in four days. Peter Maunu came over yesterday and laid down some beautiful guitar tracks on Doug Lunn's upcoming CD that we were working to finish upin my studio - "Camp Chakmakian."

Then I had a chance to run out with a friend to grab a quick boba - you know, those big tapioca balls in that slushy concoction? What? You never had a boba??

We proceded to get a lecture from the boba guru behind the counter about milk-tea boba being the only legit flavor. "All these other flavors are because of America. It's like putting ketchup on a hot dog." Ok, give me the milk-tea. My friend will have the peach.

I've been putting together a portable studio so I can continue writing music while I'm on the road. All I need is a small keyboard, my Mac PowerBook, a FireWire drive, midi interface, headphones and voila! I can write to my heart's content.

Speaking of Boba, a couple friends came by today to send me off with good wishes.

It was boba time again! We went to the same place I'd gone yesterday hoping that the boba guru would spare me the lecture. Nothing worse than a boba Nazi. It was 4:15 and I had to get home soon.

DAMN! NO BOBA TODAY!!

We took a walk into Tower Records next door. I was perusing the jazz section and was happy to see that the placement of my CD was next to Dave Brubeck's new CD. I was not in the world music or new age section which I was very happy about. A favorite joke of Chuck Greenberg's: Q: What do you get when you play a new age song backwards? A: A new age song.

I also and found some very cool box sets of Miles Davis that I'm going to go pick up tomorrow. All the time spent on Doug's Record and discussions of Miles Davis has got me in a Miles-kind-of-mood.

I wanted to get home because Gor was going to cruise by and we were going to swap CDs before I left town. His new album is totally cool - English-language songs, some great electronic elements, and John Berberian playing oud in some very non-traditional fashion at time. Great production; great tunes...I dig it!

I was at home for a little while longer working out some more bugs in my portable system, then went to a late dinner with my wife. Oh look! There's a Border's across the street and I have a gift card in my pocket! Woo hoo! After scouring the jazz section, I picked up two Miles Davis CDs, In A Silent Way and Filles De Kilimanjaro. I've been listening to them for the last couple hours...gorgeous, soulful and timeless music!

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans!

Yesterday marked one one week from the day that I'll be departing Los Angeles to go on tour with Cirque du Soleil. Earlier in the month, I had planned out the projects that I wanted to finish before I left town. A friend of mine once told me, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." God's doing the ol' ROFLMAO while he/she/it watches me scramble to finish up a book of church hymns (I just realized the irony here), help my friend finish the recording of his CD in my studio, compose/record/turn in 4 of the 10 music cues I'm writing for some television shows.

My wife's going to move out of our house within a month of me leaving town, so throw that into the mix too! (She'll be joining me for the 2nd leg of the tour from Aug-Dec in Brazil). I'll be breaking down my entire studio and packing up all my music "stuff." Ugh! Hmmm...Do I have enought to do yet?

I have a gig on Friday night, a wedding on Saturday, and would like to spend at least a little bit of time with my family since I won't be coming home until June, then leaving again from Aug-Dec. Whew!

I think I'll experience some relief when I'm on my way to Montreal to start rehearsals. Here's my schedule for those of you who are curious:

Montreal 3/27 - 4/7
Santiago 4/8 - 4/22
Buenos Aires 4/23 - 6/11
Sao Paulo 8/2 - 10/15
Rio de Janeiro 10/26 - 12/3

And for the even more curious, here are some of the above-mentioned music cues I composed (check out Ricky Z's funky guitar tracks on "Grand Torino") :

"Club Eclipse" 1:17

"Fast Cruiser" 1:52

"Black Light Jungle" 1:17

"Grand Torino" 1:17

They're Playing Our Song!

After staying up all night (until 8:30 am!) working on it, a song I wrote with a friend for the NBC Series E-Ring (Dennis Hopper, Benjamin Bratt. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer) will be featured at the end of the show! Date is TBA. They just gave me the thumbs up and are using over 2:30 of the track during two overlapping heavy scenes that takes the show to the end credits.