This Friday, August 4th, be sure to grab your copy of Next Magazine.

I did an interview with Next Editor in chief, Greg T. Angelo, which will grace its pages.

I'm tickled pink like a pot belly pig...and Yes, there may be mention of my bacon problem, which is apparently attracting media attention.

I feel almost like an ambassador for other bacon addicts. It is my privilege to speak out on an issue that I know affects so many people. I hope that my work will help many of you to come out of the shadows and speak openly about your experiences with overindulgence in pork products. With greasy hands and swollen hearts, we can face this battle together.

#2 on the Chart

Marlboro Man is Number 2 on The Sirius OutQ Hot20!!!

sooo close to number 1 that it hurts. haha...a good kinda hurt though.

Help take mamma's pain away and

email a request for the song to be played.

or call 1- 877-33-SIRIUS EXT. 106


Marlboro Man can also be heard on Last Call with Jeremy Hovies.

The Curse of Dracula

Last night I had a very surreal Brooklyn evening.

I was invited by my friend, Jake to attend a screening in prospect park of 'Dracula' with live underscore performed by the Kronos Quartet composed by Phillip Glass.

The great things about these screenings is that people bring blankets and food and have little picnics while watching the show. We were sitting, eating sandwiches and berries with Slavic Soul Party serenading.
I somehow chose the part of the blanket that had been thrown on top of a pile of twigs, which have quite possibly forever damaged my tender parts.

My favorite thing about this version of dracula is that it was back before special effects, so you know that the bats were tied to a string on a twig and there's some guy whose job it is to bounce them up and down to make it look like they are flying...Absolute brilliance.

{cut to Dracula's Castle}

It started thundering and lightning in the movie. It also started thundering and lightning in the park. ooh, cool. I think a lot of people were stoned and like...Far out, man...Which I mean, hey, it was pretty cool. I on the other hand was looking up at the tree we were sitting under, wondering how long it would be before a bolt of lightning would split it right down the middle.

I decided to leave during the part of the movie where the characters are on a ship bound for England during a terrifying squall and was about 3/4 of the way out of the bandshell area when the torrential downpour in the park coincided with the movie and they stopped the film. Of course I wasn't all the way out, so I was suddenly in a crowd of hundreds of people trying to evacuate and avoid electrocution.

It was so weird to see so many people huddled together in the rain, running out of the park.
I ended up under an awning between 8th and 7th avenues on 9th street with a small group of people, waiting for the rain to let up. I feel like we were united for a few moments by the magic of real life and cinema colliding perfectly. We had all bonded in some weird way. We had similar stories, but wanted to make sure that our individual voices could be heard. I overheard a girl telling her friend that she had seen a bolt of lightning crash down a block away from the park.

The rain eventually let up. As I passed the bars, I noticed that most of them were so full that the people were spilling out into the streets. I guess when you find yourself bonding with so many people over lightning, rain, and the curse of Dracula, you want the connection to keep on living....to live forever.

Photo Credit- of course it's the lovely Carrie Thomas

#4

Oh my goodness. Marlboro Man is Number 4 on The Sirius OutQ Hot20!!!

Can I get a hip hip to bump and grind with my hooray?

Email a request for the song to be played.

My Water Just Broke

I have finished recording the album!!!

I feel proud of myself having written, performed, produced, and financed every track on the album. It really does feel like a piece of me and an accomplishment.

There were times when I didn't know what to do with songs, whether to keep them, rework them, or scrap them altogether. There are songs that didn't make the album. Something like 20 tracks were recorded in various forms in the process. B-Sides?

What I found most interesting when going through the tracks was that 4 of them including the title track hadn't even been written when I started recording the album.

(Sirens of Brooklyn, Follow Me Home, Fishnet Sailor and Before You go)

It felt so strange running the final mixes, to be commiting to something so final. I don't ever really consider anything final. It can always be reworked, improved, expanded or condensed.

Next up...mastering and artwork....
I've chosen photos from a selection of shots taken by the very talented Carrie Thomas.

Graphic design is being done by the Joe Velasquez who I worked with on the website.

I've been warned of post-pardom depression. I must keep myself busy and tend to the baby when it comes.

Now, I can feel the contractions taking over my body like convulsions...back to giving birth.

Photo Credit- Carrie Thomas

Please Request Marlboro Man

Get your friends to request it. Get your friends' friends to request it.
Send emails, send smoke signals, messages in bottles. Pillage plunder beg borrow and steal.,,,well, I can't condone any of those behaviors, but a few simple requests would make my day, week, and Chinese new year.

Marlboro Man is currently #10 on the chart this week!!!

The song is also being played on
Last Call with Jeremy Hovies.

Show Your support!
Email a request for the song to be played.

Sirius OutQ is channel 106 on Sirius satellite Radio.
You can get a 3 day free trial of sirius outq at their website to listen online

Bacon Rehab

Can someone please do some research and let me know if the Betty Ford Clinic has a bacon ward?

I ate an entire package of bacon yesterday.
It started with an innocent sandwich on a pita consisting of avocado, bacon, tomato, and mayo.

The other half of the package of bacon kept calling to me though. Three hours later, I marked my downward spiral and possible inclusion into the heart attack hall of fame when I made a bacon and mayo sandwich on pita bread that I fried in the bacon fat. (See previous post regarding my butter problem)

Who eats an entire package of bacon?...not to mention like 3 tablespoons of Mayo.

Photo taken by Carrie Thomas in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

Marlboro Man is #10 on the chart this week!!!

The song is also being played on
Last Call with Jeremy Hovies.

Show Your support!
Email a request for the song to be played.

Sirius OutQ is channel 106 on Sirius Sattelite Radio.
You can get a 3 day free trial of sirius outq at their website to listen online

Foot Duet

Carrie Thomas has very photogenic feet. They have been photographed in every boro and have even crossed state lines to strutt their stuff. These feet get around people. So, when I was walking with Carrie and she asked me to place my feet next to hers to snap the above photo, I was honored.

Obvious photo credit to Carrie Thomas.

Shoes were a present from my father. How cool is he?

$6,535.00

I was on my way to Creamy Goodness Studio to work on
'Hiding From Your Pain' for the album when I saw a folded check on the ground. I picked up this signed check to discover that it was written in the amount of $6535.00 and written from a Ms. B to a Mr. D (same last name.)

Along with the address on the check was a phone number, so I decided to call and let Ms. B know that I had found the check, but there was no answer, so I put it in my pocket and decided I would mail it to the woman who had written it.

2 Days Later...

I was in a coffee shop in Manhattan working on the copy for the inside of the album when my friend Laura messaged me and asked if I wanted to have lunch. She was craving falafels and so I said that we should go to Momoun's, which is my favorite place to have a falafel in New York. A falafel and humus sandwich was $2.50 when I moved here 8 years ago and the price is still $2.50. It is the perfect food for a starving musician.

As Laura and I were sitting eating our Falafels, I realized that I still had the check on me, and I was only a few blocks away from the address listed. I told Laura all about it and we decided that we would find the address and deliver the check back to its original owner.

We found the address with some assistance from an NYU map. We told the doorman that we had a delivery for Ms. B. He called up to the apartment and gave my name and had a puzzled look on his face. So, I told him that I was delivering a check that I had found. We were told to wait and that someone was coming down to see us.

I was practicing the act of balancing my guitar. If a floor is level it will stand up on its own, which always entertains me for some odd reason. The elevator opened and a gentleman who appeared to be in his mid-thirties approached me.

"Are you Robert?"

"Yes. Hi. I found this check in the street and I wanted to return it."

(I handed him the check.)

"where did you find this?"

"Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn"

"You came all the way from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn?"

"No. Well, I was going to mail it. I called but nobody answered. we were having lunch in the neighborhood, so I thought I would just drop it by.
Are you Mr. D?"

"No, um. That's my brother. Wow, um. Thanks. um."

There was something strange in the look on his face. He had no idea this check existed until I handed it to him. The wheels were turning in my head. Was Ms. B is wife? Was She his mother? Maybe his brother was having an affair with his wife and she was paying him off to keep him from telling the brother about their forbidden love. Maybe the mother who had been stingy with the brother's requests for money was generously sending $6,535.00 checks to Mr. D. What would become of this situation? Laura and I discussed as we walked away. She suggested that this saga was not done. We would hear about someone being murdered on the news.

She thinks that she had met the brother before. She thinks that we will see him again. Fate has some bizarre design. It wasn't chance that Laura craved a Falafel. It wasn't chance that I suggested a place near the address. There is something strange and fatalistic that has begun. I fear it has a tragic end.

Oh god, this is the story of my life. I try to do something right or what I think is the right thing and then it leads to some horrible outcome. ugh.

Photo by Carrie Thomas

Last Night at Albatross

Last night I went to Albatross in Queens with the talented mister Jeff Cubeta to give the world a sneak peak at Kitt & Kaboodle, a little project we've been working on. The audience was so supportive and wonderful and there have been lots of sweet kudos on astorians.com

We met the Barbarians, a radical burlesque troupe, who were both thought provoking and entertaining.

At times I feel like art is being pushed out of New York as it has become more and more gentrified and homogonized. It was great to see the spirit of old new york alive with performance art, burlesque, drag, and singing from the soul.


There will be a performance by

Kitt and Kaboodle
on Saturday July 22nd
at the Cattyshack in Brooklyn
249 4th avenue between President and Carroll

to benefit the Last Licks Softball Team.

$15=all you can eat BBQ and beer and all of the fun

$10=all you can eat BBQ and 2 for 1 drinks

$5=See the show and 2 for 1 drinks

It's raining in New York

Today

The rain is falling in New York. The sky has opened its eyes to let its tears flow free. I feel a bit like a vagabond. I went to the photo lab to drop off negatives for the album when the rain started. I had my guitar and my laptop in my pack, so I became a prisoner underneath a dark blue awning.

I called my ex to get a weather forecast, but he was no use. He had no news on whether this was a quick shower or the beginning of monsoon season.

I have never been umbrella appropriate. I carry an umbrella when it doesn't rain and I never have one when the floodgates are open. I don't usually check the weather myself. I like to be surprised. It seems that when I do check it, the forecast is incorrect and I'm surprised regardless.

I skipped from awning to awning for a while before finding refuge in a coffee shop with high speed wireless internet.
So, here I sit, typing away, watching the people running through the streets, soaked to the bone, squealing and shivering.

Water amazes me. It seems so simple yet it can destroy cities, rot wooden houses, carve canyons, cool a hot forehead, and wash away the filth. I love the air after the rain. It's cool and fresh just waiting to be polluted.

The rain is letting up and soon I will catch a train to Queens where I will be rehearsing with Jeff. We're doing a show on Saturday, which will be our first musical collaboration. I'm excited to be doing some jazz standards in addition to my original material. It's fun to sing those old songs.

A quick apology to a few of you who have gotten delayed email responses from me. My internet connection has been spotty at best for the last couple of days and I've resorted to sending smoke signals. I am after all a member of the Choctaw Indian tribe, your fun fact for the day.

Photography by Carrie Thomas

Lucky 13

For the 5th straight week, Marlboro Man made is on
Sirius OutQ's Hot 20 List.

This week, I have the honor of holding the lucky 13 position.

Strangely enough, this news came on a day when I had 1313 friends on myspace. I also broke a mirror and walked under a ladder just as a black cat crossed my path. Good things are obviously on their way.

The song is also being played on Last Call with Jeremy Hovies.

Show Your support!
Email a request for the song to be played.

Sirius OutQ is channel 106 on Sirius Sattelite Radio.
You can get a 3 day free trial of sirius outq at their website to listen online

The Marlboro Man needs your help

My song Marlboro Man has been charting on Sirius Satellite Radio's OutQ hot 20 for the last 4 weeks, steadily climbing until...

A tiny tear trickled from my good eye this week when I received the news that I had slipped from number 11 to number 16.

Show your support by sending an email requesting the song.

You can hear it played on Last Call with Jeremy Hovies.

Big Thanks to J-ho!

Return to Coney Island

I don't know what it is, but I can't seem to stay away from Coney Island. It holds so much magic and mystery.

Recently, Carrie and I returned to our beloved island to take some more pictures for the album as deadlines loom.

We paid a visit to our good mermaid friend and found a few new mermaids who were kind enough to lets us capture their images on film. Carrie sent me off to look for a pirate because the one I found was not handsome enough while she snapped shots of the horses on the carousel.

We walked out onto the piers and watched the men fishing, the fish flapping madly on the wooden planks begging to be thrown back into the water, gasping their last breaths of very dry air.

We both saw the rocks and the sirens called us towards them. Unfortunately we were greeted by a sign telling us that the rocks were off limits. I decided that this could not be, so I went to the lifeguard stand and spoke to the three lifeguards there asking them very kindly to let me use the rocks. They had no problem, but for some reason told me that I needed to take my clothes off if I wanted to have my picture taken there.

I did remove my tie and button down and sported my wife-beater(please don't be offended by this term used to describe a tank top style undershirt) If you've seen the show cops, then you know the origin of the phrase.

As carrie snapped shots, I noticed a woman sitting in the sand under a black umbrella. I had to have it, if only for a moment. As we took pictures, the lifeguards were yelling that I needed to remove another layer. There was no one swimming so their boredom had turned a bit pervie it seemed.

Carrie went over to ask the woman if we could steel some alone time with her umbrella and to our delight she obliged, though she told us that it was broken. Carrie worked her pixie fingers across the handle and the umbrella was miraculously repaired. She does have magic hands....ooh, John you are a lucky boy. haha :)

All in all, the Sirens of Brooklyn were with us today.

I made my prayers in the water fountain and made amends with an old friend.

Thank you Coney Island for giving us your kisses carried by the salty air.

Image used with the kind permission of photographer,Carrie Thomas