The Heavens and the Ceiling Part

On Friday, I moved into my new apartment, which was an exciting albeit strange experience.
The floor had just been redone and coated with Polyurithane. Perhaps it needed another day of airing out before
I slept there, because I woke up throughout the night weezing, sniffling and occasionally hacking. I woke in the morning with a dry charred throat and the voice of an aged sailor on his sixth glass of whiskey.

I felt as though every drop of moisture had been sucked from my body.
I got up and drank massive amounts of water and took a long hot shower.
Amazingly, I rehydrated almost immediately.
I had a bit of concern since Saturday was the marriage equality march and I would be performing as both myself and Kitt & Kaboodle.

I threw on some clothes, grabbed my guitar, stuffed my guitar tuner and an assortment of cables into my bag and ran for the train, stopping quickly between to grab some coffee. Without coffee I am generally a zombie. I got to Cadman Plaza and hung out and waited for soundcheck while socializing with the other performers and doing cartwheels on the astroturf. The heavens parted and the water began to pour down. We did not let fear of electricution or slipping off the stage onto the concrete deter us from the task at hand.

We got the word that the marchers were coming across the bridge. Soon we saw a crowd of umbrellas approaching.
Sadly, the crowd was not very big. As much as I want to say that people gathered in huge numbers to fight for their right to equality, that is not the case. I supposed if there had been an open bar or gogo boys involved that maybe it might intice people to get off their lazy apathetic asses and pretend that they care. Sadly this event was not even listed in the local rags full of picture after picture of half naked boys,dragqueens and drunken club kids.

If we care this little about our rights, then why should anything change? What does it take to unify and mobilize a group of people? When did we give up? When did we decide to just sit back and let the world happen without screaming in outrage? If we aren't willing to fight for change, then we will not get it. If we aren't doing something to make things better, then we are part of the problem. It is time for us to wake up. It is time for us to pull our headphone out of our ears, put down our cellphones, turn off our tv's and flood the streets with picket signs. We can't just sit back and let life happen to us. It is not a TV show. We can't switch the channel. We have to live it. UNPLUG and REACH OUT.

On Sunday, I slept in and started to get a little more settled into my new home. However on Sunday night I heard water dripping and was sure I didn't turn the shower all the way off. I walked into the kitchen to find that the dripping was coming from my wall. Water and formed bubbles in the paint and was oozing out of these pockets and down the wall. A large bubble formed on the ceiling and was also oozing liquid. I called my landlord and hopfully this will be fixed today.
Despite water falling from the sky and from the ceiling, I am thrilled to have been a part of the wedding march and thrilled to have a new home. Nothing in life is perfect. We all have to dig in from time to time, put on the work gloves and grab a paintbrush, fill in the cracks and wipe the sweat from our brows.

The Rant (in print)

In next week's Worcester Magazine, an excerpt of the
rant will be printed in their Bloglog section.

The rant is famous.
Crazy! Who knew?!

If You're in Minneapolis...

I will be appearing on
Fresh Fruit
May 17th at 7pm.
90.3FM in Minneapolis/106.7FM in St. Paul

As mentioned in a recent post, I am featured in the current issue Lavender Magazine.
(Scroll Down)

Last but not least and actually most important,
I will be performing at

The Wilde Roast Cafe
518 Hennepin Ave. E.
Minneapolis
May 26th at 8pm
$5 Suggested Donation(so mamma can eat)

Jesus lives in Ohio

Driving through the lush serene landscape of Ohio, I found myself
engulfed in a kind of peace that could only come from Jesus.
I knew that something was amiss when I looked in the Columbus phone book and found more listings for churches than bars, but I thought nothing of it.

Then there were the large signs that said "JESUS LIVES" "JESUS IS REAL"

We passed the giant tower that said "JESUS IS LORD"

Had we made a wrong turn into the bible belt? I thought for sure Ohio was closer to the bible nipple. Apparently I was wrong.

Right now, I am stretched atop the bed in the Dayton Econo Lodge. If you're really keeping up with my blog and obsessively checking it, you even have time to stalk me before I get to the bus station for my glamour ride back to New York.

I had something strange happen this evening. For the first time in my musical career, I had a woman return my cd. I gave her back her money as she apologized saying that she couldn't play my music in front of her children. This woman named Joel(like Noel) had sat through my first set this evening in Dayton and enjoyed the music so much that she ran to get cash and buy my cd. Apperently, she started listening to the cd after leaving the show, midset and got to the song, Marlboro Man, which totally rocked her world and not in a good way.

As I was packing everything up and getting ready to leave, here came Joel with cd in hand and a kind of embarassed look on her face. I gave her back her money and took back the used CD.

I found myself in an odd place this evening where I feared that speaking my mind and being who I am would offend people. I've never set out to offend people. I've only ever tried to speak from my heart without filtering or lying about who I am and what i feel. I changed a lyric mid-song. I don't live to give you head suddenly came out of my mouth as I don't live to make your bed.

I changed my setlist as I heard the woman working in the cafe talking about how the proximity to all the bars made this place the perfect location for her to minister to people. What better place than the street with the tattoo parlor and the sex shop? This is where she would bring people to Jesus. Pictures of Jesus hung from the wall next to a nude painting of a woman.

Where does the line exist between integrity and self preservation. I don't want to be run out of Ohio with pitchforks and torches and in fact I was received well by the folks of Dayton. It saddens me a bit that someone like Joel liked my music until she heard one song that conflicted with her beliefs. Suddenly I was the devil in CD form, come to corrupt her children and lead then down the fiery path to hell. If Jesus lives in Ohio, then maybe it is fitting that the devil lives in Brooklyn, a blonde boy with a guitar, now branching out to other states to tempt the holy through songs laced with sin.

New Article In Lavender Magazine

I recently did an interview with Lavender Magazine in Minneapolis as a prelude to my show there on May 26th. The article is available online.
Check it out!

and check out that boy on the cover. Can you say Shazam?!

Greetings from Ohio

There is nothing like a roach motel with cigarette burns in the curtains and an indescribable chemical smell used to remove some far worse smell to let You know that you've truly made it in the music business.

I took a bus, yes a bus from New York City to Columbus Ohio. I took two of my little dolls to help me sleep but even they could not distract me from the large man who was using me as a pillow. I woke up at 4am in the middle of West Virginia with the feeling that my neck might be permanaently damaged and in need of an emergency visit to the Chiropractor. I spent an hour in a bus station in Pittsburg sitting indian style on the ground, slumped over my backpack just so I could get a window seat on the dirty dog.

I arrived in Columbus with bloodshot eyes and a dazed and confused look that turned heads, wheeling a PA System, carrying a guitar, a backpack and a bag. I looked more like a packmule than a human being. I have become Robert German's roadie. The pay is terrible. The accomodations are 2star at best, but at the end of the day, I know that the twisted spine and sore muscles are all for the greater cause.

I left my cellphone in New York, which led to a rather neuotic spree of skype phone calls at the local Columbus Starbucks. I had my big bubble headphone on, yelling at my laptop. I'm sure I created some sort of scene, but it had to be done.

Last night I did an hour set at Q Bar in Columbus followed by socializing with my friend Michael Jackson (not the one who touches children) who came all the way from Indiana just to see the show. God bless you, Michael.

After a drive through serene country landscape littered with geese, sheep and outhouses, I find myself in Gambier Ohio. Oh, my good deed for the day was saving a butterfly. It flew into the car and we pulled over to give it back to nature.

It is the simple things that really make it all worth while.

More to come...

The Headless armless legless man from Worcester

Last weekend, I treked up north for a show in Worcester Mass.
It was only a 5 hour busride, so spinal damage was minimum.
I got off the bus and into a cab with a driver who started telling me
all about Worcester in an accent that is hard to describe. We shall just say that it was "New Englandy"

The highlight of the conversation was his warning to me about my safety on the mean streets of Worcester.
He pointed to a hill with railroad tracks and told me all about a body that had been found there with no head, no arms, no legs. Apparently there were no witnesses as to what might have happened or to who the torso might have belonged.

By the time I got to the venue I was scared to even go out onto the sidewalk with all the tales of crackwhores and murder.

I had some coffee, a blt and got to spend some time chatting with Lara Ewen, a fellow Brooklynite who came up to open for me. It was funny since we had never met, but we hit it it off as she is a kindred spirit out on the road doing her thing.

Lara's friends, the Noonans came to the show and stuck around for my set. I was delighted by their hospitality when they offered for me to stay with them in Barre Mass. Barre is this beautiful town smack dab in the middle of the state with a quaint charm. Lara describes it as the town where the show Gilmore Girls is filmed and I couldn't think of a better way to describe it myself.

The Noonans live in this beautiful farm house connected to a barn. Kim Noonan, a very skilled artist and vibrant soul, gave me the tour of the house, which was built in the 1800's. She also shared her art with me, which was quite spectacular. We all sipped herbal tea and chatted into the wee hours. I fell asleep on the plush sofa and awoke with a startle at around 3am. The Noonan's three cats were all on top of me. The ring leadeer, butros butros was kneeding his paws into my chest. I freaked out and sent the cats running.

In the morning I was greeted with fresh coffee and homemade banana muffins. Chaz, who is also a musician asked Lara and I to sing backing vocals in his home studio on a track he is working on. So there we were laughing and singing "I'm the Mudlark" haha
Oh, I love Mass.(the state not the church service)

Lara and I became road buddies on the way to Boston. She dropped me off at the bus statin and we said our goodbyes.
I took the Fung Wah bus back to New York. Though I was glad to be home, a part of my heart is still in Barre Mass.

Blah

I am guilty of neglectfulness in blogging. Oh my dear readers, I've been a bizzy bee. Where to begin...

Well, The music video is in the editing process. I have seen two seperate rough cuts and I'm very excited to see the edges rounded out and the little piece of mini-cinema to be ready for mass consumption. You've been chomping at the bit to see it, I'm sure you have. Unfortunately you will have to wait until the fall. Good things come to those who wait, I hear.

I've been doing lots of performing. I went up to Boston and over to New Jersey. This weekend I head to Worcester Massachussettes and find myself in Dayton and Columbus Ohio next weekend. I'm doing some New York performances as well.

I am currently though temporarily homeless as I wait for renovations to be completed on my new apartment. I neglected to mention that I've been living in Queens for the last 2 months in a sublet. I am not a queens boy. I have Brooklyn in my blood. I'm delighted to say that on May 15th I will again become a Brooklyn boy in a cozy new home by my favorite park in New York City. I am going to rollerblade and sun my pale skin to lobstered blissfulness. This is the definition of glamour.

I would like to give a big thank you to Chris for organizing and promoting the performance in North Brunswick, New Jersey. All of you guys were so warm and attentive and I enjoyed chatting with everybody. I was even sent home with a bag of sandwiches. For a starving artist I sure know how to eat. Thanks for indulging my glutenous ways.