Last Night

Last night was great. Mykal, Ernie and I went to this really great little jazz club, the Baked Potato. It was open jam night and was freakin great. I even sat in for a couple numbers. By the time we hit our second tune, Autumn Leaves, I really felt comfortable and felt like I played pretty damn well. Right now my confidence is really building. Ernie is a great bass player and he seems really psyched about playing with us. Things are happening so fast, I think we might be playing some real gigs as a three piece. Mykal is pretty connected so maybe we'll be playin for pay here soon. Another month of practice and we'll be ready. Now all we need is a name. Any suggestions? Anyway, I'm looking forward to practice tomorrow and next Monday at the Potato.

My sister, Kate is coming for a visit later in the week, I can't wait to see her. Twin powers-activate. And Dave, she's still not in love with you, but I'll try my best to convince her she should be.

Thanks for reading,
Billy

Wow what a weekend...

...so far. Actually I'm plannin on today being just a waste. Looking forward to the Tour of California prologue on TV later this afternoon. I'm hoping to make the Long Beach circuit race next Sunday. I haven't ridden at all since I've been in LA. I guess I've just put cycling out of my mind here recently, I was so serious about it for so long. I need the break. But I can't help get excited about the home state tour. Especially when it's so packed with talent this year. Too bad Floyd Landis will be on the sidelines. I really hope he clears his name. I saw recently his hearing is set for May so maybe he'll be back on the bike soon. Anyway, I'm pullin for you Floyd. Us PA by way of CA guys gotta stick together.

Thanks for reading
Billy

Bliss Is...

...sesame chicken and some great tunes on the stereo. I love Nancy Wilson, she's my valentine this year, I couldn't ask for a more perfect lady. "This Song Is You" is one of my favorite songs of the moment, along with Roland Kirk's version of "Our Waltz" and "Line for Lyon" by Chet Baker. The last one really epitomizes west coast jazz of the time, even though it's titled for a city in France. Chet started his career here and is buried in a cemetary in Inglewood. This weekend Mykal has lined up a bass player to get together with, so I'm really, really looking forward to that. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll have the time and energy to check out some open jams as well, but I'm always a little skittish about sitting in so we'll see how that goes.

I did get an e-mail back from my uncle about Steorn. I gotta keep most of what he told me on the down low, as he's under a confidentiality agreement. I can tell you that he's part of a select group that's validating the technology and that it sounds like it's gonna be a fairly long and involved process, but he's jumped right into it and is enjoying working on the project. I hope he's missing something and it winds up working, but he's a pretty sharp, accomplished guy so I'm not keeping my fingers crossed. Anyway, that's all I can divulge, if you want any more info on Steorn you all gotta go somewhere else.

Thanks for reading.
Billy

God I'm Tired

So it's taken me a day to go from cheerful greetings to public exhaustion. A day of demos can do that to a guy. We started at 9 this morning and finished at 9 tonight. The tough thing about recording studio work is the intense atmosphere that surrounds every project. A person's music is like his or her significant other, maybe even more important. If you mess with their music it's like messing with their wife or boyfriend, it brings serious consequences. If they don't like the result you have to make it right, sometimes the sessions can get very extended. At least I got to leave the studio to pick up dinner, the senior engineer had his nose to the computer all day.

Thanks to the interested commenters. Yes, Dave it's nice to be back in hottie country. Although I have to say that at this early point in my residence I haven't seen enough to surpass the overwhelming beautitude of the Miami ladies, although I'm sure it's much better than the White Plains scenery. We did have a couple of very sweet looking, although not very sweet, girls in the band we recorded today. I swear, everybody in a rock band in LA looks great. Anyway, I love the tough chicks but they didn't pay any attention to my handsome dorkiness. When I'm in the position to make their sonic dreams come true they'll be all over me, LOL. It's supposed to be real nice on Friday, and I'm off work. A friend has promised to take me to Venice Beach for some loitering, I'm looking forward to that.

I took a quick look at the Steorn website, I'm interested in reading more about it. If they can prove the conservation of energy wrong that would be monumental. Maybe they've tapped into the vacuum energy. But like I said, my uncle is getting paid to test it and according to the information he's gotten he thinks it's got no chance of working. I'll fire an e-mail off to him and see if I can get more details.

That's more than enough for me for tonight. Thanks for reading.

Billy

Greetings and Salutations

Hello Readers,

My name is Billy and I'm bustin out with my first blog. Those who know me know that music is my life, my love, my passion and my future. I'm a graduate of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, Florida, one of the premier music schools in the south east US, if not the country. I spent a few years after graduation wasting my time working in my family's drug store and writing music in my spare time, but now I've decided to get serious about my career. I've left Pennsylvania and am attempting to make my dreams come true in the city of angels, Los Angeles, California. I've just started a job as a recording engineer in a fairly large studio. More importantly, I've met a drummer named Mykal to jam with, I play keys myself. We connected immediately and are looking for a bass and horn or guitar to complete a classic jazz combo. The plan is to play some of my tunes and make some extra scratch playing parties or whatever. Any place that wants some Monk or "cool" Miles will be the place for us.

I'm also interested in electronics and science, although in a very amateur way. The electronics part comes in handy in the studio and the science part is mostly an interest in the popular subjects like quantum physics and cosmology. Lately I've been reading about the holographic principle. It's a crazy new theory that postulates that the physical reality we experience is actually two dimensional, not three dimensional. Completely mind blowing stuff. I also love reading about fringe scientific subjects like bigfoot or UFOs. My uncle is an engineer who is testing a "free energy" device for a company called Steorn. I want to believe in stuff like that but he assures me that the device won't work. Too bad.

Anyway, that's my story so far. I'll try to update this blog regularly. Thanks for reading.

Billy