TV, Faces, Solos, Songs, all that stuff

Barrel. Stare. Whew! It's Sunday already. I am staring straight down the barrel of a lot of things. No wonder my eyes seem so squinty. At the end of the barrel: - My first live TV appearance looms on Tuesday. I'll be performing with the girls from my Monday night songwriting class at Red Leaf...Emily and Melissa and I had a stellar practice today and I am pumped. If you would have asked me yesterday I would have been freaked out. Now I know we're just going to play music and have fun like we always do, except it will be really early in the morning. In a TV studio. (FOX 7 here in Austin...I think they put these things online, too). - We get to play hot Gibson guitars because Gibson is sponsoring our Red Leaf showcase on April 5th...and since we're going to be on TV we might as well all be playing hot Gibson guitars, right? The two I will switch between I am pretty sure total more in worth than my car. This is what it's like to be a rock star? I'll take it. Photos will come. But for now, can you say...Gibson Hummingbird? Mmmhmmm. (I told you it was worth more than my car). - Dan has been drilling into me the next level of guitar soloing for about...oh, 6 years now. Or a couple months. Or more. And I take things and I ruminate on them and sometimes they don't pop out until they're really. I'm a really super awesome incubator. Sometimes that frustrates people, mainly myself. But anyway...I've been working on it and at practice this afternoon I had a breakthrough guitar moment...or hour...or whatever. I sang along with the notes and made faces and it works. I hope it's not too John Mayer-esque. Yes, I will make faces on TV if that's what I have to do to get the solo out the best I can. - I have also been booking up a storm for The Boss. There were holes in the calendar for April and May and the thing about booking is that the more time goes by, the harder it is to book the dates closest to you. Which means you have to be ON IT. And knock on as many doors as you can until someone says yes. I've also been tackling booking a Pacific Northwest tour for the whole month of June. Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California...here we come. (Drop me venue names or places to play if y'all have them!) We're coming for YOU. - The weird thing is I get into this strange creative flow state when I am working on this booking job...because it's utilizing my history major brain to search out venues and research if they're good or not. It feeds my obsessions with maps because routing is key. It makes my big picture brain work hard to figure in timing, routing, money, and dates. I guess what I mean to say is I like it. Who knew I got a history degree to book shows better? I guess that's a pretty long barrel. Boom!

Mika Brzezinski Censors the News (thank goodness)

We have here someone actually taking a moral stand against all the schlock that's thrown at us on a daily basis, and oddly it's someone who is employed by the schlock-throwers. Brzezinski is passed the Paris story THREE TIMES by her producers, and she tries to burn it, rips it up, and shreds it. She never reads it. She's not an E! anchor. She's not re-capping for the American Idol pre-show or whatever. She is a journalist. Her job is to inform people about their world and how events are affecting them. Paris Hilton has no affect on our lives. Maybe one day she will, if she decides to put her fame and fortune to a higher calling...but for now, Paris Hilton walking out of jail does nothing for me. Or you. Or the war or the genocide in Sudan or the flooding in the Midwest. If all the ABCCNNBCBS anchors would take a little care with what they spend hours and hours shoving down our throats, maybe we'd all be a little more educated and prepared to deal with the world, hm? Thanks, Ms. Brzezinski. I lost fewer brain cells today because of you.