Quick Food Review

Bill Wasch, local musician formerly with Rosie and the Naturals, recently opened a burger place in Strawberry Square. Joe Trojcak recommended I try it and yesterday I had the chance at lunch. My impression was that the burgers were cooked thoroughly but not too dry, more like hand-formed cookout burgers than fast food hockey pucks. The French fries are skin-0n and a lot like Five Guys. You'll either like them or not; I enjoyed them. If you go with someone, split an order of fries. I couldn't finish them and I was pretty hungry. Overall, I enjoyed my lunch as much as any I've had at Five Guys Burgers at a more reasonable price. On-line reviews are not completely favorable for Bill's, but I take those with a grain of salt. It's not inconceivable that the nasty comments in some reviews were posted by the owners of other businesses in the same Food Court. Maybe I'm prejudiced because he's a guitar player, but I give it two headstocks up.

Adios, Comcast

The Verizon installer is just finishing up giving Comcast the boot. They don't know yet. It will be a surprise. Honestly, it's not that different from Comcast; a few more channels and a new remote. The big thing is that Comcast can't raise my rates anymore just because they feel like it. Also, we get a price break due to having Verizon for the phone, internet and television, which makes them... uh, what's the word... oh, a monopoly!

Tally Ho Again

This past Saturday Just Friends played one of our favorite annual jobs for the Beaufort Hunt Club's Foxhunters Ball. Neither they nor we remember exactly how many years it's been, but when we go to set up it's like old home week. They're delighted to have us back, and their enthusiasm brings out the best in our band. For this show we broke out three new tunes: "It Had Better Be Tonight," the Michael Buble arrangement of a Henry Mancini chart from the Pink Panther series; "You Are The Best Thing" by Ray Lamontagne, a song so new they still play it on WXPN; and "Whisper Your Name," a Harry Connick Jr. chart that has horns and a spiffy guitar solo section. All three sounded pretty good for still being new to the list, and got a good reception from our redcoated friends. Just like last year, at the end of the night, we said, "See you next year."

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. I know this for two reasons. First, it's the day after Joreen's birthday; second, Appalachian Brewing Company sent me an invitation for breakfast any time after 7:00 a.m. In their words, "Join us for: $1.99* Eggs and Corned Beef Hash, $3.00* Pints of Stout and Celtic Red and $4.00* Bloody Mary's (*Until noon )." And then they added this rather chilling statement: "Join us and show just how Irish you can be on St. Patrick's Day!" (Emphasis mine.) Apparently, you're not Irish enough unless you start drinking before work. Eggs, corned beef hash and beer for breakfast. Faith and begorrah, would ye be crackin' the window a wee bit for us, Seamus?

Free, My Favorite Price

You may have heard that Phish just did three shows in Hampton, VA last weekend. Their fans are obsessive in a class with Deadheads, Trekkies and Westminster Dog Show viewers. Minutes after the rumor started of these shows, every single hotel room in Hampton sold out. The band has offered free downloads of these three nights at livephish.com. I'm not a Phishhead at all, but I do enjoy the quality of their musicianship. Lyrically, I don't think they can write their way out of a paper bag, but YMMV. If you've ever been curious as to what they sound like, this is a cheap way to check them out. Trey Anastasio is clean and sober (for the moment) and they actually practiced for these shows, which is always a good thing. These shows will be free mp3 downloads until tomorrow. After that, you either pay or come over to my house to hear them.

In other free download news, there is a band called Crazy Engine, led by Steve Kimock, a veteran of the West Coast jamband scene, formerly in Zero with John Cippolina, and a great guitar player. He's joined by Melvin Seals, the giant who played B-3 with the Jerry Garcia Band. Crazy Engine played a show in Hampton, VA that started after this Phish concert, and Kimock graciously made this show available for free download as well. I don't know how long they're available for free, but here's the link: http://tinyurl.com/dmq4gy. Great funky instrumentals, and Kimock's playing is very melodic and tasty.

Now, back to work.

Music, Music Everywhere

The Hemlock Hollow show at The Good Life Cafe in Carlisle was a real blast. Roger, Chris, Bill and I played in a setting which I have described as taking a page from my "When I Hit The Lottery" fantasy: a venue with state-of-the-art PA, a soundman who is also recording the show, a good stage, an intimate setting to connect with the audience, good food, and a BYOB policy. The owner, David, is obviously committed to live music, to the point of coming up on stage and playing two songs with us. He's a pretty good player, and a great chef. The food is really outstanding, featuring local produce, organic ingredients and great flavors. You'll need to bring your own high fructose corn syrup, though.

Unfortunately, to this point I don't have a decent picture of the four of us to post. None of the shots we took are up to par. There are a few video excerpts floating around, and I'm told there will be a copy of the performance made available later. Special thanks to Sean, Alex and his friends, Ed, Grace, Maggie and all the friends and family of the Wilkinsons who make up the Hollowhead community for coming out and supporting us. I'm excited about this place and have discussed booking future shows there as the Kelly Trio with Alex on bass. Stay tuned.

In other musical news, Joreen and I went to see Theresa Andersson last night. The crowd was smaller than expected. This is a performer who plays to packed houses in New Orleans, and we were six feet away from her. Here is my first attempt at filming, saving and posting a video.

Yes, she's gorgeous, and she's got a great pair of looping pedals. I filmed the whole performance, and if you discount the shaky hand-held quality and the chitchat of the goobers in the audience, it's pretty neat. I hope to post this and other songs to YouTube at some point, another first time attempt for me. Until this morning I had never even opened Windows Movie Maker.

Cool Live Music Alert

The ABC brewery has been booking some interesting music. I've made it a point to open the ABC Entertainment e-mails, and it's a good thing. This coming week, Wednesday, March 11, someone very interesting is coming to a no-cover show. Her name is Theresa Andersson and she's being billed as a "much cuter Keller Williams." The link is to her MySpace page and I just watched the Na Na Na video (these kids and their lyrics, my gawd, what's this world coming to.) Anyway, she is indeed a perky young lady, and she's a looping monster, which is the part that gets me the hottest. Also, snaps for recording the video in the kitchen.

This is exactly the point I had in mind in my earlier rant about monster rock star concerts and my decision to concentrate on new, local or regional acts on their way up. Somebody on the Dead Hour Digest said tickets in Oakland for Clapton and Winwood were $142.50 (yes, apiece), plus a $17.50 convenience charge PLUS a $7.00 "building facility charge." (WTF?) Put me down as a "no." Actually, put me down as a laughing-so-hard-I'm-widdling-my-pants "HAIL, no."

Kudos to Jersey Mike and Roundtable Presents for making a real effort to bring new and decent music to a room that also sells great beer, in Harrisburg. I don't know if this young'un has the buzz to fill the room up, but it wouldn't surprise me. Might want to get there early. Hopefully we'll see you there.

Ah, The Good Life

Just got a phone call from Roger inviting me to play bass with the Hemlock Hollow this Saturday, March 7th, at a place in Carlisle called The Good Life Cafe, which has a pretty spiffy web site:

http://www.thegoodlifecafe.com/home.html

According to Roger, Bill Nork will also be playing, so it should be a pretty good show. Check out the web site. The Listening Room looks snazzy. There might be a cover charge, but I'll buy you a beer later. One hand washes the other.

Updated Blog Layout

Having noticed the "followers" widget on other blogs, I decided to update my settings to enable that. Welcome to Ed and Mrs. Kelly. I also loosened the restrictions on comments. You may now fire away without being moderated. In the beginning I was getting comments about how much better my blog would look if I was wearing an Italian Rolex or taking herbal Viagra, so I shut the comments down. If I start getting spam, I'll have to put up the fence again.

Happy Ash Wednesday!

This was a greeting offered to me this morning by Brother Mike Miller, which prompted me to reflect that I'm not aware of those words ever being put together in that order before. I got the visual of black bunting, black balloons and banners declaring, "You're All Gonna DIE!!! Have a GREAT One!!!"

One of the things I gave up for Lent was a huge pile of money getting my old Saturn inspected, with most of the cost centered around the emissions control inspection. By the way, let me offer a heartfelt thanks to McGovern's former boss, the former head of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future Car Repair Bills, for that little treat. (I didn't give up sarcasm for Lent, as you can see.) Oh, well, it's running better now. I'm sure not ready to buy a new car, especially since Saturn (or General Motors disguised as Saturn) isn't making anything I'm really interested in right now with the possible exception of the Aura. Alex drives one and it's a fairly sharp looking vehicle, but I'm still getting close to 30 miles per gallon in town and close to 40 on the highway, and that's after a nasty accident some years ago.

Just Friends played one of the most enjoyable jobs of our career at the Lawnton Legion last Saturday, and thanks to all who made it out. John Wilson just drove the beat all up and down the road, and the whole band was at the top of our game. My little brother David brought along his new boutique pedal, a Fulltone distortion/overdrive, and I had that plugged in and dimed out in no time. I was gettin' tone, good people! Unfortunately, most of our schedule for the coming months is private parties or out of town work. If something comes up where our local friends and family can attend, we'll let you know.

In the meantime, plan a field trip for Saturday, May 30th to Knoebel's Grove, one of our very favorite venues. Seriously, I'd love to see a lot of familiar faces up there. Hershey can claim to be the Sweetest Place on earth; compared to Knoebel's, not so much. For one thing, at Hersheypark you can't bring a picnic lunch, park for free, ride a carousel complete with brass rings, rollercoaster your gigi off if that's your thing, plus pay no dollars and no cents to get in the place. They also still have Teaberry ice cream, last time we checked, and Joreen just loves that stuff. Let's make plans. We're also there August 14th, a Friday.

Happy Ash Wednesday, everybody!

Just Friends at the Legion 2/21

Just Friends will be at the Lawnton Legion on Derry Street Saturday, Feb. 21 from nine to one. If you're interested in attending and you're not a member of the American Legion, contact me and I'll have your name put on a list at the door. This is one of the few local appearances for us in the near future, so if you're into dancing, cheap drinking and meeting our new drummer, this is your chance.

Open Letter to Big Time Rock Stars

Dear Phish, Bruuuuuuuce, what's left of the Dead, et al.:

In the last month, you have all announced that you're graciously going to come to town or somewhere within driving distance of my town to collect my money in return for smooshing me into a crowd of tens of thousands of people, with pretty good odds that the ones sitting near me will talk through the entire show. I will also have the opportunity to pay $10 or so to park, something north of six bucks for a glass of beer-colored swill, and it wouldn't shock me to find pay toilets. I must respectfully send my regrets.

I know you have a marketable product. Many of my friends are attending one or more of your concerts. In the case of Bruuuuuuuce, you could make the argument that I don't know what I'm missing. I'm sure the Boss will put on a truly spiffnificent show. But you know what? The last time I was in Hersheypark for a mega-concert was the Rolling Stones. Between the chick next to me singing at the top of her lungs and the jackass behind me spilling five bucks worth of Bud Light on us, "This may be the last time, I don't know" took on a new and deeper meaning.

Apparently you guys haven't set your price points too high yet, although I relish the thought of scalpers standing outside your venues whining with a fistful of unsold tickets. You have, however, made it easier for me to resolve to find musical entertainment alternatives. I will make it a point to go hear more local or regional artists. I will purchase music directly from them, knowing my contribution will go directly into their pocket. Most importantly, when it comes to making music, I'm reminded of one of my favorite movie quotes: "**** you, Jobu, I do it myself."

Weekend Update

Joreen is back from Vermont. We're just hanging. Last night Alex and Tom of the Durable Goods came over to play, and we had the pleasure of the company of Bill Nork, his shiny red Hamer guitar and his Fender Ultra-Super-Dooper-Sonic amp. We tore it up for a couple hours. Very satisfying. Like the T-shirt says, "You can't beat two guitars, bass and drums."

Courtesy of Parker Kenyon, here is an interesting link for fans of Rush songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4vd9OVLO7Q&feature=channel

I haven't heard of this guy before, but he's apparently a Christian artist, judging by a video of another song called "Just Like You." Phenomenal voice, and the kind of live performance I aspire to.

Physical therapy continues on the shoulder, and there's been measurable progress. I attended darts Thursday, and my game is back to status quo, i.e. erratic to the point of being random.

Stuff Happens

Around here, much stuff has been happening. Synopsis follows.

Just Friends has undergone another personnel change. Craig Rankin, who joined us after Barry left, has left the band. Craig is a decent, hard-working guy who will be an asset to any band he joins. Our parting was very amicable. Joreen and I wish him all the best, and I believe I can speak for the rest of the band in that regard. Our new drummer, John Wilson, is from Enola and is a veteran of the local band scene, having played in the past with Rosie and the Naturals and other local groups. John is also a really nice guy, and we welcome him aboard. He joined us at the Minnequa Saturday night, and we had a blast.

Joreen traveled to Vermont today to spend some time with her sister.

Saturday, the oven crapped out on me just as I was about to bake two of the prettiest loaves of bread I ever formed. The estimate for the part to repair the control panel is almost the price of a new oven. It's 15 years old, so it's not a big shock. We'll go shopping for a new one when Joreen gets home.

This morning, the last of our old pets, Cinders, passed away at home. As late as Sunday afternoon, she was climbing up on people's laps and yelling for meat. Yesterday, she began making a sound I hadn't heard before, and in my non-veterinarian opinion it seemed like she was having some kind of stroke. She died this morning. Making a sandwich this afternoon, I got a little lonely. I'm used to her running into the kitchen at the sound of the refrigerator opening and making a sound that roughly translated into something like, "Hey, down here!"

Between this, that and the other thing, I am behind in my typing, so I'm going to go "make the donuts" now.

Cold Enough For You?

What a great time to be indoors in my office, where all the heat rises. Yesterday Andrea and I took Theo to the Farm Show, as I mentioned. In my haste to catch the bus that was pulling up in the parking lot, I left my camera in the car, so no cute photos. The boy was enthralled with the alpacas, cows, goats, pigs, and the hot dogs at the Food Court. The apple cider was also a hit. We had a great time. Joreen is taking Mary, Deven and Travis this evening. Mary's personal favorite is the baked potato, and she was psyched when I spoke to her a few minutes ago, while they were outside, freezing, and I'm not.

Just in case you're not wasting enough time on the Internet, I just learned of a site called Googlefight. You can type in two names, like Fender and Gibson, Kirk and Picard, or Marilyn Manson and Marilyn Monroe, and see which one has the most Google hits. I would never suggest anyone engage in such foolishness, but if I did, I would recommend you type in "George W. Bush" and "box of rocks." The results might (or might not) surprise you.

(Update: later this same evening, for some reason the Googlefight site is showing zero results for everything. I don't know what's up with that.)

Say Hallo to My Leedle Frens

Here is the original "leedle fren," the Heritage, being played at the Hotel Hershey with Vince and Gio. The Amici Trio continues to please the small but elegant ballroom dancing crowd in this lounge. We will be appearing there next on February 28th.



This is my newest "leedle fren," a CNB pedalboard case from Rondo Music. It is much heavier and 25 times as expensive as my old pedalboard case, which was a hardshell suitcase from a flea market, but isn't it cool?



And speaking of cool, here's one of the Grandboys in what has become a traditional pose at the piano. We have photos of his mother, aunt and cousins all doing the same thing.

Today I'm taking Andrea and Theo to the Farm Show. Joreen and I already went down Sunday afternoon, and the place was packed to the rafters with people. Joreen thought it might be less crowded because of the football games. Wrong. I didn't get any pictures from that visit. It's hard to hold a camera when you're stuffing potato donuts in your mouth. And a roast beef sandwich. And broccoli salad. And fried mushrooms. See the blog entry of January 10, 2008 for a nice picture of Farm Show cuisine. Now I'm going to get ready to leave, because I'm getting hungry.

Up and At 'Em, Kids

Time to be productive again after the holidays, and transcripts need to get out of here. I'm not synesthetic, but as I headed out to the office this morning I could almost feel the flannel-soft quiet of no wind and the hush of not much traffic on 83, normally a constant running water sound outside our house. Then there was that mild depression that comes when Christmas lights are turned off, and in another flash of synesthesia I thought I could hear the gray blank landscape, the sound of something missing. As if in response to that, I did see some blinking colored lights, sitting behind some unfortunate commuter in Penbrook whose 2009 is not starting off well.

The holidays deserve more reportage than I'm going to give them in this post. I do want to thank the folks who joined Just Friends at the Sheraton Harrisburg-Hershey for our New Year's Eve party. Our attendance, like everyone's, was down but our spirits were up. We had a great time. Special thanks to Craig and Carrie (who's name I might be misspelling) and Mike and Karen (one of this blog's biggest fans -- hey girlfriend!) for their support and kind words. As I've said before, 2008 has been generally sucky, and it was good to bid good riddance to a bad year with such a good time. Stay tuned for next New Year's plans. Time marches on.

Also, a shout-out to my brother David who enjoyed only his third New Year's Eve off in 28 years. It was cool to watch him hit the cheese and veggies table, smiling like a guy on his day off. His band Leghorn did play at the casino New Year's Day night, with a new lineup. Chris Novak, one of the best keyboard players around, has joined Dave, Andy Alonso and Dave Brinkley. All killer, no filler. I'll try to give you a heads-up when they're at the Winners Circle next time. They sound better than ever. Don't go see them at the casino, though; it can cost you 20 bucks down the slot machine hole. It's not a bad venue for music: The stage is nice, the graphics on the ceiling are a guaranteed acid flashback if you're into such things, and the sound is pretty good and improving as Aaron the sound guy continues to fiddle with the levels. Just leave your wallet in the car.

Final serious point: This past year has left some real damage in its wake, and I'd ask you all to pray for each other and each other's families as they face the fallout and consequences of the last twelve months. Stay close to your people, and tell them you love them. It's important.

Apologies for the broken promise in the last post. Christmas was good in a lot of ways and I'll try to post about it later. In the meantime, here's one of my favorite images of the holiday:



I wonder how many Grateful Dead shows "Santa" saw.

Christmas Eve Eve...

... and we're still getting ready. I will do a full-fledged Christmas thingie sometime during the 12 days of Christmas, complete with picture of my tree and all the holly jolly you can eat. Meanwhile, the Work Fairy dinged me in the head with the West Shore water main break emergency hearing, and thereby paid for a lot of Christmas cheer. One man's soggy basement is another man's Troegs.

Still Watching The Wheels Go Round

Today is the 28th anniversary of two events I'll never forget: the death of John Lennon and the purchase of my first electric guitar, the Telecaster. I was on my way back from a hearing in Coatesville, planning to stop in Lancaster to pick up the Fender from Jeff Coleman's place, when I heard the news. It still seems unreal to me, senseless and sad, especially when I hear the song "Beautiful Boy." I still have that guitar, and I suppose the best I can do is keep trying to figure out how to play it.

Speaking of playing, it's back in the saddle again at the Dillsburg VFW this Saturday, then next week, the 19th, a rare Friday night at the Lawnton Legion. As always, anyone interested in getting into the Legion to see us can contact me and I can get you signed in.

Stir Crazy

As the 10th of December gets closer, I'm more than ready to get back on the move and be able to go somewhere without having "Mom drive me to the Mall," as I've been putting it. Last Thursday and Friday, I did some workers' comp hearings in Harrisburg. After three weeks plus of laying around in pajama pants, trying to decide whether to watch Robocop 3 or Ghost Rider again, it felt great to put on a suit and go be useful.

I'm expecting the doctor to tell me on the 10th that I can take off the sling and start easing into regular activity. Bill's wife Sandy, who had the same surgery I did, is back to driving, although exercises don't start for her until next week. It looks like this whole process from surgery to recovery is about 16 weeks, and I've got three and a half behind me.

Christmas is a-comin' and the pundits are getting nervous. Do you get the feeling that we have a civic duty to go spend money on crap, mostly made in China, to save our great nation's economy which was more or less date-raped by a gang of greedy corporations and bungling deciders? Again, maybe I've been watching too much TV, but at three in the morning on Black Friday I felt a little guilty for not going over to the mall and pushing someone out of the way to get my very own DVD of Robocop 3 or Ghost Rider for 87 cents (which is still twice what they're worth, trust me). Well, Christmas will come, and at some point we'll reconnect with its true meaning, which I'm pretty sure doesn't involve a made-for-TV movie starring Tom Arnold.

Since I was well enough to go to work this week, I have no excuse for not going to sing with the choir this Sunday morning, so I'm going to go start getting ready. Hopefully by next week I'll be able to play in church again. I'm planning to play with Just Friends next Saturday in Dillsburg. We'll see how that goes.

Break Time's Over...

... back on my head. (I never get tired of that punchline.) Thanksgiving holiday was a success, beginning with Thanksgiving Darts Wednesday evening, in which Greg Gerstner shot his first turkey:

We had the traditional spread and the traditional intrateam feuding, namecalling and file cabinet kicking (I handled that one).

Thanksgiving Day was also a blast, with Andie, Brian and Theo coming over for breakfast, to accommodate their dinner schedule, and then Mary, John and the boys coming to the turkey dinner later. Of course, I slipped into the traditional nod on the chair afterwards while they did the dishes.

I don't have pictures, but Friday evening Joreen and I went to the brewery to see Bill Nork playing with Soulgrass Freedom Junction, a local band with amazing harmonies. The show was great. I don't know about your chances of seeing them in the near future, because their female vocalist is really, really pregnant, like eight months' worth, so their schedule may be subject to change. They're really good, though, and it was good to hear Bill playing live.

And now, finally, today is my last day of goofing off. I have hearings tomorrow and Friday, and I honestly can't wait. I'm pushing it a little because I don't get out of the sling officially until Wednesday, but I really miss work. (There's a phrase I don't type too often!)