A New Approach

I put this sign on the door of my apartment today. I hope it works. I still can't find the room service menu.

The Little Things

Today was a banner day. I went, wait for it...grocery shopping. I know this probably seems like a non-event to you fancy-pants "homelifers", and it must pale in comparsion to stories of life with rock stars in faraway lands, but this is something I haven't done in months. My car is still up in Healdsburg where I keep it while I'm on tour, so all I have is my motorcycle which is not-so-great for the shopping. I've gotten bits and pieces at the local markets, but I've generally had no food in my apt. since I got home on Dec. 27th. The camel's back broke last night when I had to have cheese & Triscuits for dinner. I swear I eat better on tour. Where's my dressing room rider? What time does room service go till? So anyway, Lucas has his car out of storage so we went to Whole Foods and shopped. Holy mother of god what a nightmare. I can't imagine why a store this crowded and with tiny-assed aisles don't have those little mini shopping carts. I did what I thought was a pretty decent job of getting a variety of things to make so I can eat at home, as you do. It was the first time I've ever checked out of a Whole Foods and been surprised that it cost LESS than I expected. This gave me pause. My fears were realized when I arrived home, unpacked it all and realized that, while I have any number of options for breakfast, I still had nothing to eat for dinner other than a frozen pizza. You see, these are the things that I've forgotten how to do. I used to buy food and cook it. Now I can't even remember what I used to cook, let alone how to do it. Sure, I'm pretty comfortable navigating restaurants in any number of foreign lands and I can get from my hotel to the airport and onto a plane without even waking up all the way, but I'll be damned if I can remember how to wash a dish.

Global Cooling

It's gotten cold in SF. Not unusual for January but there is something strange about it being colder in California in January than it is in NY. I took advantage of the last warmish day with a ride up through Marin. It's gorgeous up there when the hills are green like they are now. It's usually brown from lack of rain but now it's more like spring.

Albert & Matt's new band played a couple shows at the Warfield opening for Incubus. Lucas, Lexi & I went down last night to check it out. They sounded great...big and tight. I was proud of my boys. We're heading to Vegas for the weekend so we'll get to catch up with them again there. It's supposed to be even colder in Vegas. All this weather madness has to be Al Gore's fault.

New Years Rockin Eve (Eve)

Despite threatening to boycott new years eve this year, I ended up having the best one since the infamous Radiance NYE in 2002. It started with a practice run on the 30th with The Flaming Lips/Gnarls Barkley/Cat Power at the Bill Graham Civic. Cat Power was really disappointing. She had gotten a new band that sounded like they'd been playing together for about 7 minutes. It was also one of the worst mixed shows I've heard in ages. Gnarls was good times and the Lips were brilliant. They did a big mothership style entrance and treated us to the usual Lips confetti & dancing santas/aliens madness plus a midnight countdown and balloon drop. Top notch entertainment for sure.

For NYE I decided last minute to go see My Morning Jacket at the Fillmore. Holy good god man. These guys were amazing and did a big Donner Party themed thing and a midnight balloon drop (that's 2 in as many days). They started 2007 with absolutely brilliant cover versions of Celebrate (Kool & The Gang), All Night Long (Lionel Richie) and Careless Whisper (George Michael). They were so much better than I expected though it did get a bit relentless for my tired old ass. We left as they were halfway thru their 4th straight hour. Good for them.
All in all it was a good end to 06 and a good start to 07. Now it's time to cobble together some sort of life before I turn 35 in 5 months.

(Photo courtesy of Dumb Nostalgia)