Wow. It’s been a while. Again. So here we go.

As usual, most of this is just a compilation of everything that’s gone on bookface or the tweeters. But we like to have it all put together in one place.

Let’s start off with the NO PARKING signs in our neighborhood that needed some sprucing up. Sadly, there was never any mention of it in our monthly neighborhood newsletter.

I worked with Munck Mix at Wanee again.

And then my parents came to visit us for Easter.

And we went to Disneyworld with them, thanks to Nate and Nanci. It was their first time there in FOREVER.

Then it was time for Jazz Fest again, again working with Munck Mix. Flava Flav played drums for a little while during Public Enemy’s set.

Jim McCormick and beatinpath with Susan Cowsill and John Gros.

Rodriguez, of Searching for Sugar Man fame.

Justin Butts follows the command of the sign (“Butts here please”) at the Threadhead Patry.

The return of the Lonesome Travelers – Stage It performance.

Christina Aguilera had a couch that no one else was allowed to sit on.

This wheelchair guy is really in a hurry.

And Nate became the newest member of the Rebirth Brass Band. If I’m not mistaken, it’s actually him featured on the Rebirth beer cans and taps.

Fast forward to June, and it was time for Rose to take her neurology boards in Nashville. I hung out with the Dukes of Hazzard while she took her test.

Then we met some creatures you’d expect to meet only in Nashville.

For my birthday we were going to see Kurt Braunohler as the last stop on his “Jet Ski for Goats” trip (you can read more about that, and until September 12 contribute to it, here). But the day before I planned to leave Nashville for NOLA, I saw that they were gonna be stopping at a place in Tennessee, and it happened to kinda be on the way home, so I stopped and saw the show there too, because it also featured Kyle Kinane, who wasn’t going to be at the New Orleans show.

Then for my birthday we saw Kurt and Kristen Schaal at One Eyed Jacks, and then went to the Plus One Show at the Hi Ho.

A few weeks later it was time again for Isle of Palms. I hadn’t been in like 3 years, and a handful of people were going, then more people were going, so it became a thing. A very fun thing.

This surprised turtle was on the wall behind me in the restaurant we ate at on our last day there. I decided to take a picture with it, with almost as much shock as he had.

Here’s the big ol’ group of us before we all left to go out separate ways like journey.

This house seriously looked like a crab.

Well. That about catches us up through most of June. I’ll post sooner next time, as a summary of the big trip we’re currently on.

It was a fun Fest. I was basically responsible for making sure the volunteers got everything set up right and didn’t screw anything up. I spent more time roaming from stage to stage than actually sitting and babysitting the recordings, which is awesome. Get to see a lot more. And lose a few pounds. And you’re paying me for this? Yes please! I worked at the fest Fri-Sun and then Thurs-Sun, I worked at Carrollton Station immediately following the fest on Fri, Sat, Sun, Wed, Thu, Sat, and on that second Thursday, I went from Fest to a gig at City Park to Station. In cased you missed all that in the tweetiverse.

Here are just a few highlights of the 112 pictures I put online of the 420 or so i took. The rest are at Photobucket. If you click on any to enlarge them, and you have a problem clicking the X to close it, you can either click anywhere outside the picture, or the x on your keyboard.

The Pyscho Sisters – Susan Cowsill and Vicki Peterson-Cowsill:

Cowboy Mouth (skip the next two pictures if you don’t like them or have an unpleasant history with them ;))

Eric Bolivar and George Porter, Jr. at the Threadhead Patry

Dr. John as Irma Thomas’s surprise guest at the Threadhead Patry

Kelcy Mae (She performed at our wedding rehearsal!)

Jim McCormick (he would’ve performed at our wedding rehearsal if he wasn’t writing hit songs in Nashville at the time!)

Paul Sanchez and The Rolling Road Show (most of these people were at and/or performed at our wedding rehearsal AND wedding!). This was my favorite set at Jazz Fest this year. All the special guests, everyone was genuinely having fun, and it reminded me of our wedding (2 years next Tuesday. Holy Crap!)

John Michael of MyNameIsJohnMichael with the Road Show:

Another one “Out of the Mouth,” Jonathan Pretus, now with The Breton Sound:

Supagroup:

Better Than Ezra:

This one, btw, is one of my favorite pictures that I took this year. Plus, (one of those guys played in the second line for our wedding)!

And, my final night show of this year’s Fest, Susan Cowsill’s Covered In Vinyl: The White Album (in case you haven’t noticed a theme by now, they played at our rehearsal and wedding too):

The Creole String Beans:

John Boutte singing with Boutte Family Sunday Praise in the Gosepel Tent. I didn’t get to go to mass that day, but I was somehow assigned the Gospel Tent and Sunday praise. YOU figure that one out.

Foo Fighters:

I left the fairgrounds around 8pm or so Sunday night, and headed to Carrollton Station for the end-of-fest crawfish boil. Had some crawfish and a couple of beers, and that’s when I realized just how exhausted I was, so I went home and passed out.

Four days later I would wake up and drive to Gainesville. (Ok, so I actually woke up monday and went to work thru wednesday, but I really wanted to wake up 4 days later.)

Apparently by saying something to the effect of, “I’m sick of all these cancer dogs, can’t we just get a weiner dog for a change?” (since weiner dogs are primarily back problem dogs and … i dunno … easier to fix and less sad than cancer cases), Rose made a bus of weiner dogs crash, because she had a surgery on Friday night, and 2 or 3 on Saturday. One of which I sat in on. Ok I didn’t sit in on it I just sat in the room and looked at the inside of the dog for like 20 seconds when Rose called me over to look. Then there were a few more the rest of the week. Be careful what you wish for!

Huxley figured out that he can somehow make it on top of the cabinets above the refrigerator. I think this is because he loves sun, and we now keep the office, where the most sun comes in, closed, due to the fact that we have a huge bean bag chair in there now that we don’t want the pets to overtake. Also, the patio is being kept closed because…well, I dunno why. But that’s his other spot. So he found this.

No, mom, don’t force snuggle me, or I’ll shoot you with my laser eye!

I got around to painting the tall kitchen walls (minus the very top, which we’ll need a larger ladder for). But it’s still better than the wallpaper, and better than just being primed.

There was a spot in the master bath that bubbled up, most likely because I did that before having the wallpaper steamer, and I get easily aggravated with stripping wallpaper in the pre-steamer times, and may not have gotten all the adhesive off the wall. So I stripped this little bit off and repainted it. I didn’t even mean for it to look like a demonic robotic chicken, it just turned out that way.

I decided to do something with the garden. I’d love to do a big overhaul, but we don’t want to spend oodles of money on that, so I just picked up all the leaves and spent $25 on mulch and 3 plants, and it made a world of difference. Light brown mulch as sort of a border, and dark brown in the rest of the garden.

Yellow Flowers:

Purple Flowers:

Pink Flowers. These were originally going to go closer to the yellow ones, but after setting them here temporarily, I realized that was a perfect place for them.

Well kids that’s all for now. After Covered In Vinyl on June 9, I’ll be headed to Florida on the 10th for the week. Rose will be “off” to work on her project, so I’ll hopefully see a lot more of her than I did this time. Maybe we’ll get the patio done this time. And, June 12, we’re headed to Orlando to see Childish Gambino at Hard Rock Live. SO excited. That’s my birthday present exactly a week after my birthday. 🙂

So here’s that long post I’ve been meaning to enter. Let’s see how long this takes me, and how many “save and come back later”s.

4:26pm, Monday, May 30.

I almost thought I wasn’t gonna do jazz fest this year, because I hadn’t heard back from my jazz fest live people. Turns out the guy I’ve been going through for the past 5 or whatever years is no longer with the company, and we’ll leave it at that. Finally someone who’s worked with them before got in touch with me at the last minute, got me some people to get in touch with, and all went well. I started out on the blues stage again, and eventually also ended up working a couple of shows on Congo, Acura, and Fais Do Do. As it turns out, there’s someone who works with them…begin gossip here…who, if I understand correctly, went away for a while because he didn’t want to work with the person who’s no longer with the company, and now that that person’s not there, he’s back. Well, apparently over the course of the 10-11 days or so, he ended up working some nerves on a few people. So, on the 2nd to last day, I’m asked how would I feel about taking that position next year… well, it’s a paid position, so it would be pretty sweet. It would involve some organizational skills and also still recording, so that would be great. I was also asked if I can do a live-recording mix…for shows where the cd is sold as soon as the show is over. Um, yeah. I’m not sure if this was solely referring to the small handful of shows that we do that for at the fest, or if it was referring to the other gigs they do elsewhere. It was at least 3am at Snake and Jake’s when that came up, so I’ll have to get some clarification. 😉

The jazz fest pictures are up on photobucket.

Now on to California. Quick note: you can click on any of the following pictures to get a bigger version. I got in around midnight on Friday the 13th. Got my rental car, found my hotel, figured out parking. It was downtown San Francisco, and it was kinda like staying in, or right on the edge of, the french quarter. But I don’t mind because I’m not too picky and will probably sleep through the apocalypse, so $40 a night was a sweet deal for that location. And I even got to hear a dude on a skateboard get hit by a cab! Oh he’s fine, or at least alive…

Saturday and Sunday were really nice, if not a bit cold at night. It was supposed to be raining and gross all weekend, but it held out til Rose got there, of course. Thankfully she did get there at least the day she was supposed to, after all the delays.

So yeah, Sunday. I walked 7.2 miles in thankfully nice weather. I was gonna wuss out if it was too cold and/or raining. But it wasn’t, so I did it, and it was loads of fun. Once again, weather faith won out over weather science.

One of my favorite random attractions? The skateboarding dog.

After the race, I headed to our hotel in Corte Madera and sat in the hot tub for a bit. On the way there, I snapped this photo:

Found out Rose was gonna be late, took a nap, and eventually went to pick her up. Back to the hotel, sleep, wake up Monday morning to go wine tasting. Rose, help me out with the names of the two places we went besides Coppola, which you can see here, in the form of me next to a ship.

Our favorite place we went was the next one. While there, the people to our right were from right around where Rose is in VA, and the people to our left were from Mandeville. Weird. We also liked the shape of the place.

We then went to one more, followed by In and Out burger (YUM), then back to the hotel. We were gonna go to an awesome tiki bar in SF, but the wine took effect and knocked us out for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, again cold and somewhat rainy, took us into San Francisco to do some sight-seeing and grab lunch before beginning the 6 hour drive to LA. We ran across a restaurant called “The Stinking Rose,” which is a garlic-based, or garlic-inspired, or something like that, place.

We got to our hotel, pulled up to the valet, and went inside to check in. Holy swanky, Batman. They had our reservation, but not that it was being paid for, so we straightened that up right away, and went up to our room. We went back downstairs to have a drink at the bar, walked around a tiny bit, and retired for the night. Oh yeah. Paris Hilton was having some kind of party there for the Oxygen Network. Johnny Rockets was having a convention there too.

Wednesday, thankfully, the weather cleared up, and we went to the Getty Museum.

We had lunch, checked it out, spent about 3 or so hours there, then headed back to the hotel, because we were going to a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Topher Grace and Adam Corolla were the guests. Christina Perri was the musical guest, but they actually taped her segment the week before.

The next day was practically the reason for the trip: The Hangover Part II premiere. We hung out during the day, took it relatively easy. Went to a mail place to do some work notary stuff for Rose, then went to a vintage clothing shop about a mile away, then headed back toward the hotel. We had lunch at Five 0 Four, as you can guess from the name, a New Orleans type place. Why? Because I can’t pass up andoille sausage. Or New Orleans food. Or Abita. And as far as I’m concerned, they did a pretty good job. I cleaned my plate, which I usually don’t do.

Time to take a break…4:59pm.

Ok. So I took a long break. It’s now Wednesday night at 11:00pm. I’m gonna break this blog into two parts, so you don’t have to read too much at once! There may only be 3.5 days left of the vacation, but they’re action-packed!

I’ll leave you with this cliffhanger:

Up next: The Hangover Part II premiere!

TO BE CONTINUED!!

Ha! Take THAT, Lost! I stole your series finale title!

As I told andre bohren last night, I’m sad it’s almost over, and I’m ecstatic that it’s almost over. I have one show today, luther kent, at 415. Will prob stick around for bb king for a while.

Haven’t seen m.c. He’s probably and hopefully filming happy town. Which I still have to watch. Or richie. Need to call them to get addresses to send invites. Speaking of which, deadline was yesterday and I know we don’t have all our rsvps yet. Whatup wit dat? I know ppl who are coming who haven’t officially said so. This week starts the pestering. Anyway, I haven’t been over to camp maggie as much, but I plan on heading over there today, if they even come. Poopy weather again. Come on, I have my poncho, it’s not supposed to rain!

U can tell who’s playin as I type this. Altho it’s been busy it’s been fun. I’m glad I could add teena marie to the jfl roster. Yes, it is ALL bc of me. It’s all about who u know, as always. I’ll try to fill in these posts next week.

Adam P, formerly cm sound guy, is teena marie’s monitor guy. That’s eddie, darin, reuben, and adam I’ve seen out here. Like drummers in spinal tap. Or bass players in cowboy mouth.

Significantly busier yesterday and today, as u can tell by lack of posts. Will try to fill in later. Ohio players just did roller coaster of love. Sweet.

Significantly more crowded and less phone signal too.

A little bit more excitement today, as we’re getting 3 shows in a row, starting w eric lindell, who played at the station last night.

I’m trading blues for congo square tomorrow. There are reasons other than shamarr, and it all goes back to old school hob. In the good old days, like 8 yrs ago or so.

That is, assuming it doesn’t rain out. 😛

I’d post a pic of them but I can’t get close enough to stage cuz too crowded. Yay!

Been emailing Bonerama’s Bret. At first I thought I could handle runnin from sketch at station to tips fq, but I really don’t think I’m gonna be able to. And I hate to tell him that. And the guy who does stuff at the station sometimes doesn’t think he can either. Maybe threadhead mark? But I doubt it. I feel bad tellin the guy I can’t do it, but its gonna be too hard to be in two places at once…

He reminds me of the elephant. And that’s not a fat joke, kids. I’m referring to that weird electrical tape mic getup he’s rockin.

Got to walk around quite a bit today. Only rec one show, Bernard Allison. Got to see most of Mark Miller’s set and the last two songs of Paul’s set. Now chillin blues traveller side stage w Rose cuz I was able to get her another daily blues stage artist backstage guest pass.

Krewe of maggie is here. No sign of richie or m c yet, just edie and smiley and tug boat dave. Got 2 more buttons/pins to add to my maggie flair. When I was gettin that they were givin a maggie name tag to a 6 yr old girl in thwe krewe. It’s her 7th jazz fest. Now that’s dedication!