Yea... that's me in all my glory upon my return from last weekend's extended vacation in Newport, RI. As I finally think I'm gonna link together more than 3 hours of sleep tonight, I thought I could share my little debacle here and laugh about it instead of weeping or wincing.

As I began to mention, Andrea and I took a trip down Newport last weekend in celebration of her "twenty-something-th" birthday. (Never tell a ladies' age, right? I'm not stupid.) Although there was little to no sunshine at the start, we still had a great time tooling around the city and its sites, eating fine meals of seafood and even catching Clerks II on Saturday night. (Good flick for those into Kevin Smith's movies, by the way. Not as good as the original, but did you really expect it to be?) Starting to get kinda bummed that we weren't gonna have any decent beach weather while we were there, Monday came along and proved us wrong when it turned to the 70s and sunny... perfect! Both of us were really looking forward to hitting the shore while we were down there and we arrived at Easton's Beach bright and early that morning.

Well, as it turns out I guess we enjoyed it a bit TOO much... or at least I did. It's my own fault really. "Sunblock? Who needs sunblock? I worked down at Penfield for four summers straight without a drop of the stuff." 'Course that was ump-teen years ago and I guess a combination of time and indoor computer work has rendered my skin to that of a 5 year old Irish girl with Albinism. The funny thing is it took a lot for us to motivate off that sand. Neither of us had looked like we'd gotten that much color and when were we gonna be able to do this again? Good thing we had to grab some grub and do a bit of shopping before we hit the road. Who knows what woulda happened if we stayed the rest of the afternoon. I probably woulda caught fire.

Anyway, to end this story we arrived back in Somerville later on that evening and quickly realized we were in trouble when both of us were just about as red as the Polish flag I have hanging up in my room. Joel came by about an hour or so later, who joined Shaun in chants of ROCK LOBSTAH! directed our way. And, of course, he snapped a few pics for nostalgia's sake.

Needless to say, it's been a painful week. You know what the messed up thing is? That photo up there isn't doctored at all! Just shrunk down to fit the design. Eeek. And I'm supposed to be fishing and/or wakeboarding with my Dad for his birthday on Saturday. I think I'm gonna wear an overcoat.

In any case, I guess the moral of this story is...

"Kids... make sure you bring your BullFrog to the beach this weekend!
Mr. Sun doesn't like you and he's lookin' to show you how much!"

posted: 07.20.06

I was originally gonna include this in my last post, but as my story about hangin' with Les took so long to tell I figured I'd make a new entry here.

I recently caught up with an old friend named Chris Hanson a few weeks ago as we were both in Fairfield to witness Dylan Connor get hitched. Not only was it pretty wild to see one of my oldest friends take his first steps into wedded bliss, but it was also crazy to catch up with Hanson himself since he's one of the only "old-timers" that I hadn't actually seen in person since high school graduation 13 years ago. (Geez... has it really been that long?) An awesome weekend was had by all... drinking beers until the wee hours of the morning at my old crash-pad, the M. Hotel, and attending Dyl and Reem's stellar wedding ceremony the following day.

Anyway, I'm already going off course here. As some of you already know, Hanson's been out in San Francisco working in the interactive scene for some time now and on the side (trying to make IT the full-time thing) playing bass in a pretty kick-ass power pop-rock outfit named Go Kart Go. I first got a hold of the sophomore effort entitled The Ninth Floor a few years back and was floored as to how solid and catchy the tunes were... definitely radio-ready and I wouldn't have been surprised if it took 'em to the next level. Unfortunately though, the band was hit with some hard times during the past year starting with when their lead singer Eric Anderson was diagnosed with esophageal cancer last August. I recently found out that Eric lost his battle and passed on just a few short weeks ago.

Now, sadly, I never had the pleasure of meeting Eric or got to attend one of the band's live shows... but I certainly know his/their music. And the reason I'm writing this whole thing here is to get YOU to know it. Once your done reading this, go check out their site at www.gokartgo.com. Tool around, listen to their latest song "Black Summer" and if you dig what you hear... purchase an album or three at iTunes. Trust me, you won't regret it. These guys rock.

Make sure you sign up for the mailing list as well, which'll keep you on top of when their new album is released. All sales of the new album will be donated to cancer research, so you'd be doing a good thing by purchasing that one in addition to buying some fine, fine tunes!

NOTE: If you are interested in buying The Ninth Floor, I'd wait until July 31st. I tried to download it earlier this week and found out "(You're So) Anxious" had a skip in it. They (Apple) told me they'd be uploading a new version which should take hold in about two weeks.

Oh... one last thing, off topic. As you may have already noticed, the contact form is back up. Just click on the phone if ya wanna give me a shout!

posted: 07.17.06

Man... what a trip! I met the one and only Les Claypool today. It was seriously surreal, especially the "meeting" part... but I'll get more into that after I blabber on a bit here.

For those of you who don't know, Les is a multi-talented musician/artist who's probably best known for his electric bass skills in a band called Primus. Touted by some as the best rock bassist of all-time, Les' brand of funky improvisational bass rhythms and bizarre lyrical content has no doubt had a major influence on the music scene as we know it today. I can go on and on about this dude as he's been involved in so much over the past 20-odd years, but his entry at Wiki would probably do a better job at it. So check it out if you like.

Anyway, Les was in town tonight to play a show at the Avalon in support of his new solo album. But before he headed over to his gig, he made an appearance just down the street here at Porter Square Books. Seems in addition to the new album, Les finally got his book South Of The Pumphouse published and out to the masses after 10 years in the making. So... being the fans we are, my roommate Shaun and I finished up our work early this afternoon and headed on down for the book signing.

The tiny bookstore was fairly packed with all types... from the regular bookworms to aspiring kid musicians to flat-out metal heads to obvious groupie chicks. Les came out at around 6, read a chapter from his book (which is pretty funny, but also can be fairly vulgar at times.. so be forewarned), had a QA session that lasted about an hour and then had the signing. Les was very cool and pretty much what I expected. Down to earth, intelligent in his views about life and art and most importantly a fantastic wiseass.

I lined up with the rest of the cattle to get our merchandise signed, also bringing along with me my CD cover of Sailing The Seas Of Cheese. Shaun and I discussed in line about whether or not I should get it signed as it may be kinda raining on his parade since he and the band put it out so long ago and may wanna move past it. But, after seeing some dude in line hand Les two posters I figured my 5x5 inch album cover was nothing.

So... here's the surreal part. I'm standing in line thinking about what I'm gonna say, but not really sweating it too much. After all, I am 31... way past the point of celebrity awe. And those of you who know me can tell you, I can pretty much schmooze with anyone without getting too rattled. All I was really thinking about was shaking the dude's hand, telling him I've been a huge fan of his work since I was 15 when a friend of mine handed me Frizzle Fry, take a picture, thank him and be outta there.

Well, here's the problem. Somehow as soon as the guy in front of me was finished getting his stuff signed, I reverted to that teenager. Most likely it was set off by Les himself when as I extended my hand for the shake, he shouts out POTATO! and starts doing a fist-bang thing... which I proceeded to screw up. (Looking back on it now, it makes sense that he did this as he probably doesn't want the potential crazy fan screwing with his hands and, in essence, his livelihood.) Anyway, this game of potato completely throws me off and I can no longer utter a complete sentence. I think I said something like "right-on" during the game, "uhhhh... big fan from way back" as he was signing the book, "is this cool?" as he finished signing and spied the album cover (to which he replied that it wasn't a problem), and most likely "thanks" as I walked away. Oh... and I forgot to ask him to look up at Shaun for the picture (as you can tell above).

BAH! I busted out laughing as I walked outta the bookstore with Shaun. That's some funny stuff. I was completely fine and then BAM!... somehow I turn into a pimply faced kid with self-esteem issues who's so psyched to be in the presence of coolness. Pressure got to me, I guess. If you think about it, that's hard to do though. How do you... in no more than 10 seconds... briefly explain to someone you've never met in person that he's one of your rock heroes and a major influence on what you've grown to appreciate in music? Or that he's an integral part in what Dick Clark calls "The Soundtrack Of Your Life"?

You woulda been able to do it without a problem? No big deal?

Fine... whatever... I never said I was cool anyway.

posted: 07.05.06

So, I've got this friend... let's call him "Rerun". He's not a hefty, red berret-wearing dance machine. No... the only reason he's named that is because he's the kinda guy that REALLY enjoys telling you things that it seems a million other folks have already informed you of. (By the way... did you know Fred Berry legally changed his middle name to "Rerun" at one point before he died? Seriously... check it out! Man... that's fantastic.)

Anyway, here's what "Rerun" writes me the other day...

"Hi buddy. This website is pretty lame. As far as websites go, I prefer Google maps. True dat... double true! You should go buy one of those "caution: genius at work" signs and put it up in place of this weak htmlameness. Just a thought. No, I kid. Come on man. Don't cry. Wipe those tears away. This site is awesome. I put the "me" in awesome, because without "me", it's really just aweso...and that makes no sense."

Now "Rerun" here is obviously...

A) a bored jerk who scours the internet looking for reasons to bust on his friends and/or enemies
B) is completely drunk and/or has lost his mind
C) completely spot-on in that this website has totally lost its edge (assuming it ever had one)

Well, folks... I know this "Rerun" pretty well and I have to say A isn't true, B's a possibility... but C seems to be, unfortunately, the correct answer. He's not the first one to tell me the site here needs updating (hence the name "Rerun") and I figured why not take some of my time off during the past few days to give it a fresh look.

And with that, I give ya timgiordano.com 2006... dedicated to my good friend "Rerun" who motivated me to reach for the stars.

"Rerun"... your AWESO!