Kelowna, BC is absolutely beautiful. It's a lakeside town... Gracie and I arrived yesterday afternoon after a series of kachina doll airplanes - one smaller than the last - until we arrived at this orchard-laden place. I was exhausted after my long weekend in DC. We set out to look at the bus, which is a large RV and is making my 12-year-old very happy, then went off in search of food and a beer. After said beer, I collapsed in the hotel room for many hours. We transferred to the bus late in the morning. I'm sitting in the front with Heath, our lighting director, who is feeding me news headline commentary, while Gracie twitches her DS nearby. All is well.

Another One Rides the Bus

Gracie and I are off for about a five hour travel day. We are catching up with the Video Games Live western Canada bus tour. This is a new venture for us. Dweezil Zappa gave Jack some bus tour advice last week when they were doing some work together. Of all people, he should know the ropes! Wish us luck...

Pinging today!

Why We Take Them Back

Who better to assuage the pain than the one who caused it?

All's Well

So, in the 90s I was in a band, 2.5D. It was a great band, full of odd meters and sophisticated harmonic passages, and had a conceptual premise fueling it -- Video Games meet Music. The idea rested on an engine I developed that enabled designers to create highly emotional characters based upon Jungian archetypes. The onscreen characters would interact with a user over time, and would reveal new music, and the music's emotional origins, based upon the user's level of intimacy with the onscreen character. (I was a game developer back in the day...)

2.5D got pretty far, considering how hard it is to do anything in the music business. We had a development deal with Capitol Records, a large following in NYC, and a pretty slamming demo exhibiting the concept that got noticed by Wired Magazine, Peter Gabriel, and Gary Gersh.

As a vocalist, 2.5D was a great medium. I got to sing rock and roll, but also had opportunities to use other types of voices as well, from ethnic to jazz to opera. One of the things I loved the most was the vocal workout that I got at every rehearsal and gig.

Cut to, well, now -- I haven't been in that band since 1995, and have been completely out of technology since around 2001. I never ever thought I would return to either the music performance world, nor the world of games. I'm now singing in Video Games Live -- a concert of music from Video Games. The ultimate Video-Games-Meet-Music forum. It's not what I envisioned in the 90s, but it still meets all the central criteria I was after: video games/technology, music, multimedia, touring, wild audiences, operatic, rock and ethnic singing, and family.

Not sure how this life arc happened, but I'm pretty happy about it!

Past Present

The New York show is coming up. I'm singing a big piece for it. Not big in the sense that it's a grand show-stopper, nor in the sense that it's terrifically long, it's just a bombastic, wonderful, if a little high, piece.

My high school choir master and theory teacher is coming. He was a major influence in my musical life, and in my thinking style in general.

My friend Maggie from my early days in New York will be there. My friend Jack will be there. Not that Jack. Another Jack. He's a smashing musician, and I'm so looking forward to seeing him. My friend Brian from the really old, pre-New York days will be there. It's some pressure, but will be a great party...

Passover is coming up, and I'm hosting this year. I'm taking a culinary detour and making baked black cod (in addition to the de rigeur gefilte fish and brisket). I found an amazing and simple recipe for baked black cod that rivals the best that we've had in restaurants.

This Sunday, Carter gets his Hebrew name. I've been working fevorishly on the service and the program, and I'm pretty excited to get the programs printed out.

I've gotten in touch with a lot of people whom I haven't seen nor talked to in a while. This has been satisfying.

All in all, things are great. Utah was incredible. Great shows, and the best skiing of my life.

See, Cathy?

I'm showing Cathy some bloggy stuff, and treating all of my many many readers to pictures of my nieces and nephew! Enjoy, everybody!