There are two major rites of passage associated with the Christmas season, both of which involve the initiation into the world of adult cynicism. The first, of course, is the day you find out (SPOILER ALERT!) that there is no Santa Claus, ( though I imagine 4-year-olds are digging up that info on their iPads these days. ) Less remarked upon, however, is the second: Your sudden realization, late in an annual viewing of It’s A Wonderful Life , that this venerable holiday classic isn’t as …

Ok so every year around this time, people start making their Best of list(s) which can be entertaining or completely unneccesary depending. I like to have fun with it and its a bit of a thrill to look back and see what provided my soundtrack for the year. I disclaim that these are/are not arguably the best records to have come out this year ( and some were even released late 2010 ) but these are the albums that shaped my 2011: I had to expand to a Top 15 as an indication that it was a very good year for …

This was a weird month

OK shit just got real   Shells - Trash Bar - July 3rd - Brooklyn, NY   this was cool   Fourth of July Cruise - July 4th - New York, NY   this was amazing     Not to mention the view     July 5th   Diego Garcia @ Apple Store Soho  TCQ movie   Fuerza Bruta - That Theatre - July 7th - NYC   This was incredible   (later that night) Questlove's Bowl Train - Brooklyn Bowl - July 7th - Brooklyn, NY    such a fun night   …

Ok so business was picking up in June Wildstreet - The Rail Club - June 10th - Fort Worth, TX   Continuing with the recent trend of catching up with the bands that played our SXSW event in March, our friends back in NYC, Wildstreet were in town tonight and we had planned to meet up and talk about future business. They had a show tonight at my buddy Warren's new place, The Rail Club. It was actually not back in NYC, but at Warren's old place, where I first got to know these guys. Jonny the …

So after returning from California after having somehow the best/worst month of my life simultaneously, I was happy to be home and to get a break. I knew I had alot to assess and to think about. My professional life was thriving, but I was having some serious concerns regarding my relationship after the darkness that covered the Los Angeles trip.    The car accident - May 3rd  I flew to Texas from California on my way to NYC to stop in and see my Mom for a few days. I ended up …

Ok so, still alot more to cover on this trip if you can believe it.  We were there for only two weeks and yet seemed to live a lifetime. Seriously, I had something huge and awesome and worth the trip to do, every single day. I hustle hard, but even for me, to line all this up and hit it hard so consistently was truly awesome. So I wanted to do a day-by-day blow-by-blow account of some of the other events that weren't as high-profile but certainly worth mentioning, and ending with a global …

this was awsesomeI had the opportunity to see one of the pioneers of American heavy metal in one of the country’s premiere outdoor venues – four times over. For one day, Indio, California became the center of the metal world as the Big 4 Festival materilized for its one and only time in the United States with a blockbuster bill that featured Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica. Four bands that came to life all around the same time- 30 years ago- and built careers defining a genre through …

---Epilogue ---   So this is in no means to impugn mine or anyone else's experience, but I thought it might be fun (and comprehensive, being a completest is one of my many curses) to take a look at the shows as a whole and pick out some other special moments and see which shows truly got the luck of the draw. I'm sure if I went to any of these shows and it was the only one I saw I would still say it was the best show of my life. So let's go in order here: Show #1 - April 14th - The Forum - Los …

OK so it has taken me eight long months to have the time to sit down and give his Royal Badness the proper comprehensive overture and also to get my freaking head around what I saw, and the fact that I saw it five times! A week with Prince, what a dream come true, something that I thought would never happen. So it's eight months later, you have seen all the pictures, read all the setlists, know all or most of the surprises and read a million reviews. What I want to accomplish here, it to give you a …