Oh ... my ... Gawd ...

Two words: Zombie Kickball


This weekend in Portland, Maine - pre-party was last night, but there's still time to make it to the big event tomorrow afternoon (2pm) - just follow the smell of brains.

So long, George

Through my gig as valet to Chandler Travis, King of the World, I had the honor and pleasure to meet George Carlin. Chandler was kind enough to invite me along when he & Dinty opened for George several times over the last 4 or 5 years.

The first time I got to meet George, we were doing two shows in one night at the Cape Cod Melody Tent - we were introduced before we went on for the first show. I was heading out after our opening set for the second show and before he went on stage, George shook my hand, said "nice to meet you, Fred". Damn - he remembered my name. Also at that first gig, when we were eating a quick dinner between shows, George said something alliterative and then repeated it to himself, mulling over the way the words ran together - I imagine that if he liked the way it sounded, he would write it in his notebook or something, saving it for a later day. It was cool to see that his mind was always working, always looking for potential new material.

The last time we opened for George, at the end of the night, he hugged Chandler goodbye, hugged Dinty goodbye, then shook my hand and said something along the lines of "you're still kind of new - but next time, you get a hug"

Here's a video clip of George talking about death - this is fairly recent, and I remember seeing him do this stretch of material at some of the gigs where we opened for him.

update: Chandler wrote a piece about George for local Cape Cod weekly newspaper The Cape Codder. It's a remembrance of George unlike most others you're going to find on the good ol' world wide interweb. We have it up on the SonicTrout site in the Kelp on Kape section. Here's a direct link to the piece.

update zwei: Bill O'Neill, Lifestyles Editor and Music Reviewer for the Cape Cod Times, has a little online remembrance of George which includes a great quote from Chandler, circa 1999: "Here's a simplification of what I appreciate about George C: how much he produces, how little he panders, and what a fine friend he has been."

Friends

Tomorrow is the 46th anniversary of my birth. Today, a whole bunch of friends came over and helped out with a bunch of chores and projects around the house and yard that I've been putting off for far too long - taking newspapers and boxes to recycling, putting up my new mailbox, some yard cleanup ... oh, and they washed & waxed my car, too! Ms Greentwig organized the whole shebang - I had no clue until she showed up this morning.

Various friends brought me flowers (ladies, I'm here to tell you that there are many of us guys who love to get flowers from time to time ... of course, I like to give flowers, too):

and cupcakes (mmm ... chocolate, with a white sugar frosting, each with a simple yet lovely garnish of a blueberry and a mint leaf):

and fresh eggs (yes ... three different colors ... white, brown ... and green! I'm told that Prudence is the layer of the green eggs):

Oh, and the other day, Chef Tony gave me a jar of his ancho chili and coffee rub that he uses on the steaks at Terra Luna. Also on Sunday, MDF Linda & I went gallery shopping before going to da coma and she got me these really cool tiles made by Ed & Kate Coleman.

Tonight, a bunch of us are going out for Thai food at the fairly new place in Orleans. I'm hoping to convince some group to go out for breakfast/brunch tomorrow at either Grumpy's in Dennis or Bonatt's in Harwich ... I want me some birfday bacon & eggs!

I have some of the best friends in the whole freakin' world. I hope you all know that I don't take you for granted ... not one bit.

post-dinner update: Chandler swung by the house as I was getting ready to head out to dinner. He couldn't make it to dinner, but he asked if he could take me out for a cocktail on the way ... I had my first and second Irish Car Bombs tonight ... mmm ... tasty.