And BOY do I need lotion!

It’s been a lovely week in the wild foothills of Tucson, Arizona, where I spent time playing guitar and eating rice crust pizzas. Seriously. Rice crust pizzas are awesome. I’ve come home to Los Angeles rested, refreshed and rejuvenated. Raring to go. Some people need to be around other people to get fortified; I definitely need to be alone…I was never a fan of Virginia Woolf’s writing, but she sure was right when she wrote about needing ” a room of one’s own” for creation. My parents’ empty house is definitely my room of my own. Few pics follow:

A room of one's own...

November in the desert...

These two seemed not to mind the guitar playing...

With all this loveliness, I have returned with something like a John Prine-y kind of spoken/sung song thing. Not too sure about it, but happy to have written nonetheless. Now it’s time to turn my mind to Thanksgiving pies! Also have some cool holiday shows coming up. Stay tuned for more on that.

love and kisses…

I was so happy. All through October we had lovely fall-like weather, culminating with a week of rain and pillowy, deeply textured rich gray clouds, seeming to wash the city and me in time for my birthday last Sunday. Ahhh, I thought. Everything’s okay. Another year has come around and I resisted the anxious urge to list my accomplishments, or perceived lack thereof, I made a really darn good cake, and I like getting older.

Then the Santa Anas came. Now it’s been blowing for 3 days and I’ve gone through 3 gallons of water, 3 tubes of chapstick, 3 bottles of Advil (okay, I exaggerate)– you get the idea. Santa Ana winds swirl all the dirt and gunk and smog and dryness East of our Los Angeles and hurl it all back into our sunning little positive faces, leaving us grimy and grumpy and oddly voodoo-ish. Just in time for Halloween!

But wait–my cake! Here’s a pic. All I have to do is remember how yummy it was and the sound of the wind dies down.

Wheat-free baby!

What else? Ah yes, I played a really fun show at Room 5 in Hollywood a couple weeks ago, and I’m going to do it again in another couple weeks with a full band. It will be great and rockin’ and we will work out hard enough to pre-digest all the upcoming Thanksgiving feasting!

This is me thinking, Gee I love what I do!

Which brings me to Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday. Aside from the whole exploiting the Native Americans thing, I can really get behind a holiday where we don’t give each other anything but a little hangover from a wonderful dinner–where it’s cool and not cheesy to go around the table and say a few things for which we’re thankful. Where we can eat as much pie as we want and amen and amen. So I practiced. Early. Got to get the pumpkin right!!

Are those pumpkins or basketballs?

In other news, in between applying chapstick and mainlining water, I am practicing to play at a birthday party for some of my favorite people up in the Bay Area this weekend. My nails are trimmed, my callouses are in shape, my strings are about to be changed, and the setlist is emerging. Might help stimulate the songwriting flow…All things in their time.

Wait-wait–did you hear that? The wind stopped!! Ahhhh.

Ahh, October…My birthday month and my favorite month of the year! Yes I’m probably biased, but the light changes and looks like honey, and sometimes it rains, the leaves change to molten colors–even here in LA–and society sanctions the baking of pumpkin pies. Which is pretty much the best thing ever. So it is that this October has thus far not disappointed…It’s been raining all week in West Hollywood and I’ve found myself on the couch watching the latest crop of fall television and sipping ginger tea. Heaven.

In other news, I drove up to the Bay Area last week to play a quick set in San Francisco. Big ups to the peeps who braved the downtown Giants crowd to find parking and watch my show! It was fun, it was moodlit, and the next day I took my puppy out to breakfast in “The Haight” and told him all about the hippies and the 60s. He was very interested. Here are a couple pics…

Haight-Ashbury! (Insert Grateful Dead song here.)

Pink Breakfast...That's me in the mirror: arty!

That’s it for now, kids…I’m off to practice a couple new tunes for my show here in Hollywood next week (Oct. 12th at 9 p.m. for you local folks). Go kick some leaves!

Holy moly! Some autumn–it’s 101 degrees at 1:01 p.m. Greetings from the oven formerly known as West Hollywood…

It’s all right, though–makes for a nice sauna in which to practice for my upcoming show in San Francisco! I’m really excited for this one: going to open up for my buddy Joey Ryan at Hotel Utah on Wednesday. San Francisco, ahh–land of fog and coolness, hills and traffic that rivals LA’s, good music and hippies and HOPEFULLY LOWER TEMPERATURES!

In the meantime, everything else is mostly under control. A few pics follow from my last show down here in the oven; had a wonderful time with the super-talented Danny Levin. Stay hydrated, kids…

Well kids, due to circumstances beyond control, I have to re-schedule my fall tour. I’m disappointed, but am really looking forward to re-booking and getting back up there! If you were planning on coming to my Oregon or Washington shows, my deepest apologies. However, if you were planning on coming to my Los Angeles or San Francisco shows, they’re still on! Hooray!

Once again, I’m sorry to cancel and I look forward to getting back up North very soon. Cheers…