Last night my friend
Krissy and I got a taste of the L.A. music scene… And it left me wanting more of it!
THE GOOD
Tony Lucca: Ever heard of
him? He’s a very talented singer-songwriter who is
great to watch perform live. He doesn’t always play with them, but his band last night (bass player, electric guitar player, and drummer) was all in sync with everything he did – grooving, swaying, bouncing, rocking. They were VERY entertaining! As we were watching him, I was curious what his face would actually look like – unobscured by his thick-rimmed glasses, full beard, and newsboy cap.
When I was reading
his bio online later, I realized I had seen him before – on the Mickey Mouse Club! He was one of the older mouseketeers – then clean-shaven with gelled hair. [Jon said that’s probably why he’s trying to look so different now.] :) He’ll be playing at the Hotel Café venue for the next three Saturday nights, if anyone’s interested!
THE BADThe guy who went after him was visibly less talented as a performer. His voice and guitar skills weren’t bad, and Krissy even commented that we might think he was good, sight-unseen. But his sight WAS seen, and it was awkward if you made eye contact with him. It was like he rehearsed his playing expressions in the mirror… He thinks:
Now I’ll do my sexy face and strum. Krissy pointed out when he was making weird eyes at me (small venue), but I pointed out when he was making the same weird eyes at one of the guys in our group, too! [Steven said it made him uncomfortable. Ha!]
THE RANDOM
After leaving Hotel Café, we were quickly circling the corner (in the rain) to walk past several busy clubs**. We hurried by someone I recognized as an actor, but couldn’t place or name him. Later the name “Josh” sounded right, so I browsed around the imdb site until I remembered. His character’s name was “Josh” when he was Rachel’s boyfriend on “Friends”. His real name is
Tate Donovan.
Of course, he was obscure enough that I was the only one who recognized him… Because I’m weird like that.
THE BLINGSo, our hook up for the concert and the parking (we didn’t have to pay because we parked in his office lot, which is a life-saver in Hollywood) was one of Krissy’s friends from her church… who happens to work for
Diane Warren. While her name may not ring remembrance to many of you, her songs will. Do a quick skim of all the songs she’s written on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Warren.
She’s worth about $600 million dollars for all the successful songs she’s written. And she only gets richer with all their airplay, movie showings, and remixes. Needless to say, her office (i.e. the eighth floor of a tall building overlooking Los Angeles) was amazing – every wall had a gold or silver album, a nomination certificate, or a photo with her and a celebrity. She had four baby grand pianos throughout the offices and lounges, and in her demo room is a Grammy she won… Krissy and I giddily touched it!
**I’m sorry, but, wearing a tiny cocktail dress and standing in a long line in cold rain just to get into an overrated expensive club isn’t my idea of fun. But L.A. is full of those scenes.
Well, Earl started having some health issues. We tried about four different "tank" situations - first just a round bowl, then a fancy filtered set-up tank, then a large hurricane glass, then just a shallow glass bowl. He would get sick, we'd remove him from the tank and thoroughly clean it, and continue to medicate him in a shallow plastic tupperware. He'd recover, and we'd put him into a pre-medicated tank. He'd inevitably get sick again, and we'd repeat the process. His final "tank" was the shallow glass bowl, as it seemed to most closely mimic his environment in the plasticware in which he best recuperated.
