Aloha.

Just thought I pop in and post a quick update lest people start thinking I've closed up shop here for good.

If you've been wondering about the dearth of posts here, I've been super busy. My workload doubled at the beginning of May when one of our instructors was laid off and pretty much his entire course development and training schedule got dumped on top of my already formidable list of duties.

In addition, we're doing some major remodeling on my house which is consuming most of what's left of my free time. We've got a small army of contractors finishing our basement and getting ready to start on a project near and dear to my heart...a home tiki bar...so I'm very busy drawing up plans and looking at catalogs, trying to find split bamboo wallcoverings, puffer-fish lamps, and a couple of giant moai to guard the entrance.

It hasn't all been work though. Last Saturday we attended a live radio broadcast of Michael Feldman's Whad'ya Know? at our downtown regional arts center. Having been a minor radio personality myself back in the day, I really enjoyed watching a professional crew at work. Michael was in rare form and had a bevy of great guests like local author, Mike Perry, who spun us a harrowing and hilarious yarn about passing a kidney stone in a hotel bathroom.

Next Tuesday I'll be taking a brief vacation to visit friends and relatives in Los Angeles. I'm meeting Michele, Pooch, and Alice at the Tiki Ti for cocktails on Wednesday night, then I'll hang out with Eddie and Lili on Thursday and have a few Margaritas at El Carmen. On Friday afternoon I'm going to be taking a VIP tour of the Paramount lot in a little golf cart, then I'll have a few more cocktails with X-8 later that evening.

On Saturday, I plan to sober up before flying home on Sunday morning.

Aloha

Posted by MrBaliHai at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Dean Sabatino passed me a musical-meme baton, and since I'm such a swell guy, I decided to return briefly from my hiatus to run the next leg of the relay. Unfortunately, events in my life right now have not tapered off to the point where I feel comfortable resuming my former blogging duties, so this will be it for a couple more weeks yet.

The volume of music on my computer:

My computer goes to 11...Oh, you meant volume as in how many megabytes. Not much. I don't own an iPod and I have mixed feelings about downloading mp3s. I rip the occasional CD to make comps, but don't leave anything on my hard drive when I'm done.

Song playing right now:

I'm So Free, by Lou Reed. I recently rediscovered "Transformer" and am really enjoying the combination of Lou's upbeat, poppy tunage along with Mick Ronson's always stellar guitar playing. I'm also listening to these snippets of Metal Machine Music, and trying to decide if I want to buy the CD. I used to absolutely loathe this album, but I kinda like the weird droning ambience of it nowadays.

The last CD I bought was:

The Memphis Soul comp that was glued to the front cover of the May issue of Mojo. I'm totally groovin' to those greasy horn sections and jiggy bass lines. Don Varner is quite possibly the greatest undiscovered soul singer of all time.

Five songs that mean a lot to me:

1) Blitzkrieg Bop, the Ramones - it changed my world forever.
2) Strange Days, the Doors - off the first record I ever bought. I listened to this 'til I wore out the groove.
3) All the Way From Memphis, Mott the Hoople - I was into glam before I was into punk, and this song is one of the best examples of the genre.
4) Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie - what can I say? Some of the most evocative lyrics and guitar licks ever recorded.
5) Thunderball, Tom Jones - I don't care what anybody says, Tom is a god...A GOD...and John Barry's music underneath that voice...I wet myself just thinking about it.

Person who is getting this baton from me:

Sebastian

Back to lurking now.

Posted by MrBaliHai at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)