Jazz Night at the Villa Capri

The best thing about playing a great Italian restaurant like the Villa Capri is the pizza appetizers

...and Darwin, Sophia and Malachi!

We're up front, with Malachi crammed into the corner just like a real jazz musician.

Darwin digs into his strings -

This was one of the best gigs we've played yet. We practiced two sets, but then we had to stretch our first 45 minute set into 1 hour and 15 minutes. So we played 3 songs in the first 30 minutes!!!!

Thanks to our friend Val 
at the Villa Capri Restaurant!

We love playing for you!

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Sophia and Max Record a CD

Sophia and I just recorded a quick professional demo CD of her favorite songs. 

I did the acoustic and electric guitar work with her, but some of the recordings were of Sophia singing and playing on a giant Yamaha grand piano. It sounds AMAZING. The recording and mixing engineer says that he's never recorded anyone singing so well, let alone playing such perfect and full piano at the same time! He actually gave us an extra hour for free because he wanted to go the extra mile doing a really precision job on the mix.

This was a huge amount of fun. It was sort of scary how professional it all was! We usually did two takes of each song and the engineer did almost no editing, he just selected his favorite take and bumped up the levels as needed. It was easy.

Here's the CD cover:

Another version -

And pics of Sophia in the studio:

Thanks to everyone involved in this project! 

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Heavy Metal Version of the My Little Pony Theme Song

Here it is. My Little Pony done as a HEAVY METAL SONG!!!!

Going back to practice the gypsy jazz version of Spongebob Squarepants now...

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Psychedelic Posters of the 1960's

Love these posters!!!!

...AND LOOK AT THIS ONE!!!! It's a poster for Mitt's dad 

George Romney running for the 1968 Republican nomination! 

He didn't get it because he OPPOSED the Vietnam war! 

We want Romney in '68!

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Christmas Performance at Ronald McDonald House

Sandi, entertainment director of RMcDH asked us to play at their big year-end dinner they host at Ronald McDonald House here in San Diego. We said YES, ripped out the Christmas music books and practiced!

I'm making sure I know how to play Hark The Herald Angels Sing on guitar:

Th

Thanks to Sandi at Ronald McDonald House!

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City Of San Diego Eliminates Entertainment Fees For Restaurants

The City Council of San Diego just removed the restaurant entertainment fee.

This means that restaurants or eating/drinking places that close by 11:00pm do NOT have to pay entertainment fees to the city anymore. Restaurants were paying the same price as bars and nightclubs - about $3900 per year to the police department, believe it or not, for a city permit to play music while people dined.

This means we can now play live music in ANY restaurant in San Diego. They don't have to fill out any forms or pay fees. They just pay us and everybody's happy!

This all happened when the entertainment fee was pointed out to be a ridiculous expense and killing most live music performances; the City Council listened and just did away with the fee. It's part of a greater effort by the council and especially council member Carl DeMaio to promote San Diego's job opportunities and eliminate red tape.

A second meeting is planned to officially approve the decision, then there will be a 30-day period before the permit exemption is enacted. It will undergo a 1 year trial period before it becomes permanent.

Councilmen involved (click to view) with this decision are:
Carl DeMaio

 Kevin Faulconer

President Tony Young

THANK YOU GUYS!

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Melvis (Mormon Elvis) Visits Us At Halloween!

Melvis came to visit this Halloween. He's a member of the Church of the Latter Day Elvises. He takes two years off of his life to bike door to door with his guitar, singing songs to the people!

Here's to Melvis, Halloween candy, bicycles, and The Book of Elvis!

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