That was the week, that was, time-shifting wildly now under daylight's savings, dunno where to begin except at the beginning jetted west out of the ice age descending over Manhattan last sunday and suddenly everything opened up under bloody red sun of fantastic LA's shimmering dreamscape, to find myself there once again in an eterbak ricorso this time in the excellent company of my friend Chris Cornell...Chris is one of the most gifted gracious souls I've ever encountered in this bizness of music, and blessed with one of THE best voices in rock ( really, why not just say it, guy's a damn good soul singer)...and with the great Steve Lillywhite at the production helm how the heck could I not have played my heart out for these gentlemen, on the occasion of Chris's new solo album...NRG Studios in Burbank is where Chris's album was 'aborning and hey they threw me into the epicenter of the whirlwind-- cold-- never heard these tracks before--and I rode with it, and then some, audio slaving over a hot amplifier for 3 days, vibes were so warm there music so fresh and piping hot it inspired some of my best playing ever, no lie :-)...studio was about the sweetest most comfortable recording joint you could ask for, drove up there to Burbank monday monday, bright and early, where some 24 years ago at Amigo Studios down the road apiece I had made tracks with Beefheart and the boys for the "Ice Cream for Crow" album, so the landscape was subtly familiar (specially that fearsome excavation on Magnolia Boulevard)...the three days passed so quickly with such intense bursts of creative playing/recording/catching the wave, was up to my ears in music pretty much 24/7 with time out for but a few hours sleep each night. which left me happy and pleasantly exhausted (I dig working hard on things I love)-- had one evening off only which I spent with my old pal Mr. LA Law, Harry Hamelin, who treated me to Katsuya (Howie Klein's favorite sushi joint on Ventura Blvd.--Harry's coming east soon with his wife Lisa Rinna by the way as the 2 new principal leads in "Chicago" here on Broadway)...3 days playing on all 12 of Chris's new tracks and the music is still whirling around my head, want to say thank you thank you thank you also to studio crew guys Todd Parker and Dave Colvin whose engineering skills really helped make these sessions go smoothly...there was only one tense moment when Chris arrived there on Tuesday shaken and stirred (okay, couldn't resist this, as Chris is singing the theme from the upcoming new Bond film "Casino Royale) having nearly avoided a fatal collision with a truck-- but thankfully, mirabile dictu, the guy's okay (though his chopper was totalled)...Kismet time again, as at the airport as I was walking to my gate, I heard a familiar voice sing out "Gaaaaaaaaary!"--and lo and behold it was my old pal/ former Yale partner in crime in filmes cinefantastique the actor Bill Moseley, who was there to cath an earlier flight east with the guy who played Buffy the Vampire's malefic nemesis, both of 'em way on the way to work the crowds at the Chiller Theater Horror Convention held annually right about now (ie Halloweeen) in the Jersey Meadowlands (its really a great horror/sci-fi confab--met the luscious Barbara Steele there in '94 holding court with her amanuensis Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog magazine--hi Tim!--but that's another story)--this chance meeting with Bill was a real surprise as I had actually spoken to him on the phone when I arrived in LA where he lives, but didnt see how we would be able to hook up...somehow, it got arranged!....

Recovered, sort of, back in NYC on Thursday, and then, after a fiery rehearsal with Gods and Monsters on Friday headed up to the partially renovated, impressive and imposing Bohemian National Home on East 73rd Street (I am of Bohemian ancestry on my father's side) for a party celebrating Czech National Day, where I hung with my good friend Ambassador Martin Palous and his lovely wife Pavla, was totally honored to meet and speak with the former Czech president/ brilliant playwright and essayist Vaclav Havel, who is resident in Manhattan for the next several months as a guest of honor at Columbia University...party was a glittering assemblage of foreign diplomats and dignitaries, Czech Cultural Office folks, excellent champagne and sumptuous buffet, the upstairs main gallery/theater space with balcony looks amazing by candlelight, and hopefully thee entire building will be fully functional by next year nas a new NYC cultural center...the next day I was invited to play guitar fanfares at 1pm for many of the same party people at the lake in Central Park where they were christening a replica sailboat named the Masaryk, after the father of Czech independence, brought up my National steel and played my arrangements of Dvorak's "Largo" from his New World Symphony and Smetna's "Moldau" from "Ma Vlast" (arrangements that were originally commissioned by Martin Palous several years ago for a concert I gave at the Czech Embassy in DC on this same Czech National Day), suddeny the heavens opened up and I managed to get my steel back in its leather carrying case and we repaired to the interior of the boathouse while the rain played itself out....managed to get back downtown relatively dry and unscathed thankfully, and then it was out to Brooklyn to play a hot new club in Williamsburg called Brooklyn Sugar (on the site of the old Domino Sugar complex) with Gods and Monsters--the joint looks fabulous, massive space, lovely carpeted stage, excellent lights and sound and they had mounted what was essentially an update on the old UFO Club in London (and the 60's Arts Lab scene in general there) albeit on a much bigger scale, with fashion show, aerial ballet, various performance artists intermingled, djs, raga mandolin tabla duets, it was all too much (and apparently all too much for the NYFD, who threatened to shut the joint down repeatedly all night for--what? They turned people away, I had to sneak Caroline and other friends in through a side door, really hope they resolve these issues soon as this club is too good to keep down vis a vis what looks suspiciously like a good old-fashioned shake-down by the powers that be(nighted)... thanks to Charlie Blass and Colin for hooking up the gig, after a smoking set from Greg Tate and Jared Nickerson's ensemble Burnt Sugar I began with some improvised solo guitar soundtrack accompaniment to a montage of clips I had assembled from some of my favorite horror and science fiction films (Peter Jackson's b&w recreated spider spit sequence from the original "King Kong", my pal Ray Harryhausen's fabulous Dance of Kali sequence from "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad", Herk Harvey's "Carnival of Souls" with the preternatural Candace Hilligoss-also, a soupcon of Roy Stuart's "Glimpse" erotica-- were some of the cinematic jeux d'artifice on display)...but first up, a 5 minute clip from Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" (Mia Farrow's impregnation sequence) with the haunting theme/lullaby by Kyrzystof Comeda played by yours truly and sung by the beautiful Polish actress and singer Anna Podolak...

Gods and Monsters took the stage around 1am after an exhilirating set by Marshall Allen leading the Sun Ra Arkestra, resplendent in their coats of many colours... and we had lift-off...ascension...and "on the dodgy subject of UFO's", Ernie Billy and Jason and I jammed with the legendary Paul Carusoe of Radio Station EXP on harp during "Let's Go Swimming" .,,what a fine night...finally got home at 3am..and wotta week...capped off this afternoon sunday running into another old friend/collaborator, legendary singer/songwriter/Dylan/ Patti pal Bob Neuwirth on 5th Avenue this afternoon, who was on the ave there with Paula Batson, who used to do PR at Columbia, Paula took us both to Pink Berry's on 32nd, wonderful new Korean frozen yogurt and fruit franchise=Kismet again...

woops, monday monday now, burning the midnight lamp here, Caroline's calling and now must bank the fires for the nonce (put your camel to bed...)


xxLove

Gary

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Posted by Gary Lucas to Gary Lucas at 10/29/2006 10:30:00 PM