April 3 - I Didn't Do Anything I Didn't Want To Do

The Bitter Tears played their first morning rehearsal with me. We ran over the new songs for the recording in Bloomington on Tuesday. I switched from brushes to sticks on "Things The Boys Love," giving it much more swing. That song has become one of my favorites. We also made feel adjustments to "Movin' Down South" and came up with a new encore trick.

At home I caught up on this blog and downloaded days of music from The Monterey Pop Festival, Motorhead, Bob Dylan, Santo & Johnny, Isaac Hayes, and of course, more crazy Beatle crap (Beatles in Spanish, Casio SK-1 dogs barking Beatles, The Beatles as mall punk, and hours and hours of demos, different takes and false starts). Motorhead's "On Parole" rules!

I bumped into my friend Meghan Murphy at the supermarket. The Second City crew met her on the cruise ship. She sang big in the big revues and stole our hearts with her moxie and sass. Now she lives here in Chicago. She was shopping drunk! In her cart were radishes, lettuce and more assorted greens. Kudos to you, Meghan. Look for her cabaret in early May, directed by the inimitable Mitchell Fain.

Lauren called to tell me she had received the flowers I had sent her for tonight's opening of The Second City show in Tucson. She said the flowers made her cry.

Oh well. I try.

With a 10pm bellyful of speed-eaten tacos I began watching Charro!, Elvis' 29th movie, and the only one to not feature any musical numbers. He plays an outlaw trying to break out of the gang and into the straight life. It's scored by Hugo Montenegro, and so far it's great. I'll know more when I'm not asleep on the couch.

Verdict: Win