August 28th: Man, I needed that!

First of all, major props to our homeboy Andre Agassi for winning his opening match (his final tournament before retirement) at the U.S. Open tonight 6-7 (7-4), 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (8-6), 6-2. When I left the house for The Palms, he and Andrei Pavel were tied at one set each and on serve in the 3rd set. Go, dude!

Band was cookin' tonight. From the opening bars of "Just Kiddin'" I knew it was gonna be therapeutic. I so needed that, just hate that I had to leave before the second show. Back from Florida yesterday, jet lagged out the wazoo and right back into the day gig buzzsaw today.

The eminent, virtuoso jazz guitarist Robert Conti came to hang tonight. Turns out Robert and I share some Philly / Jersey shore musical roots; we're the same age and were both playing Jersey shore gigs (he in Wildwood, me in Seaside Heights) during the same summers, and we'd each go to hang at the after-hours jazz clubs in Altantic City. Probably saw each other and never knew it back then in the early 60's! I am so delighted to finally come to know him. Robert is an absolutely stunning jazz guitarist (flash enabled video link) -- and a very nice cat. Pics below of [1] Robert and his friend, jazz drummer Eugene Balog and [2] another of Vegas's notable music cats, Lou Martinez. Great to meet you guys.

Also tonight I got to meet vocalist Carlo Driggs, formerly of Paul Revere and The Raiders, and with whom I also share a bit of tangential history via my Seattle era and Merrilee Rush (I toured with Merrilee in the 70's). Dr. Lenny the Lopez introduced us. Great to have you here, bro'.

Great to see everyone tonight. And, Jim, thanks again for all your work on the survey! I got a few decent band shots this evening.

I love these cats. I simply cannot recall 14 more talented and nicer people all in one place at one time. And the sentiment extends to all of you Santa Fe fans, you all that "get it."

PS- I've started another blog, related to my day gig: physicianoffice.blogspot.com. Note the difference in lingo, LOL! When in Rome...

UPDATE: Found a bunch of pics last week while cleaning out my parents' house in Florida, stuff going back to even before I was born. Below, baby blogger-to-be BobbyG.