Jan 28th gig, welcome, back Fat City Horns!

It was an awesome night! Fat City Horns came back with a joyful vengeance (they came to the gig straight from a Bette Midler show rehearsal at Caesar's). Jamie stalled on starting until Jerry could get in from the Wayne Brady show. When Jerry arrived and introduced the return of Danny, Gil, Nathan, Jerry Merra, Phil and Rob, the place erupted in a roar of grateful applause and shouting.

Then, bam! -- slammin' right into South America Sojourn, one of my favorites among their instrumental pieces (from the 2005 double CD). Sonny was all over the mix right from the first bar. What a way to start. Oh, yeah...

Let's get right to some pics from the evening, and I'll add some thoughts along the way.

The Fat City Horns are happy to be home and back in the Santa Fe saddle!

Above, Dave throws down. His new original tunes -- e.g., "Salvation," "What'cha Gonna Do With That Greazy Thing?" and "Si Te Vas" (OMG!) -- are so fine, man. (And he always graciously helps me pronto with my dumbass Finale questions.)

Below, another great Johnson & Johnson night in the Santa Fe sandbox.

Below, Jerry singing "Si Te Vas." That tune knocks me over and gives me chills, man.

Below, Rob Mader, captain of The Fat City Horns (and principal author / webmaster of the new Fat City Horns website at www.TheFatCityHorns.com) wailin' like Lenny Pickett.

BTW: the old FCH website at www.fatcityhorns.com (the one I bought for them and put up) still works; it simply now re-directs to Rob's work. We decided to keep the old site, because that's where I now will park the podcasts and other mp3 and graphics files (and when you hit it, you get an embedded excerpt from Nathan's "Come With Me"). Also, don't forget, FCH has a MySpace page (which I also set up and continue to administer for them) at www.myspace.com/fatcityhorns.

Below, Gabriel eyes me warily. "What you doin' up here, Gringo?..." Below that, our thundering Pepe Jimenez.

Below, the Santa Fe Nuke Plant Rochon Westmoreland!

Rochon and I talked after the gig about a website for him. No problem, bro'. We will do this ASAP. I'll take care of it. Stay tuned.

Below, Jam-IEEEEE!!! BTW, check out some of the beautiful original songs on Jamie's MySpace.

Phil Wigfall!!! More Cowbell, Please! (Great stuff on Phil's MySpace as well, BTW.)

Below, Jerry Fink of the Las Vegas Sun came to do a piece on The Fat City Horns (thanks, Jerry!), and brought along one of their photographers to give me another case of anxiety-producing Lense Envy.

Me and my weenie little yesterday's news four-year-old 3.2 megapixel Fuji, man...

Below, Earth, Wind, and Fire alum David Romero jumped up to jam on "System of Survival."

Also, sittin' in to bring the house down on "System of Survival" was Major League Bad Boy Sonny Emory (click his name to read his rap sheet!)

Sonny is now in the Bette Midler show band along with our Fat City Horns. BTW, last night after the show I had the great fortune to meet and speak with Bette's Musical Director, the eminent Bette Sussman.

Click her name to check out her website. Delightful person. Welcome to our town. We are so glad to have you all here (also, I must mention that Bette Midler's equally Bad Boy bassist Tom Barney was in the House last night).

Here's a clip of Sonny Emory soloing at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1997:



POSTSCRIPT: a YouTube clip containing The Fat City Horns appearing with Bette yesterday on Oprah will probably be uploaded shortly (someone else is already on it, I will keep checking).

1:18 pm UPDATE: Here it is, Bette and our 6 Bad Boys yesterday on Oprah. Fabulous.



LOL! See also www.bootlegbetty.com

UPDATE: MEDICAL NEWS

Struggling with unhappiness / dissatisfaction? Don't take these,

take these.

And, then chase 'em down with one of these:

You are healed.
______

WED. UPDATE: IMPORTANT BREAKING NEWS!

[ Caption: 'Dude, don't Bogart the roach clip!' ]

Pot vending machines take root in Los Angeles
Machines distribute the drug to people with cards authorizing use

LOS ANGELES (AP/MSNBC) - The city that popularized the fast food drive-thru has a new innovation: 24-hour medical marijuana vending machines.

Patients suffering from chronic pain, loss of appetite and other ailments that marijuana is said to alleviate can get their pot with a dose of convenience at the Herbal Nutrition Center, where a large machine will dole out the drug around the clock.

"Convenient access, lower prices, safety, anonymity," inventor and owner Vincent Mehdizadeh said, extolling the benefits of the machine...
______

LOL! I can just hear the Leno jokes already. Of course, the DEA takes a majorly dim view of this.

Much more important that people in extremis continue to suffer in the continuing service of political mendacity. My Sissy smoked a little pot episodically when she was sick. Her doctors knew it (but turned mildly skeptical blind eyes). Sissy even had a scrip for Marinol Rx'd by her oncologist. It didn't do squat, but the pot worked -- helped her significantly to withstand the horrors of her chemo and radiation.

BTW- click here for my grad thesis rant on "Drug testing policy environment and history" if you're interested. Bad BobbyG. Below, a bit of snarky dubiety from the Epilog of my thesis:

...Las Vegas is the surveillance capital of the known universe, and drug testing in the casino industry is a given. The leading clinical lab here runs frequent large newspaper ads extolling the virtues of its drug screening operation. One ad repeatedly and breathlessly claimed: "If you’re not pre-employment drug testing, you’re hiring the rejects of those companies that do!" No matter that credible evidence supporting such a blanket assertion is nowhere to be found.

Ironies go unnoticed: Caesar’s Palace touts its highly visible RIAH® hair drug test policy while its huge billboard out front promotes the most recent return engagement of the “Doobie Brothers.”

Of course the fans flocking to the performances nearly all recall what the 60’s slang term "doobie" refers to, and, although I’ve not been to one of their shows at Caesar’s, I’ll bet there are usually periodic wafts of a certain pungent smell in the air...

Mendacity.

THUS ENDETH THE SCREED [1(c)].