Lizard Brain: Nah, too early, too tired, catch a few more Zzzz’s
Semi-conscious Brain: Get up, don’t be a lazy bastard.
Lizard Brain: Listen, you stayed up too late. Drank champagne. You’re too tired. Go back to sleep.
Semi-conscious Brain: All that is true, but another 15 minutes of sleep isn’t gonna help anything…
Lizard Brain: Yeah, but now it’s already been a couple minutes. You’re gonna get out of the house late… It’ll stress you out and ruin your whole day.
Semi-conscious Brain: You’ve got a good point there…
Lizard Brain: Of course I do… Listen, you can always go to the gym tomorrow to make up for today. Go back to sleep.
Semi-conscious Brain: Wait! You sneaky SOB, putting off until tomorrow is what got me into this mess! STFU.
Lizard Brain: … … …
Next thing I know, I’m in my gym gear and brushing my teeth. Yes, I DID in fact get out the door 5 minutes late. Yes, my morning routine was rushed and a bit stressful. However, I knew I’d regret missing a workout MORE than I’d appreciate the extra sleep.
I think I’ve finally turned a corner. Turns out the hardest battles are often in your own head. Sometimes you’ve got tell that comforting, excuse making voice in your head to shut up, and push yourself to do what you know is best… Procrastination is one of my absolute worst habits and hard as hell to break, but the payoff feels great. I highly recommend it.
NYE was a busy day! Got up and hit the gym, came home and whipped up some healthy smoothies, then set about doing some chorin’ around the house, including taking down the Christmas tree. Then it was packing bags, feeding the critters, gassing up the ride and hitting the road 2 hours north to Napa.
Our first stop was the hotel. We stayed at the Westin Verasa this time around. Swanky place, let me tell ya! Check-in was super smooth and afterwards we met up with our daughter and her fiance, who’d arrived about an hour prior, to grab a bite. We stumbled into a place called Gott’s Roadside and had a great dinner – the gents dined on bacon cheeseburgers, while the ladies went for the poke tacos, and we split some sweet potato fries and onion rings. Healthy eating? Not today, my friends!
Gott’s Roadside. Delicious!
We then walked back to the hotel and split up to our different rooms so the ladies could get ready for the night’s festivities.
The main event took place at the Uptown Theater – a NYE celebration with Dogstar. Yes, I know, this is the 5th Dogstar show in 13 months, it may seem I’m a bit obsessed. But this was a chance to spend NYE with my lovely wife, and the kids and my best friend AND it’s the last show of the tour and who knows when/if they’ll ever play a live show in these parts again? Get while the gettin’s good as my Pops likes to say.
Archer Oh was the opening act- you may remember my raving about them in my review of the Menlo Park show this past summer. Well, once again, the band brought their A-game and left it all on stage! I’m still incredibly impressed with these guys, particularly their lead guitarist. He’s a stellar talent with a very unique style. Which is not to diminish the rest of the band, far from it! They are one of those bands that I believe is far greater than the sum of their parts. Their chemistry as a BAND just works and it’s delightful to experience them live!
Dogstar hit the stage to a nearly sold-out audience and played a longer then normal set, which included a couple older songs from previous records that I hadn’t heard them play on the tour, as well as a couple cover tunes – something they don’t usually do. When they charged into “Just like Heaven”, the mid 90’s gem by The Cure, the crowd was on their feet and going wild!
The band’s signature beer, with the Mrs’ “formal sneakers” in the background!
A little later in the set they tackled the Ramones classic “I Wanna be Sedated” which was a super fun flashback for many of us old geezers in the crowd!
Bret’s playing was on fire – even better than just a few weeks ago in SF. It just goes to show how much practice and playing shows can improve one’s craft. It was really a standout performance, no question. I cant help but to think back on the days in his mother’s living room when we were all of 14-15 years old, trying to figure all this rock band stuff out. To see how far he’s come as an artist is really special and inspiring.
Bret, delivering the performance of a lifetime!
The other thing that really grabbed my attention was that Keanu actually seemed to be HAVING FUN on stage! Generally he looks very serious and he’s “all business”, but that night, his sense of joy was palpable. It was an absolutely perfect way to end the tour and I’m grateful that I got to experience it with my family in tow.
Keanu, loving every minute of it!
After the show there was quite the gathering backstage, all friends and family of the band(s) and crew(s) and we had a really. nice time chatting with folks. We shared a New Year’s toast with Keanu, and I got to talk to 3 of the 4 members of Archer Oh, which was cool. Very nice young men. Humble and grateful for the opportunity to do this tour. I wish them nothing but continued success!
After the After Show party, it was back to the hotel around 2am… A couple light snacks and it was lights out for the Mrs. and I.
Before we knew it, the next morning was upon us. Time for showering, packing up, checking out and meeting up with the kids for brunch a few miles away at Olive & Hay.
This place? WOW!!!
Brunch was terrific. I ordered French Toast with berries which was delicious, and everyone else was equally pleased with their selections. This is most definitely a place to return to!
After brunch it was back on the road to home. Talk about a whirlwind trip! Less than 24 hours and we combined outstanding food, excellent entertainment, catching up with old friends AND celebrating the rolling in of the New Year!
As I look back on 2023, mostly I see a dark and grim year, but for all it’s doom and gloom, Dogstar stands out as a shining point of brightness. They had a great year in 2023, and I hope they can keep that train rolling throughout 2024 and into their European summer tour that is already in the works.
All in all, this was an exceptional New Year celebration for us and I’m thrilled that the new year is off to a great start.
Here we are, on the cusp of a New Year and I for one am more than ready to kick 2023 to the curb!
Not that I have great expectations for 2024, mind you. Quite the contrary.
I’m not one for predictions so you won’t get those here. (Although esteemed writer James Kunstler made a great – if terrifying – list of predictions for next year that sadly I can’t find much to disagree with… https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/do-you-dare-even-look-forecast-2024/) Also, I’m not exactly a “resolutions” guy, but I do look at every New Year as a milestone, a lookout, a place to stop and assess, make corrections and sort of a “clean slate”.
All that being said, I do not expect 2024 to be a fun year. I have a lot of work to do in the “personal growth” arena. Bottom line, I let a lot of things slide this year. And not in a good way. My physical fitness went downhill. My financial well being essentially evaporated. My home is currently a disorganized mess. My worklife (read: job) is hanging be a thread, as I have lost (almost) all motivation. In short, I’m exhausted and exasperated. And beating myself up on the daily.
So my “goal” if you will, for 2024, is to stop being lazy. I’m not quite at “picking up the pieces”, things aren’t THAT bad, but I can see that being the case if I don’t change course with a quickness.
I’ll be vacating my studio at the end of the month which brings a tinge of sadness, but it hasn’t been the haven for creativity I thought it would be and the expense is bleeding me dry. That ironically should help me out – one less thing to worry about, one less (large) monthly bill to pay, and an excuse to work on something new musically that has been needling at me for the last few months.
I’ll be back to the gym on Sunday and then (health permitting) back on the 3x/week schedule – minimum – as we start ’24.
Some other things I plan to be better about this year… more time in the water (for physical AND mental health), more range time (I don’t know about you, but I expect things to get weird in ’24, and I’m SERIOUSLY out of practice on the self defense end of the spectrum) and getting out in nature way more often. Less screen time, more time with my nose buried in books. Less dreaming and more doing!
I do plan to keep up on the ol’ blog here as well. I’ve got tickets for a number of shows already, and I’m sure at some point I’ll be delving into the sewer that is our nation’s politics (Ewww!), I’ve got a stack of books to read and so on. So lots of things to write about!
I want to thank all of you for spending any of your precious time here reading my stuff. I know there are a lot of better, and certainly more prolific writers out there to spend your time with, but it means a great deal to me that anyone comes here of their own volition and “lends me their ears”. My readership numbers are small, tiny even, but they are growing slowly but surely and I greatly appreciate that! So again, thank you!
I wish you all a happy and healthy 2024. Stay safe out there!
Yes, I’m old fashioned and I still celebrate and appreciate a traditional Christmas. To the rest of you that only acknowledge “the holidays” well Happy Holidays to y’all as well.
I wish my readers well, and appreciate you spending your time with me here. Gonna be winding down over the next few days, spending time with the family and just enjoying some calm and quiet.
Taking a moment to stop and be grateful today. Yes, the world is on fire and it appears as though the lunatics are running the asylum, but today I’ll be with my loved ones and we’ll be eating well. That alone is more than many have, and I consider myself lucky for that, and much more.
I’m also thankful for all of you that have stopped by for a quick read. I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and a nice start to the holiday season.
The long awaited new album has finally hit the streets! For anyone new here, I’ll tell you right up front that I’m highly biased toward this band. Bret Domrose, Dogstar’s guitarist and vocalist, and I have a friendship, a brotherhood really, going back 40+ years. I was the drummer in the first band he ever played in, and in every subsequent band and lineup for the next 10 years. I’m the one that talked him into singing (we parted ways with our original singer, so it was him or me, and I’m awful on vocals!) and I wrote all the lyrics for the first few years we got him on the mic. We played countless shows together, in every club from Watsonville to Oakland that would have us, and recorded I don’t know how many original songs. We were together for the first song of ours that got on the radio and did our first interviews together. He was my Best Man when I got married 32 years ago… And that’s just scatching the surface!!
Our first professional promo pic, and bumper sticker circa 1987. Bret on the left, a much younger Boring Old Man in the center…
Suffice it to say, I’m a HUGE fan of Bret and subsequently Dogstar. That being said, I’m going to be as honest as I can be about this new record. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t anxiously awaiting this record for a long, long time!!
BLONDE: I’d heard this one live a few times before I got the record and really liked it, but the recorded version hit me in a different way. It’s mid-tempo yet upbeat, and lyrics that convey a longing… A strong opener that doesn’t beat you over the head with bombast.
HOW THE STORY ENDS: Hit and miss… Some outstanding parts, some parts barely beyond basic. Harkens back to their early days.
EVERYTHING TURNS AROUND: Great song overall, quiet/loud transitions, nice vocal harmonies. Excellent guitar work, but it’s subtle and takes a few listens to pick it all up. An excellent choice for their first single from the record and one that’s already been on my heavy rotation list since it’s release.
OVERHANG: Very much reminds me of “The Cure” with the introduction, then its right into a solid 90’s power chord structure.
DILLON STREET: A distinct “Americana” sound, very different than the first part of the record. The first Dogstar song with harmonica, which while well done (??? what do I know, harmonica isn’t exactly in my wheelhouse) could have (and in my opinion should have) been replaced with some slide guitar.
LILY: This one may be my favorite on this record. Very power-pop-ish, but not in a cheesy way. Outstanding guitar work once again.
LUST: This is the other contender for my favorite track. A really great song, BUT the drums kinda suck the life out of it. Yes, as a drummer myself, I’m horribly biased. I just find missed opportunities all over the place drum-wise on this particular track. I’d give it an 8.5 out of 10. With a snappier drum performance, this one could’ve “gone to 11”.
GLIMMER: A little slow for my taste, but a strong, solid song nonetheless. Excellent guitar solo. Lyrically, one of Bret’s best to date. This one really paints a picture, so to speak…
SUNRISE: I’m torn on this one. Could’ve been another power-pop burner, but the “power” part is lacking. Again, the vocal harmonies are outstanding but overall it’s just tepid. Not a throwaway, but not a hit single either.
SLEEP: If I didn’t know better I’d swear this was a remake from the early days of Bret and I – dripping with 80’s vibe. This one has a Wire Train influence proudly on its sleeve. Top notch guitar solo once again, Bret was really shining here!
UPSIDE: Strong intro, good energy. For the first 10 seconds or so you might think you’re listening to a cover of a tune by The Church, then it quickly jumps into classic Dogstar – power chords, rolling bass and strong vocals.
BREACH: A real burner to close out the record! This one needs VOLUME to get its point across, there is nothing subtle about this track. Another good choice for a single and a favorite at the shows. Reeves throws out a couple quick solo bars that lend an 80’s punk feel to it. Overall, it grabs you, shakes you up a bit and before you know what hit you, it’s over. Well done!
Overall, in my not so humble opinion this is a strong album, if a little lopsided. While there is nothing earth shattering or world changing about it, for a straight up rock and roll record made by real people on real instruments, it is immensely enjoyable. I haven’t lived with it long enough to determine whether or not it will displace “Our Little Visionary” as my favorite Dogstar record, but I ABSOLUTELY think it is much better than “Happy Ending”.
The songwriting has certainly matured and the production is far more layered and dense than their past endeavors. Bret sounds sincere in his singing and the vocal arrangements are really outstanding throughout the record. His guitar work has really come a long way too – don’t get me wrong, I think he’s always been fantastic – he’s stretching out and entering into musical territory that is altogether different for him, while maintaining the gritty yet melodic style he’s honed over the last several decades.
When all is said and done, I think it is a record the band should be proud of. Unless you’ve done it yourself, nobody understands just what it takes to put a record together, especially a non-computer generated record, and Dogstar have really captured something here.
Selfishly, I hope the band takes another long hiatus so Bret and I can get back to the project we were working on before this Dogstar resurgence, but I am extremely proud of Bret for this one, he did an outstanding job and has made a record that I believe will stand the test of time, like all the best rock and roll records of the past 60-70 years!
Well done gentlemen! Congratulations on some excellent new music!
I’m feeling a bit neglectful of the ol’ blog these days and I just got back to town, so I figured I’d re-cap the last 10 days or so…
The first week of October was not unlike a big punch in the face. Work was ridiculous and on top of the ridiculousness of the day-to-day stuff, we were also hammering out the operational budget for next year. Now, I wear many, MANY hats in this gig, and do a lot of different things, but accounting is something I simply despise. I recognize that it’s a necessary evil, but I just really loathe that part of the job. A week of eyes glazing over and constant, recurring headaches, it was unpleasant to say the least. The Polyphia show was supposed to be the highlight of the week, but that was a bit of a bust too, so the week was just grueling. There was a light at the end of the tunnel though, an impending road trip, kicking off on Sunday, October 8th.
Sunday, October 8th we hit the road to Anaheim, CA for an out of the ordinary trip. For the last 25 or so years, the Mrs. and I have wanted to experience a Disneyland Halloween, and this year we finally did it. We tried to make this trip last year but our planning started only 3 months ahead of when we wanted to go and there was NOTHING available. Seriously, nothing. So this Halloween excursion had been on the books now for 10 months – a long time to wait! And to be honest, I’ve kinda lost my appreciation for Disney over the last few years, between them gobbling up so many other companies and intellectual properties, putting out crap movies and all their “woke” nonsense, I had considerations of calling the whole thing off. Nonetheless, a Disney Halloween was a bucket-list thing since I wanted to go long before the company started going down hill…
The last time we’d been to Disneyland was for our daughter’s 5th birthday – she’ll be 30 this coming February – it’s been a while!
We were expecting long lines and exorbitant costs for everything, and we grossly underestimated both. I’m a maniac for roller coasters, but waiting 2 hours (no, I’m NOT exaggerating!) for a 2 minute ride takes a lot of the fun out of it. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about the entire thing. When we first got there I found myself grinning ear-to-ear at the “magical” aspect of the place. Part of that was nostalgia, but really if you take in the architecture and the design and the special little touches everywhere, it really is unlike anything else in the world.
But the crowds! Good grief! It was just a non-stop, undulating sea of people everywhere you turned. And let me tell you, after seeing thousands upon thousands of these folks doing their best to make it an awesome day for themselves, I started to lose what little faith I had left in humanity.
This is not to say that no fun was had, there were some fun moments…just hours of waiting in “cattle chutes” in between those moments of fun. The Mrs. and I decided upon our departure that we won’t be back unless we end up with grandkids to take. Even then, it would be a tough sell…
On the bright side, we did get to ride the “Incredicoaster” at the California Adventure park on our last day, and I just gotta say WOW!!! Hands down the best roller coaster I’ve ever ridden – by a country mile!
As for the Halloween aspect, the main reason we went, it was underwhelming. There were a lot of decorations put up for it, some pretty stunning in fact, but overall it wasn’t all that different. Maybe the 80 degrees and sunny weather kept the Fall spirit at bay, I dunno. All I can say is Halloween didn’t seem to make it any more magical than it already is, it just brought in a ton of extra people.
The Haunted Mansion, Halloween Style…
After roughly 48 hours in Disneyland across 3 calendar days, it was back home for a layover/re-pack/car swap and a single work day for the Mrs. (and I got to put in some volunteer time at the school too, while she was working). On the 12th we set out again for one of our favorite destinations, Pismo Beach, CA.
I’ve said before that Half Moon Bay is our “home away from home”, but Pismo is a close second. The fact that one of my oldest friends lives there AND I can always count on him to head out into the surf with me, makes Pismo a very welcoming destination indeed.
This time around we tried out a few new places – the new food destinations were awesome, the outdoor hot tubs at Sycamore Hot Springs, eh, not so much… Nonetheless, we had a really relaxing time and I got to surf two days in a row, which almost never happens!
Pablo (right) and the B.O.M. (left) heading into the Pacific!
The whole reason for this trip was in celebration of the Mrs. and I hitting our 32nd (!!!) anniversary. Still having a hard time wrapping my head around that one… Add to that another 3 years together before we got married and we’re approaching double the years together than years we’d lived up to that point. It is staggering. Heck, our daughter is nearly 10 years older then we were when we got together, how time flies, eh?!?
We got back home late Sunday afternoon and the girls had a spa appointment to go to, so I headed out to my studio for some much needed drum time. I decided before I left on this trip that I wanted to change things up with my kit, and started tearing it down before I left. Last night I got a new, much smaller configuration set up and took it for a test drive. It’s pretty close to a “standard” set up now, which kinda rubs me the wrong way, but I’ll keep messing with it ’til I find a set up I love…Or I’ll go back to the “everything but the kitchen sink” set up, cuz I’m weird that way…
Before…After.
Monday was back to the grind, sadly. Morning commute traffic, 444 emails waiting and back to trying to solve everybody’s problems “yesterday”. Thank goodness for the recharge!!
All in all it was a great week, in spite of the hiccups, and I’m feeling invigorated and ready to seize Fall – my favorite season!
Yesterday the Mrs. and I attended a “Celebration of Life” gathering in memory if my dearly departed Uncle Jack.
My Uncle Jack was a really special guy, the life of the party and a friend to everyone he met. He married my father’s sister when I was but a small kid and I’d say of all the extended family I’ve got, we spent the more time with them than with any other relations, on both sides of the family. I always, ALWAYS looked forward to a visit with Uncle Jack and Aunt Mary.
Yesterday my Aunt asked folks to share stories and such of Jack, but I found myself a little too emotional to speak. Although he passed some time ago, I suppose yesterday was the first time it felt real and I really started to process his loss. Anyhow, I thought I’d share one particular memory of him here, for posterity. And maybe eventually, I’ll let people in my family know about this blog and share it with them.
This is a story- one of many I’m sure- that captures just what a special guy Uncle Jack was…
So, many decades ago, I must’ve been maybe 10 or 11 at the most, Aunt Mary and Uncle Jack invited me to go on a camping trip with them and some other family friends. I was so young, I don’t remember any of the details insofar as what lake we were at and exactly how long we were there, but what I can remember – clear as day, as though it happened last week and not 45ish years ago – was Uncle Jack taking me out to learn how to water-ski. Now, I was NOT an athletic kid by any stretch of the imagination, I was NOT a good swimmer and I’d never been on a boat, much less been dragged behind one attempting to stand up on a pair of skis. As you might imagine, things did not go well for me. But Uncle Jack was beyond patient, and kept encouraging me to keep trying. Well, I did. For a while. But I simply couldn’t get the hang of it and the excersize ended in frustration and embarrassment for me. I felt humiliation, though I didn’t even know that word back then. They hauled me back into the boat after I gave up, exhausted, bruised and beaten. All I wanted to do at that point was go home.
Now, this being the 1970’s, the usual adult response to this would have been to mock the kid for being a “pussy” or make fun of their failure to “toughen the kid up”. Not Jack.
Instead of making fun and letting me wallow in misery, he threw me in the driver’s seat and taught me how to drive the freakin’ boat! The next thing you know, I’d forgotten all about my humiliation and I’m having the time of my life pulling other folks around on skis, feeling like king of the world driving around this hot-rodded, kick ass ski boat.
The rest of the trip went without another skiing attempt for me, but I drove that boat every day and had the time of my life on that trip.
That’s how it was with Uncle Jack. He loved life and wanted everyone around to love it too. He was a very special man and I’ll never forget him.
Godspeed Uncle Jack. I’ll see you on the other side, and we’ll take another long overdue boat ride!
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post is being published about a week late… I guess in the thrill of it all, I forgot to hit the Publish button… I’m going to go ahead and post, as this blog has become my “backup hard drive”, and helps me remember what I did last week. Without further delay:
Loaded up the wagon with the board, wetsuits, assorted delicious things for eating and drinking and the Mrs. and headed 3.25 hours south for a few days in Pismo Beach!
Easy drive, perfect weather, not terribly crowded…so far so good! Pray for good surf!
The Boring Old Man 