Year: 2012

BIG HOLIDAY-SEASON SHOW (Whoop-de-do!)!!

So much to do, so little

a. time,

b. discipline,

c. willingness to forego being distracted by the open window to the entire

world that the internet provides,

d. all of the above,

to do it…

Yet, here we go.

I am doing a very special HOLIDAY SHOW on Dec. 8^th in the lovely Thousand Oaks Library. I will be appearing with the even more lovely Rosemary Butler, renowned vocal coach and background singer for Jackson Brown, Linda Ronstadt, and James Taylor, heard on countless hit records, and whose new cd “You Just Watch Me” is due in Spring 2013. AND the equally lovely Deborah Pearl, singer, TV writer, and playwright, whose CD “Souvenir of You -New Lyrics to Benny Carter Classics” was released last year. I will be singing my share of irreverent (and heartwarming) holiday songs, and accompanying Debbie and Rosie on a real piano! The bald and beautiful Scotty Breadman will be providing percussive underpinnings (is that dirty?). Thanks to my longtime friend Saria Kraft for asking us to do this show as part of her “Blues, Bop, and Books” concert series at the library. Please come if you can.

Thanks to all who came to my 60^th BIRTHDAY SHOW and PARTY. It was quite a bash. There were people there from all eras of my life, from Leslie Peterson, who literally lived down the street from me when I was in 2^nd grade at Balboa Elementary, to some great folks I’d met only recently like songwriter/producer Ed Tree. My band kicked major musical ass, and my old friend (and major guitar god) Grant Geissman, even jumped up and joined in on the last song. Also, big thanks to my dear friend Rick Astor, who put together a DVD of pictures spanning nearly every time and event in my meandering life story.

And, as I have done for nearly 10 years, I am happy to be doing music for the Sit ‘N’ Spin Holiday Show on Dec. 13^th. This is the comedy/spoken-word show that pretty much started it all in Los Angeles, started by Jill Soloway and Maggie Rowe. Maggie’s and Sit ‘n’ Spin’s support has been an integral part of my commitment to being a performing songwriter, and I am deeply in debt to her and to everyone involved. Also on that show is brilliant insane-person Eddie Pepitone. Also appearing are the hilarious Drew Droege, Terri Mintz, and my writing partner on the musical Bukowsical!,the delightfully drollSpencer Green.

AND I’ll be performing Dec. 7^th with some of LA’s best songwriters for TOP TUNE – The Songwriter’s Game at the Fanatic Salon in Culver City, where we will each get 17 minutes to come up with a new original song. I’ll be appearing with the likes of Clive Kennedy, Logan Heftel, Cynthia Carle, Brad Kay, and Pam Loe.

As of this writing, there aren’t event pages for these next shows, but here’s the info:

Dec. 14 I’m doing some songs for my old friend Pablo Marz’ acclaimed storytelling show Tell It! at the Spirit Studio in Silverlake. 7:30pm, I think (check the page).

Dec. 19 I get to perform with the amazing and legendary Freebo at Genghis Cohen. I believe I will be sharing the stage with Robert Tepper and one of the greatest musicians on the planet, Chad Watson. More info as this develops.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERY ONE!

Every once in a while, I’m embarrassed to say, I get into political/philosophical discussions on Facebook. Every time I do, I try to be the measured, calm, non-name-calling one, and I’m usually successful. Of course, truth be told, in the face of the huge amount of condescending vitriol that is slung daily across the interwebs, especially in this Presidential Campaign Season, when you act like YOU’RE the calm, sensible one, it is, in itself, a form of condescension – the best example of that being Reagan’s famous “There you go again” smackdown of Jimmy Carter, complete with bemused head-shake.

A perfect illustration of my affliction (shared by so many) is this cartoon. It is by Randall Munroe. Those of us who write (and who are less disciplined than my director-writer friend Mark Steilen. I don’t think he has ever even looked at Facebook.) know only too well that every moment spent cyber-arguing with some blowhard (it’s always the other guy who’s the blowhard) is time spent not writing. So you get the double-whammy of realizing that you’ve not only sunk into the quicksand of a pointless Facebook argument, but you’re also not getting your job done at the same time. Multi-tasking!

I AM TURNING 60.

This November. It’s true. Yes, here I am a showbiz professional (a term of indefinite meaning these days), admitting that I am actually this age. If you know my songs at all, you know that I’m not hiding anything, my age is my “hook.” I realize this is going to ruin my chances at being the next teen sensation. Oh well.

My wife asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday. I said what I would really like to do is a birthday concert. The last time I did a full show, with just me and my band (folks like Scott Breadman, Steve Deutsch, and others), was last February at the Fremont Centre Theatre, and I had a blast, so this seems like a good reason to do one again.

I will send out more details, but for those of you who might ever have thought to themselves, “You know, I’d like to go out and see Gary play sometime, but I just haven’t had the chance,” Well, this is the one to be at, I gar-ron-tee! I’m shooting for November 17^th. I’ll send more details as soon as they come together. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any thoughts about it, or you want to make sure you’re specially notified: garystockdale@gmail.com

Here are upcoming gigs for September.

9/10 – I’m the musical entertainment, appearing with Kelly Carlin, and “TV’s Frank” Conniff at the Independent Investigations Group (IIG) Awards, Steve Allen Theater, 4773 Hollywood Blvd. Reception starts at 7pm. Admission is free, although donations are encouraged.

9/12 – 6pm PDT I’m being interviewed for 2 hours at Indie Showcase. You can listen live, and join in the chatroom. If you can’t listen live, a podcast will be available shortly after. Indie Showcase consists of volunteer DJ’s all over the world, and runs 24/7/365 in all time zones. http://www.indieshowcase.net/

9/15 – Another HELLSTOCK, the great Skip Heller and me doing our own stuff and trading covers at Rafa’s Lounge 9pm 1836 W. Sunset Blvd., LA, (213) 413-4464. Special guest, Lydia Ooghe!

9/21 – 8:30 Third Friday Salonat the Rapp Saloon. It’s Elena Secota’s spoken-word, poetry-slam evening with some of LA’s best writers. I’ll be appearing with Carrie White, and one of LA’s best-loved poets, the great Michael C. Ford!

9/27 – Sit ‘n’ Spin Comedy Central; Stage @ Hudson Theatre 6359 Santa Monica Blvd., LA, 90038.  It’s FREE, but it fills up so reservations are suggested.  Call 323-960-5519

A couple of weekends ago I got to share a stage with some cool people. My buddy Paul Provenza booked me for his ¡Satiristas! show at The Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas. TAM is named after its founder, James “The Amazing” Randi, and is a convention of science geeks, skeptics, free-thinkers, and atheists – a lot of black T-shirts, podcast junkies, and people who can quote multiple lines from Star Trek. As Doug Stanhope, who was in the show, commented to the crowd at the start of his act, “Congratulations on your graduation from Comic-Con.”

My people.

I love James Randi. He has spent a lifetime exposing frauds, charlatans, mountebanks, fakes, phonies, etc. – in short, anyone who tries to pull the wool over your eyes (and, often, take your money) by making you think what they’re doing is real when it’s not. He was famously (and unsuccessfully) sued by Uri Geller when he exposed the tricks behind Geller’s “psychic powers” to a national audience on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show.

At TAM, folks like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, and this year, Lawrence Krauss speak about various topics, like, what the universe is made of, why anything exists at all, and how to negotiate a rational existence in the midst of all the blather that passes for thought today. Things like TAM are not necessarily about changing peoples’ minds, but perhaps opening them up to new information. Most people aren’t aware of just how much we (humans) DO know because it’s obvious there’s so much we don’t. It’s also pretty inspiring, at a gathering like this, to be around a lot of people who live in the excitement of discovery, seeing great freedom in uncertainty, who are willing to have even their most cherished ideas proven wrong, should new facts arise. This is not to denigrate those who believe in stuff – some of my best friends do – but others of us want to make sure that science, rational thought, and atheism has, at the very least, a prominent seat at the table of public discourse.

We just returned from Washington D.C. and West Virginia (thanks to my great friends Chip and Grace Denman). We were in a record heat wave. And we also drove through the most dramatic and awesome lightning storm ever, that took out electrical power for hundreds of thousands of people.

This month I’m doing a pretty cool gig with my friend Amy Engelhardt. She was the female member of the quirky and cool a capella group The Bobs for over 10 years, and we started a band in 2010 called “The Peepshow Trio,” along with my great friend and percussionist, Scott Breadman, and sometimes Steve Deutsch on bass. (We were a trio like the Ben Folds Five is a quintet). The band had to lie dormant when Amy was in New York studying at Columbia. But thanks to Bob Stane and the Coffee Gallery in Altadena, Amy and I are reanimating the PS3o, as well as performing our own songs. There may also be a surprise or two. We would love it if you could come join us.

I’ll be in touch in a supplemental email for some other gigs that are coming up, but until then, please do enjoy the rest of your summer.

I’m a tad late in writing the latest installment of what I have been working to make a monthly blog/gig-schedule/reminder-of-my-existence. I usually wait until around the 1^st of the month, see what thought seems foremost in my head at the time, and try to write something interesting about it. But most of what has been occupying the parks and streets of my so-called-mind lately has been family stuff. I won’t bore you with too many details here, nor expose any embarrassing family secrets – well, truth be told, for my two teenagers, I’M the embarrassing family secret: Just having their Dad anywhere visible when they’re talking with their friends is mortifying. I remember a story about when Billy Idol – once the cool, sneering, spiky-haired pop-punk – had pre-teen kids, who bluntly informed him that they thought he was the exact opposite of cool: “Yeah, Dad, more like ‘Eyes Without a CLUE.’”

But some of my best memories of when I was a kid are the family vacations. Yes, I’m sure I spent a good deal of the car-travel time whining, “Are we there yet?” Nice to hear it again, coming from the other side. But I remember each one, and the places we went have special meaning to me now that most all the old folks are gone (irony noted).

Last summer, with my wife and my two teenagers, I set off for a road trip that took us from L. A. to Nashville, back down to New Orleans, through Texas and back home again. We did it in a little under three weeks. The drives were sometimes long, but I tried to stay over at least one night in a lot of the interesting places along the way.

A few of the highlights: Passenger boredom complaints instantly silenced as they walked up to the rim of the Grand Canyon at sunset. Watching someone (not us) eat a steak the size of Gregor Samsa’s thorax in Amarillo. My girls getting front-row seats to a Decembrists concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville just because we happened to wind up having dinner at Monell’s, family-style, with some of the band members.

We’re about to go on another of those this summer. This won’t be as much driving, as there’ll be less land to cover. But Dad will be in the driver’s seat again once we get there. We will be in the lower Mid-Atlantic States. We have friends in D.C., and plan to see all of that, plus many of the historic places, and maybe pay the Amish a little neighborly visit.

I do like to be on the road. Of course, there’s no more flipping through local AM radio stations to hear what kind of crazy stuff people are thinking in, like, Muskogee. These days, everybody’s pretty much listening to the same kind of crazy all over the country. Sirius or Spotify now.

But, to my kids, I know it’s like a bad remake of “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” I’m Clark Griswold, in baggy khaki shorts and embarrassing sandals, alternating between trying not to fall asleep at the wheel, and excitedly communicating to my daughters my enthusiasm for some of the great sites and sights of the lower half of the United States. You know they’re listening, and you know they’re learning, but at times they couldn’t look more bored nor less interested in doing it. Except – for those moments when they get to see the donkeys in the streets in Oatman, AZ; or Meteor Crater; or the ducks in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis; or the indescribable majesty of Carlsbad Caverns.

It’ll all come back to them someday. I wonder what kind of radio they’ll have then?

≈≤≤≤÷≥≥≥≈

 There are a few more gigs coming up in June before we leave, and after we get back, I will be performing at The Amazing Meeting, starting July 13, in Las Vegas. More about that in a future blog.

June 14^th, Thursday night, 8pm, I’m doing another “Songwriter Back-‘n’-Forth” with the always cool and eclectic Skip Heller at The Other Door, near Cahuenga and Burbank Blvd. in Noho. Come hear some new tunes and a couple of covers, and some good drinks.

June 20^th, Wednesday, will be the “First Day of Summer” show at the Cinema Bar. Starting at 8pm with Heather Donavan, then Captain Danger at 9pm, and then me, Skip Heller, and the Captain doing a Round-Robin at 10.

JUNE 22^nd – EVE BRANDSTEIN’S “POETRY IN MOTION” at Beyond Baroque. This is Eve’s acclaimed spoken-word/poetry series that has featured some of the best writers in town. I get to appear with Michael Des Barres, Terry Kirkman (of The Association! – I used to hear them at the Glendale Ice House a million years ago), and Mason Summit, among other notables.