Mid March Update

I'm finding it really hard to find the time to sit down and full out blog lately. Its not that I don't have tons of stuff to say or report on. It's just that I'm so busy doing stuff by the time I feel like sitting down to write, I've moved on to something else.

So, I decided to just bullet everything I can think of that's interesting to me or going on:

Vegas on hold, On the road with FURTHUR: I had hoped to be going out to Vegas during the WSOP but FURTHUR announced their summer tour and it conflicts. I'm a Deadhead thru and thru and I enjoyed Utica so much I'm heading out on the road this summer for 4 FURTHUR Shows: I'll be attending the two Coney Island, Brooklyn shows at Keyspan Park, the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones. Keyspan is actually renamed to MCU Park. Looking forward to these two shows as my dad was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Tech and my grandparents and great aunts and uncles all lived there. Grandpa C used to always bring up pastry from Scotto's bakery which is still in existence today. Cool thing is the NY Historical Society has an exhibit of Grateful Dead artifacts/memorabilia on loan from UC Santa Cruz. I'll plan on taking that in as well as visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame annex.

I'm also heading to shows at The Museum at Shelburne Farms, Vermont (just south of Burlington) and Herkimer NY at the Gelston Castle Estate. I never knew of or had heard about the Gelston Castle Estate until the show was announced and Herkimer is only about an hour and 20-30 minutes away. I'll be taking my flip camcorder with me and hopefully getting some great video.

Phish should also be announcing their schedule soon. I'm crossing my fingers for June as July and August is so hard to get time off from work other then what I already have put in for and have approved.

Other shows I'll be attending are Max Creek at Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock and hopefully, Ill be able to catch one if not both of the anniversary shows over in Hartford at the Warehouse at the end of April. Scott Murawski played a few shows with Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead and Oteil Burbridge of the Allman Brothers as one of the members of BK3/4 (aka the Bill Kreutzmann Trio or KBM) and then went out with Mike Gordon of Phish for Mike's short sweet tour. Sadly, I got shut out of tickets to the local show down at Revolution Hall. I will never let that happen again.

I'm watching American Idol for the first time since the Clay/Reuben years. I didnt watch the auditions. I started with Hollywood Week and have my favorites. Crystal Bowersox and Didi Benami are my favorite females. Big Mike, Casey, Lee and Aaron Kelly my favorite guys. Although, Simon thinks the girls will win this year, I think the talent of the guys is much better. I would have rather seen Katy go home and Todrick or Alex stay. I also think Lily should still be around. I like her better then Lacey. I'm just not feeling Lacey.

Been watching 24 fairly faithfully. It had a couple of slow spots and I was channel flipping to the Olympics and Bachelor for like two weeks which coincided with the slowness, but Sweet Lord that poor kid wired with an explosive vest and the aftermath when Jack opened the door after the explosion left my mouth agape. I mean obviously I new what had happened but to see red splattered everywhere it was just so final.

This week I'm looking forward to the Gathering of the Vibes line-up announced. My wish list includes Furthur and Max Creek and Phish (one can dream). Since Camp Creek is looking like it wont happen again, I'd like to plea to Eric (Max Creek's manager) make it happen dude!! I cant make it to Nateva in Maine where Creek is playing with Furthur. I just cant drive from Herkimer NY (west of me) then Northeast to Maine and then back west across to Vermont in the span of three days. Well actually I could but I remember the traffic heading into to Oxford Maine for the Grateful Dead and Little Feat in 1988.

March Madness is set to begin. I'll be doing couple of March Madness Pool's. If you are a reader of Coventry Music which I contribute to come join in the fun. My Alma Mater CU is not known for college basketball except for giving the NBA Chauncey Billups so I rout for local team the Siena Saints. This year the University of Vermont Catamounts also made the big dance. I attended UVM from Sept 1978 to May 1980 before transferring to University of Colorado. I actually took Friday off to watch nonstop hoop and will begin watching as soon as i get out of work at 6PM Thursday.

And it looks like on April Fool's day I will be undergoing the knife and having a wisdom tooth removed. I'll know for sure Friday after discussing with my general dentist who I have gone to for years. I have the surgery tentatively scheduled as the oral surgeon's office is booked and if I cancel I'll really need it and be screwed. I still have all four of my third molars aka wisdom teeth. The bottom ones are so deep in the bone and next to the nerves but fortunately asymptomatic. My upper right one #1 on a tooth chart has been sideways and a little bump on my gum for years. Its decided to try to erupt like Mt Saint Helens. I'm on antibiotics right now to prevent/ward off infection as my gum is badly inflamed above my back two molars. My general dentist is hoping if I can stand it that it will come through the gum and be easier for the oral surgeon to extract (and cheaper. Fortunately, I have a high threshold for pain. Its more annoying then anything although my right side of face is tender in spots (no swelling yet).

And the highlight of my April (besides filing taxes and getting a refund) will be catching up with Otis, Change100 and Dr Pauly over at Mohegan Sun during the Pokerstars and Mohegan Sun sponsered NAPT. Hopefully LJ will also make the drive over from New Jersey too as I haven't seen her since our last get together in NYC many moons ago. Of course, I expect and hope a host of other east coast bloggers will be there during my visit too. I'm off Friday April 9th and will at least head over for a day trip but preferably an overnight. I hope to play in one of the side events. Sadly, Ive played no poker in a month.

Finally my four FURTHUR You Tube Video's already have 2591 hits after only three weeks. That doesn't count the 354 hits on the Vimeo 15 minute China Cat Sunflower/The Wheel video or the reconfigured one's by David from Grateful Dead Video's under his username. David synced my video with the better taper AUD (audience) recording of Chris Laporte to make a much better sounding music video. It's like being there.. I can now add the title of short film/documentary/music video director/videographer to my resume!!